International Development Enterprises (iDE)

Within international development, iDE has been considered the best kept secret for too long. The Elevate Prize could truly help iDE elevate our message about the power local entrepreneurs have to change their communities and catalyze investment to end global poverty. In order to accelerate our progress toward this goal, we need to attract unrestricted funding, like that offered through the Elevate Prize. With the support and mentorship of the prize, we can raise our profile with world class philanthropists who are ready to make game changing investments. As CEO, I feel I have a particular role to play in amplifying iDE’s mission and aligning with this audience around the story of why I do what I do and why I am passionate about iDE’s impact. I am excited about the potential for the Elevate Prize to help iDE increase our PR and media exposure, engage in collaborative partnerships, improve our ability to foster strong local leadership of our country programs, and improve our data-driven storytelling to capture the hearts of people who have the ability to invest in systemic change.

I believe it is possible to solve the world’s most challenging problems and that people are at the center of that change. I’ve strengthened this belief through more than two decades working to solve global poverty. From working with women’s cooperatives in Morocco in the Peace Corps, to raising the participation and income of female farmers across Morocco and Nigeria, to my current role at iDE, my goal has been the same: to unleash the potential of leaders at all levels to use market-based approaches that raise the incomes and livelihoods of people to overcome poverty at its roots. I spent 10 years with a large contractor doing the drop-in, drop-out cycle of five-year projects. In 2013, I jumped at the chance to join iDE, a highly innovative, decentralized non-profit dedicated to ending poverty through Human Centered Design and market-based solutions. I’ve dedicated myself to growing leaders across iDE’s staff, 96% of whom are from the countries where we work. I am committed to improving my own leadership and coaching abilities to support our teams directly, and as a representative of iDE to help our teams secure the resources we need to end poverty. 

Despite progress in recent years, poverty and resource constraints still affect billions of people globally, particularly related to food security and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Two billion people lack access to improved sanitation, and the 2.5 billion smallholder farmers who grow 80% of food are often resource poor and increasingly vulnerable to climate change and other shocks and stresses. The FAO 2020 State of Food and Agriculture states that 1.2 billion people live in agricultural areas experiencing very high levels of water stress or drought. Decades of conventional development have failed to solve these problems. The innovation iDE brings is our ability to create inclusive market ecosystems that grow and adapt to benefit the most vulnerable and hard to reach people, who are being left behind in the wake of global economic growth. Entrepreneurs around the world need many of the same things to succeed, like competitive business ideas, technology, knowledge, and access to the infrastructure and other market players that will enable them to turn their ideas and talents into solutions to end poverty. We power entrepreneurs in the smallholder agriculture and household WASH sectors with the things they need to develop businesses that benefit their customers’ lives. 

iDE’s approach has always been rooted in powering entrepreneurs to end poverty. Over the years, we’ve evolved from an early focus on commercializing agricultural technologies, then encompassing a broader range of resources and support farmers need to be successful, to taking on the challenge of markets for WASH when no one else did. Today, we are working to build the resilience and inclusivity of whole market systems and doubling down on our commitment to reach the most marginalized populations, integrating diversity, equity and inclusion both within the organization and in our programs. We take a holistic and context-specific approach to building markets in the places where we work through a model that we call Infinite. Through Infinite, we strive for a positive feedback loop by first understanding rural households’ needs, desires, constraints, and opportunities. Then we work with them to co-create products, services, and business models to support integration of rural entrepreneurs into the formal market. We build relationships between market actors to foster market system resilience, and we use adaptive management to learn from each cycle of this feedback loop to continuously improve. 

Because iDE measures KPIs across all of our programs, we have a clear, data-backed picture of our impact. To date, iDE has reached more than 35 million people with tools and resources to increase their incomes and improve their wellbeing. We currently achieve an average annual income increase of $265 and an average $13.40:1 benefit-cost ratio across our programs. In 2015, we embarked on our current organizational strategy to reach 20 million more people in a fraction of the time it took to reach the first 20 million, and we are closing in on that target. Our 20 Million More strategy was based on investing in key areas that, from years of experiences, we knew would accelerate our impact: 1. Start with People: We recruit the best talent to lead our programs. 2. Design to Context: We use Human Centered Design to co-create solutions with the people we serve. 3. Business Delivers: From coaching entrepreneurs to helping households with access to finance, we understand what it takes to make markets work for everyone. 4. Results Rule: We’ve invested in our management information system to gain a real-time understanding of what’s working and what isn’t to drive adaptive management. 

