Re-imagining money to broaden the future of development finance: what Kenyan community currencies reveal is possible for financing development

This paper argues that it is important to understand the nature of money and its impacts to be able to engage better with currency innovations for sustainable development. The paper focuses on the case of Bangla-Pesa, an alternative currency used in poor urban areas in Kenya, to demonstrate how currency innovation can work for poor people. The Kenyan non-governmental organization, Grassroots Economics, is helping to create business networks in the poorest urban areas. Vouchers, issued and honoured by every member of the network, function as a form of currency. This has led to an increase in turnover of more than 20 percent and corresponding economic growth, as well as a reduction of waste and unemployment. This model requires very little investment. However, despite an excellent and documented track record, Grassroots Economics was unable to secure any institutional funding. The authors suspect that this lack of support arises from a lack of understanding among development professionals about the nature of money, how new currencies can be created and which innovations are useful. This paper therefore seeks to inform policy makers about the nature of money, offering a new typology of money called the Value-Sequence Typology, which categorizes “monies” based on the process and justification for issuing new units, or in this case, vouchers. The authors propose a new definition of money as a system of agreements and symbols which influence the creation and exchange of value and power. The agreements, whether explicit or implicit, about the relationship between the symbols of money and when the actual value of what was monetized changes hands, (before, during, or after) are the most important signifier of money types. Grassroots economics, in a context of a community of micro-entrepreneurs, uses a Collaborative Credit System (CCS) in which members issue interest free credit to each other. This is similar to how most national currencies are created, yet it is done peer-to-peer, without the involvement of banks. The authors feel this is particularly important in a time of declining official development assistance. Creative insight into the nature of money could enable a new era in development cooperation through promotion of collaborative credit systems

Complementary Currencies for Sustainable Development in Kenya

This paper is a report on the development of a complementary currency system that allows Kenyans in informal settlements to trade goods and services and meet sustainable development objectives. The system in this report, Bangla-Pesa, uses a ‘collaborative credit’ model through a network of local business, whose owners often struggle to meet their basic needs (also known as ‘mutual credit’). The paper documents the reasons for its creation, how it was launched, the immediate positive benefits upon launch, and some of the difficulties faced. Bangla-Pesa is shown to have facilitated, upon its launch, exchanges of roughly 50 Euros in value per day among 109 businesses, which is projected to raise living standards in the community primarily through the utilization of excess business capacity. After only a week of circulation – Bangla-Pesa represented an estimated 22 total trade among community members. This system’s implementation and governance model are detailed with the aim of improving upon and replicating the model for future sustainable development programs

Effects of Ambient Turbulence on Interleaving at a Baroclinic Front

In this paper the authors investigate the action of ambient turbulence on thermohaline interleaving using both theory and numerical calculations in combination with observations from Meddy Sharon and the Faroe Front. The highly simplified models of ambient turbulence used previously are improved upon by allowing turbulent diffusivities of momentum, heat, and salt to depend on background gradients and to evolve as the instability grows. Previous studies have shown that ambient turbulence, at typical ocean levels, can quench the thermohaline interleaving instability on baroclinic fronts. These findings conflict with the observation that interleaving is common in baroclinic frontal zones despite ambient turbulence. Another challenge to the existing theory comes from numerical experiments showing that the Schmidt number for sheared salt fingers is much smaller than previously assumed. Use of the revised value in an interleaving calculation results in interleaving layers that are both weaker and thinner than those observed. This study aims to resolve those paradoxes. The authors show that, when turbulence has a Prandtl number greater than unity, turbulent momentum fluxes can compensate for the reduced Schmidt number of salt fingering. Thus, ambient turbulence determines the vertical scale of interleaving. In typical oceanic interleaving structures, the observed property gradients are insufficient to predict interleaving growth at an observable level, even when improved turbulence models are used. The deficiency is small, though: gradients sharper by a few tens of percent are sufficient to support instability. The authors suggest that this is due to the efficiency of interleaving in erasing those property gradients. A new class of mechanisms for interleaving, driven by flow-dependent fluctuations in turbulent diffusivities, is identified. The underlying mechanism is similar to the well-known Phillips layering instability; however, because of Coriolis effects, it has a well-defined vertical scale and also a tilt angle opposite to that of finger-driven interleaving

Complementary currencies for sustainable development in Kenya: the case of the Bangla-Pesa

This paper is a report on the development of a complementary currency system that allows Kenyans in informal settlements to trade goods and services and meets sustainable development objectives. The system in this report, Bangla-Pesa, uses a mutual-credit model through a network of local business, including many whose owners fall under the extreme poverty line. The paper documents the reasons for its creation, how it was launched, the immediate positive benefits upon launch, and some of the difficulties faced. Bangla-Pesa is shown to facilitate exchanges of roughly 50 Euros in value per day among 109 businesses, which should raise living standards in the community primarily through the utilization of excess business capacity. After only a week of circulation – Bangla-Pesa helped community members increase sales an estimated 22% through capacity trading. This system’s implementation and governance model are detailed with the aim of improving upon and replicating the model for future sustainable development programs

Wind-driven mixing at intermediate depths in an ice-free Arctic Ocean

Recent seasonal Arctic Ocean sea ice retreat is a major indicator of polar climate change. The Arctic Ocean is generally quiescent with the interior basins characterized by low levels of turbulent mixing at intermediate depths. In contrast, under conditions of reduced sea ice cover, there is evidence of energetic internal waves that have been attributed to increased momentum transfer from the atmosphere to the ocean. New measurements made in the Canada Basin during the unusually ice-free and stormy summer of 2012 show previously observed enhancement of internal wave energy associated with ice-free conditions. However, there is no enhancement of mixing at intermediate depths away from significant topography. This implies that contrary to expectations of increased wind-induced mixing under declining Arctic sea ice cover, the stratification in the central Canada Basin continues to suppress turbulent mixing at intermediate depths and to effectively isolate the large Atlantic and Pacific heat reservoirs from the sea surface

The Impact of Neighbourhood Planning and Localism on House-building in England

© 2016 IBF, The Institute for Housing and Urban ResearchThe devolution of governance to communities is an integral aspect of the state strategy of localism but may conflict with a spatial restructuring dedicated to the liberalization of economic growth. In England, community opposition to house-building has been cited as one of the key factors in the decline in new housing supply over the last decade. The policy of neighbourhood planning was introduced there in 2011 to overcome this opposition by devolving limited powers to communities to influence development. It was anticipated that giving communities the right to draw up neighbourhood development plans would secure their compliance with a pro-growth agenda and increase the number of sites allocated for housing. This paper explores the impact of neighbourhood planning in England on housing development and analyses its lessons for the state strategy of localism. It argues that neighbourhood planning is emerging as the proponent of sustainability and social purpose in the English housing market, in conflict with the corporate interests of a liberalized housing development market

Mothers construct fathers: Destabilized patriarchy in La Leche League

This paper examines changing masculine ideals from the point of view of women homemakers through a case study of La Leche League, a maternalist organization dedicated to breastfeeding and mother primacy. We suggest two reasons for studying the League: first, an emerging literature suggests that changing norms are seeping into many such seemingly conservative groups, and second, the League continues to be highly successful among white, middle-class, married women. The paper looks at two aspects of masculinity, examining changes in the League through fieldwork, interviews, and content analysis, and finds that new norms of increased father involvement and decreased rights over women's bodies have both influenced League philosophy. We conclude that while in some respects a measure of the decline of men's patriarchal privileges, the League's changes also may contribute to a “restabilization” of male dominance in a modified, partial form.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43548/1/11133_2004_Article_BF00990071.pd