This is the first in a series of profiles of organizations based in the Bay Area that are contributing to sustainable development initiatives abroad. See the introduction to the series here.
International Development Exchange (IDEX), founded in San Francisco in 1985, operates out of a tiny office in the Mission. This non-profit organization with a staff of eight and an annual operating budget of just over $700,000 is fostering immense and inspiring positive changes in the lives of thousands of people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
IDEX partners with grassroots organizations in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Guatemala, Mexico, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Its mission is to promote local economic development and lasting social change for the benefit of marginalized people, particularly women, indigenous people, and youth. Some of the specific issues that are addressed through IDEX’s work are the alleviation of poverty; sustainable agriculture; leadership and rights for women, workers and indigenous people; fair trade; youth empowerment; and food security.
IDEX’s approach is threefold: to provide financial support in the form of grants to its partner organizations, to support these groups in building alliances with other non-governmental associations around the world as well as U.S. funders, and to educate Americans and U.S.-based constituencies about issues facing the people of the communities abroad that they serve.
Grants to its partners are the cornerstone of the IDEX’s work. Every year each partner organization receives a grant, usually $13,000 but sometimes more, depending on the organization’s size and the scope of its work. IDEX commits to funding each partner organization for a period of three to six years, recognizing that consistent funding helps maximize the success of its partners’ work. IDEX currently has just eleven partner organizations in seven countries, since "retaining a smaller focus allows us to address complex situations more completely than if we tried to work in many countries at once."
IDEX also distributes a number of smaller "catalyst grants" each year to new organizations that are prospective future partners. Groups chosen to receive catalyst grants are awarded $3000 to carry out a six to 12-month project. IDEX explains, "The small grant affords us a low-risk opportunity to work with an organization works before selecting them for a longer-term relationship."
The results on the ground of the projects IDEX supports are inspiring. For example, the Credit Women’s Initiatives Program, based on the microcredit model founded by Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank, provides very small loans to women to fund small-scale, income-generating activities, such as trade, vegetable cultivation, goat and cow rearing, weaving, sewing, and jewelry making. Hiri, a microcredit recipient in the village of Manpuriya Ka Guda, Rajasthan, India used her loan of $267 to buy a buffalo. The buffalo produces 25 pints of milk a day, of which Hiri keep four for her family and sells the rest. The income from selling the buffalo milk has allowed Hiri to support her family, pay off the microloan, and even purchase another buffalo.
IDEX explains the reason for focusing on women to receive microcredit:
When a woman has resources, her family benefits. Investments in projects started and run by women have a larger impact on the community at large than those run by men…women-led initiatives impact children’s nutrition, education, and health care and create an improved standard of living.
One of the largest organizations that IDEX supports is el Instituto por la Superación de la Miseria Urbana (ISMU), or the Institute for Overcoming Urban Poverty, based in Guatemala. ISMU is a network of 17 grassroots organizations working to improve conditions and quality of life in the shantytowns surrounding Guatemala City. These shantytowns are home to some half a million people but often lack basic necessities such as decent housing, sewage systems and potable water. IDEX has partnered with ISMU since 1995, supporting a variety of community-based initiatives, including a revolving fund for community housing, home improvement loans, a door factory, a dental clinic, literacy projects, land legalization programs, and youth leadership projects.
IDEX works with the Girl Child Network (GCN) in Zimbabwe, a club and support system for young girls in impoverished areas who face problems such as physical and sexual abuse in their homes and schools, HIV infection, forced early marriage, genital mutilation, and limited economic options that force girls into prostitution. GCN, founded as a school club in 1998 by a former teacher, now has 300 clubs with a membership of over 20,000 girls between the ages of 5-16, living in both rural and urban areas throughout the country. The clubs provide the young girls with counseling and support as well as opportunities for education, scholarships and employment. GCN also sponsors special programs such as leadership training; HIV/AIDS prevention education; creative exploration through poetry, music, drama and writing; and "Women as Role Models" workshops.
IDEX’s grassroots development model is highly effective from a financial standpoint as compared to large-scale, "top-down" development projects sponsored by institutions like the World Bank and USAID, in which up to half of the aid money distributed never reaches or has any direct benefits for its intended beneficiaries. For example, in IDEX’s Credit Women’s Initiatives program, 90% of the funds are disbursed directly to its partner organizations in the form of microcredit loans, while the other 10% cover IDEX’s administrative expenses. Even better, every $100 loan made to a woman generates about 12% interest over the span of a year, generating new funds that can then be used to provide loans to more women. While such grassroots economic changes may be small and incremental, the financial model is inherently sustainable, fostering greater economic self-sufficiency and empowerment.
In addition to its support of grassroots economic and social development initiatives overseas, IDEX is committed to educating Americans about the challenges facing their partner organizations and the communities they serve. IDEX points out that "the mainstream media in the U.S. often does not publicize the issues that affect [the] livelihoods and survival" of their partner communities in Africa, Latin America and Asia. IDEX’s educational activities in the U.S. include a bi-annual newsletter, monthly e-updates, conference presentations, and special events.
above image, credit: IDEX
