Taking and Staking: Session Six of the 2016 Conference

The final panel of the conference was devoted to "Up(S)takes of New Financial Tools and Technologies" with discussant Sonia Arenaza of the Better Than Cash Alliance of the United Natons Capital Development Fund. Arenaza praised the from-the-ground perspective of panelists that provided "a human and social dimension" for developing digital financial services for underserved populations with the aim of creating a more "inclusive digital ecosystem" that considers social dynamics and ways to "broaden" connective chains.

In "Separate self, interdependent self and new financial technologies - Lessons from rural southern India" Venkatasubramanian Govindan of the French Institute of Pondicherry described research in the field in Tamil Nadu as rural southern India undertakes a "massive effort to bank the unbanked citizen" with a focus on women and Dalits. The Prime Minister's ambitious Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) initiative, which combines access to accounts with biometric authentication, attempts to launch new financial inclusion efforts on a massive scale. (For more on PMJDY, see this IMTFI interview with Dan Radcliffe, which provides more information about this time of rapid change in India.) As Govindan explained, existing systems for smart cards and cash delivery -- combined with NREGA (the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005) -- have created bureaucracies that aren't always easily accessible to villagers or comprehensible to their lifeworlds.

National banks may have obligations and relationships, but the role of villagers is "reduced to a minimum." Because they have had "no contact at all with the banks," which they perceive of as "distant," they "immediately withdraw payments." There also may be many logistical snafus in doling out resources. As the photograph above indicates, Govindan showed a video with villagers lining up for fingerprint authentication using a mobile machine in which a young woman is finally successful in completing the vetting process after frustrating glitches. (For more on the problems with authenticating identity in the new e-Aadhaar system, see this IMTFI blog post about the research of Mani Nandhi working with rickshaw pullers in Delhi.)

Govindan lamented the fact that with these ubiquitous computing devices there may be "problems with maintenance" and "few sites" capable of repairs. In the litany of other woes, he also mentioned insufficient cash, short battery charge life, inadequate transfers of the BC, and limited amounts on transactions. Furthermore, there may be caste conflicts governing who can hand cash to whom, which can be exacerbated when banks assume there are no distinction issues about accepting payment.

By exploring "the effects in terms of saving practices" and the "public dimension" of private financial practices, like other IMTFI researchers, Govindan emphasized the impact of "mistrust and rumors." He also highlighted the advantages of other saving practices, including ROSCAs (rotating savings and credit associations) and lending to others.In particular, he emphasized the fact that over 70% of saving was through acquisition of gold, (For more on gold economies among the poor, see this in-depth profile of Nithya Joseph,)

He also shared a number of everyday practices of financial upkeep in an environment in which keeping bills is very uncommon by thinking about "the effects" of different financial inclusion efforts "in terms of worldview." He noted that financial calculations were often significant in planning for ceremonies, particularly ceremonies of marriage, puberty, and housewarming. A key life event might drain 4-8 years of household income, but such investments were critical in building respect (raiyatai). He noted how the "continuous chain of reciprocity" and local understandings of "accountability and debt payment" were important. He also stressed the importance of "mental accounting" among people with "little written culture" and how structures in which one person would be in charge of the family memory, including its financial memory, functioned. He closed be reiterating how the gap between financial inclusion objectives and people's practices had to be acknowledged, particularly "how people translate" when new initiatives are launched. A second round of household surveys is planned for the next phase of research.

"Cross-border Transfers as a Strategic Tool to Promote the Diffusion of Mobile Money in Rural Areas. The Case of Burkinabe Diaspora Living in Ivory Coast" by Solène Morvant-Roux of the Univesity of Geneva, Simon Barussaud of the University of Geneva, and Dieudonné Ilboudo of the National Centre of Scientific and Technological Research in Ouagadougou (CNRST/INERA) examined mobile money diffusion and its role in the economies of transnational migration.

The research team -- not all of whom could come to UCI -- began by providing an outline of their presentation, which followed the conventional social science template of "background," "methodology," and "findings" as its basic structure. Morvant-Roux presented the existing empirical evidence on mobile money diffusion and usage on the domestic level before moving into their own case studies examining urban-rural transfers, where they were looking for international transfers between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Researchers hypothesized that the introduction of mobile money in 2014 might be attractive to participants in the longstanding migration dynamic because of poor roads, spotty Internet services, and weak security, but they were wary of assuming patterns of usage that were solely instrumental. They planned their study by looking at the provision of mobile money services in comparison to other services, and they wanted to consider both the supply side and the migrant side of adoption potential. They also considered age, gender, location, and mobility as explanatory factors, as well as an analysis of the broader socio-economic and socio-political context. For migrants, "maintaining ties to one's own country" might be complicated, and the "emergence of new brokerage dynamics" might take surprising turns.

Barussaud explained how they conducted the survey first in Ivory Coast and then in Burkina Faso during January and February. He described how they undertook to survey a "broader view" of mobile money diffusion by deploying a mixed methods approach, which included 250 interviews, 337 transfers, focus groups, and analysis of secondary data. They chose the first field site based on immigration data. It was a site dominated by coffee plantations, where foreigners in area accounted for 45% of the population. The second area was chosen based on the first, as the origin point of significant chain migration. By identifying two major hubs, they hoped to better understand family configuration (which was transnational and often polygamous and constituted with an average of 12 members) and economic activities related to the 80% of migrants laboring on cocoa and coffee plantations, although there had been attempts at diversification with farming rubber trees and palm nuts. The picture of financial practices showed low formal inclusion at a level of less than 20% of participants and the characteristics of income seasonality.

