Innovations Against Poverty: Growing in the Desert and Digital Farming

Innovations Against Poverty (IAP) applies a strategic approach to challenge fund management as a key tool for market system development:

1. Private companies with innovative inclusive business ideas apply for IAP support through open competitive calls. Submitted applications are evaluated against pre-determined assessment criteria, and the best proposals are selected to receive funding and non-financial support services over a two-year period. The rigorous selection process ensures a competitive selection of diverse ideas in all four countries.
2. IAP funding ranges from €50.000 up to €200.000 per company, not exceeding a maximum of 49% of the total required investment, to implement innovative inclusive business ideas.
3. Tailor-made non-financial support in developing, rolling out and scaling up the inclusive business ideas from in-house expertise available either within the IAP consortium (IB Sweden, BoPInc and SNV) or from external third parties.
4. Increase companies’ investment readiness and facilitate introductions to investors, including through the Strategic Investment Partners (SIP) network, a partnership network of 11 leading impact investor representatives.
5. Encourage synergies and collaboration amongst IAP-supported investees and between investees and other development projects and initiatives.
6. Impact achievements of the inclusive business ideas and lessons learned by the IAP team challenge fund management are widely disseminated and contribute to broader knowledge development.

As a result:

• 1.531,499 people with improved access to basic goods and services (clean and affordable energy, clean cooking, clean water, sanitation services, information, finance, and nutritious food).
• 548,834 people benefiting from cost savings and income increases due to the use of the products/services that IAP’s investees offer to their consumers.
• 10,597 people gained new/better income-generating opportunities (by acting as suppliers/producers/distributors to the supported companies).
• 27,615 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided.
• EUR 14.430,217 in increased sales revenue for the supported companies since the start of the project.

IAP commissioned 60 Decibels to conduct an impact measurement for selected portfolio companies. The focus of the study was to evaluate the 1) effectiveness of the fund, 2) outreach to PLIP, 3) depth of impact created, and 4) gender impact.

• 92% of the customers served by portfolio companies reported an improvement in their quality of life.
• 83% of customers served by portfolio companies reported accessing a product or service for the first time.
• 78% of customers served by portfolio companies reported that they could not easily find a good alternative to the product and service.
• For female customers who could generate income by using these products and services, 8 out of 10 said their ability to make decisions about the money earned has improved.

Homes designed to be out of this world

A new construction project called the SuperAdobe is taking shape in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, in which freely available materials—such as sandbags and barbed wires—are used to build simple shelters. These temporary houses are more comfortable, environmentally friendly, and more liveable than the current caravans refugees inhabit. Most importantly, the SuperAdobes are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, a necessity in a desert environment where summer temperatures reach as high as 104 degrees.

Rice farming goes digital

In November 2018, Oxfam launched BlocRice, a program that aims to empower rice farmers in Cambodia to increase their negotiation power for better and fairer pay. The initiative will use digital contracts between rice farmers who are working in agricultural cooperatives, exporters in Cambodia, and buyers in the Netherlands. These contracts are tools for social and economic empowerment, Solinn Lim, Oxfam in Cambodia’s program director, explained at the launch. “Farmers thus gain collective bargaining power since agricultural cooperatives will be parties to the contracts.”

An app for when words fail

Aid workers in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, encountered a challenge working with Rohingya refugees, whose language is similar but not close enough to the local dialect to ensure effective communication. With nearly one million refugees living in Cox’s Bazar, it is imperative that nongovernmental organizations clearly communicate with the refugees to allow them to speak for themselves. That’s why in June, Oxfam, Translators without Borders, and UNICEF released a glossary app with translations in the five languages spoken in the camps: Bangla, Burmese, Chittagonian, English, and Rohingya. The app is helping Oxfam and others on the ground address the needs of the Rohingya population.  

Growing barley grass in the desert

In the harsh climate of the Algerian Sahara it is nearly impossible to grow anything naturally. There are frequent sandstorms, and temperatures can exceed a blistering 122 degrees. Sahrawi refugees living in five camps near the Algerian city of Tindouf have been displaced in this environment for more than 40 years, and one-quarter of them face chronic malnutrition. Food assistance helps, but it’s not a long-term solution. In 2017, Oxfam started a hydroponics program—using a technique for cultivating plants that doesn’t require soil—to feed the goats the camps’ residents depend on for milk, meat, and income. So far, the project has yielded sweet success with greenhouses producing about 132 pounds of fodder each day—enough to feed 20 goats. 

Managing waste

When an influx of people in a temporary refuge creates demand for latrines, and then pit latrines start to fill up, how do you treat all the waste? That was the question facing Oxfam in Bangladesh earlier this year—which has been providing water, sanitation, and hygiene support to more than 266,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar since 2017. In November 2018, the team in Bangladesh built an industrial-scale centralized sewage management plant at Cox’s Bazar with the capacity to process the human waste of 150,000 people. The process is completely environmentally friendly, and to our knowledge, this has been the first successful attempt to carry out something of this scale in a refugee camp.