DPRIZE 2025 WINNERS 🇰🇪: Worth Alliance Launches the BRiK Pre-Pilot in Busia County
Worth Alliance was selected as a 2025 D-Prize winner under the Poverty Graduation Challenge in Kenya, receiving a grant to pilot an agriculture-focused poverty graduation programme in Busia County.
Eva Barasa
8/5/20262 min read
Worth Alliance was selected as a 2025 D-Prize winner under the Poverty Graduation Challenge in Kenya, receiving a grant to pilot an agriculture-focused poverty graduation programme in Busia County.
In August 2026, that opportunity became action when we officially launched the Building Resilience in Kenya programme (BRiK). The pre-pilot is now supporting 30 ultra-poor farming households, comprising 25 women-headed and five men-headed households. Through these households, an estimated 150 family members are expected to benefit indirectly.
For Worth Alliance, the award created an opportunity to adapt the poverty graduation approach to the realities of smallholder farming households in western Kenya.
What the BRiK package provides
BRiK combines productive capital, practical training, consumption support, community mentorship and market-access assistance. Rather than offering one isolated intervention, the programme provides a coordinated package intended to address the connected barriers that keep ultra-poor households from developing sustainable livelihoods.
Since implementation began in late July and early August 2026, participants have received:
Phased productive capital and agricultural assets, beginning with planting seeds;
Temporary weekly consumption support;
Introductory agricultural training delivered during the first week; and
Ongoing field mentoring to establish and manage their seedling beds.
Each participant has also been paired with a community mentor. Three women and youth mentors are each supporting a cohort of ten participants, providing practical guidance, regular follow-up and a trusted link between participating households and the Worth Alliance team.
Community-led identification and implementation
Participant selection was conducted through community wealth ranking, household verification and baseline assessment. Local chiefs and sub-chiefs supported this process by contributing their knowledge of the community and participating in the identification and validation of eligible households. Their involvement helped strengthen transparency, local legitimacy and community ownership while reducing the risk that participant selection would depend only on programme staff.
Worth Alliance’s productive-capital approach is built around an Income Sharing Agreement model. Participants receive upfront support without fixed interest or conventional debt repayments. Contributions are expected only from future verified profits, allowing recovered funds to revolve and eventually support additional households.
Looking ahead
The pre-pilot is the first practical test of Worth Alliance’s longer-term mission: to deliver agriculture-based poverty graduation solutions that combine capital, skills, mentoring and market access for ultra-poor women and youth in Kenya.
We remain deeply grateful to D-Prize for helping us move from design to delivery. Winning the award was an important milestone. Building a model that produces credible, sustained and dignified outcomes will be the real measure of success.
Read more: https://d-prize.org/winners/profiles/worth-alliance