1. iDE is an international non-profit organization dedicated to empowering poor rural households to develop
their land, create new business and establish market-based economies. Its programs depart from the
traditional aid model of international development, working with local communities to discover, develop
and produce technologies and find smarter solutions to the problems they face. Together, we cultivate
communities through improved access to water for health and agriculture. Our productive water solutions
create and increase both food production and incomes. And with innovative drinking water and sanitation
technologies, we give rural households the basis for healthier and more dignified livelihoods.
iDE currently operates country programs in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam, Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and Honduras with affiliate organizations
in India and Myanmar. The organization employs 380 total staff worldwide and had an annual operating
budget of $29.5 million in 2010. iDE affiliates are registered as non-profit organizations in the United
States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Since its founding in 1982, iDE has primarily focused its efforts on helping small plot farmers increase
their agriculture productivity. Nearly three-quarters of the people living in extreme poverty earn their living
from small farms. Productive water is often our strategic entry point as having access to water for
irrigation allows farmers to better weather the erratic rains in the normal growing season, produce higher
yields and continue growing during the dry season when production is normally impossible. This ability to
cultivate year-round triples a farmer’s earning potential. iDE has sold more than 2.5 million water lifting,
storage and application technologies to date. Additionally, iDE uses a value chain development approach
we call PRISM (Prosperity Realized through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets) that identifies market
opportunities and facilitates small enterprises in providing affordable products and services that will help
small plot farmers to resolve critical constraints and take advantage of key opportunities to increase their
incomes.
To create these opportunities, iDE focuses on innovation in products, services, business models and
delivery approaches that can be distributed through the marketplace in order to deliver dramatic income
increases and livelihood impacts. iDE harnesses the power of the market to lead a sustainable approach
to development efforts. We require that products be purchased by our clients to eliminate the market-
distorting effects of subsidies and giveaways. With the help of grant funding, iDE carries out research and
development for new products, implements rural marketing campaigns to stimulate demand, trains
farmers to improve horticulture and business practices, and establishes linkages with high-value markets
in rural areas.
Throughout its nearly 30 year history, iDE has carried out nearly 300 projects in more than 20 countries
and worked with numerous funding agencies, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID,
the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UK
Department for International Development (DFID), OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID),
European Commission (EC), Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), New
Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), Irish Aid, the World Bank, Nestlé, the Asian
Development Bank (ADB).
iDE is committed to transparency and accountability in all projects we participate in. The organization
measures its success in terms of the average income gain per household (impact), the number of farmers
we reach (scale) and the total additional farmer income generated per dollar spent across IDE (cost
effectiveness). For every $1 invested in our projects, iDE customers generate approximately $10 in
additional household income, a cost effectiveness ratio of 10:1.