Category Archives: Projects and Reports

Introduction to rural household energy consumption behaviour in East Africa (1 of 3 parts)

By Niti Bhan | Published: January 27, 2018

The following is extracted from a six month study during 2012 on household energy consumption behaviour in rural Kenya and Rwanda among the lower income demographic, that led to an understanding of some of barriers hampering the sales of client’s solar products in this market. This first part is an overview of household financial management […]

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TEDTalk video: Recognizing the value creation and economic contribution of the informal economy

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 24, 2017

My talk given at the TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, this August, went live on Ted.com at some point during the night a couple of days ago. At that very moment, I was on a Finnair flight from SIN to HEL, so with a wee bit of delay, here’s the link to the video of the […]

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Fundamental Elements of Informal Sector Commercial Activity

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 28, 2017

There are two key elements which underpin the dynamics of any business or commercial enterprise in the informal sector. These are Time and Money. A generalized framework can be diagrammed, as shown above, where the dotted line denotes the degree of uncertainty and volatility of an individual’s cash flow patterns – whether from a variety […]

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Work in Progress: An Introduction to the Informal Economy’s Commercial Environment

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 27, 2017

This topic is being shared in the form of a collection of essays on the following themes, each becoming hyperlinked on completion. Do bookmark this page for regular updates. Introduction to Background and Context, some caveats apply Fundamental Elements of Informal Sector Commercial Activity Rural household financial management as a foundation Linkages and Networks span […]

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Financial Behaviour Patterns Observed Among Households in Rural Informal Economy in Asia

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 24, 2017

This is the original working paper of the research conducted on rural household financial management, in developing country conditions, pioneering the use of methods from human centered design for discovery, during Nov 2008 to March 2009, aka the Prepaid Economy Project. It was peer reviewed by Brett Hudson Matthews, and I have incorporated his comments into […]

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A Comprehensive Analysis of the Literature on Informal Cross Border Trade in East Africa

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 21, 2017

Download the comprehensive literature review (PDF) on informal cross border trade, in the context of the informal economy of the East African Community, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan. This paper was supported by TradeMark East Africa during the period November 2015 to January 2016. A short extract from the preamble is given […]

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Launching Our Digital Documentation Project: Ibadan’s Tailors, Traders, and Textiles by Nigerian/British artist Folake Shoga

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 14, 2017

After months of hard work, I am very honoured and proud to announced our new digital documentation project by my friend Folake Shoga, a Nigerian/British multidisciplinary artist with more than three decades of experience. She went on a journey of discovery through the twists and turns of the informal value web that holds together West […]

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Innovation, Ingenuity and Opportunity under Conditions of Scarcity (Download PDF)

By Niti Bhan | Published: January 26, 2017

In July 2009, I was inspired by working in the Research wing of the Aalto University’s Design Factory in Espoo, Finland, to launch a group blog called REculture: Exploring the post-consumption economy of repair, reuse, repurpose and recycle by informal businesses at the Base of the Pyramid*. Within a year, this research interest evolved into […]

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Borderland Biashara: Mapping the Cross Border, National and Regional Trade in the East African Informal Economy

By Niti Bhan | Published: June 10, 2016

And, we’re back! With apologies for the long delay in posting on the blog, we’d been busy wrapping up our groundbreaking design research for development programming project for Trade Mark East Africa this past month or so. As you can imagine, the last few weeks of any project suck all the bandwidth out and leave […]

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An Introduction to Human Centered Design for Policy Makers in International Development

By Niti Bhan | Published: May 11, 2015

I’m making available the article based on our work with the Dutch government a couple of years ago. Download PDF

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