Dianne Calvi is the President and CEO of Village Enterprise, an NGO with an entrepreneurship-driven model proven to lift families in Africa out of extreme poverty. After a decade at Microsoft during its start-up years, she has led Village Enterprise through a period of significant growth – with goals to lift over 20 million people out of extreme poverty by 2030. At the heart of that expansion lies an unwavering purpose to drive change that remain community-led and African-led. 

What does the word purpose mean to you personally – and has that definition evolved over time? 

Purpose has always been my guiding star. It’s what has motivated all my decisions in life, in one way or another. My purpose is really rooted in my faith, to serve others and for as long as I can remember, I’ve felt drawn to serve those most in need. 

I’ve always recognised how blessed I’ve been, where I was born, the family I was born into, the opportunities I had, especially in education. I often quote Warren Buffett, who says many of us have simply won the ‘ovarian lottery’. And I’ve always felt deeply that those who didn’t win that lottery still deserve the same dignity and opportunity. 

In what way has that sense of purpose informed how you lead? 

One of the first things I understood when I stepped into this role is that if you’re living in the US and trying to help people in rural Africa escape extreme poverty, you cannot be the one at the centre of the solution, you need a community-driven model. That’s why, from the very beginning, I focused on building Village Enterprise into an African organisation, not one dominated by expats or headquartered in the West. Today, we have a few of us from the US or France, but the vast majority of our staff are African. Our COO is Ugandan, our Chief Government Relations Officer is Kenyan, and our CFO is Ethiopian. That’s what purpose looks like in practice: building real leadership where the work happens and with the people it’s meant to serve. 

Why was it so important for you that Village Enterprise be truly African-led? 

Honestly, it just made sense. If we’re trying to lift women and families out of extreme poverty in rural Africa, the solutions have to come from within those communities, they know the language, the culture, the obstacles, the opportunities. 

It’s also about trust and authenticity. Local leaders can connect in a way that no outsider ever could. We’ve built and refined a model over 15 years that works, we know it works because we’ve done the research – randomised control trials, longitudinal studies, external evaluations and that gives me real conviction. Whether we’re serving 5,000 entrepreneurs or 50,000, what matters is that we’re making a difference. 

You recently spoke to your team during a challenging time for the organisation. How do you keep people grounded and hopeful amid uncertainty? 

Because of the USAID funding cuts and how they’ve impacted our organisation, we’ve had to make tough decisions, and we’ve had to unfortunately lay some staff off. There was a real sense of fear in the development sector, but what I told our team was: if we stay focused on the work that we do, and we know it has impact, we will get through this. 

There’s an African proverb I love: “If you want to go far, go together,” and we often say that. We go far because we go together, as a team, with our entrepreneurs, with our partners. But there’s also a personal toll, you’re holding heartbreak and hope at the same time, trying to keep everyone motivated and inspired. I’ve said to the team: it’s okay to feel both, sadness and hope, at the same time. That duality is natural. 

You’ve had a fascinating career, Microsoft, the nonprofit world, now leading Village Enterprise. What lessons have stayed with you from those different chapters? 

I spent 13 years at Microsoft, during a time when it still felt like a startup. What I learned there was the importance of building an organisation where people feel passionate and excited about the work, another is innovation. They didn’t just build tools – they made sure they worked. That evidence-based mindset stayed with me, when I came to Village Enterprise, it was a small grassroots organisation with a lot of heart but it lacked rigour. So I brought in more focus on measurement: not just collecting good stories, but knowing for sure that we’re lifting people out of poverty and that the impact is lasting.