In the last 12 months, we have impacted 228,356 new households, which translates to 1,141,780 new individuals who benefited from iDE’s work.  

In the next 12 months, we are projecting to reach 295,995 new households, translating to 1,479,975 new people.

In addition to new households and individuals reached, iDE continues to provide services and technical assistance to households who were counted in prior years as new households. For example, we might support a household through the sale of an agricultural technology or improved latrine, in which the engagement is discrete and timebound, while in other instances, farming households might benefit from a longer-term engagement with a rural extension agent supported by iDE.

iDE measures the scale of our impact by the total households we work with in our agriculture and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs. The total number of individuals reached is calculated by multiplying households or “scale” by an average household size of five people. For scale, we include households that have purchased improved latrines or water filtration products, or which have acquired agricultural technology, inputs and/or services through program-connected enterprises.

iDE measures progress across our programs using three key performance indicators: Scale (the number of people we work with); impact (the average annual net household income increase achieved by households we work with); and cost effectiveness (the total household income generated per donor dollar invested). We have committed ourselves to reaching a global cost effectiveness ratio of at least 10:1, and currently, the ratio is 13.40:1. 

iDE impacted 20 million people in its first 32 years. In late 2015, we embarked on an ambitious effort to reach another 20 million in half that time. We are closing in on our 20 Million More goal, having impacted 35.5M people to date. We are striving to reach our goal by our 40th anniversary at the end of 2022/2023. 

The impact of iDE’s work is aligned with several SDGs, including: SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals), all of which contribute to our overall mission to end rural poverty, in alignment with SDG 1. For more, see iDE’s 2019 Annual Report (https://bit.ly/3wLc5NS).

While life in the US slowly returns to normal following the pandemic, the countries we work in are facing a challenging and uncertain path. Lockdowns and disruptions to our work continue even as the need to ensure food security and access to clean water and sanitation become even more critical. To achieve our 20 Million More goal, we need to maintain a pipeline of donor funds and increase the flexibility of our funding to respond to the changing circumstances and needs of the people we serve. While government donors have renegotiated existing work plans in response to COVID-19, the future of new funding from these donors has been less predictable. Funding from the Elevate Prize would contribute directly to iDE’s pool of flexible funding, enabling us to adapt to changing circumstances as we work with marginalized people to end global poverty. The mentorship and support that comes from the prize would help us to elevate our impact by expanding our donor base, engaging in partnerships that can improve our reach and impact, investing in local leadership within our country programs, and making sure we are collecting data and telling stories that share the good work we do. 

iDE is a best-kept secret in international development, but we’re working hard to raise greater awareness of our efforts. For years, our peers have told us how impressed they are with our work and surprised we aren’t better known. We don’t have the name recognition of larger NGOs, but we do have a dedicated following of core supporters who believe passionately in what we do. The only thing holding us back is the budget to make strategic investments in marketing and communications. We recently unveiled a new tagline, “Powering entrepreneurs to end poverty," which distills our work in one crystal-clear statement. We’re also developing a new multi-year operational strategy, which includes both country-level and organization-wide communications. While it’s a challenge to convince government donors to invest in non-programmatic work, the Elevate Prize is the perfect example of an initiative that recognizes the importance of visibility and is willing to make the necessary strategic investments. Because we are poised to accelerate our impact, it is important we expand our base of supporters, particularly those who can be swayed by third-party validation and endorsement. With your support, we are confident that we could be a great success story for the Elevate Prize. 

iDE is committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusivity in our leadership team, and we’ve  taken steps to make good on this commitment. One of our best strategies is developing and cultivating talent from within. Ninety-six percent of iDE’s 1,160 staff are nationals in the countries they work in. We focus on attracting smart, passionate people that we can groom into the next generation of leaders. Recent promotions demonstrate this, from our newest executive team member, VP for Asia, to our HQ-based Regional Finance Manager and recent leadership promotions in Ethiopia, Honduras, and Ghana, all of whom came from within iDE. 

In 2019, to further our efforts toward equity, iDE developed a more structured compensation philosophy in our headquarters with more detailed, discrete salary bands. We began publishing salary ranges for each position, reducing the potential for pay disparities based on gender, race and other factors. Our next step is to replicate this across each country. We’ve also been striving for more balanced gender representation, improving from 30% women and 70% men in 2019 to 37% women and 63% men in 2021. New board members joining in August will improve our D&I at the top of the organization.

