HISTORY

IBI grew out of Dr. Lucie Phillips’ research and consulting, after she returned to the USA from twenty years spent mainly in Africa. Her studies had shown that development programs sometimes failed to take into account local realities, including traditional law and authorities, property rights and institutional histories. On the other hand, local economies faced constraints for lack of ability to get information and technologies that were well known in the developed world. Her idea was to bring the two together, using modern business skills and best international practices while adapting them to developing country contexts to find truly viable, local solutions. In the late 1990s, IBI’s initial clients for research and social impact studies and training included USAID, international financial institutions, and large corporations. As IBI grew it became an implementing partner on major long-term contracts and cooperative agreements.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On early projects IBI assisted West African Businesswomen to grow their business through networking and computer skills. It facilitated 15 ECOWAS countries’ application of a common external tariff as a step towards a Customs Union. IBI developed a niche practice in oil, gas and mining, working with both industrial mining companies and artisanal miners. In Tanzania it facilitated coexistence between artisanal and industrial mining. In Madagascar and Liberia, IBI improved gem markets. 

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Beginning in 2006, IBI assisted Liberia to rebuild its fragile governance capacity following two decades of civil conflict. Initially specializing in public financial management, with funding from USAID, IBI gradually branched out to support broad civil service reform, the expanded use of technology for e-government, and the Ebola epidemic response and recovery effort. Working with some 20 different ministries and state-owned companies, IBI helped to automate operations from the bottom up, providing user friendly solutions and training several thousand Liberian government staff. We supported the Liberian Institute of Public Administration and other local partners to ensure that capacity building continued sustainably. 

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IBI has also developed a thriving trade facilitation and customs reform practice. Working in Bangladesh to make accurate and timely information available to the private sector, while improving Customs risk management procedures, we helped Customs design and roll out a comprehensive trade portal, launch an authorized economic operator program, and establish a post-clearance audit program. 

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IBI uses information and communications technology creatively tailored to local contexts. Three of the highest impact uses have been (1) setting national ICT standards and computerizing the operations of ministries and agencies of government; (2) introducing mobile money as a solution for payments to under-banked civil service employees; and (3) using Geographic Information Systems to give planning and finance ministries the ability to plan public investments and attract private investors by analyzing the relationships between population density, productive areas, markets and trade flows, infrastructure, education and health, and natural resources. 

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IBI has grown steadily into one of USAID’s leading small business partners and was named the USAID Small Business of the Year for 2015. Since its inception, IBI has been headquartered in Arlington, VA, a fifteen-minute Metro ride from U.S. government agencies and the World Bank in downtown Washington, DC.