Village Enterprise
Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation and collective action. Its poverty graduation programme helps people lift themselves out of extreme poverty by developing sustainable livelihoods. We supported Village Enterprise in Uganda between 2016 and 2023, and we’re now funding its operations throughout rural sub-Saharan Africa. Village Enterprise’s bold ambition is to “graduate” 20 million people out of extreme poverty by 2030.
villageenterprise.org | Partner since 2016
Challenge
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 16 percent of the world’s population, but 67 percent of all people living in extreme poverty. Every day, more families in sub-Saharan Africa are pushed into extreme poverty because of climate change, conflict, displacement and a lack of resources and opportunities.
Response
Village Enterprise’s community-based, locally led poverty graduation programme equips people living in extreme poverty in rural Africa with the tools to build sustainable livelihoods. Programme participants receive business and financial literacy training, ongoing mentorship, access to self-managed savings groups, and start-up capital to launch sustainable three-person businesses. This model has been shown to be more scalable and cost-effective than traditional approaches to poverty alleviation, such as one-time cash transfers or microloans.
The businesses span a range of areas, including livestock rearing, farming, small retail shops and restaurants, tailoring, and beekeeping.
With our support, Village Enterprise aims to train 137,200 entrepreneurs (80% women) through a combination of direct implementation and partnerships with African governments, enabling entrepreneurs to start over 45,000 sustainable businesses and lift themselves and their families out of poverty by 2028.
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