Our Impact
Alignment with UN Sustainable Development goals
Vest-in-Villages is committed to the UN’s vision of a world without poverty and hunger by 2030.
In 2016 the United Nations set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030.
Vest-in-Villages aims to reduce poverty by working with last mile institutions that are owned and run by the communities we serve. Using lessons learned from decades of expertise in international development, we take a holistic, tech-enabled approach to increase the impact of your loans and make sure your money is put to good use.
Our Data Analytics, Rating, and Tracking Tool (DART), helps families to develop business plans that include realistic loan requirements and repayment schedules. DART also allows entrepreneurs and their families to assess their own finances as they move from poverty into prosperity.
In 2013, more than 10% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty—i.e., on less than $1.90 a day. The vast majority of these people live in rural areas and are employed in the agricultural sector. They are not served by formal financial institutions due to their lack of credit history or collateral. Therefore, they are unable to start or scale up their farms and small enterprises.
More than 90% of households who we serve are classified as ‘extreme poor’ or ‘poor’. We work with these families and help them develop their credit histories. We support them in making informed and data-driven decisions to ultimately access financial services. Financial inclusion of the nano and micro business can have a major impact on employment and inclusive growth.
DART enables us to monitor, track, and measure gender-related indicators. We focus on marginalized households, which are often headed by women. All last mile institutions we work with are run by women, and at least 80% of members are women.
We empower women leaders and entrepreneurs by helping them understand their finances and the role they play in family’s financial decision making. We equip them with skills that help them develop business plans that enable women to earn a living.
At every level, we promote business skills, local employment, and self-employment. We help small enterprises to thrive by helping them prepare viable and sustainable business plans and by strengthening village credit and savings groups.
We help to boost local economies and reduce migration.
DART services equip low-income and vulnerable households with the tools to make them more resilient to emergencies and income shocks. We achieve this through financial literacy, business planning, debt tracking, and strengthening of formal savings.
We help build their credit histories, which enables low cost underwriting and loan processing, thus aiming to reduce extreme poverty.
We support and strengthen inclusive last mile institutions which include self-help groups. Each group sets its own rules, but they all have the core values of inclusion, participation, transparency, accountability, and mutual respect.
The stronger a group is, the more impact there is of any investment. That’s why we carefully check how groups and their federations are performing. DART ensures that groups uphold their values and serve their communities over the long term.
DART ensures that partnering institutions uphold their values and serve their communities over the long term.
We work with NGOs, government departments, financial institutions and other impact organizations to connect people locally and globally. This network approach helps us to share expertise and attract resources so that we achieve the SDGs.