Powering entrepreneurs
to end poverty.
iDE Canada creates income and livelihood opportunities in developing countries around the world. We invest in local entrepreneurship, building businesses with a focus on agriculture and sanitation. With access to the right products, services and advice, farmers can transform their small farms into small businesses. With access to research and development, sanitation business owners can produce the life-saving products their customers want.
Read the latest issue of GROW
Click the link to read the latest issue of our newsletter, GROW. Read about how the seeds of your generosity are growing around the world!
Click to ReadEnroll women in agriculture training classes!
You can help enroll women in agriculture training classes by making a donation today. With this training, female entrepreneurs can become agriculture experts and make enough money to pay rent, support their families and power their communities.
DONATEInnovate forImpact
iDE’s founder, Paul Polak, practiced and preached the importance of starting with people. With your support, local iDE teams use Human Centered Design to engage deeply with the people and communities we serve.
Our Initiatives
Our Initiatives
Innovate for Impact
iDE’s founder, Paul Polak, practiced and preached the importance of starting with people. With your support, local iDE teams use Human Centered Design to engage deeply with the people and communities we serve.
Innovation Fund Projects
Cambodia
| The Paul Polak Innovation Fund
Transform Smallholder Farming
Small-scale farmers grow 80% of the food available in rural areas but often live in poverty. Your support helps farmers increase their incomes by ensuring they have access to markets, high-quality seed and affordable irrigation.
Agricultural Projects
ETHIOPIA
| Agriculture resilience and dignity
NEPAL
| Dealing with new pests
Stop Diarrhea
Diarrhea kills over half a million under-5 children every year – more than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV combined. Diarrhea deprives many millions of children of the nutrients they need to reach their full physical and mental potential.
Sanitation Projects
GHANA
| Selling toilets to poor household
See More Projects
Recent News
Do You Dare?
The Polak Fund is risky. That’s the thing about big ideas. You don’t know if they’ll work or not until you test them. As Nadia Campos, iDE’s Director of Global Design says; the Polak Fund “was meant to support projects [and] experiments that other donors will never dare to do.” That’s why we are so…
40 Under 40: Making a Difference
This year, we are celebrating our 40th anniversary by spotlighting 40 entrepreneurs who are changing their communities and helping end poverty, all before the age of 40. Amina Bacar and Aspara Timilsina are two of the 40 Under 40 entrepreneurs featured. Both possess the strength and commitment to take on traditional gender roles and turn…
Creating Opportunities Together: How Your Generosity is Helping Women Grow Their Businesses
Your enthusiasm and support of the Her Time to Grow project has been inspiring! In just over one year, you have donated nearly 70% of the matching funds needed to see this project through its four-year implementation. That’s $527,996!! That is a HUGE accomplishment – THANK YOU! Another thing that’s needed to get big projects…
Cheering for Change: How You are Encouraging Innovators in Ghana
I run alongside, cheering her on.” This is how iDE Canada board member Lindsay Poggemiller Smith describes her mentorship with Polak Fund winner Abdul Rahman Hamidatu. Hamidatu won a Fail Fast Grant worth $20,000. She is testing her big idea that using recycled plastics in the construction of toilet facilities will make them more affordable…
Stay in touch with us
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Our Partners
iDE Canada creates income and livelihood opportunities in developing countries around the world. We invest in local entrepreneurship, building businesses with a focus on agriculture and sanitation.
We would like to thank the Government of Canada and Manitoba Council for International Cooperation for their generous financial support.
From donkey carts and treadle pumps to solar pumps and smartphone applications, iDE has made it their mission to power a revolution for farmers in some of the world’s most challenging markets. I have seen the incredible impact of new solutions designed with and for small farmers.
Len Penner, iDE Canada Board Chair (2020)
“This change inspired me to share the knowledge and experience I got with other farmers in my community and I will help them to start cultivating improved varieties and vegetables with irrigation during the dry season.”
Beletu Bacha Kimbibit, Ethiopia
Simon Tuuteug’s joy is contagious. His profits this past year have soared and his small farm in Ghana is supporting his family in ways it never has before. He says, “I am very happy to work with iDE – they showed me new ways to farm and now I am seeing the good results.”
Simon Tuuteug, Ghanaian farmer (2015)
“My grandfather started donating to iDE in the early 80s when the organization was just finding its way. We continue to support the organizations that were important to him and we understand why he is so passionate about iDE and the difference it makes.”
Marlon Kuhl, third generation iDE supporter (2018)
Getting involved with iDE in the Sama Sama program in Ghana has been both exciting and satisfying for us. It really feels good to make a difference in the world by helping bring positive changes to families in rural Ghana!
Vern and Charleen Siemens, donors and entrepreneurs (2017)
Your support reaches to all corners of the world.
Enroll women in agriculture training classes!
Your donation today can help enroll women in agriculture training classes. With this training, female entrepreneurs can become agriculture experts and make enough money to pay rent, support their families and power their communities.