Bangladesh

Since 1984, iDE has created business opportunities for the private sector with the goal of improving income, livelihood, and well-being for low-income and marginalized communities.

Featured Project

Seeding the market with the right agricultural technologies

Increasing crop yields through dynamic private sector partnerships

Over half of the farmers in southern Bangladesh lack access to affordable farm machinery such as irrigation pumps, seeders, and reapers. iDE promotes technologies that generate the best returns for rural farmers at an affordable price. We demonstrate the commercial value of these technologies at the national level with machine manufacturers and importers, while simultaneously building the capabilities of rural dealers, mechanics, and critical last-mile machinery service providers.

Why we're here—

One of the most densely populated countries on Earth, Bangladesh has significantly reduced the number of its people that are living in poverty, from 57 percent in 1990 to 25.6 percent in 2014. However, the country still faces challenges in improving food security, as agricultural productive capacity struggles to keep up with population growth. Bangladesh faces an agricultural labor shortage, partly due to urban migration trends, contributing to a four-fold increase in labor costs over the last decade. While the country has made tremendous progress in improving public health through investments in water, sanitation, and hygiene, nearly half the population still lives without a fully hygienic toilet or access to safe, clean drinking water, resulting in health-related losses estimated at $4 billion, more than 5 percent of total GDP.

What matters—

Gender Equity

Reducing poverty requires a specific concern for the situation of women and their role in rural markets. iDE takes time to listen to women as both customers and entrepreneurs. We strive to strengthen the participation of women in rural value chains and increase their access to technology, know-how, finance, and markets.

Learn more about iDE’s commitment to Gender Equity.

Nutrition

iDE encourages farmers to not just grow food, but to grow more nutritious food. With a more diversified crop base, customers gain a more nutritious diet, providing people with more energy and mental ability to be successful.

Learn more about iDE’s commitment to Nutrition.

iDE Theme Climate Resilience Illustration

Resilience to Climate Change

iDE works with leading companies to design and promote water-saving and climate-smart agricultural technologies, pilot innovative clean energy solutions, and build community resilience to climate extremes through improved access to more adaptable livelihood opportunities and practices.

Learn more about iDE’s commitment to Smart Technologies.

We’re making big waves

Celebrating a milestone: 200,000 toilets sold in just 18 months

Microentrepreneurs have sold 200,000 toilets in just 18 months. This is a major milestone—for iDE’s WASH team and for our partners, who dedicated two years to lay the foundation for this market system, and then a year and a half to catalyze sales.

What works—

Agriculture

iDE pioneered the development of private-sector supply chains for farmer-friendly technologies, resulting in productivity gains for more than 1.5 million households in Bangladesh by 2004.

Since then, we have combined the promotion of appropriate technologies with strengthened markets by deploying our “Firm to Farm” approach, which connects large national companies with over 30,000 last-mile entrepreneurs. The results are sustainable sources of seeds, fertilizer, and advisory services, along with improved access to buyers and market information, that continue to improve incomes and opportunities.

Learn more about iDE’s global Agriculture strategy.

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene

While the public and development sectors have made tremendous progress in promoting hygienic water and sanitation practices in recent years, iDE focuses on catalyzing the country’s private sector to lead the delivery of sustainable WASH solutions for low-income consumers. To do so, we work with national companies that supply toilets and water filters to reconsider low-income people as viable, long-term customers.

In parallel, we support over 1,000 entrepreneurs across the country in becoming more effective and profitable providers of affordable, aspirational, and effective WASH products and services.

Learn more about iDE’s global WASH strategy.

Access to Finance

Poor access to effective forms of credit is one of the key constraints for small-scale farmers in improving their productivity and food security. Although many microfinance institutions and NGOs try to fill the financial gap, farmers and micro-entrepreneurs are typically cut off from flexible credit services that understand their unique balance of commercial aspirations and necessities.

iDE employs a “Firm to Farm Finance” approach to rural financing in Bangladesh, which combines farmer-friendly financial product development with bank and microfinance institution partnerships. This approach demonstrates that inclusive lending to small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs is not only possible, but profitable.

Learn more about iDE’s global Access to Finance strategy.

A system solution for sanitation

Building a winning team of donors in Bangladesh

By using a portfolio approach, iDE demonstrates and delivers effective solutions that meet the goals of multiple partners and stakeholders, such as improved sanitary latrine coverage in populous Bangladesh.