Listen here for Lewis Temple’s views on the drought in East Africa and how small farms provide the key long term solution to hunger and food insecurity:  Interview on BBC World Service 6th July 2011

Bob Nanes – Ghana Country Director

Politicians gathered at an IDE UK event at the Houses of Parliament on the 30th March to learn more about IDE’s work in Ghana from IDE Ghana Country Director Bob Nanes. 

The event was hosted by Sam Gyimah MP and member of the International Development Select Committee and other attendees included Stephen O’Brien MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, Malcolm Bruce MP, Chair of the International Development Select Committee and the co-chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development, Lord Cameron and Tony Baldry MP. 

Bob Nanes is IDE’s longest serving field directors having previously established IDE country programmes in India and Nepal over the last 20 years.  

 Bob briefed the group on IDE’s newly established programme in Ghana that is working in the northern part of the country to establish sustainable supply chains of irrigation technologies for poor smallholder farmers. 

The programme is making rapid progress and IDE has recently branched out into neighbouring Bukino Faso.  To learn more about IDE’s work in this fabulous country see http://ideghana.org/

IDE-UK Trustee, David Rigby has shown his support and generosity by asking family and friends to donate to IDE-UK for his 70^th Birthday. £4,400 has been raised so far.

David retired a year ago and since has become heavily involved with IDE-UK as a Trustee. He and his wife Kath Rigby travelled to Ethiopia in November 2010 where they visited the IDE-UK agricultural and honey-producing projects. Upon returning from the trip David said ‘We now have much deeper insights into the nature of extreme poverty, and what might be done about it, and my enthusiasm is redoubled.’

This fantastic fundraising effort has been a great start to the year for IDE-UK and is all thanks to David, his family and friends.

To visit David’s fundraising page and make a donation please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/David-Rigby0 Read the rest of this entry »

The BBC Reports on IDE Cambodia success of 10,000 Easy Latrine sales:

 IDE Cambodia has had an impressive result selling 10,000 ‘Easy Latrines’ in one year. The BBC picked up on IDE’s success and travelled out to Cambodia to film a report as well as writing a supporting article on the project.

Watch the film

Read the article

The Easy Latrine Project: 

In only a little over a year, the Sanitation Marketing Project of International Development Enterprises (IDE) in Cambodia has reached a landmark of 10,000 latrines sold. This marks more latrines sold in the project areas in the past year than in the last four years combined, a tremendous step forward in public health for a country where only 18% of the rural population has access to a toilet.

A common local latrine, which could run up to $150, was well beyond the means of the average rural Cambodian, whose average annual income is a mere $135. With help from IDEO designer Jeff Chapin, IDE redesigned the latrine to make it more user-friendly-easy to buy, easy to build, and easy to use. The resulting Easy Latrine costs only about $35 and can be assembled by the families themselves in a day.

 Previously an unsexy product, the rapid growth in demand is now being met by local entrepreneurs in the latrine supply chain who have been trained by IDE in efficient production methods, business skills, and proactive methods for generating sales. There are now 22 Easy Latrine producers, who have inspired ambitious competitors to also join in the booming latrine market.

Not only has the Sanitation Marketing Project made tremendous strides in improving rural sanitation in Cambodia, it has done so by leveraging the market and improving the livelihoods of local entrepreneurs. The programme has been recognised internationally for its success, winning the International Design Excellence Award and recently being inducted to the World Toilet Organisation’s Hall of Fame.

In November 2010, Andrew Marr, British political commentator and journalist supported IDE-UK in a special BBC Radio 4 Appeal. The appeal had a fantastic response from the British public raising an impressive £26,000!

IDE-UK was chosen for a similar appeal back in 2007 which was also supported by Andrew Marr, the previous appeal helped raise £30,000 which made a considerable difference to IDE-UK’s work.

IDE Cambodia was awarded the first Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value for its Farm Business Advisors programme at an awards ceremony in London on 27th May.

Since its inception in 2005, the Farm Business Advisors programme has enabled 60 rural Cambodian entrepreneurs to start small farm advisory businesses, which in turn have helped 4,500 small-scale farm households increase their net income by 27 percent or £103.

Photo Credit Nestle - Sam Faulkner

The prize of 500,000 Swiss Francs (about £300,000) will improve the project by recruiting and training an additional 36 advisors, generating approximately £1.25 million in new income to positively impact 20,000 people in more than 4,000 rural households across Cambodia.

Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who presented the award to the IDE, said: “We congratulate IDE Cambodia on being the first to be awarded the Prize. The work they do is inspirational. The support and training from IDE ensures that all involved work together to create sustainable farming enterprises.”

Accepting the award, IDE Cambodia Country Director Michael Roberts said, “It is an honour to receive this recognition from Nestlé. The prize will help us further IDE’s mission to create income opportunities for poor rural households. We hope to leverage the Prize to reach more than 75,000 rural Cambodian households in the next few years. On a global scale this is still very small but we think there are big implications in what we are learning.”

