News
May 2009
IDE fundraiser lands 'Best Job in the World'
A charity fundraiser for IDE-UK beat off competition from 35,000 other applicants to land a dream job – to work as caretaker for Great Barrier Reef island paradise off Queensland, Australia.
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Ben Southall fundraised for IDE-UK on a year long expedition driving around Africa, which included running five marathons and climbing five of Africa’s highest mountains. As the winner of the Best Job in the World competition, he will be required to swim, explore and relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef while writing a blog to promote the area to attract visitors to the reef's 900 islands. Sixteen finalists spent the past four days on the island for an extended interview process, which involved snorkelling through crystalline waters, strolling along white sand beaches and relaxing at a spa.
IDE-UK Chief Executive Lewis Temple said on hearing the news, ‘I am delighted that Ben has been selected for this fantastic job. He has shown real dedication to ending poverty through his fundraising efforts for IDE-UK and thoroughly deserves this opportunity’.
Fundraiser of the Year joins board of IDE-UK
Michael Dent has joined the board of IDE-UK as a Trustee. Michael is an ambitious and enthusiastic fundraiser with over 9 years practical fundraising experience. Since 2005 he has worked for the community charity WRVS where he has been responsible for raising over £4m and recruiting 50,000 supporters from scratch through a multi-stream individual giving strategy. In 2008 Michael won the Institute of Fundraising – Fundraiser of the Year award.
On becoming a trustee of IDE-UK Michael said :
‘I am delighted to become a trustee of such a worthwhile and innovative small overseas development charity. I am extremely impressed with the practical approach that IDE-UK uses to enabling smallholder farmers to increase their income. I look forward to bringing the expertise and experience I have gained from my work for WRVS to helping IDE-UK to enable many more poor farmers in developing countries to break out of poverty.’
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March 2009
IDE-UK welcomes new Chief Executive
Lewis Temple has just started with IDE-UK as the new Chief
Executive. Lewis has many years experience working in some of the world's
poorest communities. This has included four years living in the Former Soviet
countries of Moldova, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan whilst working for the children's
charity EveryChild and three years living in Ethiopia managing aid and
development programmes for the Irish aid charity GOAL. Most recently Lewis has
spent the last year supporting the UK charity sector whilst director of the
online charity information service GuideStar UK.
On joining IDE-UK Lewis
said "I am extremely excited to be joining such a dynamic and energetic charity.
Poverty remains the single biggest global challenge we face. I firmly believe
that the approaches that IDE uses to reducing poverty for poor farmers and their
communities are not only effective but also fundamentally empowering. I hope
that together with our supporters we can enable millions more smallholder
farmers to escape from poverty over the coming months and
years."
Please contact Lewis if you would
like to find out how you can help more poor farmers in the developing world
escape from poverty.
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January 2008
Gates Foundation commits $27 million to IDE USA project to
promote affordable technologies for 1.75 million rural poor in
India
Bill Gates Highlights Market Mechanisms as key to lifting Millions out of Poverty at the World Economic Forum in Davos
International Development Enterprises USA (IDE) has accepted a
grant of $27 million over four years from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation in support of its micro-irrigation programs for smallholder farmers
in India.
Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, announced the project
as part of a package of agricultural development grants at a press conference
with Amos Namanga Ngongi, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in
Africa (AGRA) and World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick at the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The project aims
to directly affect up to 250,000 smallholder farm families—1.75 million
people—in 14 diverse states of India, increasing farmers’ income by a minimum of
$400 per year, and boosting the agricultural economy by $300 million at the
grassroots level, a ratio of $12 generated to every $1 donated by the
foundation. To accomplish this goal, IDE will employ its proven, creative
approach to manufacture, market, and distribute affordable, scalable
micro-irrigation systems through a newly-created private sector supply chain;
train farmers to use micro-irrigation; and link them to high-value crop markets,
using little more than their own existing resources.
“If we are serious about ending extreme hunger and poverty around the world, we must be serious about transforming agriculture for small farmers—most of whom are women” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “These investments—from improving the quality of seeds, to developing healthier soil, to creating new markets—will pay off not only in children fed and lives saved. They can have a dramatic impact on poverty reduction as families generate additional income and improve their lives.”
Speaking from London, IDE-UK’s Chief Executive, Neil Jeffrey remarked, “We are greatly honored that the work of IDE has been recognized by the Gates Foundation to represent one of the most powerful approaches that exist to permanent poverty alleviation for smallholder farmers. We very much look forward to collaborating with the Foundation over the coming years, and, with their generous support, to empowering millions of hardworking people around the world to earn their own way out of poverty.”
IDE designs and promotes products specifically for the needs of families that live on less than $1 a day. The organization has focused on developing and marketing affordable technologies that lift, distribute and store water, such as a treadle pump, allowing farmers to increase production and double their income. This market-based approach alleviates rural poverty by allowing farmers to progress from subsistence agriculture to commercial farming, beginning their upward progress out of poverty, and enabling them to spend more on education and health.
Following a growing trend by billionaire philanthropists to challenge traditional development models Gates’ donation supports the idea that only by treating the world’s poorest families as consumers and not as recipients of aid can a solution to world poverty be found. The Gates Foundation believes that with strong partnerships and a redoubled commitment to agricultural development by donor and developing country governments, philanthropy and the private sector, hundreds of millions of small farmers will be able to boost their yields and incomes and lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. This grant comes just one year after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded IDE a $13.4 million grant to develop and promote its innovative methods for the rural poor in Africa and Asia.
