Gender Equity and Social Inclusion

Resilient market ecosystems must be inclusive

Power imbalances and harmful social norms prevent everyone from thriving as entrepreneurs and driving prosperity for their families and communities.

Disparities and biases lead to the exclusion of individuals and entrepreneurs from the market, which further reinforces social and economic inequities. At iDE, we work to understand the specific barriers our clients experience in their pursuit of economic engagement and use this knowledge to design programs with communities, to promote the creation of resilient market ecosystems that benefit all people.

Our gender equity and social inclusion policy commits us to supporting groups which are under-represented in market ecosystems; are discriminated against; and/or unable to access products and services, simply because of who they are. Our goal is to break barriers, challenge social norms and fight for equity in our work to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

Aligned with our new strategy, the research shows us that women entrepreneurs have a multiplier effect to ending poverty. We focus our work on enabling participation so that women can exercise their agency, and access and control resources that benefit themselves, their enterprises, their household, and their community. Our team supports entrepreneurs with gender responsive business training and curricula contextualized to the communities where we work.

iDE uses a range of tools to measure empowerment for people at the household level. For example, we use the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEI), a tool developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute and adapted by Socodevi to assess changes in empowerment across five domains including production, resources, income, leadership, and time use. iDE leverages a similar tool to use in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, researching methods that go beyond gender to evaluate other barriers to inclusion called WASH-GEM.

Fostering equity

Family and business were tangled together for Celestina Arnaldo. She used to depend on her son to find suppliers for her vegetables, which he wasn’t paid for. Then Arnaldo received training from iDE to be a farm business advisor and learned how to organize her business as a separate entity from the household. With that in place, her family worked to increase their production. Now Arnaldo is the general manager, her husband is the head of production, and her son has become the accountant and driver. The business pays everyone a monthly salary, they keep track of all their transactions, and they have been able to use their profits to invest in a truck.

iDE MOZ Celestina Arnaldo Callout 3X2 — Celestina Arnaldo, Mozambique

SHE powered by iDE is building a gender-transformative entrepreneurship ecosystem across eight countries, designed to create an inclusive and thriving economy. As the first gender-focused business incubator in Cambodia, SHE has supported 2,622 graduates across its programs for over a decade.

SHE provides gender-focused and culturally-tailored business support programs for entrepreneurs with micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, enabling them to create long-term social, economic and environmental impact for themselves, their families and their communities. We support women micro-small entrepreneurs to scale up and create long-term social, environmental and economic impact for people and communities. We strive to be a leader and strong voice for the promotion of women’s empowerment; to build structures of support to enable women to lead as role models and change agents in business.

Business Incubator Focused On Women Is Going Global

As the first gender-focused business incubator in Cambodia, SHE Powered by IDE now supports more than 2600 female entrepreneurs globally.

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Disability is no barrier

In a place like rural Cambodia, where latrines aren’t common, it is especially difficult to find a toilet facility that accommodates people with disabilities. Che Chemm bought a disability-accommodating latrine and shelter, furnished with grab rails and a sitting toilet, from an iDE-supported local business in 2017. Some 18 months after the latrine was installed, the team returned to visit Chemm and found he was particularly pleased with his purchase. He gestured toward the neighboring homes of his sons, one of whom also has a disability. Now both Chemm and his disabled son have the shelters, which were designed by iDE.

iDE PC CAM Che Chemm 3X2 — Che Chemm, Cambodia

Connect with iDE’s GESI experts

Lauren Riley
Senior Director of Technical Programming
Lauren is a believer in market-based approaches to gender and social inclusion issues and leads iDE’s technical programs.
Lauren Riley, PhD
Keisha Gani
SHE Program Director
Keisha Gani is responsible for leading the newly integrated SHE team at iDE, which focuses on designing and delivering gender-focused and culturally tailored entrepreneurship support programs. Keisha is passionate about building a gender-inclusive ecosystem where women-led and family-run businesses have equitable access to the opportunities, knowledge, services, and funding they need to scale.
Keisha Gani