Innovating for Impact

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Innovation is at the heart of what we do

Whether we are piloting new digital solutions in rural Uganda or collaborating with emerging marketplaces on the latest innovative financing models, everything we do is about furthering our impact for the entrepreneurs we serve. Here’s the latest on our innovation journey at Village Enterprise.

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Advancing Digital Solutions in Rural Africa

In an effort to make our model even more impactful for the entrepreneurs we serve, we’re incorporating the latest digital solutions into our work and piloting them in communities across rural Africa.

Revolutionizing Business Savings Groups with DreamSave

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DreamSave allows our entrepreneurs to digitally track their business savings group records using a smartphone or tablet instead of paper books. It stores entrepreneurs’ savings securely in the cloud and sends mobile notifications reminding entrepreneurs of their weekly savings targets. Created by our partners at DreamStart Labs, we first piloted the app in 12 business savings groups across Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda and found a 50% increase in savings and an 85% increase in meeting attendance. DreamSave also significantly reduced the amount of time required for weekly savings group meetings, allowing entrepreneurs to spend more time at their businesses. We have since scaled DreamSave to be utilized by over 9,200 entrepreneurs in 236 additional business savings groups in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Our goal is for all Village Enterprise savings groups to have access to DreamSave in 2025.

Innovating with Technology through SPRINT

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In the Kapelebyong and Omoro districts of Uganda, Village Enterprise is piloting our latest innovation: Scaling Poverty Reduction through Innovation & New Technologies (SPRINT). The SPRINT pilot is testing whether it is possible for Village Enterprise business mentors to equip five times as many entrepreneurs through a digitally enhanced model. If successful, SPRINT would allow each business mentor to equip 1,800 entrepreneurs in a single year. As part of SPRINT, we are providing a tablet, a bluetooth speaker, and a projector to each business savings group to enhance group learning through a multimedia digital learning platform. Some training sessions are led by Tech Champions, who are entrepreneurs provided with digital literacy training from Village Enterprise staff. The Tech Champions, usually 3 or 4 per group, lead their savings group in accessing the digital learning platform and Dreamsave. They also lead Whatsapp calls for virtual communication with their business mentor. If successful, SPRINT will further revolutionize the reach, cost-effectiveness, and impact of our poverty graduation program. Our goal is to incorporate successful aspects of the SPRINT pilots across Village Enterprise savings groups in 2026.

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Pioneering Innovative Financing

On top of driving transformational impact for our entrepreneurs, we’re also leading the way when it comes to innovative financing and advocating for the entire international development sector to be more focused on life-changing outcomes and results.

Village Enterprise’s Impact First Initiative

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Despite being the United Nations’ first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), ending extreme poverty is woefully off track. Not only is there a growing SDG financing gap estimated at $4.2 trillion USD per year, but too often funding and grants are awarded for plans to solve the problem at hand, not actual impact. Unfortunately, this means an organization could implement their program and still receive funding even if they didn’t end up achieving their desired results. Our idea is simple—we want more funding for international development to be tied directly to verifiable outcomes and results. That’s why we’ve created the Impact First Initiative. Not only are we striving to ensure every dollar spent and every person reached by Village Enterprise translates into tangible, sustained impact—we’re also working to influence the entire sector to make aid more accountable, cost-effective, and focused on results.

Learn about Village Enterprise’s Impact First Initiative.

Funding Impact with Common Good Marketplace

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In October, Village Enterprise’s social impact became available on Common Good Marketplace, making it Africa’s first-ever poverty impact assets to be listed on a social outcomes marketplace. Similar to how carbon credits operate, Common Good Marketplace and other social outcomes marketplaces allow corporations to purchase verified impact assets that are making progress on the United Nations’ SDGs. In order for it to be listed, the impact generated by Village Enterprise was rigorously audited by a third party validator, Moonshot Global. Sales of Village Enterprise’s impact on the marketplace will directly fund our future work, allowing us to equip even more women, refugees, and youth living in extreme poverty to become business owners.

In Reuters, read how companies can alleviate global poverty and meet their ESG targets through social impact marketplaces.

Creating a Rwanda Outcomes Fund to End Extreme Poverty

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As we partner with the Government of Rwanda to scale poverty graduation efforts and end extreme poverty in the country, we are simultaneously working to establish a scalable outcomes fund to streamline civic collective action and mobilize new funding. This outcomes fund will ensure that funds accessed by civil society implementers are tied to measurable results that align with government-defined poverty alleviation priorities. While the government will leverage the technical assistance provided by Village Enterprise to fund and implement portions of the graduation program, Village Enterprise will also provide training to NGOs and local community-based organizations to implement effective poverty graduation programming. Our goal is to end extreme poverty in Rwanda by 2030 by partnering with the government, NGOs, and community-based organizations to equip over 700,000 Rwandans living in extreme poverty to become entrepreneurs, transforming over 4.6 million lives.

Learn more about our work in Rwanda and our $1.3 million grant from the Fund for Innovation in Development.

Driving Localization in International Development

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The Locally Led Development Collective is a new partnership between Village Enterprise, Social Finance, Educate Girls, and Oxfam. The goal of this collective is to explore, demonstrate, and share how outcomes-based approaches allow funders to support local organizations at scale. The pilot phase will provide technical assistance to selected East African organizations under a results-based financing (RBF) framework to generate key insights and proof of concept. We aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of RBF as a contracting mechanism that not only drives meaningful impact but also streamlines funding processes for local organizations. By aligning incentives with measurable outcomes, this initiative promotes localization and innovation, ensuring that resources are used efficiently to create lasting change. We believe the Locally Led Development Collective will be critical in enhancing our efforts to empower local communities and driving long-term, locally-led development solutions.

When it comes to localization in international development, what are the challenges that local organizations are facing and how can they be addressed?

Learn more from our team on the Work with USAID blog.