Powering entrepreneurs to end poverty.
We believe markets are the most powerful tool for creating prosperity, building resilience, and ultimately ending poverty.
Our Impact Model—
Infinite
Our Infinite Model provides a roadmap for how individuals can participate in the marketplace and move through a process of growth, establishing profitable livelihoods.
Explore our Infinite ModelWhat We Do—
Market ecosystems that adapt and grow to benefit everyone
For developing world entrepreneurs to succeed they must participate in market ecosystems that are economically competitive, inclusive of all people, and resilient to shocks such as conflict or changing climates. By listening to every stakeholder—producers, suppliers, retailers and customers—we can overcome critical bottlenecks and develop lasting solutions.
Learn more about Market Ecosystem CreationAgriculture
Agriculture for Entrepreneurs
Any farm can move from subsistence farming to farming as a business with the right support. Farm Business Advisors provide an essential link between farmers and suppliers in remote areas. Our work in nutrition-sensitive agriculture promotes a supportive business environment for producers to deliver more, better, and safer nutritious foods.
Read more: How iDE increases agricultural incomesWater, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH)
Markets for WASH
When we told people that we planned to sell latrines, water filters, handwashing devices, and menstrual health products to poor customers rather than just give them away, they didn’t believe it would work. But we’ve proven that it does work, and that it works better than charity, because when people invest their own money, they’re more likely to embrace the change necessary to improve their lives.
Read more: How clean water contributes to community health and well-belngClimate and Resilience
Building resilience to climate change
Powering farmers to become resilient to climate change is one of the main strategies at the heart of iDE’s work. Two key tactics are promoting climate-smart products, and training on best practices for managing natural resources. iDE designed the Market System Resilience Index (MSRI) to track the resilience of the wider market system, because the market system itself needs to be able to withstand, react, and transform in the face of climate change.
Read more: Our market strategies help farmers adapt to changing climates
What It Takes To Do It Well—
Our inclusive approach is based on insights and evidence
At iDE, we continually challenge assumptions, make effective data- and evidence-driven decisions, and enable agile delivery of strategies and resources toward improved outcomes for our interventions. We also work to expose beliefs and practices that perpetuate inequality and use the knowledge we acquire to design social and behavioral-change programming that promote the creation of resilient market ecosystems, which benefit all people.
Design
Co-designing income-generating solutions with people
We operate under the ethos of actually talking to the people we work with. Only then can we work to co-design solutions that meet their particular challenges. Using an approach called human-centered design (HCD), we create products, services and processes that fill gaps in market systems and help solve everyday problems.
Read more: Learn more about our work in designMonitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning
Pioneering approaches to evidence-based implementation
We measure our progress, monitor our impact and evaluate when we need to change our approach. Using a core set of performance indicators and information management tools, we track the number of households we reach, look for increases in household income and savings, and calculate the ratio of what we spend on programs compared to the incomes generated by our customers.
Read more: iDE's approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and LearningGender Equality and Social Inclusion
Bias and exclusion have no place in the market
Power imbalances and harmful social norms prevent women—as well as men and socially excluded groups—from going about their lives freely, preventing them from taking full and equal advantage of opportunity.
Read more: Our approach to inclusion starts with us
Our impact to date—
8,466,203
Households Impacted42,504,578
Individuals Impacted237.00
Annual Income Increased in Dollars15.20
Social Return On Investment (SROI)
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