With more than 700 million people living on less than $1.90 a day, the COVID-19 pandemic could push an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty.

Assessment 

Poverty is multidimensional. It is more than the inability to ensure a sustainable livelihood due to a lack of income and resources.

Those living in poverty face a variety of complex challenges, including malnutrition, lack of clean drinking water, limited access to education and information, disease, poor housing and environmental conditions, social discrimination and exclusion, and adverse climatic conditions.

Why build a dispensary if the sick do not have access to clean water when they return home? Why build a school if, at home, the children don’t have enough to eat? How can one go to school or run a business on an empty stomach? Why give communities the opportunity to cultivate a field if they are not also given the means to preserve their harvest, store it and sell it on the marketplace? How can they be encouraged to build up savings or use micro-credit if they don’t learn how to manage their finances?

Poverty, hunger, disease, stigma and illiteracy form a vicious circle that’s very difficult to break. FXB’s DNA is based on the knowledge and awareness of this reality.

Our objective 

To bring about lasting change in the countries where we operate in order to eradicate extreme poverty. FXB provides families with the tools to become socially and economically independent. Our success is based on the innovative model of the Economic and social community development FXBVillage programs, initiated in 1991.

Since 1991, FXB has implemented nearly 200 Economic and Community Development FXBVillage programs in twelve countries – Burundi, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Panama, Rwanda, Thailand and Uganda – lifting 105,000 children and adults out of extreme poverty.

With our proven, comprehensive and integrated approach, participants can protect and nurture their children, have a positive impact on their communities and lead dignified lives in their countries.

Learn more about the FXBVillage Model.

The strength of our approach

Addressing the multidimensional causes of poverty.

It would be a mistake to only address poverty through the lens of income! Partial aid, addressing only one of the multiple causes of poverty, is not a sufficient solution to overcome it.

The five pillars of the FXBVillage Model

The FXBVillage, our holistic model of poverty reduction provides a comprehensive response to this situation by simultaneously acting on the factors that underlie it, through 5 pillars :

• Economic Strengthening
• Access to food security
• Access to health care
• Access to education and information
• Healthy Housing and Environment

Each of our programs (Graduation approach) connects approximately 100 families who receive a sliding scale of support for three years: the time needed to move from extreme poverty to sustainable economic and social autonomy.

The fundamental pillar of our model is economic strengthening. Its main innovation is the donation of seed capital—in lieu of loans—thus allowing families to achieve economic autonomy. Families are also given training in business management and financial literacy, enabling them to start income-generating activities (microenterprises) and gradually earn enough money to meet their daily needs, facilitate their financial inclusion, and continue to prosper after the program ends.

Along with economic strengthening, FXB ensures that every family member has access to basic human rights through four additional pillars: food security, access to education and critical health & social information, access to adequate health services, and a healthy home & environment.

For FXB, combating poverty also means fighting against all forms of discrimination, particularly gender discrimination, in order to balance relations between men and women so that the latter, who are more exposed to poverty, can access the same economic and social opportunities.

A measured impact

We know we can’t improve what we can’t measure. This is why FXB has launched an advanced monitoring and evaluation system, which was developed and refined by members of our field teams, specialists and experts from the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

How do we measure impact? 

External evaluations

Since the early 2000s, the FXBVillage Poverty Reduction Model has been regularly evaluated. A real impact on the economic, health and social status of children and adults has been demonstrated.

Find out more about external evaluations.

Recognitions

The FXBVillage model has received numerous awards and recognitions around the world.

Find out more about awards and recognitions.

An open source methodology

On the occasion of FXB’s 25th anniversary, Albina du Boisrouvray, Founder and President Emerita, wished to make the FXBVillage poverty eradication model accessible to other organizations that would like to strengthen their approach in the fight against extreme poverty. This toolkit – developed in collaboration with experts from the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, provides step-by-step guidance on the FXBVillage methodology, from its history and guiding principles to the specific details of operations to be carried out with the most vulnerable populations.

Download the « FXBVillage Toolkit and Planning Guide ».