This funding will help to protect the chimpanzee population in Kibale National Park in Uganda by supporting 1,890 local community members, who might otherwise have depended on illegal poaching and lumbering to provide for their families, to start small enterprises. It will also fund anti-poaching patrols and the removal of snares.

The project has already trained 3,823 entrepreneurs with skills on how to start microenterprises, develop savings habits, and on the value of conservation. The training has resulted in the creation of 1,077 conservation-friendly microenterprises by local entrepreneurs, including retail and grocery shops, agribusinesses, animal husbandry, and even beekeeping.

As a consequence of these microenterprises, 20,180 individuals have been supported onto a sustainable pathway out of extreme poverty, as well as reduced hunting and habitat destruction in Kibale National Park. It also resulted in 824 snares being removed from the park.

Supporting households to generate sustainable incomes

The new grant will enable Village Enterprise to train a further 1,890 entrepreneurs living in extreme poverty through a one-year program which will provide them with the seed capital, mentoring, and business and financial literacy training they need to establish microenterprises that are conservation-friendly.

As part of the program, Village Enterprise has already helped establish 109 savings groups, which are small communities of fellow entrepreneurs who help encourage each other to put away savings on a weekly basis. The new funding will allow for 42 new business savings groups to be created. These savings groups also allow entrepreneurs to have access to greater capital through loans that they can use to expand their enterprises or in case of emergency.

The program empowers the new entrepreneurs to generate an increased and more consistent income for their households, establish a sustainable pathway out of extreme poverty, and become less – and eventually no-longer – reliant on the need for income generated via illegal hunting or lumbering inside of Kibale National Park.

Snare removal and anti-poaching patrols

The grant will also enable the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project to operate eight two-person anti-poaching patrol teams in the Kibale National Park area. These patrols will remove snares, deterring individuals from hunting and destroying habitat by illegal logging activities. In addition, the grant will provide the margins of the park with two patrol teams which will reduce crop raiding and improve community relations with the park.

To strengthen the climate and conservation pillar of the project, one member from each business savings group is selected as a conservation champion. These champions are then trained on conservation practices and create tailored plans for their communities that support the protection of wildlife and ecosystems.

Dianne Calvi, CEO and President of Village Enterprise, commented:

“Thanks to the Arcus Foundation, Village Enterprise will be able to transform the lives of even more people living in extreme poverty near Kibale National Park, while also protecting the park’s vital ecosystems and one of the largest remaining populations of East African chimpanzees.

In order for conservation efforts to truly succeed, we can’t take away an individual’s ability to earn an income, especially when they are living in extreme poverty. We need more projects like PARKS that foster both conservation and the entrepreneurial spirit. By providing individuals with the training to become entrepreneurs, we are offering them a sustainable alternative to generate income, increase their savings, and eliminate their reliance on illegal hunting or deforestation. Ultimately, this is how we can safeguard nature, protect endangered species, and end extreme poverty.”

Media enquiries:

Village Enterprise – villageenterprise@wearesevenhills.com

Notes to editors:

Find out more about Village Enterprise’s work here.

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. We work with vulnerable women, refugees, and youth who are most impacted by climate change, conflict, and displacement, and equip them with skills and resources to launch climate-smart businesses, build savings, and put themselves and their families onto a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has started over 80,000 businesses, trained over 274,000 first-time entrepreneurs, and positively transformed the lives of over 1,656,000 people in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

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•   The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is expected to impact over 4,000 lives in Kenya and empower the launch of 240 businesses

•   Funding will also allow Village Enterprise to lay the foundation for three county governments in Kenya to manage poverty graduation programs

SAN CARLOS, Calif., February 29, 2024 — Village Enterprise, the nonprofit seeking to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action, today announces a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant will fund two new strategic initiatives in Kenya to sustainably scale Village Enterprise’s proven poverty graduation model through collective action. The aim of the project is to strengthen partnerships with county governments, empowering them to independently manage graduation programs. It also aims to work with private sector businesses to better link entrepreneurs to markets through the award-winning DREAMS model.

Empowering local delivery of poverty graduation

Village Enterprise will work closely with three county governments in Kenya—Makueni, Taita Taveta, and West Pokot—to develop and implement clear poverty graduation policies, build the capacity of government officials to manage the programs, and develop an integrated monitoring system to track graduation program participants efficiently.

