left: The MoneyMaker pump was designed to be used by people of all ages. | right: Diagram showing how the deep-lift pump operates. Both images IDEO

The MoneyMaker pump allows small farmers unprecedented access to water—a resource in rural Africa as valuable as any currency. The product of careful research and development by KickStart, a Nairobi-based NGO formerly known as ApproTEC, the MoneyMaker pump is a portable, manually operated, self-installed deep-lift pump that can both pull water from a deep well and pressurize it through a hosepipe. Based on feedback from farmers, the nonprofi t now manufactures two models of the basic pump, the Super MoneyMaker Pump and the MoneyMaker Plus Pump, which allows one person to irrigate 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) a day, pumping water from as far underground as 23 feet (7 m) and uphill as high as 69 feet (21 m).

KickStart makes each model from widely available steel parts so farmers can easily afford and maintain them. The pedal-driven pumps are light enough to be carried on public transport and safe enough to be operated barefoot. Posture was also a design consideration: The pumps’ pedals operate at a low angle so that women wearing skirts or dresses can be comfortable using them. Today 50 percent of the pumps’ buyers are women. Its makers estimate that in Kenya alone the pump has resulted in the farming of over 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) and $37 million per year in profits and wages for the small-business entrepreneurs who sell the pump throughout Africa.