iBoP Asia 2008 Small Grant Projects – Part two
iBoP Asia 2008 Small Grant Projects – March 2010 Jakarta
Exhibits of projects completed displayed at the Frontiers seminar on March 3rd in Jakarta, Indonesia. Click on photos to see details. continued in next post.
Introducing Meena Kadri
New Zealand born Meena Kadri has an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and a Masters in Design. She has taught at design schools globally, notably for two years at the National Institute of Design in India. She currently resides in New Zealand from where she explores the intersection of communication, culture and creativity via her research […]
Synthesis of the Prepaid Economy Project
The impetus for the Prepaid Economy project came from field observations during other projects which focused on the design and development of products and services for those at the BoP. It was noted that the majority of the BoP lived on irregular incomes derived from a variety of sources, while few business models or payment […]
Seasonality and its influence on rural BoP household financial management
Fallow field, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan India January 2009 I first noticed the influence of seasonality on income halfway during the Indian fieldwork. On one hand, its but natural that the seasons are linked to a farmer's cash flow, dependent as it is on the harvest. But it was when I met the silversmith that I […]
Observations: Rural BoP and the cash economy
Investment or Independence? Photo Credit: Goverdhan Meena Across the board, the particular characteristic that most stood out during my conversations with the rural populace in India and The Philippines, as well as prior experiences elsewhere, was their undeniable pride in their degree of self reliance, and thus, their level of independence from […]
Wrapping up the project
The time has come to make my primary blog, Perspective 2.0 the default on Emerging Futures Lab's website. While the oodles of information, data and understanding churned up by this project means that there's material enough for future thinking and pondering on the topic of the BoP's household financial practices, the primary phases of this […]
Some observed behaviour patterns in rural BoP households
Collage by Dave Tait Across the regions, we saw patterns of financial behaviour (download PDF) that echoed similarities of intent and goals. For example, at peak times such as the post harvest season, wealth was often stored in the form of grain (rice in the Philippines or wheat in India) and then converted to cash […]
Some thoughts on community based models for sharing costs
We found that the key factor that makes 'prepaid' payment plans (whether its for electricity, mobile phones, water etc) so attractive to the BoP customer, in the context of their own behaviour patterns regarding the management of their personal finances. This is the fact that this model puts significant control over time – frequency and […]
The Philippines: User profiles from extended stay
I lived with Fe Mainar who runs a sarisari shop in Gines Patag in Iloilo Province in The Philippines from the 20th of February 2009 to March 1st 2009. While I was unable to formally interview as many people as I'd done in India, I had the unforgettable experience of immersing myself in the truly […]