The IDE project in India aims to sell 160,000 foot powered water pumps (“treadle pumps”) and 90,000 drip irrigation systems. Major project activities will include technology development; development of manufacturing and retail supply chains, social marketing initiatives, and dissemination of technologies development and strategies developed more globally; and micro-credit.
December 2007
Honey and Pepper in Ethiopia
Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in the world, yet despite the images of famine that we may associate with the country, it is ecologically diverse and has the potential to produce desirable products for world markets. Many of these could even end up on the shelves of your local supermarket.
Agriculture accounts for almost 41 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of exports, and 80 percent of the labour force. Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including marketing, processing, and export of agricultural products. However, Ethiopians are not benefiting as much as they could from these processes.
IDE-UK has been introducing low cost irrigation for pepper producers and has been working with beekeepers in Ethiopia for some time. In April 2007, IDE-UK prepared two research papers, ‘Ensuring Small Scale Producers in Ethiopia to Achieve Sustainable and Fair Access to Honey Markets’ and also to Pepper Markets. Funded by Comic Relief, this research project aims to help small producers in Ethiopia achieve sustainable and fair access to these markets, thus improving their livelihoods.
The project, in conjunction with the Ethiopian Society for Appropriate Technology (ESAT) and SOS Sahel Ethiopia, used various research techniques, including economic analysis and interviews with stakeholders, to increase the understanding of the constraints and opportunities facing people in the honey and pepper sub-sectors.
Chili peppers are used in the daily diet of most Ethiopian societies and have good market potential. However, the research project noted that production and marketing activities are based on practices which are no longer appropriate for the modernising markets. IDE-UK and its partners aim to improve such methods so that small-scale farmers reap more benefits.
Similarly, the honey sub-sector is suffering from restrictive practices such as the inappropriate designs of beehives, which are unsuitable for use by women and people with limited mobility. The paper found that if methods were adapted, yields and quality would greatly increase, hopefully leading to other developments such as access to the EU market, from which they are currently denied.
Research was also undertaken in the UK pepper and honey markets
which helped understand what the producers must do in order to gain access.
IDE-UK, ESAT and SOS Sahel Ethiopia have now submitted their findings to
Comic Relief and are hoping to receive funding so that they can actually carry
out the projects which would be so valuable to Ethiopian producers.
Outcomes of the projects include economic and social benefits, market and product development, environmental benefits, and an influence on national policy. All of these benefits will ensure that Ethiopian producers are able to overcome poverty by overcoming unfair trade restrictions and having fair access when marketing their products.
July 2007
Cyclists pedal for IDE
Cyclists Brennan Dwyer and father-and son-team, John and Clive Gibbard, braved a mountain stage of the Tour de France, the toughest of all sporting events, to raise money for IDE.
John, (26 months from his 70th birthday) is already planning a
repeat ride next year!
Of the 7000 cyclists who started the course,
nearly half did not complete or were swept up by the Broom wagon.
Clive completed the 180km course in an impressive 9 hours 40 minutes and 51 seconds. He was very grateful for the tremendous level of support, which proved “a huge lift for me and a big part in making me keep going in what I found was a pretty brutal test of endurance.”
Together Clive, John and Brennan raised over £4000 for
IDE. Find out more about their rides by clicking here for Brennan (http://www.ide-uk.org/www.Justgiving.com/brenandwyer)
and here for Clive and John
( http://www.ide-uk.org/www.justgiving.com/clivegibbard).
A huge thanks to everyone who supported them.
Case Study Nepal
Laxmi Shahi and her family were forced to escape Nepal’s hilly regions and settle in the Southern flatlands of Terai. They were able to buy a small piece of land but all their money soon went on paying for treatment for their eldest daughter who has severe learning disabilities. When Laxmi’s husband also fell ill, she was left to support her family of five single handedly and with no experience or resources to cultivate the land.
Laxmi joined IDE’s local Women Enterprise income generating program. Laxmi was able to receive technical knowledge on chilli cultivation and was provided with a Rs10,000 ($140) microloan which enabled her to buy a treadle pump which has proved invaluable to her chilli raising. She was also put in touch with groups which could enhance her access to markets meaning she would be able to sell her chillis for a fair price and generate an income for her family.
After only one year with the program, Laxmi had increased her household income from Rs 3,000 ($42) to Rs 35,000 ($500). Additionally, she has gained a newfound respect from her initially sceptical husband. They now work as a team and he is proud of her entrepreneurial spirit.
Laxmi has also invested her income wisely and has bought more irrigation equipment and some goats. She is able to pay for her children’s education and healthcare, has paid off all her debts, and is now considered creditworthy.
‘I used to dread coming up with Rs 22 ($3) every month for the central savings fund as a member of the Chisapani Women Self Help Group. But after my harvest I could afford to contribute Rs 2,000 ($28) to the group’s fund as savings from my income’ – Laxmi Shahi.
IDE’s work with smallholders in Nepal means that they can earn an increased income through local markets and ensure a secure livelihood for them and their families. Laxmi Shahi and her family are just one example of the valuable work that IDE does in partnership with such entrepreneurial farmers, and she is testament to the success of these collaborations.
Gates Foundation Awards$13.4 Million to IDE International for work in Ethiopia , Zambia, Nepal and Myanmar
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded
International Development Enterprises (IDE) a $13.4 million grant to develop and
promote low-cost irrigation methods for rural poor in Africa and Asia and to
help create markets for the agricultural products they produce. more>