The aim is to lay the groundwork for county governments to independently manage and scale graduation programs to help more people lift themselves out of extreme poverty.

Building private sector networks

In addition, Village Enterprise will pilot its innovative Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems (DREAMS) model, developed with Mercy Corps, in Garissa County of Kenya. The targeted outcomes for the initiative include training 720 people living in extreme poverty to become first-time entrepreneurs who will launch 240 new businesses in groups of three. These new businesses will positively impact the lives of 4,800 people living in extreme poverty.

This is the first time the DREAMS approach will be tested in Kenya after successful implementation in Ethiopia and Uganda. It is also the first time DREAMS will target and work with general populations living in extreme poverty, as the model has previously been implemented with refugee populations living in settlements. DREAMS aims to link graduation program participants not just to markets but also to private sector actors like financial institutions, and agriculture input providers. If successful, it could demonstrate a sustainable model for integrating graduation with market systems and the private sector that could be replicated across sub-Saharan Africa.

Dianne Calvi, CEO and President of Village Enterprise, commented:

“This generous grant will allow us to demonstrate how our graduation approach can be scaled sustainably through partnerships with local governments and private sector actors to transform the lives of families living in extreme poverty in rural Africa. We are very grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their investment in these two strategic initiatives in Kenya to end extreme poverty through collective action. ”

Media enquiries

Village Enterprise – villageenterprise@wearesevenhills.com 

Notes to editors

Find out more about Village Enterprise’s work here.

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. We work with vulnerable women, refugees, and youth who are most impacted by climate change, conflict, and displacement, and equip them with skills and resources to launch climate-smart businesses, build savings, and put themselves and their families onto a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has started over 80,000 businesses, trained over 274,000 first-time entrepreneurs, and positively transformed the lives of over 1,656,000 people in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

The post New Funding for Strategic Initiatives to End Extreme Poverty appeared first on Village Enterprise.

On top of everything listed below, Village Enterprise also received its ninth consecutive four-star rating from Charity Navigator and earned a perfect, 100% score—an honor achieved by less than one-tenth of one percent of all charities. We were also a finalist for Charity Navigator’s first-ever Community Choice Award.

Thank you for making 2023 our most impactful year to date! If you would like to learn more about all that was accomplished, check out our recently published Annual Report.

1. Transformed more lives in one year than ever before—over 252,000.

By equipping women, refugees, and youth to become entrepreneurs, we’re breaking generational cycles of extreme poverty and creating economic opportunities for communities all across rural Africa. It’s hard to overstate the transformative impact this has for the families we serve. As our entrepreneurs now have the means to generate sustainable income and build their savings, they can invest in things that really matter—housing, education, nutrition, healthcare, their family’s future, and pursuing their dreams.

2. Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for strategic new projects

Near the end of 2023, Village Enterprise received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This funding will support our collaborative work with the Makueni, Taita Taveta, and West Pokot county governments in Kenya to lay the foundation for them to independently manage poverty graduation programs. It will also support the implementation of Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program as part of a DREAMS pilot in Garissa County, which will be our first time implementing DREAMS in Kenya.

3. DREAMS to expand to Tanzania and the Ethiopian Highlands

Late in the year, Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps learned that DREAMS received funding to expand to Tanzania and the highlands of Ethiopia starting early 2024. In Tanzania, DREAMS will serve naturalized refugees. In the highlands of Ethiopia, the program will work with communities living in extreme poverty. In both countries, Village Enterprise will provide technical assistance to local organizations to implement our poverty graduation model.

Pictured above is the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda where DREAMS was first launched. Photo credit: Ezra Millstein for Mercy Corps.

4. Partnered with the Government of Rwanda to scale poverty graduation

In November, USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) awarded $6.5 million to Village Enterprise, which was DIV’s largest grant in the past decade and their second largest ever. With this funding, Village Enterprise will work with the Government of Rwanda to adopt, implement, and scale our poverty graduation program across Rwanda. This will support one million Rwandans to move out of extreme poverty by 2027, with the ultimate goal of ending extreme poverty in Rwanda by 2030.

5. Launched DREAMS for Refugees in Ethiopia

In partnership with Mercy Corps and with funding from the IKEA Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Village Enterprise officially launched DREAMS for Refugees in the Dollo Ado region of Ethiopia. The first cohort of 1,200 entrepreneurs from the Kobe, Hilaweyn, and Melkadida refugee settlements launched their businesses in December and are projected to graduate from our program in the spring of 2024. The launch of DREAMS in Ethiopia builds off the program’s success in refugee settlements in Uganda. 

