For nearly twenty years, we have worked with companies, governments and investors to build market-based solutions that keep delivering for farmers, workers and the environment.
In 2008, we set out to take sustainability from niche to norm. Over the years our mission has sharpened: we build agricultural systems that endure beyond our contribution, so that value chains generate shared value for all. Today, practices we helped start keep spreading to people and places we never worked with directly.
Our CEO Daan Wensing looks at what we have built and what IDH brings to what comes next.
Markets change when the change makes commercial sense. For nearly two decades, we have helped partners find where their interests meet and build practical solutions around them.
Better Income, Better Jobs and Better Environment, with Gender Equality and Social Inclusion embedded throughout, define our ultimate goal and the conditions of a resilient market.
Two questions tell us whether change will last. Does the work keep growing beyond our own involvement? And how far does it shift the way companies source, how investors allocate capital and how sectors govern themselves?
Once a practice becomes everyday business, it keeps spreading and reaches people we never worked with directly.
IDH works as a market orchestrator, and the results last beyond our direct involvement.
In Kenya, the Stawisha Mau Charitable Trust brings together more than 16 public and private stakeholders to carry forward the South West Mau forest landscape work.
We co-founded the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2010, and it is now the leading global aquaculture sustainability standard.
The Life and Building Safety program (LABS) was designed for independence from the start. It now operates without IDH co-funding and reaches over 1.3 million factory workers in Vietnam, India, Cambodia and Indonesia.
With partners in Aceh Tamiang, Indonesia, we are curbing deforestation linked to palm oil expansion through monitoring, restoration and patrols. About 47,600 hectares of forest are now protected and deforestation has fallen 37%. Participating households earned 35% to 52% more.
Governments, businesses, investors and local organisations each hold part of the answer. We bring them together to implement lasting change on how the system operates.
The Roadmap on Living Wages, first launched in 2020, gives companies a five-step process and a live network of partners. We also lead the Roadmap on Living Income and are developing a Roadmap on Climate Resilience.
A block farming model introduced in 2018 clusters production and aligns it with off-taker demand. The yield supplied to premium Nigerian off-takers has risen by 300%. Stronger small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and more local processing have created over 100,000 jobs.
Landscape approaches developed over 10 years are open to join through SourceUp. A Walmart Foundation-backed program for SourceUp and the Jurisdictional Action Network added onboarding support and a financial sustainability model, so the platform itself continues.
The IDH Farmfit Fund shows what market intelligence, business readiness, risk-sharing and investment management can do together. By end 2024, investees lent to around 575,000 farmers, about 90% women. By mid-2025: €50 million+ deployed, €150 million+ mobilised from 30+ co-investors.
