Kenya
Scaling our program through government and nonprofit partnerships in Kenya
Building on three decades of experience in Kenya, Village Enterprise works in partnership with the national government of Kenya, local county governments, and large nonprofits.
Our Impact in Kenya
126478
First-time entrepreneurs trained
39010
Businesses started
816201
Lives transformed
Strategic Projects in Kenya
Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP)
The Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) is of strategic importance to Village Enterprise. It provides us with a platform for working closely with the Kenyan government to test our poverty graduation model. This pilot’s success will enable the Kenyan government to scale this approach, potentially reaching millions of households living in extreme poverty.
Village Enterprise is collaborating with our long-time partner and peer, The Boma Project, and with The Global Development Incubator, a nonprofit with vast experience working with governments across the globe.
The project will support the government in testing economic inclusion interventions for 7,500 Kenyan households in five counties: Kisumu, Makueni, Marsabit, Murang’a, and Taita Taveta. The consortium will build government staff’s capacity to take over economic inclusion activities and integrate with existing social protection programs.
Poverty Graduation paired with West Pokot County Government Social Protection Program
Embarking on a groundbreaking partnership with the West Pokot County Government and Wasafiri Consulting (funded by the Open Society Foundations’ Economic Justice Program), we are developing a coherent system to scale up our poverty graduation approach to integrate into existing government interventions. This program seeks to provide social and economic inclusion for the extreme poor. We co-created the first county-level Poverty Graduation policy in Kenya, which the County Governor signed in September 2020.
Nawiri: an Adapted Nutrition-Friendly Graduation Model
Funded by the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, Nawiri (“to thrive” in Swahili) is a five-year development food security project in Kenya that aims to reduce acute malnutrition levels among vulnerable populations sustainably. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) leads the consortium of seven nonprofits that Village Enterprise has joined. We have adapted our program with additional cash transfer components for consumption and nutrition, health education counseling, and social behavior change. The adapted nutrition-friendly poverty graduation model is set to be piloted in Isiolo County with 600 vulnerable households.