About us

While most designers focus their efforts on developing products for the richest 5% of the world’s customers we design and develop low-cost products, such as irrigation technologies, for poor farmers living on less than 60p a day. We make links with local manufacturers and dealers who make and sell these products to farmers at an affordable price which they can repay in one growing season.

These products help poor farming families to dramatically improve their productivity and move from living hand to mouth to selling surplus produce at local and regional markets for a good price.

The impact of our work is felt quickly. A more secure income leads to better nutrition and improved health. It also means that poor farmers can start to invest in their family’s future by sending their children to school, often for the first time.

Our donors

We would like to thank the following organisations who have supported us in different ways:




The European Union	Open Gate	Neil Stewart & Associates
	The Ashworth Charitable Trust	The Bonus Trust
The Bower Trust	The Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust	Christadelphian Samaritan Fund
Cobb Charity	Edward Vinson Charitable Trust	The Oliver Stanley Charitable Trust
The Rowan Charitable Trust	The Souter Charitable Trust	The Taylour Foundation
The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust	Empire Design	CIPR
The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts	Fenella Hughes Catering	Getty Images
The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust	The Sun Inn, Barnes	Barnes Community Association
The St Mary's Charity	UBS Wealth Management	Comic Relief
DFID

Staff

Lewis Temple, Chief Executive
With an academic background in Social Anthropology, Lewis has spent over 10 years managing international development programmes for charities including EveryChild, GOAL and HelpAge International. He has lived and worked in a number of countries in South and Central Asia, Eastern Europe and spent three years based in Ethiopia. Prior to joining IDE-UK Lewis spent a year focusing on the UK charity sector whilst director of the online charity information service GuideStar UK. He currently serves as a trustee of the international charity HOPE for Children.

Contact Lewis / read his blog

Trustees

Andrew Hunt, Chair
After attending both Oxford and Princeton universities, Andrew spent nearly 20 years at Bankers Trust Company, and has wide experience of international banking in government, financial services and corporate sectors. In 1990 he founded IFG Capital Limited, a corporate financial services company, which provides a range of services both in the UK and internationally, including raising and acting as Loan Adviser to a UK mezzanine fund, and consulting on fundraising and strategy to a range of commercial and financial service companies. Its particular focus has been on UK small and medium sized (SME) privately owned companies, sourcing equity from venture capital, private equity and high net worth investors. Andrew is also a founder director in IFG Development Initiatives Limited, an economic development consulting company which provides services to governments, multinational agencies, and the corporate and financial sectors in emerging markets. Many of its projects have been funded by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Michael Dent , 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.

Shoa Asfaha, Trustee
Dr. Shoa Asfaha is a socio-economist and freelance consultant working with a number of non governmental organisations, donors and companies on development issues. She is originally from Eritrea and has wide experience in Africa for nearly 20 years, including working for CARE International. Shoa has been Vice Chair of the African Foundation for Development and a member of the Programme Committee of CARE International UK, and currently serves as an Advisor for Comic Relief on Women and Girls Programme.

Karen Debax-Latour, Trustee
Karen is currently head of eService at BT Business and has a wealth of experience running large complex programmes in the corporate environment. Karen previously worked as a sales manager at Vodafone and ran BT’s sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Bid programme. Karen has an MBA from Warwick University. Karen brings access to technical expertise to IDE UK as well as knowledge of brand, sponsorship, marketing, finance and CSR.

Jenny Rohde, Trustee
Jenny Rohde is a business leader working in the water and environmental sectors. She brings business acumen, marketing, management and financial skills, and an interest in developing IDE-UK's brand and building links with business. Jenny is currently studying for an MBA at Warwick University .

Roger Keyes, IDE-UK Treasurer and Acting Secretary
Roger is a qualified Chartered Accountant who has worked in financial management in both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. He worked with different companies in Zambia and Tanzania before joining ActionAid in the Gambia . He is currently Financial Controller of a Rolls Royce subsidiary company.

Special Advisors

Andrew Barnett
Andrew is an economist with over 30 years of experience of development. He is well-known for his work on energy, research and technology policy in developing countries. He has experience of international development assistance as a government economist, commercial consultant, research manager, and policy researcher. He provides consultancy advice to a number of development agencies including the UK's Department for International Development

Rachel Berger
Rachel works for Practical Action managing programmes in natural resources and climate change. She is a Trustee of Quaker Bolivia Link, a small US-UK Bolivian NGO, supporting Aymara communities on the Andean plateau in small-scale projects.

Malcolm Hewitt
Malcolm is a business speaker and consultant whose experience covers banking to retail to FMCG and transport and tourism where he operated at Managing Director level across Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and Africa. He has recently retired as Managing Director of Sub Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean for Barclays.

Ray Holland
Ray is an engineer who now works for GTZ in Germany . Ray previously worked for ITC (Practical Action) where he established programmes in Peru , Sri Lanka and Nepal . He was awarded the Engineering Council Environment Award for engineers in 2001.

Professor Michael Lipton
Michael is Research Professor and Director of the Poverty Research Unit at the University of Sussex . He has been a Fellow at institutions including the Institute of Development Studies , University of Sussex and All Souls College , Oxford . He also served as a Programmes Director at the International Food Policy Research Institute and Senior Policy Adviser at the World Bank. Michael has received awards including the Jenkyns Prize and the George Webb Medley Prize in Economics.

Chris Underhill , MBE
Chris is the Founding Director of Basic Needs, a specialist development agency focused on the needs of people with mental illness. He was previously Chief Executive of ITG (Practical Action) and has founded two other successful charities: Thrive and Action on Disability and Development. Chris was awarded an MBE for his work with disabled people. He was Founding Chair of IDE-UK.

Colin Williams, OBE
Colin is an economist, who worked with the British Government in Tanzania and Zambia before joining ActionAid in 1981. He was Country Director in Somalia , Uganda and Malawi before becoming Africa Director in 1995 managing a programme covering 19 countries. Colin worked for IDE from 2003 - 2006 as the Africa Regional Director, based in Harare. Colin was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his services to poverty in Africa .

Paul Winner
Paul Winner's career has spanned politics and public affairs, reputation management , community and charitable involvement. He has stood for Parliament 4 times, been a magisgtrate for over 25 years, built the 10th largest independent UK PR company and advised UK and international organisations on their public relations strategies. As an artist he has used his talents to raise funds for many charities as well as serving on their advisory Boards or as a Trustee. Truly a Renaissance Man!

Our Accounts

Click here to download IDE-UK's Accounts.