Be the first on your block to read the 2009 IIRR Annual Report. While the lucky few on our mailing list will receive a hard copy in the mail in the coming weeks, you can read all about our impact in rural communities worldwide right now!

Click here to download the IIRR 2009 Annual Report.

Inside, you will find the story of Letilan, a 9 year old in Kenya who is the first in his family to attend school. He is enrolled at one of IIRR's Pastoralist Education Program schools that for the first time has made basic education a possibility in Farakore.

You will see pictures of a bio-intesive gardening demonstration project on Ticao Island in the Philippines where IIRR staff taught double-digging techniques and how to fertilize soil with common household scraps and local vegetation rather than harmful and costly chemicals.

Notice the smiling face of Tseganesh Tomicah who prior to her involvement with IIRRs Learning Our Way Out project, had not graduated beyond 8th grade and had been sexually active since she was 14. Now, she uses contraceptives, returned to school, and works for the local government representing women's issues.

read these stories and more inside! Thank you for being a part of the IIRR community and for helping us build the capacity of poor communities to overcome poverty.

The International Potato Center (CIP) and IIRR recently held a 3 day conference on Writeshop Methodologies. International POTATO Center? Don't you want to know more about them? Known by their spanish acronym, CIP is fighting to reduce poverty and to improve food security through sustainable systems by supporting the responsible use of natural resources and promoting root and tuber crops. Sounds a lot like the work IIRR does (minus the tuber fixation)! For more on our bio-intensive gardening and natural resources management projects, check out IIRR's website -

Bio-Intensive Gardening

Natural Resources Management 

via SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center online discussions (July 21, 2010)

Philippines - The first harvest of USAID-funded genetically modified (GM) eggplants has shown resistance to fruit-and-shoot borer worm infestation. With current non-GM eggplant, Filipino farmers lose 50% of their harvest to the worms. To fight infestation, farmers spray insecticides dangerous to their health and the environment as often as every other day during the 3-5 month growing season.

more info here -Manila Bulletin Online (June 28, 2010, Melanie Aguiba) and Business Mirror (July 3, 2010, Lyn Resurreccion)

via osocio.org (July 17, 2010) -

UNICEFs new social marketing campaign - selling bottles of "diseased" water (clean water but labeled "Malaria", etc) in New York City. Is this really happening? If so, I hope that those who purchase these bottles are aware of the effects of these diseases and are not making light of these very serious conditions. Cholera, Dysentary, Dengue...none of these is a favorite flavor and those who take it for granted that their drinking water is clean need to be reminded of how lucky they are. Lack of access to clean water and the resulting disease and death affect nearly a billion people worldwide. IIRR works to address these and other natural resource management  and community health issues through local partners by establishing and empowering community-elected committees of local decisionmakers who identify and then address their needs like clean water access, food security, and accessibility. If you would like to help us, please visit our "Get Involved" page.

The UN Development Programme's Human Development Report Office in collaboration with Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative of Oxford University has released a new system of measuring poverty around the world. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) expands on past measures which were typically income-based (the so-called "dollar a day" formula) and focuses instead on a household's educational access and achievement, health outcomes like mortality rates,nutrition, sanitation practices, assets owned, and access to electricity, cooking fuel, and clean water.

These new measures reveal some interesting relative poverty comparisons especially in the regions where IIRR works. For example, in Kenya, 20% of the population is considered "income poor" that is, living on or less than $1.25US per day. Using the MPI measures though, that number climbs to 60% of the population. In Ethiopia, the income poor percentage is about 39% (at or less than $1.25US per day) while the MPI measures the percentage at nearly 90%, second highest of all countries studied. The Philippines on the other hand, ranks higher in the income poor rankings (at 23% living on or less than $1.25US per day) while the MPI puts the poverty percentage at about 13% of the population (in line with China). It is hoped that these new measurement methods will be useful to development organizations and their funders in determining types of interventions and the scale appropriate to a population's needs.

The MPI and the data were created by: Alkire, Sabina, and Maria Emma Santos, 2010. Multidimensional Poverty Index: 2010 Data. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. You can learn more at: www.ophi.org/uk/policy/multidimensional-poverty-index/.>

IIRR has long recognized the importance of educational access, community health practices, sustainable nutrition, and appropriate natural resources managment. Our programs are designed to release the social, economic, intellectual, and physical potential of the rural poor. Along with our network of partners, we have pioneered poverty reduction techniques such as Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Natural Resources Conservation, Learning Our Way Out forums, and flexible, targeted education for pastoralist communities.

If you are passionate about fighting poverty, please consider supporting IIRR's work. You can donate online at https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/IIRR_2/OnlineGiving.html

 

This is Judith Mujumba, a widow and micro-loan recipient. Using her initial loan, she purchased 4 chickens. She now owns more than 50 chickens and sells eggs and the hens to support herself and to help support her 4 children and pay school fees for her 3 grandchildren.

The "business" of international development has increasingly become micro-finance, micro-credit, and seeding entrepreneurs. Some have even referred to this as the new dot-com craze. But what happens to the small business owners and farmers who receive the loans once they have grown into small to mid-sized enterprises? Is repayment of the loan the end goal (as it is for many of the financial institutions who have jumped into the role of micro-credit providers) or is it the creation of a sustainable and reliable source of income?

With the help of the Ford Foundation, IIRR and its partners are working to support small business owners and farmers in understanding their local value chains, uncovering their links to suppliers, traders, and consumers, and then maximizing their position within that framework. IIRR has created a value chain training program which addresses the needs of small producers in Africa (the first training was held in 2008 in South Africa). In addition, IIRR has collaborated on a series of 5 writeshops documenting challenges of entrepreneurship in Africa and culminating in a series of publications which are available on our website.

Do you want to support our value chain and micro-finance work?

Please consider donating online - https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/IIRR_2/OnlineGiving.html

 

Some interesting reading -

McKinsey Quarterly - Helping Africans to Jumpstart Their Industries (Bruce McNamer, June 2010)

Wall Street Journal.com Blog - In Micro-finance, a "Dot-Com" Boom? (Eric Bellman, June 24, 2010)

Business Inquirer - Micro-finance Not Enough to Uplift Lives of the Poor (Judy Quiros, Germelina Lacorte, Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 7, 2010) 

 

Children enrolled in IIRR's Pastoralist Education Project schools in Kenya are about to receive new books thanks to a generous donation of 38 cartons of books from the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation (JKF).

IIRR believes that education is a basic human right and is critical to a community's development.  We are leading the way to quality basic education for all through our Pastoralist Education Project serving children and adults in pastoralist areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Through this project, we have supported more than 60 communities in building schools, training teachers, designing curriculum and school schedules to fit the pastoralist lifestyle, and along the way have introduced many children and adults to school for the very first time.

While the project has been very successful, we continue to need funds and supplies to expand to new areas and to cover basic needs within the schools. The book donation from the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation includes Math, English, Social Science, and Kiswahili textbooks, workbooks, and some storybooks. We applaud the foundation's generosity and cannot wait to see the faces of the children when they receive this gift!

If you are interested in supporting the Pastoralist Education Project, your online donation can be made here-
https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/IIRR_2/OnlineGiving.html

IIRR donations can be made as a gift! We will include an e-card or printed card with a personalized message to your recipient. Past gift ideas have included - a solar light for a classroom, a teacher's salary for a year, student desks, or a clean water well. Please contact Lara.Crampe@iirr.org if you are interested in this option.