Photo credit: Ezra Millstein for Mercy Corps

6. Revolutionized microbusiness development in rural Africa through digital solutions

In partnership with DreamStart Labs, Village Enterprise piloted the DreamSave app within 12 communities across Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda this past year. DreamSave assists business savings groups in securely and accurately storing their savings records on mobile phones instead of in paper books. This pilot has been so effective and exciting for participants—saving them time and encouraging them to increase their savings—that we are planning to implement it in every Village Enterprise business savings group by 2025!

7. MacKenzie Scott’s transformational gift

In March, philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott donated $7 million to Village Enterprise—the largest single unrestricted gift in our organization’s history. Her gift is not only a testament to our mission and vision, but it will be a cornerstone of our efforts to end extreme poverty and build climate resilience for 20 million people by 2030.

8. Won Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award for building refugee self-reliance

In May, DREAMS for Refugees won Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Award for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This innovative approach to poverty alleviation combines Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program with Mercy Corps’ expertise in market systems development. By combining these two proven approaches, DREAMS supports refugees to build economic self-reliance as they graduate out of extreme poverty and rebuild their lives. Since May, DREAMS has also been featured in Fortune and BBC Business Matters (starting at 27:16).

Photo credit: Jjumba Martin for Mercy Corps

9. Increased proximate leadership on our Board of Directors

Village Enterprise welcomed four dynamic African leaders to our Board of Directors in 2023: Ermias Eshetu, Michael Mithika, Evelyn Namara, and Alexis Rwabizambuga. All four members, along with Serah Kimani who joined our board during the summer of 2022, live in our countries of operation. As a result, 44% of our board is African, emphasizing Village Enterprise’s commitment to having proximate leadership at all levels of our organization.

10. Village Enterprise’s transformative work recognized by Stanford University

In June, Village Enterprise CEO and President Dianne Calvi was awarded the President’s Award for the Advancement of the Common Good from Stanford University. This honor recognizes Stanford alumni who have positively and sustainably changed the trajectory of people’s lives in their communities and around the world, and it is a testament to the transformative impact Village Enterprise has had on ending extreme poverty in Africa.

We’re thrilled at all that we accomplished in 2023 thanks to your steadfast support and the hard work of our stunning team. We can’t wait to go even further together in 2024!

The post Ten of Our Greatest Accomplishments from 2023 appeared first on Village Enterprise.

SAN CARLOS, Calif., December 13, 2023 — A new program that trains refugees, displaced by the Somali civil war, to become entrepreneurs and start their own small businesses has launched within the Kobe, Hilaweyn, and Melkadida refugee camps in Ethiopia.

Village Enterprise, the nonprofit seeking to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action, is expanding its DREAMS for Refugees program following success in refugee settlements in Uganda.

DREAMS (Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems) for Refugees is a partnership that merges Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program with Mercy Corps’ expertise in market systems development to equip refugees with the skills, resources, and market-linkages to start sustainable businesses and graduate from extreme poverty. DREAMS has been operating in Uganda since 2022, and the expansion to Ethiopia is supported by donations from the IKEA Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

DREAMS will impact more than 200,000 lives in Ethiopia and Uganda. Photo credit: Ezra Millstein for Mercy Corps.

The Kobe, Hilaweyn, and Melkadida refugee camps are located near the southern border of Ethiopia and home to approximately 130,000 refugees. As DREAMS launches in Ethiopia, it is providing the first cohort of 1,200 refugee entrepreneurs living in extreme poverty with seed funding of $500 to start their own businesses. Having fled war in Somalia, with little prospect of being able to return, the first-time entrepreneurs are also receiving comprehensive training delivered by Village Enterprise’s expert business mentors. Over a nine week training course, the entrepreneurs develop skills such as financial literacy, bookkeeping, and creating business plans to support them to launch their enterprises.

In Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement and Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Uganda, DREAMS has trained 4,800 entrepreneurs to date. Working in groups of three, these first-time entrepreneurs have launched successful businesses in areas such as retail, livestock, and agriculture. In total across both Uganda and Ethiopia, DREAMS will reach more than 33,000 households and impact more than 200,000 lives.