My grandparents were farmers in Northern Iowa, and I grew up spending summers working there. In college, I made my first trip overseas, studying in Namibia and gaining experience living with both a rural family as well as an urban family. I saw the challenges and heard their aspirations for a better future firsthand. I have committed my life to eradicating global poverty through locally-grown solutions, bringing more than 20 years of experience across Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Central America.  

At iDE, placing our country teams and those they serve in the lead of designing solutions to end rural poverty has always been at the heart of iDE’s philosophy. 96% of iDE staff are nationals of the countries they work in. Six of our nine country directors/managers are from the global south, and the other three have decades of combined experience in the regions where we work. Although we are guided by a set of global principles and approaches, the implementation of our work is designed to local contexts. By embedding human-centered design into our programming, we’re able to diversify our expertise and incorporate the voices and innovative ideas of the people we serve, ensuring real, long-standing change.

When I took on the role of CEO in January 2019, the outgoing CEO recommended to the board that iDE focus fund development efforts on bilateral and multilateral donors, as our success raising unrestricted funds had historically delivered a low return on investment. I knew this wasn’t an option. A vulnerability to boom-and-bust cycles created by overreliance on large, time-bound grants and contracts wasn’t sustainable. I knew that iDE’s track record of meaningful impact meant we had the potential to build our base of unrestricted donors. We just needed to invest in the right fundraising talent to help chart and execute a winning strategy. It was not an easy case to make, to use general funds for fundraising that could otherwise be directed to restricted grantseeking or support our programs. But I was confident that by investing in the right strategy and people, we could see a return on investment both in the short term and for years to come, and I was right. We have roughly doubled our unrestricted donations year-over-year since 2018, enabling us to weather the complex challenges of COVID-19 and to launch an internal innovation fund in 2021 to grow our impact. 

In August 2020, I participated in the Women Leaders in Water for Food: Improving Lives and Ag Productivity webinar as part of the Daugherty Water for Food Conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2QYZY1Ewig), and I was interviewed by Naisargi (Naisi) Dave for the Daugherty Water for Food Podcast (https://dwffpodcast.libsyn.com/daugherty-water-for-food-podcast-episode-2).  

In May 2021, I participated in the USAID Marketlinks webinar, Advancing Inclusive, Sustainable, and Resilient Economic Growth as one of two implementers. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzZd3ld6NEU).  

In 2019, I participated in a panel discussion for The Chicago Council on Global Affairs titled “Shared Interest, Shared Responsibility: Building WASH and Agriculture Collaboration” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJV3rRwzo7U)

I have also spoken at local events and within professional networking groups.

Within international development, iDE has been the best kept secret for too long. The Elevate Prize could truly help iDE elevate our market-based approach: powering entrepreneurs to end poverty. To accelerate our progress toward this goal - and in particular, our 20 Million More goal by the end of 2022 - we need to attract unrestricted funding, like that offered by the Elevate Prize. With the support and mentorship of the prize, I believe we can raise our profile among world class philanthropists who are ready to make game-changing investments. As CEO, I feel I have an important role to play in amplifying iDE’s mission by talking about my personal passion for this organization and the incredible things we are able to do. I am excited about the potential the Elevate Prize could have to strengthen my leadership voice by helping us raise our profile and engage in collaborative partnerships, strengthen our ability to foster strong local leadership in our country programs, and improve our evidence-based storytelling potential to capture the hearts and minds of people who have the ability to invest in meaningful change. 

iDE recognizes we do some things very well, but fostering systemic change to end poverty at scale requires a diverse range of skills and talents. That’s why we partner with a wide array of organizations to improve the breadth and depth of our impact and drive systemic change in the sectors and locations we work in. We collaborate on grants and contracts with other international NGOs (such as Care & Save the Children, etc.), multinational corporations including Toro and Kohler, as well as national and local firms and entrepreneurs, government agencies, and other market actors. We have also collaborated on studies that demonstrate the impact of our work with research firms including IDInsight and Causal Design. And we work with a diverse range of research institutions and universities to drive innovation and improve the quality of our programming (including CIMMYT and Virginia Tech University). For many years, we have worked with Whitten & Roy Partnership, a world-renowned sales consulting firm, to train and coach iDE staff and entrepreneurs we support on sales coaching and management strategy.