IDE UK’s Chief Executive, Lewis Temple wrote a response article in the Guardian today. Here’s the link, and text copied below.

Entrepreneurial aid schemes should focus on rural businesses as much as urban ones, says Lewis Temple

The Guardian, Wednesday 10 June 2009

Alex Duval Smith describes a “new trend” sweeping the aid scene in Africa to “put money on the continent’s entrepreneurs” (Is trade, not aid, the answer for Africa?, 25 May). I work for a non-profit organisation called International Development Enterprises, which, over the last 28 years, has enabled 17 million rural people in Africa and Asia to work their way out of poverty. IDE designs affordable irrigation tools such as treadle pumps, mass markets these to small farmers through the local private sector, and helps the farmers diversify into cash crops and get their produce to market. So while our approach is getting more attention now, it is not a “new trend” – it has been tried and tested over many years, with measurable results.

The article reports that critics of the Africa Commission’s new $3bn guarantee facility – “an initiative of the Danish government … to mobilise loans for small businesses” – say it will ignore the majority of the Africa’s entrepreneurs, the small farmers, as its “focus on entrepreneurs implies that it will help urban businesses”. I, too, am concerned, not only because 65% of Africa’s population is rural, but because the great majority of extremely poor people depend on agriculture for their income.

Yet the Danish development minister, Ulla Tornaes, is quoted as saying that “farmers need to become businesslike … we cannot dictate to African countries on agriculture”. Why is enabling small farmers to benefit from access to appropriate technology, credit and support “dictating” on agriculture? IDE’s work over nearly three decades demonstrates that even dollar-a-day farmers scraping a living on tiny plots can be entrepreneurial, and should not be ignored by schemes such as this.

I am writing in Ziway, a small Rift valley community three hours’ drive south of the Ethiopian capital. I am here to visit projects and meet small farmers, the people usually worst hit by Ethiopia’s frequent droughts and famines.

Among them is Tadesse Mekuria, a small farmer who has made the journey from poverty to prosperity. He demonstrates the entrepreneurial drive exhibited by many African farmers. A year ago he scraped a living, earning 50p a day as a tailor. He could only grow a little grain on the small plot surrounding his house. When trade was bad he had to accept food handouts from aid agencies.

In December last year, he bought a rope-and-washer pump with a micro-finance loan for £40 through an IDE project. He is now growing onions, pepper, kale and carrot on his 1,000 square metre plot. This has already enabled him to generate £320 in new income, which paid for the loan for the pump many times over. He is planning to buy more land and does not expect to ever have to become a “beneficiary” of charity again.

The “charity” approach to aid is disempowering and disrespectful. Treating people as passive “beneficiaries” has not had a sustainable impact on poverty. Rather, listening to poor people, learning about their lives and investing in viable businesses that respond to their needs has potential in urban and rural Africa.

• Lewis Temple is chief executive of IDE-UK

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