The DREAMS model is aiming to transform refugee relief. Traditional support for refugees is based on providing basic subsistence, such as food rations or shelter, rather than creating opportunities for people to become self-reliant. DREAMS won the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award for Refugees in 2021 and is part of Village Enterprise’s broader goal of lifting 20 million people in rural Africa out of extreme poverty by 2030.

With 400 million people in Africa now living in extreme poverty, poverty alleviation solutions that work are more important than ever. Refugees are facing more acute challenges than at any other point since World War II, with approximately 6.6 million refugees living in camps globally. What are initially established as temporary measures to accommodate an influx of people seeking a safe haven, refugee camps often become protracted settlements.

Dianne Calvi, CEO and President of Village Enterprise, said:
“The expansion of DREAMS into Ethiopia is a great step forward in addressing two of the biggest challenges facing the world today—forced displacement and extreme poverty. With refugee numbers at record levels, as well as increases in food prices and decreases in aid budgets, it’s more important than ever that we are providing sustainable solutions and equipping refugees with the training, resources, and markets to become self-reliant.

We are proud that this program will help empower so many refugees in Ethiopia to rebuild their lives, and in partnership with Mercy Corps, we’re looking for more foundations and individuals to join us so that DREAMS can reach even more vulnerable families and communities across Africa.”

Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps, said: “As conflicts around the world become more complex and protracted, displacement is now measured in decades rather than months or years. The system that was designed to provide urgent, lifesaving assistance in response to short-term displacement has struggled to serve millions of refugees who have put their aspirations on hold. Refugees deserve better. We’re thrilled to expand DREAMS to Ethiopia in partnership with Village Enterprise and to support refugees and the communities in which they live to thrive.”

Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation, said: “People who are forced to flee need the chance to rebuild their lives so they can support themselves and their families. We’ve seen firsthand that refugees have extraordinary talent and drive. We’re proud to support DREAMS to empower these communities to find pathways toward economic self-reliance.”

Barri Shorey, Senior Program Officer, Refugees at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, said: “We’re thrilled to support the expansion of the DREAMS program for refugees and host communities in Ethiopia. This partnership between Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps targets families who have been displaced from their homes and supports them on their challenging journeys to financial security. In a time of increasing and longer-term displacement, we are excited to invest in solutions that support refugee households to actually envision and build a healthy and productive future for themselves and their children.”

Media enquiries:
Village Enterprise – villageenterprise@wearesevenhills.com

About Village Enterprise
Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. We work with vulnerable women, refugees, and youth who are most impacted by climate change, conflict, and displacement, and equip them with skills and resources to launch climate-smart businesses, build savings, and put themselves and their families onto a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has started over 80,000 businesses, trained over 274,000 first-time entrepreneurs, and positively transformed the lives of over 1,656,000 people in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Learn more at villageenterprise.org.

About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a global team of nearly 6,000 humanitarians working to create a world where everyone can prosper. In more than 40 countries affected by crisis, disaster, poverty and climate change we work alongside communities, local governments, forward-thinking corporations and social entrepreneurs to meet urgent needs and develop long-term solutions to make lasting change possible. Learn more at www.mercycorps.org.

About the IKEA Foundation
The IKEA Foundation is a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant making efforts on tackling the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change. It currently grants more than €200 million per year to help improve family incomes and quality of life while protecting the planet from climate change. Since 2009, the IKEA Foundation has granted more than €1.5 billion to create a better future for children and their families.

In 2021 the Board of the IKEA Foundation decided to make an additional €1 billion available over the next five years to accelerate the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions.

Learn more at: www.ikeafoundation.org or by following them on LinkedIn or Twitter.

About the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth, support young people transitioning out of foster care, improve access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identify solutions to safe water access, and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with approximately $6.7 billion in assets. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $3 billion, $435 million worldwide in 2022. Please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org for more information.

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•  The grant will impact over 30,000 households in Rwanda, and empower the launch of 10,000 group businesses

•  The innovative poverty graduation program will equip the Rwandan government with the tools and resources needed to scale Village Enterprise’s evidence-based and cost-effective model across Rwanda

SAN CARLOS, Calif., November 16, 2023 — Village Enterprise, a nonprofit seeking to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action, has received a $6.5 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development’s Development Innovation Ventures (USAID DIV) program. Through DIV, USAID funds breakthrough solutions to the world’s toughest development challenges, and their grant will support the scaling of Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation model in Rwanda.