Michael Roberts accepts prize from Nestle Chairman

The Creating Shared Value Prize – which received 549 applications from 79 countries – was awarded during Nestlé’s Creating Shared Value Forum, an international gathering of leading experts in water, nutrition, rural development, and the role of business in society which took place in London on 27 May.

Watch the forum and prize ceremony

The Prize was created to provide financial support of up to 500,000 Swiss Francs to individuals, NGOs, or small enterprises who offer innovative solutions to nutritional deficiencies, access to clean water, or progress in rural development. The prize money will be disbursed over a three-year period to assist in the scaling-up of the project.

Learn more about IDE’s Farm Business Advisor Programme.

IDE-UK has received a € 1.56 million grant from the European Union to implement the Rural Agricultural Productivity Improvement and Development (RAPID) programme in Ethiopia.  RAPID will form part of the EU supported efforts under their ‘Food Facility’ initiative to help the rural population in Ethiopia cope with the rampant food price inflation in Ethiopia since 2008.

The programme  aims at increasing the productivity of food and cash crops and expanding the range of agricultural activities to increase the incomes of 6,600 farmers living in six districts in Oromiya and Southern regions; namely Arsi Negelle, Dugda, Adami Tulu, Kacha Bira, Lanfuro and Shashogo.

As a result of this project poor smallholders farmers will be able to overcome major production barriers, in particular lack of access to essential agricultural inputs and technologies, which is currently undermining their productivity and income.

This is a very exciting opportunity for IDE to help create the conditions which will enable many thousands of poor farmers to increase production of crops for consumption and the market. This is also the first time that the European Union, the world’s biggest donor to developing countries, has invested in IDE and our unique work with small farmers.

We have moved offices to a new location in North West London. Just two minutes walk from Golders Green tube station we hope it will be easy for everyone to visit. Please do drop in anytime and see us – we would love to see you. Our new office can be found at 8A Accommodation Road, London, NW11 8ED or phone 0208 905 5597.

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.

Photo courtesy Metro.co.uk

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’.

Today all over the developing world, poor farmers are engaged in a daily struggle with the land, the elements and unfair market forces. Your support and our expertise is exactly what they need to help tilt the odds in their favour. Respond to our Spring Appeal 2009 and see how your small contribution can make a big difference.

Will you help Zambian farmers work their way out of poverty?

“When your only method of transporting water is by bucket, it is hard to produce a good quantity of healthy crops.”

It seems like such an obvious statement, doesn’t it? But, this is the harsh reality faced by many poor farmers across Zambia and other African countries. In a country regularly affected by famine, the ability to irrigate land efficiently can mean the difference between poverty and successful yields of high value crops.

The solution lies in a simple and relatively inexpensive device … the treadle pump.

A treadle pump is a human-powered device designed to lift water from a depth of up to seven metres. And although a treadle pump can do most of the work of a motorised pump, it uses no fossil fuel and costs up to 75 per cent less to purchase – great for the environment and for the farmer. Yet, despite its simplicity, the humble treadle pump is changing lives across Zambia and other poor countries in which IDE are working. It costs IDE just £20 to support each farmer to dramatically improve yields through introducing new low cost pump and irrigation equipment they can afford to buy for themselves, and helping them reach new markets for their produce.

Will you give £20 today and help us improve the lives of many more people across the developing world?

Before learning about IDE, Peter Chakanyuka and his family farmed a ½ hectare plot of land. Dependent upon rain for irrigation, his family could grow only small quantities of maize and peanuts. The treadle pump changed the way the family farmed and with it their lives. Thanks to the pump, Peter and his family are now irrigating two hectares of land in a single season and cultivating high value crops such as tomato, pumpkin, onion and sweet corn. The family is healthier because of the variety of produce and, because IDE has linked Peter to supermarkets and vegetable exporters, he is able to sell surplus crops to increase the family’s standard of living.

Recently, the family’s cattle were wiped out by an outbreak of disease. In the past, this would have been a devastating blow that would have plunged the family into poverty. But thanks to the treadle pump, and support from IDE, the family have been able to continue diversifying their crops, enabling them to thrive in the face of adversity. The Chakanyuka family is just one success story that IDE is proud to have been a part of in the past year. But there are so many more families across the developing world in urgent need of our help.

Will you reach out with us and give more poor people the chance of a better life?

Our experience tells us that the best way of combating poverty is in offering long-term support in finding ways to increase the income of poor farmers. As well as water management, we work to establish supply chains, develop markets in which farmers can sell their produce and help them to choose high value crops to cultivate and sell. It really doesn’t cost a great deal of money to change the lives of people like Peter Chakanyuka and his family. All it takes is a little ingenuity, their hard work and a helping hand.

Please, extend your hand today and help us reach out to more families across the developing world. Together, we really can change lives.

Best wishes,

Lewis Temple
Chief Executive

P.S. I can’t stress enough how important your gift is to people like Peter and his family. Today, all over the developing world, poor farmers are engaged in a daily struggle with the land, the elements and unfair market forces. Your support and our expertise is exactly what they need to help tilt the odds in their favour. Thank you.