Climate Change Resilience

As the climate changes, we are powering vulnerable, low-income communities to adapt and thrive

Higher temperatures, extreme weather events—such as floods and droughts—and erratic rainfall patterns profoundly impact smallholder farmers, who are vulnerable to even the slightest shift in climatic conditions. Their livelihoods and well-being depend on their ability to grow food, source water, and keep a roof over their heads.

Powering low-income people to become resilient to climate change is one of the main cross-sectional strategies at the heart of iDE’s work. As we leverage market ecosystems to boost agricultural productivity and provide services to rural communities, we also deploy tactics to help people adapt to changing climates, promoting climate-resilient technologies, encouraging regenerative agriculture, and supporting community-led management of natural resources.

Regenerative Agriculture Helps Nepali Farms Bloom

iDE is powering farmers to protect the environment using natural remedies

By intervening at critical entry points, iDE Nepal is working hard to promote the integration of traditional ecological knowledge with modern agricultural practices among last mile entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers.

Saving water for a dry day

“Before this pond there wasn’t even one vegetable planted," says Lemecha Bobe, a farmer in Ethiopia. "Now a new thing is formed." Bobe first learned about excavation ponds during a meeting on natural resource management held by iDE. In the past, fetching water for his crops was very time consuming and a drought had once devastated his plot. His pond now acts as a buffer against unpredictable rainfall as it stores water throughout the year. Bobe said building the pond was hard work but can now grow a variety of nutritious foods, which previously he would have purchased.

iDE Pc ETH Lemecha Bobe Callout 3X2 — Lemecha Bobe, Ethiopia

iDE’s operations are now carbon neutral

While we work on local adaptation to climate change, as an organization, we also want to be part of the global solution, and are proud to have reached carbon neutrality. We purchased offsets, known as carbon credits, to cover our emissions, which come from the use of electricity, and emissions made by iDE directly, from operating heaters, air conditioners, and vehicles, for example. We have also pledged to go even further, cutting emissions to reach “net zero” – not only offsetting but producing as few emissions as possible – by the end of 2030. To reach net zero, iDE will also purchase “carbon removal credits” to offset any emissions we continue creating. These credits remove carbon from the atmosphere and are different from “carbon avoided credits” which reduce or avoid emissions.

➥ Go back to the overview of iDE’s work

SANITATION IN FLOOD-PRONE AREAS

In partnership with the University of Colorado, we surveyed 1,472 flood-prone households in Cambodia to explore links between climate vulnerability, latrine functionality, and fecal sludge management. We figured out how to target climate-vulnerable households, enabling us to understand barriers to sludge management products and services. iDE has also joined the Global Resilience Partnership. Hosted by Stockholm University, the partnership is made up of more than 60 organisations which work together to ensure people and places persist, adapt and transform in the face of shocks, uncertainty and change. Learn more here.

iDE PC CAM Flood Latrines Callout 3X2 — Latrines for flood-prone households

Measuring Market Resilience

Using an index to understand the durability of markets

The Market System Resilience Index (MSRI) enables us to track the resilience of the wider market system, specifically in rural contexts, helping us better understand and adapt our market creation approach to local contexts.

Protecting the most vulnerable from climate shocks

Climate change affects everyone, particularly the most vulnerable and especially women. We are applying a climate change vulnerability and resilience lens across our portfolio to ensure we are powering those who need our support the most, but are the least responsible for the problem. For example, we are expanding our programs to promote clean cookstoves, sell water filters, install drip irrigation, and promote drought-resistant crops, linking farmers to information sources about the weather, and training people about community-led management of natural resources and livelihood techniques that can provide a green source of income for our clients. We are further using a landscape and regional approach, recognising that geographic units such as watersheds help to understand what impacts may be felt downstream and to design interventions accordingly.

New Irrigation System Inspires A Community

iDE powers thousands of Zambian farmers with demonstration plots

A 2015 report by Hystra, a global consulting firm that works with business and social sector pioneers to design and implement inclusive business approaches that are profitable and scalable, says it is important that development organizations identify the right farmers and “over-invest” in their farms through tailored and intensive support.

Circular economy projects clean up the environment

In recent years, iDE has tested “circular economy” interventions that support production and consumption in a way that reduces waste and resource use, and keeps products and materials within value chains for as long as possible. In Vietnam and Cambodia, iDE and its partners have worked with informal waste pickers to monetize the collection of plastic, working to build circular value chains with the aim of boosting incomes for participants and reducing the amount of plastic littering local waterways. At the same time, a trial project launched by iDE Ghana, turned human waste into fertilizer and cooking fuel. Fecal sludge ordinarily goes into landfills, where it can seep into groundwater, but using a circular economy approach, we turned sludge into “energy briquettes” and compost.

Building a circular economy to clean up plastic waste

Vietnamese effort sees trash turned into building materials and tote bags

Named a finalist for the P3 Impact Award, the US$1.6 million project, funded by Denmark’s Danida Market Development Partnership, aims to transform Danang’s plastic waste into everything from boards used to construct buildings, to designer carry bags, sold by socially-conscious brands around the world.

Climate Resilience Publications

Check out these publications about our work on climate change resilience

The Market Systems Resilience Index: A Multi-Dimensional Tool for Development Practitioners to Assess Resilience at Multiple Levels

Solid Waste Management Markets in Rural Cambodia Whitepaper

Developing the Market Systems Resilience Index (MSRI)

Peer Reviewed: "Effects of climate vulnerability on household sanitation access, functionality, and practices in rural Cambodia," Published 08 May 2024, Journal of Environment, Development, and Sustainability

Climate-smart agricultural techniques have significantly increased the annual crop profits of targeted farmers

Female Entrepreneurs: Critical in the Fight against Climate Change

Empowering Women to Fight Climate Change: A Program in Zambia Shows How Smallholder Farmers Can Lead the Way

Market Systems Resilience Learning Brief

Protecting the watershed and a way of life in Honduras

Watersheds are crucial to the sustainability of businesses, communities, and ecosystems. In Honduras, we’re working with people all along the watershed to protect water at its source, ensuring it continues flowing for generations to come.