The second largest grant in DIV’s history and the largest in over a decade will enable Village Enterprise to provide critical resources, training, and skills to people living in extreme poverty and support them to set up their own businesses. The grant will also allow Village Enterprise to train government staff to implement Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation model independently, as well as set up a management information system to be utilized by the Government of Rwanda to track and monitor the program’s progress.

Under this results-based award, Village Enterprise will also work with the Government of Rwanda to catalyze an additional $28 million in funding to further scale the program. These additional resources will be used to move more than one million Rwandans out of extreme poverty by 2027 and end extreme poverty in the country by 2030. If successful, this model could be a blueprint for other African governments to eradicate extreme poverty.

Pelagie is an entrepreneur from Rwanda who graduated from Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program earlier this year. She’s pictured here alongside her three children who she’s been able to send to school with her business profits.

Village Enterprise’s transformative approach

Through the award, Village Enterprise will use their proven poverty graduation model to empower over 30,000 households in Rwanda to set up, launch, and run their own businesses. Ranging from retail businesses in clothing and produce, to bicycle repair businesses, the new entrepreneurs are mentored by Village Enterprise’s specialist staff throughout the year-long program and receive business and financial literacy training.

Supporting Rwanda to eliminate extreme poverty

The Rwandan government has committed to eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and ratified its National Strategy for Sustainable Graduation (NSSG) in November of 2022. As part of the roll-out of the program, Village Enterprise’s specialist staff will work alongside the Government of Rwanda, training government parasocial workers and teaching them how to be successful mentors to first-time entrepreneurs. Long term, this will enable Rwanda to deliver the poverty graduation program without the support or intervention from Village Enterprise or USAID funding. In addition, the grant will be used to develop and deploy a management information system, allowing the Rwandan government to monitor and track its progress as it continues to scale the poverty graduation program.

Dianne Calvi, CEO and President of Village Enterprise said: “Village Enterprise is thrilled to receive USAID DIV’s largest grant in over a decade and to work alongside the Government of Rwanda to equip vulnerable households to break the cycle of extreme poverty through entrepreneurship. It’s through collective action and scaling proven solutions that governments, nonprofits, agencies, and the private sector can take on the biggest issues in the world today. This grant and partnership not only have the potential to help end extreme poverty in Rwanda—they can serve as the blueprint for other African governments looking to end extreme poverty.”

“Our poverty graduation model has a proven record of success. It has the potential to transform the lives of millions of individuals and families living in extreme poverty, and it is with thanks to USAID that we can roll-out our program in Rwanda to foster more entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action,” says Sylvere Mwizerwa, Rwanda Country Manager at Village Enterprise.

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. We work with vulnerable women, refugees, and youth who are most impacted by climate change, conflict, and displacement, and equip them with skills and resources to launch climate-smart businesses, build savings, and put themselves and their families onto a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has started over 80,000 businesses, trained over 274,000 first-time entrepreneurs, and positively transformed the lives of over 1,656,000 people in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

About USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity, demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience.

This press release is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of Village Enterprise and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Contact

Brett Slezak, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
bretts@villageenterprise.org | +1 (254) 541-7250

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This article was originally published by Stanford University on June 5, 2023.

Whether addressing extreme poverty in Africa or supporting generations of youth at schools nationwide, Stanford alumni are positively changing the trajectory of people’s lives in their communities and around the world.

In honor of their work, Stanford alumni Dianne Calvi, BA ’84, and Rey Saldaña, BA ’09, MA ’10, will receive the 2023 President’s Award for the Advancement of the Common Good.

Calvi, president and CEO of Village Enterprise, advocates for the most vulnerable and works to end extreme poverty in rural Africa. Saldaña is president and CEO of Communities in Schools, the country’s largest nonprofit providing student support inside schools, ensuring students are empowered to stay in school and on a path to a brighter future.

The award recognizes individuals who exemplify the university’s mission and values, and demonstrate a commitment to learning, social responsibility, and ethical and effective service.

“Rey and Dianne embody the essence of this award. They are both dedicated to uplifting others and finding impactful solutions to the challenges facing communities,” said President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. “Their inspiring commitment to public service illustrates our hope for Stanford graduates – that they will go on to pursue lives of purpose and civic engagement. I look forward to bestowing this well-deserved recognition at Commencement.”

To read the full article, visit Stanford University.

