Congratulations Ide

We are excited at the news that our partners at International Development Enterprises have just been named the first ever winners of the Nestle prize in Creating Shared Value for work they are doing with small scale farmers in Cambodia.By taking an innovative and market based approach to agricultural sustainability IDE has demonstrated that the world's poor can be understood as a strategic and largely untapped market for appropriate technologies and products. This means that the old saying about giving a hand up instead of a hand up is being proven effective as a long term approach. To understand these ideas more completely I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Paul Polak's book, Out Of Poverty. (You can also see a very brief explanation on the IDE website).In 2009 I had the privilege of accompanying IDE-Canada president Stu taylor on a trip to Nicaragua to tour a pilot project using their drip irrigation technology to assist small scale coffee growers. 

I was already convinced that IDE was doing excellent work and operating from a philosophy that is more dignified, strategic, and sustainable than much of what is done in international development. What surprised me was the evaluative rigour that is applied to measuring their outcomes. Every organization can tell me some great impact stories, IDE can also provide extensive and reliable data to justify their work.(One of our hopes as Catalyst emphasizes synergy among our partners is that others can learn from IDE how to effectively identify the real results of their efforts).Congratulations IDE! It is our privilege to be part of your team.p.s. Last weekend we installed an IDE drip system in our vegetable garden too.