Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise received $15,000 to further implement and create a more robust database for its SMART tool.  The Smarter Market Analysis Risk Tool (SMART) is an agriculture initiative that employs mobile data collection technology to capture seasonal pricing, risk, demand and price vulnerability to help ultrapoor famers in Kenya and Uganda make better business planning decisions.   The SMART technology does this by creating a risk/reward matrix that can be understood by those with low levels of education, providing more certainty in making those decisions.  The program recently earned the organization an award as the Rockefeller Foundation’s Top 100 Next Century Innovators.

 Launched in 1987, Village Enterprise works to equip rural people living in extreme poverty with the resources to create sustainable businesses.  This includes business training and mentoring from local leaders, micro-grants for business seed capital and participation in a business savings group.  The organization combines innovative technology and business support systems with rigorous monitoring and evaluation efforts that result in a strong impact in the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.