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“As Village Enterprise continues to scale our impact to end extreme poverty in rural Africa, it’s critical that we have African voices leading the way on our Board of Directors and at the helm of our decision-making,” said Dianne Calvi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Village Enterprise. “I am thrilled that Alexis, Ermias, Evelyn, Michael, and Serah have all joined our Board of Directors. They all have a passion for ending extreme poverty and creating a sustainable, prosperous future in rural Africa.”

Ermias Eshetu is the Chief Executive Officer of Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Ethiopia, an agency that aims to support the development of accessible, inclusive, and sustainable financial markets for economic growth and human development in Ethiopia. Previously, Ermias served as Advisory Partner at Grant Thornton Ethiopia from 2018 to 2021 and the Chief Executive Officer at the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange from 2014 to 2017. He received a Master of Science in International Business from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Serah Kimani is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ascend Group, which assists investors from across the globe in making investments in Kenya and the wider East Africa Community region. From 2020 to 2022, Serah served as Technical Advisor to the Cabinet Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Industrialization, Trade, and Enterprise Development. She received a Master of Laws degree from American University Washington College of Law and also from the University of Pretoria. Serah also holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi.

Michael Mithika is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mizizi Partners, an innovation and growth strategy firm committed to broadening access to opportunity, capital, well-being, and knowledge for the majority in Africa through market-creating innovations. From 2017 to 2022, Michael was President and Chief Executive of VisionFund International, the economic development and financial inclusion subsidiary of World Vision. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from the United States International University – Africa.

Evelyn Namara is the Senior Partnerships Manager and Researcher at the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership, as well as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vouch, where she has worked with the World Food Programme, Mercy Corps, and others to disburse food, farming equipment, and household items to people in need. Among her past roles, Evelyn was Country Director of Solar Sister in Uganda, setting up Solar Sister’s first operations in the country. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Makerere University and a Diploma in Sustainable Business and Responsible Leadership from the Swedish Institute.

Dr. Alexis Rwabizambuga is the Managing Director at TestandCare Medical Technologies Ltd, where he leads the firm’s initiative to ensure access to decent healthcare for all by reducing the gap in accessing diagnostic medical technologies. From 2012 to 2022, he was Chief Country Economist at the African Development Bank. A Harvard Fellow, Alexis received a Doctor of Philosophy in Human Geography from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Master of Science in Management from the Norwegian School of Management, and a Bachelor of Arts from Oslo University.

“Our new board members are joining our world-class, locally-led team of over 500 changemakers at Village Enterprise,” said Dianne Calvi. “More than 97% of our team is from Africa, with most of our staff working directly in the communities and villages that they call home. As Alexis, Ermias, Evelyn, Michael, and Serah join our board, we’re proud to have leaders from Africa at every level of our organization, from our field teams to our c-suite to our Board of Directors.”

Learn more about Village Enterprise’s Board of Directors here.

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DREAMS (Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems) merges Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program with Mercy Corps’ expertise in market systems development in order to equip refugees with the skills, resources, and markets to start sustainable businesses and graduate from extreme poverty.

“What makes DREAMS so special is the unique partnership between Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps that drives innovation as we take on two of the biggest challenges facing the world today—forced displacement and poverty,” said Liz Corbishley, Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer at Village Enterprise. “DREAMS started as a project focused on providing sustainable support to refugees, and it has grown into a new model for ending extreme poverty—equipping the most vulnerable households with the skills, resources, and markets to become self-reliant.”

Rose Kujang, a refugee from South Sudan, harvests sesame for her business in Uganda as part of DREAMS. Photo credit: Jjumba Martin for Mercy Corps

The first-of-its-kind model is already transforming the lives of refugees living in the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in Uganda, and DREAMS is about to launch in Dollo Ado Refugee Camp in Ethiopia. In total, DREAMS will reach more than 33,000 households across the two countries and impact more than 200,000 lives.

The model will be studied in a randomized controlled trial conducted by IDinsight, providing valuable evidence and insights that can be used by the international development and humanitarian aid sectors to better serve refugees and others living in extreme poverty in the future. This comes at a crucial moment, as the refugee crisis continues to grow in the world and climate change, conflict, and other shocks threaten to push hundreds of millions of people into extreme poverty.

“Self-sustaining solutions like DREAMS have never been more essential,” said Allison Huggins, Mercy Corps Deputy Regional Director for Africa. “As we look for solutions to address multiple forces—from climate change to the rise of violent extremist movements and globalization—rising global inequality will continue to play out in ways that profoundly impact the ability of poor households to sustainably escape from poverty.”

