Ep 49. Dianne Calvi, President & CEO Village Enterprise: Full bellies and big dreams!

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May 6, 2024

Dianne Calvi, CEO of Village Enterprise, aims to lift 20m people in Africa out of poverty. They focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action, using Poverty Graduation Model and evidence-based approach. Partnering with USAID and governments, they strive to end extreme poverty in Rwanda. Dianne's personal story drives her to enable 'full bellies and big dreams' for entrepreneurs in Africa.

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INSIGHT

Evidence Built The Case For Scaling

Village Enterprise intentionally moved from a small volunteer group to build rigorous evidence and scale after Diane joined in 2010.
They invested in a large randomized control trial starting 2013 to prove attribution and unlock funding and replication by governments and partners.

ADVICE

Bundle Services Not Just Cash Grants

Do deliver a bundled poverty graduation model: savings groups, training, mentoring, family support and cash grants.
Village Enterprise uses 30-person savings groups, local mentors, group businesses of three, and unconditional seed capital to create profitable microbusinesses.

INSIGHT

Use Group-Level Digital Onramps

Introducing digital tools at the group level overcomes individual literacy limits and speeds adoption.
DreamSave digitizes savings group bookkeeping, uses shared phones and a literate treasurer to connect groups to financial services.

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With an audacious goal to lift 20m people in Africa out of extreme poverty by 2030, Dianne Calvi, President and CEO of Village Enterprise, joins us to share how they plan to make this happen.
Centred around their core value of ‘Ubuntu’, a South African term, which means ‘humanity’ or ‘I am because we are’, Village Enterprise seeks to transform lives through entrepreneurship, innovation and collective action.
By partnering with other nonprofits, governments, agencies, and private sector companies, Village Enterprise equips first-time entrepreneurs in Africa with the resources and skills to start climate-smart businesses and savings groups.
We talk about their Poverty Graduation Model and building up their evidence base, using Randomised Control Trials, which has helped catalyse funding for their exciting new programme: working with USAID, the French and the Rwandan governments to end extreme poverty in Rwanda for good. Dianne also shares her personal family story, revealing what really drives her to do this work, which, as one of their entrepreneurs says, is all about enabling full bellies and big dreams. Recorded March 2024.
Note: The title of this episode is a direct quote from an entrepreneur that Village Enterprise supports in Africa, describing the impact of their work.
Guest Biography
Dianne Calvi has been working to end extreme poverty in rural Africa as Village Enterprise’s President and CEO since 2010. Since joining Village Enterprise, Dianne has increased the breadth and depth of the organization’s impact by focusing on strategic partnerships, innovation and technology, rigorous monitoring and evaluation, and building a highly qualified African team.

To date, Village Enterprise has trained over 274k people, started over 80k businesses, and lifted over 1.65 million people out of extreme poverty. With Dianne at the helm, Village Enterprise has completed an independent randomized control trial (RCT) and launched the first Development Impact Bond in poverty alleviation.

Prior to joining Village Enterprise, Dianne served as the President of Bring Me A Book Foundation, a literacy nonprofit that she scaled through partnerships in both domestic and international locations. Previously, she worked in the private sector for Microsoft, Xerox, and Montedison in Milan, Italy.

She has served on several nonprofit boards and was recently appointed to the InterAction board of directors. Dianne received a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from Bocconi University (Milan, IT) on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Links
https://villageenterprise.org