IDE views the rural poor as entrepreneurs, producers, and customers; not charity recipients. Using PRISM, IDE develops the skills and knowledge of the rural poor to create networks of businesses and services. A network includes all suppliers, extension services, farmers, processors, and distributors involved in producing a farm product. These networks respond to the unique opportunities and needs of the rural poor and generate additional income for everyone in the network.
PRISM uses participatory processes to:
Identify opportunities for rural farm households to increase income through market participation.
Understand constraints that keep people from participating in identified market opportunities.
Develop a business plan that details how rural households will increase income by creating an integrated network of businesses, services, and markets. The business plan includes natural resource management strategies, socio-cultural measures, and strategies for addressing identified constraints.
Enable implementation of the business plan through market channels at prices that are unsubsidized and sustainable, yet are affordable for large numbers of poor households.
Would you like to learn more?
The following documents are available for download:
PRISM Guidelines (April 2007)
Current guidelines for projects using the PRISM methodology. Download now (PDF, 1744 KB)
PRISM Toolkit (April 2007)
Documentation and tools for new projects using the PRISM methodology. Download now (PDF, 928 KB)
I Am Not Worried About My Children's Future An IDE Success Story from Bangladesh
“Four years ago, I thought poverty was my destiny, a chain that confined me, and was going to confine my family too,” says Nazrul Islam, whose family of five lived on less than a dollar a day prior to learning about IDE’s treadle pump program in Bangladesh...
Our Life is Much Better An IDE Success Story from Zambia
Before learning about IDE, Peter Chakanyuka, along with his wife and six children, farmed a ½ hectare plot of land. Depending upon rain for irrigation, his family could only grow maize and peanuts, with yields that were too small to sell.
After purchasing a treadle pump from a local IDE representative, the Chakanyuka family increased its irrigated land to more than two hectares in a single season...
A Good Job and a Secure Future An IDE Success Story from Vietnam
Years of war have left Phu Da commune with vast areas of sandy, infertile land pockmarked with bomb craters. IDE’s affordable hand pumps enabled farmers in Phu Da to grow better quality, high value crops even during the dry season. But, thanks to IDE’s entrepreneurial approach, it’s not just the farmers who benefit.
