We recognise people in rural communities live in unique circumstances; our support is reflective of these particular needs.
Communities living in rural areas are often marginalised; geographically isolated and most vulnerable to climate change given their livelihoods heavily depend on the land and the environment. Supporting rural development requires an acute understanding of the challenges each community faces. IMC co-designs solutions to ensure communities benefit from economic growth and can access basic services and undertake environmental management and good governance.
IMC’s approach to rural development looks at expanding economic opportunities by working at both ends of the private sector spectrum. On one hand promoting and improving micro-scale income generating activities for poor households and smallholders and on the other supporting international value chains of major commodities to ensure markets work better for the poor. We ensure our programmes are bottom up, reflecting and respecting the culture of the communities we work within.
We work with donors, multi-national corporations, local government, communities and families to develop solutions that address the needs of rural communities and empower people to step up and out of poverty.
India: Evaluation of CABI Direct2Farm Mobile Agri-Advisory Service India, DfID
Direct2Farm (D2F) is a mobile-enabled agriculture infomediary service aimed at making high quality information readily accessible to farmers. IMC have been commissioned to evaluate the effect of the services in terms of behaviour change, sustainability and effectiveness, using a mixed method approach, making use of qualitative and quantitative information. Evaluation methods are being combined with rigorous statistical analysis and GIS based outputs.
Worldwide: Evidence on Demand – Professional Evidence and Applied Knowledge Services for Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Resource Centre, DfID
www.evidenceondemand.org
Evidence on Demand is part of a new generation of resource centres, providing knowledge services to DfID advisors and the wider international development community in the areas of climate change, environment, infrastructure and livelihoods. IMC (in joint venture with DAI Limited) has provided direct support on issues such as: social and gender issues linked to tackling deforestation, technology to promote transparency around land acquisitions, cities in developing countries and their development in response to climate change and resource scarcity, donor approaches to improving access to finance for independent WASH providers, agriculture and growth, adaptation: decision making under uncertainty.
Nepal: Rural Access Programme (RAP), DfID
IMC designed and delivered the DFID financed Nepal Rural Access Programme (RAP) to increase access to market and social services for the rural poor and disadvantaged for the last 14 years through the RAP 1 and 2 programmes. Together these components have created more than 12 million days of employment (40% for women), provided over 2 million people with better access to markets, health and education facilities, and trained more than 30,000 people in new income generating skills and built 980 km of roads. The RAP model was scaled up to a third phase, adding bridges and maintenance components to the original design to support short-term job creation and market led economic development.
Vietnam: Productive Rural Infrastructure Development in Central Highlands, ADB
IMC has provided Technical Assistance in the preparation of a seven year investment programme to rehabilitate and upgrade critical productive rural infrastructure such as irrigation systems, rural access routes, and local markets. This will enable communities to respond to market signals by: increasing agricultural intensity and diversity; providing quicker and safer access to markets, employment opportunities, and social services; and, reducing costs of rural production and marketing, as well as reducing food wastage. Improved productive rural infrastructure will increase incomes from both on- and off-farm employment, decreases the burden of chores on women, and increases food availability even when yields are constant.
Uganda: Results Based Finance in the Improved Cook Stove Sector, World Bank
IMC carried out a study to help the ACCES programme and other development partners in designing and implementing Results Based Financing (RBF) approaches to support the clean cook stoves sector.