iDE Global Prosperity Report

Executive Summary

Objective

iDE’s historic 20 Million More goal was achieved in 2023. As we define our next significant organizational strategy, we must ask: What do the people and households we work with want from our services? To that end, the goal of this study is to understand how to consistently make iDE’s programs impactful and desirable to the individuals and the communities where we work, by gaining insights into how they define success.

Methods

To answer that question, we employed an adapted Most Significant Change (MSC) methodology on a global scale in nine countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Mozambique, Nepal, Vietnam, and Zambia.

Key Findings

While finances, including income, were important to our respondents’ goals for the future, they aspired for much more to fulfill their concept of living a prosperous life. In addition to finance, their responses emphasized the following key areas:

• Personal and Family Well-being: Improved nutrition, health, education, and social inclusion.

• Assets: Housing, land, transportation, livestock, and productive assets for personal use and business endeavors.

• Community Infrastructure: WASH infrastructure, transportation, access to electricity, health care, schools, and other community-based amenities.

• Business and Entrepreneurship: Access to finance, inputs, fair markets, technology, employment opportunities and skills training.

• Climate Resilience: Sustainable agricultural practices, natural resource management, and preparedness for climate shocks and stressors.

• Gender Equity & Social Inclusion: Overcoming negative social norms, increasing decision-making power, and ensuring equal access to resources and opportunities.

Engaging community members, entrepreneurs, clients, and other stakeholders in a selection committee unearthed what values resonate at the community level within these stories. This is the critical ‘participatory’ element of the MSC approach as the selection committees analyze stories and elevate those that align with communal values. Key values highlighted by the selection committees included:

• Community Perspective and Impact: Selection Committees placed a strong emphasis on stories that demonstrated a positive impact on the broader community, emphasizing the importance of initiatives that benefitted the collective well-being.

• Relatability and Contextual Relevance: Stories that resonated with the lived experiences of community members were prioritized, ensuring that the selection process captured aspirations specific to local contexts and realities.

• Realistic and Achievable Goals: Selection Committees valued stories that showcased realistic and achievable goals, taking into account the local resources, skills, and constraints.

• Social Norms and Barriers: Selection processes highlighted stories that addressed social norms and barriers, particularly those related to gender equality and social inclusion.

• Sustainability and Inclusivity: Sustainable and inclusive initiatives that promoted long-term change that extended beyond interventions and benefited multiple stakeholders were highly regarded during the selection process.

Next Steps

These findings will inform our new organizational strategy as we work to understand the aspirations of those we serve. We are currently exploring ways to use these findings to improve our approaches and tailor our interventions to meet local contexts. 

We will also use these findings to inform our Theory of Change and expand our current Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in light of the new organizational strategy. This will allow us to better capture the impact of our market-based approaches on the households we work with beyond just household income increases.

Conclusion

By incorporating the voices of our clients into our decision-making process, we can continue to develop programs that are relevant, effective, and sustainable. iDE's working pillars of Start with People and Design to Context mean recognizing and honoring that individuals, families, and communities have the agency to make decisions around their own agenda and vision. These findings have challenged our previous ideas around focusing on income impacts alone. Yet investing in respondents’ broader visions for the future allows iDE to pursue more meaningful and sustainable success on the household level. This, in turn, will allow us to achieve our ultimate goal of ending poverty.

Table of Contents

Click on the links below to navigate to the page with this report section. 

Background

Methods

Findings

Cross-Cutting Findings

Sector Findings

Country Findings

Prosperity, Resilience, and Community

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Stories

Annexes

Acknowledgments

Project would not have been possible without MERL team members and other staff across Bangladesh (Abid ul Huque, Samiur Rahman, Paromita Datta, Reza E Rabbi Shant, Poresh Moni Das, Anitta Mankhin, Babujit Halder, Sharmin Akter Shakila, Tasnia Rahman Chowdhury, Molla Sabiha Sultana, Mahamud Kali, Mohammad Shahjahan, Ratan Kumar Roy, Anupoma Rani Roy, Akhi Rani Chowdhury, Mohammad Ahadujjaman, Mohammad Naim Mahmud, Biplob Basak, Mohammad Ahasan Arif, Mohammad Khalekuzzaman, Mohammad Ikram Hossain, A M Jhahangir Hossain, Reva Rani Baidya, and Mohammad Kamrul Hassan), Cambodia (Chuon Pisey, Pel Setha, Kok Saron, Kroch Sim, Thy Dara Phoung, Long Vanda, Tet Chann and Toeur Veasna), Ethiopia (Bekele Dirba, Gizawu Eshetu, Misganu Etana, Asefa Arfasa, and Temesgen Rago), Ghana (Alhassan Hilda, Alhassan Rasheed, Mustapha Sherifatu, and Saeed Mohammed Salis), Honduras (Jose Luis Rodas, Francisco Javier Santos, Allan Toval, Ana Marina Rivera Escobar, María Rubenia Ortiz, Edwin Joel Lopez, Harolth Alberto, Denys Omar Izaguirre, Luisa Maria Lara, Jose Luis Ortez Cardenas, Crisian Henoc Martinez, Sobeida Lara, Olvin Vásquez), Mozambique (Armando Matavele, Amandio Martins, Infante General and Lina Henao), Nepal (Dr. Rakesh Kothari, Soma Rana, Sudip Sedhain, Rajani Khadka, Khadga Jung Gurung, Kalpana Dhital, Raj Kishore Ray, Junga Gurung, and Bina Bista) , Vietnam (Bui Ai Trang, Dr. Le Ngoc Quang, Le Nguyen Hanh Nguyen), and Zambia (Daniel Kanyembe, Pious Nyirongo, Abigail Musinga, Angela Chanda, Chitambo Chisata, Abraham Banda, Kosam Kaonga, Chaka Chibinga) who collected and transcribed stories, facilitated selection committees, and shared their findings and insights. Thank you for putting trust and energy into a new method and for creating the spaces for those interviewed to trust you with their stories. 

This project was funded through a Spark Grant from the Paul Polak Innovation Fund. Many thanks to Dr. John Choptiany, Nadia Campos, Tiffany Koberstein, Dr. Lauren Riley, Sarah Custer Lalanne, Dana Smith, and in particular Melisa Leñero for creating this grant proposal and the foundational ideas behind it. 

Thanks to Henok Begashaw and Fatima Shehata for facilitating our online-to-offline Participatory Evaluation Training, and to all of the MERL leads for participating.

Data analysis was completed by Eliza Fink and Julia Owen. Many thanks to Rubab Islam and Sami McKinsey for their creation of report graphics. This report was authored by Eliza Fink, Julia Owen, Dr. Jennifer Roglà, and Henok Begashaw with review support from Jake Meyers, Melisa Leñero, Abigail Musinga, Sarah Custer Lalanne, and Tiffany Koberstein.