iDE’s impact strategy: Harnessing the power of women to boost prosperity and economic growth

Salima Lungu Nosiku remembers what life used to be like, waking up in the middle of the night, wondering how she’d pay rent for her store. The Zambian mother of two made a living selling agricultural supplies but her store was too small, and sales were slow. 

Then, in 2017, she was recruited by iDE to become a Farm Business Advisor (FBA) – a businessperson who works with small scale farmers, training them on how to boost their yields and livelihoods. With the support of her husband, she opened two additional stores, where she employed female workers, and increased her clientele from roughly 1,000 to 5,000 farmers. “Working with women has made me realize how important it is to empower them,” says Salima. “If you empower a woman, you are not only empowering one person but the entire community.” 

As a small-scale woman entrepreneur, Salima represents what many believe is one of the most effective and equitable ways to combat poverty. A largebody of academic evidence reveals that micro and small enterprises run by women are key drivers of prosperity within low and middle-income communities.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, projects that contribute to women’s empowerment by focusing on social and financial barriers (such as sensitization activities with partners to allow for equal decision making power over income and/or resources) are also significantly more effective in increasing household incomes, dietary diversity, food security and resilience than projects that do not address women’s empowerment. In particular, results show that the number of people that see appreciable gains in their incomes increases by 5 percentage points and the number of people that see significant gains in resilience increases by 20 percentage points.

Poverty is a gendered issue 

While her success is remarkable, Salima's humble beginnings are no surprise. It is well established that women and girls experience poverty in greater numbers than men and boys. This outsized impact of poverty on women presents itself in many forms, with women worse off when it comes to access to credit, land ownership, the impacts of climate change, and workforce participation.

For example, in the labor economy, women are underrepresented. The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Gender Gap report says women have re-entered the labor force at higher rates than men globally since the pandemic, but that the gap between men and women in the workforce remains wide overall. The lowest levels of parity in participation are in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Asia. 

But rather than seeing women as victims, a growing movement within the international development sector recognizes them as the key to change. Canada, for example, has a “feminist international assistance policy” that supports targeted investments, partnerships, innovation and advocacy efforts to close the gender gap. 

When you power women economically, you build prosperity for all

Based on the evidence, and more than 40 years of implementation work, iDE is dramatically scaling up its work with small businesswomen and their clients. That’s why our 10-year strategy, which we began implementing on January 1, 2024, focuses on powering women entrepreneurs to end poverty.

Under the strategy:

iDE will power 1 million women entrepreneurs to foster prosperity in their communities for 100 million people

As iDE continues to deploy its business approach, so far impacting more than 42 million people worldwide, our aim is to ensure inclusive participation in markets, especially for women. That’s because evidence shows that when you power women economically, you power communities and build prosperity for all.

With more than four decades of experience, and a legacy of building value chains that reach into last-mile and peri-urban areas, we believe incubating and enabling women-led businesses will significantly accelerate human progress and deliver economic benefits for underserved communities.

Moreover, a key driver of prosperity is when a husband and wife share power in the home and business. World Bank research found that household nutrition and education levels most improved when husbands and wives share household power (as measured by decision-making power) equally, concluding that greater household prosperity in the nutrition and education sectors is achieved when entrepreneurial initiatives empower both the men and women.

How we’ll implement the 10-year strategy

iDE BUILDS RESILIENT MARKET ECOSYSTEMS WHERE COMMUNITIES CAN THRIVE

Our strength has always been designing and implementing programs that promote the resilience of local market ecosystems. For entrepreneurs to thrive we build pathways enabling them to achieve financial literacy, readiness to access capital and scale their businesses. With our new strategy, iDE will begin developing new partnerships to reach more women in different sectors and recruit them as iDE-powered entrepreneurs.

iDE BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS FOR WOMEN AND UNLOCKS OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL ENTREPRENEURS 

To begin breaking down barriers and promote gender equity, we will pilot programming focused on engaging women entrepreneurs, expand our scope by engaging women in different communities and ethnic groups, and create new opportunities for women entrepreneurs in new sectors.

iDE CREATES A SAFE AND NURTURING ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL TO PRACTICE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

We will work with strategic partners to transform local market ecosystems, promoting both male and female entrepreneurs, integrating the latest social and behavior change approaches to shift perceptions and destigmatize work for women in certain sectors. As a thought leader, we are also creating operational and safeguarding standards that support the principle of “Do No Harm” and promote equity.  

How iDE is already supporting women entrepreneurs

In combating the status quo, iDE has taken time to think critically about what we do best as an organization, bringing in experts, building capacity and forming partnerships where needed. We are implementing the strategy in all 12 countries where we presently have programming across Africa, Asia and Latin America, within the sectors of agriculture, nutrition, climate resilience and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene).

Currently, we are working to identify the most effective entrepreneur paths and developing user journeys, mapping the barriers that women face and creating action plans to systematically remove these barriers and power them towards prosperity. This comprehensive approach ensures we are doing no harm, as we help build resilient market ecosystems for communities to thrive.

For example, in rural Cambodia iDE is implementing its SHE programming and curriculum, designing and delivering gender-focused, culturally-tailored business incubator and accelerator programs which provide knowledge, skills and tools for women entrepreneurs. The six-month training regime teaches women micro business owners everything from value propositions to product marketing.

In Nepal, iDE is partnering with childcare centers, not only to promote early education, but also to provide mothers, who would otherwise be at home with their children, with the agency to pursue livelihood opportunities. And in Zambia, Ethiopia and Ghana, iDE promotes women’s savings and loans groups, where participants loan each other money, charging nominal interest, which is eventually divided among the group.

How we will know if the strategy is impactful

To measure the impact of the strategy, we are expanding our data collection, moving beyond income alone, and extending our measurement approach to track “prosperity” as well. To inform our approach, we are centering our clients' voices through participatory, qualitative measurement approaches such as “Most Significant Change” that deliver a rich picture of what is happening.

Specifically, iDE will track progress on fostering prosperity at the aggregate level by measuring at least one impact in five thematic areas, which include: nutrition, health and hygiene; empowerment and social inclusion; household assets; education; and the resilience of local market systems.