Spark MicroGrants

Spark’s has worked for a decade to build the civic and economic power of families facing rural poverty across East and West Africa. Spark's community-driven model combines weekly village planning meetings and a seed grant of $8,000 to accelerate rural progress, and establish the foundations for village success. The number of meals eaten per day amongst the poorest families doubles from one to two or three per day and household assets grow by 80% in the first year. 85% of villages continue to meet and launch new initiatives autonomously thereafter. 

With the Elevate Prize we will open opportunities for twenty-five or more new villages to engage in the FCAP across five countries and progress a global platform for civil society groups to meet and build the sector forward. We will reach 1500 people, improving their food security, livelihoods and civic opportunities.

I remember the sun pouring down as I stood next to a an empty school building in South Sudan. Empty and unused, despite the region having one of the lowest access rates to education in the world. 

South Sudanese had just fought over two decades for independence. The powerful idea of independence is that you are in control of your own destiny. Yet, here were families sitting on the sidelines of decisions, while big aid spent money on projects that quickly fell apart. Traditional aid has a staggeringly low rate of success, only 12-16% gets to communities.

We started Spark in 2010 because every family deserves the right to determine their own positive future. We've supported over a quarter million people in our first decade to drive local change through establishing strong village governance and $8,000 village grants. We see a 4x return on investment with distribution across women, men, young, and old. Hundreds of women have even run for election and won their seats.

In the next decade Spark and the Government of Rwanda will nationalize the approach reaching 11 million people. Simultaneously Spark will launch a global fellowship for civil society to test and scale in new regions.

100-150 million people are falling back into extreme poverty due to COVID-19. It is well founded that citizen engagement in decision making in poverty alleviation programs is a critical ingredient for success (Deaton, 2013). Yet, billions of dollars in international aid continues to be deployed through prescriptive programs that sideline the poor. ‘Participatory’ models popularized in the 90s were heralded for resident engagement but neglected to give families decision-making authority. A meta-analysis of these programs concluded that citizens participated in ‘making bricks, not decisions’ and failed to garner governmental and social impacts (White et al, 2018). It is expensive and hard to garner meaningful engagement at scale so programs rely on existing local leaders for input. This hardens power dynamics and strengthens local elites vs. sharing benefits across women and men, young and old. 

The World Bank’s primary challenge is structuring funding to reach rural areas facing poverty with accountability (avoiding elite capture is an added benefit). Governments struggle with capacity to facilitate villages in local planning, budgeting and action. Meanwhile families in villages facing rural poverty have great ideas to alleviate poverty but lack the organizing and resources support to achieve them.

The economic devastation resulting from COVID-19 has called into question how traditional development has approached poverty alleviation. With over a hundred million people falling back into extreme poverty, we must ask how to develop strong local economies that can be resilient to shocks. Spark’s village based model does just this. Here’s how the Spark model is different:

1. Local decision making: the greatest determinant of project success is the level of engagement community members have in the program. 

2. Grant plus facilitation: research shows that funding with capacity building leads to higher impact and more durable results. For example, cash alone leads to a 1:1 return on investment where Spark’s model has a 1:3 return on investment. 

Village vs. individual: the greatest determinant of poverty is your zip code. Poverty is a collective v.s. individual experience, yet most poverty alleviation programs focus on lifting individuals out of poverty, vs. creating the enabling factors for a strong local economy that families can engage in to start businesses and rely on each other. Spark’s model leverages the village structure and social networks to build the foundations for success across the village, with business training and a community grant.

In our first decade, Spark has partnered with 325 villages in East and West Africa and improved over 250,000 lives. Communities become self-reliant and continue driving their own development. For every one project stimulated by the FCAP, a community launches another, showing a 2x impact multiplier. Across the board, 85% of villages continue to meet regularly and 86% of projects are sustaining. 85% of these projects are profit-generating, ranging from agricultural to transportation businesses, and families see an 80% increase in household assets. Spark’s process isn’t just local, it’s inclusive; 56% of ideas come from women, 44% of leaders are democratically elected women and 100% of villages have youth in leadership.

Community Spotlight: Buliza, Rwanda

86% of families in regions where Spark works have reported lower food consumption as a result of COVID-19. Communities engaged in the FCAP have demonstrated incredible resilience and determination throughout the pandemic. One example is Buliza Village in Rwanda. Families in Buliza developed a collective action plan to help community members in need, providing food packages to dozens of families and loans to businesses to stay afloat. Families have gone beyond this and even started collectively paying for community member health insurance who were uninsured.