Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
Let’s hear it for supply chains. And micro loans. And sales agents on motorbikes. Let’s give people a chance to earn an income and buy aspirational products designed specifically for them. Let’s put our entrepreneurial spirit to work to inspire theirs.
Solving Poverty with Profit.
Our founder, Paul Polak, was working in Somalia in the early eighties when he began to develop his philosophies and methodologies related to market-based solutions and human-centered design for solving poverty.
Today, we continue to build on those founding principles, living where we work, and always putting the needs of the poor and vulnerable at the center of everything we do.
We're on a mission to develop innovative and compassionate solutions for the most pressing needs in the developing world.
Support from donors and foundations funds our efforts to directly address the parts of peoples’ lives that matter—we’re looking for what works, and you can help.
We have boots on the ground in eleven countries on three continents, and our teams live in the provinces, districts, and villages where we work.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT iDE
Growing more food with less water
This July, the United Nations will meet to track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Leading up to this meeting, iDE has joined Farming First to call attention to SDG2: Ending Hunger. Doubling productivity and increasing incomes of farmers are targets in the goal. There's no better example of this than in Vietnam where micro-irrigation technology enables farmers to double their productivity while using 30% less water.
June 26, 2017
Women have the power to turn fallow lands into productive farms
In rural Nepal, where electric grids are unreliable and diesel fuel is not always available, solar pumps are the solution. Land that was once considered too dry is now flourishing with the help of resource-smart irrigation technology. In partnership with Futurepump Ltd, we're bringing the SF1 Solar Pump to rural communities in Nepal and across the world.
July 14, 2017
How iDE uses the Progress Out of Poverty Index
"We don’t limit ourselves to definitions but analyze the market to identify whatever is necessary to best accomplish our goal of increasing incomes and improving livelihoods for the world’s poorest populations." - Chris Nicoletti, iDE Director of Global iQ.
May 25, 2017
