I4DI Turns 8: Highlights from the Past Year

October 17, 2022

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This week I4DI turns 8! Looking back, it’s hard to believe how fast the year has gone and how much we have accomplished. We were able to work with new and existing clients, deepen our engagement with the private sector, evolve our technology, tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time…and have fun in the process! We wanted to share with you a few of our highlights from the past year.

In October 2021, I4DI was awarded the five-year, $2M Monitoring, Evaluation and Training Services (METS) contract to support the USAID Bureau of Resilience and Food Security (RFS). In the first year, I4DI has received several work orders to support portfolio-wide and strategic initiatives of RFS.

As 2021 drew to a close, we developed

The Jargonator as a lighthearted way to highlight the overuse of jargon in international development. Using jargon keeps us from communicating our ideas and results clearly to people who benefit the most from them. I4DI remains committed to ensure our work is accessible to everyone.

In January 2022, I4DI was awarded the four-year, $7.2M USAID Global Development Alliance for Advancing Cocoa Agroforestry Towards Income, Value, and Environmental Sustainability (ACTIVE). This innovative partnership between Mars Inc., I4DI, and USAID aims to address key cocoa supply and deforestation challenges negatively affecting farmers in South and Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The Livelihoods Funds for Family Farming selected I4DI to implement and test the effectiveness of bundles of interventions designed to support cocoa smallholder farmers in Ghana. The objective is to build productive and profitable family farming enterprises that secure a decent standard of living and make cocoa farming attractive to the next generation of farmers through the testing of different development models and approaches.

In March, I4DI was awarded a two-year project with the Government of Kosovo Municipalities of Youth project whose aim is to build trust between youth and local governments to address key socioeconomic needs of youth. I4DI provides a monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework as well as a technological platform to improve the transparency and exchange of information between youth and the government.

In May, I4DI was awarded a project with the District of Columbia Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Affairs to perform a study evaluating the economic and cultural status of LGBTQ-owned businesses in the District. Our work advances the Mayor’s Office’s vision to create young LGBTQ+ community leaders, barrier-free access to opportunities for LGBTQ business owners, and an empowered LGBTQ community across the District.

I4DI provided data synthesis and visualization for the Resilience, Evaluation, Analysis and Learning (REAL) consortium led by Save the Children and funded by the USAID Center for Resilience within RFS. I4DI produced the REAL dashboard for the REAL consortium within the Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) Network to synthesize USAID’s resilience data into an accessible, interactive platform. The dashboard enables audiences to learn from past resilience activities by aggregating results data drawn from multiple projects and across dozens of indicators. Users are able to draw insights from the platform’s evidence base to inform the design and adaptation of current and future resilience programming.

In July, Deloitte, I4DI and consortium partners Abt Associates, Winrock International, and Black & Veatch were awarded the five-year, $95M USAID Green Cities Activity to help USAID partner countries develop more sustainable, equitable, healthy, and prosperous cities. Structured as a global field support mechanism, the Green Cities Activity will help USAID Missions achieve Climate Strategy targets as well as governance, health, inclusive development, and other development objectives. Collectively, we bring to USAID Missions around the world specialized, best-in-class expertise to catalyze action for critical urban transformations.

I4DI successfully completed the Technology for Green Cities project in Cambodia in September. The three-year, $3M small business applied research project successfully deployed the Green Cambodia Citizens app as a means to bring together local communities, local governments, and private sector waste management companies to address the most pressing challenges of illegal dumping. The project also facilitated local government efforts to build a circular economy. With the first phase completed, we are continuing our work in Cambodia through some other partnerships over the coming year.

Also in September, I4DI and ECODIT were awarded the five-year, $7.2M Monitor, Document, Evaluate and Learn (MODEL) project to support the USAID/Sri Lanka and the Maldives Mission’s learning agenda through inclusive, fact-based monitoring, evaluation, outreach, and research. I4DI will lead efforts to increase the effective monitoring of USAID activities and to enhance learning, analysis, and documentation within the Mission.

We wish to thank our incredible staff for the tremendous work over the past year. We have accomplished so much together. We also owe our gratitude to our clients for entrusting us as a partner to solve some of their most pressing challenges. We’re looking forward to an even greater 9th year!