DREAMS for Refugees was a 2021 winner of the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award for Refugees managed by Lever for Change. DREAMS is funded by Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, ICONIQ Impact, IKEA Foundation, Sea Grape Foundation, and The Patchwork Collective.

“Having to flee, leaving behind your home, belongings, and sometimes your family members is incomprehensible for most of us,” said Annemieke de Jong, Head of Programmes, Refugee Livelihoods at the IKEA Foundation. “We firmly believe we can effectively invest in healing and building livelihoods through DREAMS so families can get back on their feet, doing what families should do best—be a loving and thriving place to be.”

“We are thrilled to see DREAMS recognized by Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas,” said Dianne Calvi, Chief Executive Officer of Village Enterprise. “In partnership with Mercy Corps, we’re looking for more foundations and individuals to join us so that DREAMS can reach even more vulnerable families and communities across Africa.”

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. We work with vulnerable women, refugees, and youth who are most impacted by climate change, conflict, and displacement, and equip them with skills and resources to launch climate-smart businesses, build savings, and put themselves and their families onto a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has started over 74,000 businesses, trained over 264,000 first-time entrepreneurs, and positively transformed the lives of over 1,565,000 people in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a global team of nearly 6,000 humanitarians working to create a world where everyone can prosper. In more than 40 countries affected by crisis, disaster, poverty, and climate change we work alongside communities, local governments, forward-thinking corporations, and social entrepreneurs to meet urgent needs and develop long-term solutions to make lasting change possible. Mercy Corps has a total operating budget of over $550M and in 2022 reached over 38 million people.

Contact

Brett Slezak, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
bretts@villageenterprise.org   |   +1 (254) 541-7250

The post DREAMS for Refugees from Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps Wins Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award appeared first on Village Enterprise.

As the largest single unrestricted donation in Village Enterprise’s history, the gift will be a cornerstone of Village Enterprise’s work to equip three million first-time entrepreneurs in Africa with skills and resources to launch sustainable businesses, ending extreme poverty and building climate resilience for 20 million women, children, and men by 2030.

“It’s only fitting that Ms. Scott’s generous gift comes during Women’s History Month, as it will be life-changing for women living in extreme poverty in Africa and their families,” said Dianne Calvi, Village Enterprise Chief Executive Officer. “When women have opportunities to launch climate-smart businesses, they not only lift themselves and their families out of poverty—they are also equipped to adapt to the threats of climate change. As East Africa is going through its worst drought in four decades, this is crucial to ensuring long-term prosperity for the most vulnerable households.”

Through collective action with governments, multi- and bi-lateral agencies, funders, other nonprofits, and private sector companies, Village Enterprise is currently scaling their cost-effective poverty graduation model to end extreme poverty and drive climate resilience in Africa. With funding from Cartier Philanthropy, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Delta Fund, the Government of Kenya, IKEA Foundation, The Starbucks Foundation, UN Women, Whole Planet Foundation, among others, Village Enterprise has already trained more than 264,000 entrepreneurs in Africa, transforming the lives of more than 1,565,000 people living in extreme poverty.

“Over the past seven years, I have been impressed by Village Enterprise’s proven and cost-effective intervention to work with the most vulnerable to provide them with the tools to live a better life,” said Pascale de la Frégonnière, Strategic Advisor to the Board at Cartier Philanthropy. “They are constantly innovating and improving on their model to increase their impact especially among women and are not afraid of taking on very ambitious challenges, such as successfully putting together and implementing the first development impact bond for poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. Cartier Philanthropy is excited to continue to invest in Village Enterprise’s life-changing program.”

Village Enterprise’s impact is driven by their passionate, talented African team. Studied by two rigorous, independent randomized controlled trials, which were conducted by Innovations for Poverty Action and IDinsight, the Village Enterprise model is proven to cost-effectively increase consumption, assets, income, savings, net wealth, nutrition, and food security for participants living in extreme poverty. It has also been shown to increase the mental health, well-being, and sense of economic standing of women in the program.

Village Enterprise’s award-winning poverty graduation model is at the center of collective action initiatives taking on the most pressing issues in Africa. Through partnerships with small locally-led organizations, as well as large international nonprofits such as African Wildlife Foundation, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, and Wildlife Conservation Society, Village Enterprise’s approach is reducing deforestation and poaching, combating food insecurity and acute child malnutrition, and supporting refugees and displaced populations fleeing conflict.

