Driving Climate Resilience & Conservation

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We’re committed to building a brighter, more sustainable future in rural Africa

Climate change is hitting the world’s most vulnerable populations the hardest. In rural areas across Africa, erratic rainfall and changes in weather patterns can be devastating to entire communities that rely on sustenance farming. Natural disasters like droughts and floods are becoming more common, putting lives and livelihoods at risk. At the same time, protected areas and endangered species continue to be under threat.

To address this, Village Enterprise is committed to equipping vulnerable individuals and families to adapt to climate change and become stewards of their environment. Armed with climate-resilient business knowledge and training on environmental stewardship, our entrepreneurs are better equipped to thrive despite the challenges of climate change, and they are helping to build a more sustainable future for all.

Eva Kigo

Product and Services Senior Director

A woman stands outside a blue and purple temporary shelter on a clear day, with a small solar panel on the ground.

Building Resilience to Climate Change

Despite contributing the least to climate change, communities in Africa living in extreme poverty are disproportionately impacted by it. That’s why we’re partnering with leaders across the international development sector to ensure that the most vulnerable populations have the resources and skills they need to thrive.

Training Female Farmers to Become Climate-Smart Business Owners

A group of people walking down a road with hills and buildings in the background.

A group of women working in a lush green field with hills in the background.

A woman stands in a cornfield, wearing a green sweater and skirt, surrounded by tall corn plants.

A woman smiling outdoors, wearing a yellow dress with blue and red patterns, with greenery in the background.

The hands of three women holding pink savings group booklets in their hands, wearing colorful clothing.

Two women facilitators speak to a group seated outdoors under trees, with chairs and a table nearby.

Village Enterprise is helping women launch sustainable, climate-smart agribusinesses in West Pokot County, Kenya, in partnership with UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This semi-arid region is being impacted by climate change in different ways: the highlands are receiving increased rainfall, causing dangerous mudslides, while the lowlands are experiencing prolonged droughts, causing crops and livestock to die. By training entrepreneurs in region-specific, climate-smart agricultural practices and by providing households with gender sensitivity training, the project trained 809 entrepreneurs (87% of whom were women), launched 269 businesses, and transformed 5,380 lives.

A woman tending to plants in a lush garden, surrounded by green leaves.

Conservation and Environmental Protection

To build a sustainable future for all, our entrepreneurs launch businesses that work in harmony with the environment that sustains them. Through partnerships with leading conservation nonprofits, Village Enterprise works to end extreme poverty while also reducing illegal hunting, deforestation, and human-wildlife conflict so both people and planet can thrive.

Saving Endangered Chimpanzees in Uganda

A chimpanzee sitting in dense green foliage, looking to the side.

Photo credit: ©Annette Lanjouw / Arcus Foundation

Three women joyfully walking with two goats on a dirt path lined with lush greenery and banana trees.

A woman and a man working in a lush, green field surrounded by trees and hills under a cloudy sky.

The hands of a man holding freshly picked green bell peppers from a garden.

A woman in a colorful pink headscarf walks through a lush green field under a partly cloudy sky.

With funding from the Arcus Foundation and implemented in partnership with Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, our PARKS project not only reduces extreme poverty near Uganda’s Kibale National Park, but helps protect one of the largest remaining populations of endangered East African chimpanzees. When we equip households to launch their own businesses, they’re able to build sustainable livelihoods that don’t rely on illegal hunting or lumbering. To date, PARKS has trained 3,823 entrepreneurs, transforming the lives of more than 20,000 people living in extreme poverty. Building on this success, the Arcus Foundation announced earlier this year an extension of PARKS to continue our collective conservation efforts. The extension will train 1,890 more entrepreneurs around the park, establish 630 businesses, and transform an additional 12,600 lives.

Read Wilson and Grace’s stories, two of our entrepreneurs who launched businesses through PARKS.

Protecting Gorillas and Okapis in the DRC and Congo-Brazzaville

A woman smiles behind the counter of a small, colorful shop stocked with various goods and beverages.

Photo credit: Wildlife Conservation Society

An okapi standing amidst lush green foliage in a forest.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Okapi Conservation Project

Aerial view of a winding river cutting through a dense green forest under a cloudy sky.

Photo credit: Wildlife Conservation Society

In Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in Congo-Brazzaville and Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Village Enterprise has partnered with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to reduce poaching and protect endangered wildlife such as gorillas and okapis.

By providing individuals with opportunities to launch their own businesses, they were no longer forced to rely on harmful practices to earn a living. In total, these projects trained 2,196 entrepreneurs, launched 732 businesses, and impacted more than 15,000 lives. As both projects wrapped up in June 2024, Village Enterprise is excited to share that we have begun providing technical assistance to WCS as they implement our model in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the DRC.

Protecting Endangered Bonobos in the DRC

A bonobo peering through lush green leaves in a forest setting.

Three women display colorful patterned fabrics under a rustic shelter with trees in the background.

In the Lomako Reserve of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Village Enterprise and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) worked together to reduce extreme poverty, protect the endangered bonobo population, and enhance perceptions on conservation among communities living near the reserve.

Since the project primarily targeted individuals and households involved in hunting bushmeat, many participants voluntarily surrendered their hunting guns and animal traps as they launched their own sustainable businesses. In total, this project, which wrapped up at the end of 2023, trained 1,560 entrepreneurs, launched 520 businesses, transformed 10,920 lives, while also safeguarding the region’s endangered bonobos.