Project Interview: iDE
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By thecitizensmedia and members on Jul 25 2012, last modified on Jul 25 2012.

About The Project: Connecting $2 a day farmers locally and globally

Working directly with their clients, iDE uses philanthropic funds in designing tools and methodologies that create income and livelihood opportunities so the world’s rural poor the means to help themselves.

Having already empowered more than 20 million people through solutions which helped them expand their businesses and in so doing transform their lives, by working with CM in designing and implementing a collaborative communication platform that connects their projects and the communities they serve, iDE seeks to do so much more. Learn More

Interview with Andrew Vermouth (iDE Marketing Director)

Why is this project important to you?

What makes iDE’s approach so effective?

From iDE’s perspective, why will this project work?

Is anyone doing something like this now and how is this project different?

What will be the critical success factors?

Why are you choosing to work with CM?

Who would you like to see investing in this project?

Q: Why is this project important to you?

1) Open sharing of local knowledge critical to livelihoods

This project directly supports the development and implementation of sustainable agriculture practices. Centered around the provision of mobile-enabled tools and initiatives that facilitate the development of small scale agricultural enterprise, by enabling the world's rural poor to share experiences and gain access to knowledge, resource and information, tools and methodologies created through this project will help them to realize opportunities for pulling themselves out of poverty and moving forward with the sense of identity and pride.

2) To build our organizational intelligence by developing crowdsourced data analysis tools

In serving our clients needs, we need access to timely, reliable, and relevant information that drives (i) Innovation: tools to help us design products and services that respond to needs in particular markets, and; (ii) Quality: tools that help us track our process and impact, which pushes us to achieve better results.

Through this project, we hope to use observation of real-time conversations for introducing crowdsourced data analysis tools that complement existing, more scientifically-oriented methods for evaluating usefulness of iDE tools and better understanding what needs to be done.

3) To generate awareness and support and get more people designing for the world's rural poor.

Developing scalable, locally based tools and strategies for enhancing food security and water resource management, although during the 30 years of its existence, iDE staff throughout the world have helped more than 20 million people lift themselves out of poverty, there’re more than 800 million $1 a day farmers in need of solutions for helping themselves.

By giving the connected world the ability to directly communicate with the world’s rural poor, this project seeks to engage more people in designing effective tools for the 3 billion marketplace of the underserved world.

Q: What makes iDE’s approach so effective?

Our change strategy driven by stakeholder engagement,we understand that local, efficient supply chains lead to economic stimulus where it’s needed most, and that the final product will be more affordable if it's manufactured by local suppliers.

We Treat Smallholder Farmers as Customers: It's a respect issue. Rather than deciding for them what they need, we allow our customers to decide whether our offerings have value for them or not.
We Listen: Only when we listen to the men and women we work with do we discover what they need in order to increase their incomes.
Sustainability is Key: Giveaways are harmful to local markets and cannot be sustained in the long term. iDE's approach strengthens small farmers' ability to be profitable participants in the local markets that supply their needs and buy their produce.
Income is a Basic Human Need: iDE is a social enterprise dedicated to ending poverty in the developing world not through handouts, but by helping farm families access the tools and knowledge they need to increase their income.

Q: From iDE’s perspective, why will this project work?

This project builds upon an existing iDE Zambia ICT project, which enables field agents to use mobile phones for monitoring and evaluation, and a partner SANGONeT project for collating information on market prices in Southern Africa. The greatest precursor by far as to why this initiative will work is because it is anchored to reality in the field.

On Increasing Donor Support...

This project will increase our funding potential because:

1) By offering a transparent network of open communication that directly connects our clients with their existing and potential supporters alike, it’ll help people to understand the work we do and the extraordinary returns on their investments;

2) By inviting tourists to visit local businesses and pledge support on network participants, it’ll offer a direct way for destination travellers to have a direct impact from within the communities themselves.

On Effective Data Analysis Tools...

Analytical tools developed through this project will involve data measurement involving direct response from farmers.

Although there’s a lot going on in the realm of randomized control trials in assessing usefulness of tools, methods used are too scientific. We believe crowdsourced data methodologies are a better way to make accurate ‘real-time’ assessments, and could be used to greatly complement more traditional methods.

Q: Is anyone doing something like this now and how is this project different?

Existing initiatives connect farmers with things like market and weather information, but there are very few projects focused on initiating communication from within the communities themselves. Integrating and adapting existing tools with the capabilities enabled through CM into a central, scalable hub, iDE’s network will not only give farmers access to external information for helping them get ahead, but with a direct means communicate locally, regionally and globally too.

Q: What will be the critical success factors?

Ability to acquire ‘real’ data identifying real needs that support and provide the direction for the development of locally relevant tools to address on-the-ground realities for rural poor.

Q: Why are you choosing to work with CM?

CMs ability to connect multiple projects and then scale these projects across communities plays a key role, as does their transparent business model and the fact that profits generated in community projects are re-invested into the communities.

However the biggest reason why we believe this project will succeed is because it’s anchored to reality in the field. It’s the fact that CM builds technology based on needs identified from within the communities themselves that ultimately makes this important to us and the people we serve.

Q: Who would you like to see investing in this project?

More than just donors, we’re seeking change-making ambassadors who want an active role in supporting our entrepreneurial approach for impacting long-term change.