“Mercy Corps is proud to partner with Village Enterprise to alleviate poverty in rural Africa,” said Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps. “Their team is passionate about ending extreme poverty and focused on transformative impact. By combining our evidence-based approaches and working together in refugee camps—one of the world’s most challenging contexts—we are building the foundation to transform the way the humanitarian sector approaches refugee assistance.”

Village Enterprise’s work has been recognized at the highest level by Candid, Charity Navigator, the Drucker Institute, Great Nonprofits, Founders Pledge, Million Lives Collective, and The Life You Can Save. Their DREAMS for Refugees initiative with Mercy Corps was a winner of the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award in 2021.

“Ms. Scott’s gift is a powerful testament to our work and to the fact that we can’t end extreme poverty alone,” said Dianne Calvi. “We’re looking for more governments, agencies, companies, and individuals to join us in taking collective action to end extreme poverty. After all, we go further together.”

About Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. We work with vulnerable women, refugees, and youth who are most impacted by climate change, conflict, and displacement, and equip them with skills and resources to launch climate-smart businesses, build savings, and put themselves and their families onto a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has started over 74,000 businesses, trained over 264,000 first-time entrepreneurs, and positively transformed the lives of over 1,565,000 people in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

Contact

Brett Slezak, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
bretts@villageenterprise.org   |   +1 (254) 541-7250

The post A $7M Gift from MacKenzie Scott Will Help Village Enterprise End Extreme Poverty for 20 Million People in Africa appeared first on Village Enterprise.

By: Dianne Calvi, President & CEO of Village Enterprise; Avnish Gungadurdoss, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Instiglio; and Jeff McManus, Senior Economist at IDinsight.

Part one of this series on results-based funding was originally published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy on February 14, 2023.

The world, and the international development sector, are facing more uncertainty and volatility than it has in living memory. This state of ongoing fragility — stemming from the pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine, and related humanitarian emergencies — appears to be the new normal. At the same time, the economic fallout from these crises is putting pressure on aid budgets, and progress on reducing poverty has come to a halt, according to recent data from the World Bank. How should the international development sector adapt, and specifically, how should funders ensure program effectiveness in this new context of volatility and budget constraints?

As leaders at organizations that have been involved in results-based funding from different vantage points — design and management (Instiglio), evaluation (IDinsight), and as an implementer and co-designer (Village Enterprise) — we believe funding based on results offers an opportunity to do more with less. Yet, the approach needs to be adapted for this new, less predictable context.

In part one of this two-part post, we put forth recommendations on adapting results-based funding for crisis and uncertainty. These recommendations come down to a couple of basic principles: first, recognizing crisis is inherently risky, be sure to carefully balance risk and reward to service providers. Second, expect the unexpected by having emergency funding available and preparing to verify results remotely. In part two, we discuss what should not be lost along the way as funders and their partners adapt results-based funding models. But first, we address the underlying need for adaptation.

To read the full article, visit the Center for Effective Philanthropy by clicking here.

The Future of Results-Based Funding, Part Two: What to Keep

By: Dianne Calvi, President & CEO of Village Enterprise; Avnish Gungadurdoss, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Instiglio; and Jeff McManus, Senior Economist at IDinsight.

Part two of this series on results-based funding was originally published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy on February 21, 2023.

In part one of this post, we shared two key principles for funders to keep in mind as they adapt results-based funding models to the volatile and rapidly shifting “new normal” of international development funding. These insights are based on the authors’ own experiences with results-based funding from various vantage points. If you haven’t yet read that post, we suggest you start there.

However, even as the need for adaptation is clear, we believe users of these models should be sure to retain three critical elements that not only work, but work well in a crisis: flexibility, accountability, and rigorous measurement.

In making adaptations and getting creative with results-based funding, it’s critical that projects not lose sight of crucial elements that make results-based funding instruments effective vehicles for social impact. For one, results-based funding commits funders and implementers to participant welfare and ensures it is at the heart of the problem-solving process as stakeholders navigate and adapt to the crisis. Second, implementers need the flexibility to chart their course when plans change. Last but not least, rigorous measurement is the only way to know whether a program is making an impact in a context where everyone may be negatively impacted, making it particularly critical in a volatile context. We explain these points in more detail below.

To read the full article, visit the Center for Effective Philanthropy by clicking here.

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