Press Release: iDE Cambodia 30th Anniversary: Celebrating 30 Years of Innovation and Impact - 19 December 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ms. Tet Chann (email: tchann@ideglobal.org)
Phnom Penh, 19 December 2024 – Today, iDE, a global nonprofit organization, marks 30 years of operations in Cambodia. Since 1994, iDE Cambodia has made a significant impact on the wellbeing and prosperity of approximately 6 million people through innovation, support for entrepreneurs, and market-based interventions.
As it marks three decades of impact in Cambodia, iDE looks forward to lifting millions of people out of poverty in the next decade. Key focus will be on advancing safe, nutritious, and resilient food systems, tackling critical barriers to achieving universal access to clean water and safely managed sanitation, and developing an inclusive market for rural solid waste management. iDE Cambodia is committed to achieving these goals by empowering more women to take the lead in addressing these pressing challenges in line with its newly launched 10-year strategy, which aims to power 1 million women entrepreneurs to impact 100 million lives across all of iDE’s 12 country programs.
To date, iDE Cambodia has supported over 450 rural entrepreneurs, including women, men, and family-run businesses across its agriculture and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs. Under iDE’s SHE program, integrated last year, we have supported more than 1,500 women entrepreneurs across Cambodia by offering gender-smart and culturally-tailored business support.
“With 30 years of learning behind us, we’ve seen that powering local entrepreneurs—especially women and family-run businesses—is the fastest way to move households from poverty to prosperity. Because when women succeed, they create a multiplier effect: children receive better education, families access quality healthcare, and more jobs are created,” said Kevin Robbins, Country Director of iDE Cambodia
Innovation and Impact Worth Celebrating
By innovating and introducing novel farming technologies, improving market access, and promoting adoption of climate-smart techniques, iDE Cambodia has supported more than 20,000 farming households. From treadle pumps and water-saving drip irrigation technologies to crop insurance and regenerative agriculture pilots, iDE has driven innovations that help transform farming in Cambodia. Our current climate and resilience focused agricultural program has helped over 6,000 smallholder farmers increase their annual profit by an average of roughly $2,800.
Starting in 2002, iDE introduced a ceramic water filter technology that could be manufactured locally and could remove 99.99% of water-bourne bacteria. The filter project was eventually spun off in 2010 as Hydrologic Social Enterprise Ltd. producing the Super Tunsai water filter. With over 500,000 Super Tunsai water filters distributed, millions of Cambodians—especially women and children—now have access to safe drinking water through the iDE-established social enterprise, which continues to operate profitably without relying on donor funding.
In 2009, iDE Cambodia launched its market-based sanitation program to address the urgent need for improved sanitation. At that time, only about 20% of rural households had access to a sanitary latrine at their home. Through innovative products like the Easy Latrine and Sky Latrine and effective promotion approaches that encouraged households to invest their own resources to purchase a latrine, iDE facilitated one in five of all rural Cambodian households to access affordable and climate-resilient sanitation. Today, rural sanitation coverage has increased to roughly 90%. iDE has supported over 2,000 villages to achieve open defecation-free (ODF) status. By combining innovative product design, demand generation, powering local sanitation businesses, and strong partnerships with national and local governments, as well as other sanitation implementers, iDE’s work in Cambodia has become a global model for good practice in building sanitation markets.
For three decades, iDE Cambodia has led the way in developing innovative, affordable, and scalable solutions that have transformed the lives of rural Cambodians. These achievements have been made possible through strong partnerships with the private sector, government agencies, and development partners, with generous support from our donors.
Kevin Robbins emphasized: “While we celebrate a history of inspiring progress, we are mindful that our mission to move people out of poverty and safeguard our environment is far from complete. Challenges abound, yet the future is bright and full of possibility! Our team is inspired by our past and excited to continue joining hands with like-minded partners so that together we can power entrepreneurs to end poverty. Looking forward, we are committed to the people of Cambodia and their dreams to prosper and thrive.”
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Tet Chann, Communications Specialist, iDE Cambodia
Email:tchann@ideglobal.org
Phone: 011 276 775
About iDE
iDE's mission is to end global poverty, and we believe catalyzing the power of local markets is the best way to do this. We work with local entrepreneurs, with a focus on women, who connect underserved, last-mile markets with products and services that enable people to move up the economic ladder, and that contribute to their wellbeing. Rather than providing cookie-cutter “solutions” that only last for the short term, iDE spends the time required to really understand problems and to co-develop lasting solutions adapted to each context. We work in the sectors of agriculture, WASH, nutrition and climate change resilience across 12 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and we have impacted more than 40 million people to date.