The IKEA Foundation pledges to help launch KickStart International’s new program in Zambia and Southern Africa to create sustainable livelihoods for rural poor
September 24, 2012—New York, New York— In line with the theme of the 2012 CGI Annual Meeting, “Designing for Impact,” KickStart International and the IKEA Foundation announced a new partnership during day two of the conference. Through the partnership, the IKEA Foundastion has committed €6.88 million to KickStart International over the next five years to expand KickStart’s work and launch a new program in Zambia and Southern Africa.
Over the course of the five year partnership, the IKEA Foundation and KickStart estimate that more than 47,000 of KickStart’s MoneyMaker pumps will be adopted by poor rural farmers and used to create highly profitable agribusinesses that will enable families to lift themselves out of poverty. By 2017, this project will help over 280,000 people in Southern Africa increase their family income and take the first major step out of poverty, and improve food security for over 3.8 million people in Southern Africa.
“A sustainable family income is essential for creating opportunities for children in developing countries,” explains Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation. “Our partnership with KickStart will help families in Southern Africa escape poverty and fashion a better future for their children.”
“We are very grateful for the support of the IKEA Foundation,” says KickStart’s co-founder and CEO, Dr. Martin Fisher. “Launching our new program in Zambia will be essential to expanding our reach across Southern Africa and dramatically increasing our sustainable impacts on poverty reduction and family livelihood creation among the rural poor.”
KickStart develops appropriately designed irrigation pumps, sold under the MoneyMaker brand, that have been proven to enable poor, rural farmers to grow high-value crops throughout the year, thus significantly increasing their income, and helping them to take a major step along a sustainable path out of poverty. KickStart applies a market-based model to deliver these innovative technologies to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through targeted marketing and sales efforts, and by optimizing a private-sector supply chain.
To date, KickStart has sold over 200,000 pumps across Africa to enable the rural poor to start profitable small-scale farming businesses. As a result, KickStart has impacted the lives of over 670,000 people who have been lifted out of poverty, and over 210,000 children who have been enrolled in school for the first time or in improved schools as a result of new income generation. With support from the IKEA Foundation, they estimate that an additional 280,000 people will be lifted out of poverty in Zambia and the surrounding Southern Africa countries by 2017.
The news of this partnership at the CGI Annual Meeting follows the IKEA Foundation’s announcement last week of expanding their philanthropy significantly with €31 million in new commitments to nonprofits in the USA and the UK. Their commitment to KickStart International, announced for the first time at the 2012 CGI Annual Meeting, is part of the IKEA Foundation’s expanded portfolio of new program partners.
By enabling KickStart to expand their work in Zambia, IKEA Foundation’s contributions will build toward KickStart International’s 2011 CGI commitment to lift “Half a Million People out of Poverty” between 2011 and 2014. Funding from the IKEA Foundation will enable KickStart to take the lessons it has learned from its long-standing programs in East and West Africa, and combine these with a set of new innovations, to establish a dynamic retail marketing and sales program to sell its appropriately designed irrigation pumps across Zambia and the surrounding region. Thousands of farmers will buy KickStart’s pumps, irrigate high value crops throughput the year, make significantly more money, lift their families out of poverty, and ensure a better life for their children as a result. The funding will also mobilize KickStart to partner with other NGOs and import/wholesale shops to sell thousands of additional pumps throughout Southern Africa.
If you would like more information or to schedule an interview with Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation or Martin Fisher, Co-founder and CEO of KickStart, please contact:
Jonathan Spampinato
Head of Communications & Strategic Planning
IKEA Foundation
Tel: +31 611 756 336
E-mail: Jonathan.Spampinato@IKEAFoundation.org
Liezl Van Riper
Director of Development
KickStart International
Tel: +1-646-599-5772
E-mail: liezl.vanriper@kickstart.org
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About the IKEA Foundation
The IKEA Foundation aims to improve opportunities for children and youth in developing countries by funding holistic, long-term programmes that can create substantial, lasting change. The Foundation works with strong strategic partners applying innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results in four fundamental areas of a child’s life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and sustainable family income. Currently-funded programmes benefit an estimated 100 million children. Learn more at www.ikeafoundation.org.
About KickStart International
KickStart is a non-profit social enterprise whose mission is to alleviate poverty by developing and promoting technologies that can be used by entrepreneurs across sub Saharan Africa to establish and run profitable small-scale enterprises. KickStart’s best-selling products are award-winning, human-powered, MoneyMaker branded irrigation pumps that allow small-scale farmers to access increasingly scarce water in order to irrigate their land, which enables them to increase crop yield, and earn significantly more income. With this increased income, they can lift themselves out of poverty and improve their family’s quality of life by being able to access plentiful food, clean water, education for their children, and healthcare for their families. KickStart’s largest programs are in Kenya, Tanzania, Mali, and Burkina Faso; KickStart exports pumps through partners to 23 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. For more information, visit www.kickstart.org and follow us on Twitter @KickStart_Intl and Facebook at facebook.com/KickStartInternational.
About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
Find the downloadable Press Release here:
Press Release IKEA Foundation & KickStart at CGI 21Sept2012.pdf