Researchers focused on recent and regular transfers, at a typical rate of 5-7 per year, as part of the rhythm of migration pattens that were now over 20 years in the making with a number of second-generation migrants in the mix. Data collection tools included discussions with migrant workers and spouses and family members (155 family members in Ivory Coast and 100 in Burkina Faso), as well as geographical methods including geopositioning and light surveys. They also looked at census data and the typology of remittance service providers, to understand the supply-side dynamics.

International companies (like Western Union and MoneyGram) had been providers since the early 2000s, but these companies relied on Internet technology and consequently had a very reduced network. West African companies (like Wari, and Quick Cash) were able to take advantage of GSM technology and had been subregional economic players since 2010. The third set of actors on the supply-side had been the newer M-wallet services. Because mobile money induces a spatial diffusion of financial and transfer services, researchers wanted to look at the difference between 2012 and 2015 in mobile money diffusion. Uptake was often frustrated by a number of factors, including the difficulties of cashing out, spatial disparities, interoperability challenges that could lead to network disturbances, and the exclusion of women. In addition to gender gaps and generational gaps, there were also issues of illiteracy and mastery of technology, as well as trust gaps and innovation reluctance.

The sessions with the in-process researchers ended on a playful note with "Exploring Rosca Dynamics with a Cambodian Factory Worker Board Game" by Andrew Crawford of Monash University who had been working with IMTFI to create a game about Rotating Savings and Credit Associations. Crawford has a history of thinking about entertainment and affect in financial inclusion efforts. For example, you can read about his work on promoting financial literacy through television comedy, particularly on buses, here.

Crawford began by thanking those at the IMTFI conference who had during lunch played the Tong Tin Game. (See below for a photograph of play testing at the IMTFI conference.) He noted the distinction between more static ROSCAs and bidding ROSCAs, that already incorporated some elements of gamification. (For more explanation of how gamification works, see this online course from U Penn professor Kevin Werbach.) In a bidding ROSCA each member contributes a monthly deposit and a lump sum can be paid out to one member who needs access to credit and who bids the highest interest rate. From this structure can emerge poker-like dynamics of anticipating risks and bluffing. The idea for Tong Tin grew out of an original IMTFI workshop in 2014. Crawford showed video of IMTFI researchers listing their different needs that were translated onto cards, including money to travel to a wedding on other side of Cambodia, a husband who lost his job, a daughter who was pregnant, an opportunity to buy land, a husband was jailed, an a husband's medical expenses. (The concept of playtesting is central to the game design process for both commercial and so-called "serious games" created by nonprofit organizations and independent developers. See this list of best practices for playtesting to see how Crawford has integrated these principles.

The rules of the game represent how people are incentivized to participate by the potential to make a high return, To reflect the economic environment of the garment factory the board is shaped like a button. On the 28-day circle representing the workers' factory month there is a square with a payday, a square with the ROSCA meeting, and other types of squares corresponding to green, red, and blue cards. The player begins the game with 100 dollars. In addition to payment on the payday, players may also have opportunities to buy assets like a chicken or experience setbacks like a dental crisis. Blue squares can move you either backward or forward.

Approximately 70% of Cambodian factory workers are involved in Tong Tin groups, which offer additional opportunities to earn capital. Among factory workers, both cashing out and stealing occurs, but there is still a strong trust element. In the game you can help people and experience the dynamics around borrowing (including consideration of interest rates, indebtedness, and emergency funds) and strategize about savings and investment (considering factors like a high rate of return, storage of savings, and the ability to cash out). The game also models trust and loyalty in rates and flight risks and asset purchasing with borrowed funds. It is designed to educate young people about ROSCA risks and benefits.

In addition to its didactic purposes as "a good way to understand the system," using a game also has many benefits to research. According to Crawford, "people don't want to talk about personal finance," but the "game format allows you to collect data" more naturally. He also showed video of playtesting with Cambodian workers, as the frame above taken from his footage shows. He organized 5 sessions of playtesting with his prototype, using 30 minutes of play with 8 players, 30 minutes of focus groups, and 30 minutes of one-on-one tablet surveys. Because factory workers had little time to spare, short sessions were critical for gathering data. He noticed some interesting quirks in the field site, including people's reluctance to draw cards from the top. He observed that a reliable chief player was critical to the game, as a figure for providing insurance as well as keeping hold of money.

Crawford still plans some revisions based on his findings. In working with the prototype he realized that he had underestimated the cost of a pig stock. He also noticed problems with using clip-art illustration with stock images. As one informant noted of a conventional portrayal of a thief: "the white guy stole your money." He has been partnering with Winrock International, which is already in the region working on human trafficking and shares his enthusiasm for helping people learn "how to grow their assets instead of going to Thailand." He has concluded that more research from behavioral studies in anthropology and behavioral economics will be helpful and is planning use in schools in both developing and developed countries, so that more affluent young citizens might gain empathy for the challenges of managing money in developing country, and hopes to develop mobile apps with the game as well. For those interested in the possible etymological origins of his "Game to Reap and Sew," check out the eighteenth century investment scheme Tontine.

The lively question and answer session emphasized the problem of "the one percent" in developing countries as asymmetrical stakeholders in inclusion efforts and critical reflection on the ethics of participation for researchers in countries in which wealth distribution is so uneven.

Female Financial Literacy: Gender in Mobile Money and Financial Practices

In introducing this IMTFI panel, Rebecca Mann of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation argued that "gender is important," because women are less likely to be involved in the financial sector and among the poorest of the poor may thus find it harder to respond to financial shocks and to capitalize on opportunities, particularly because women earn money in smaller increments, even if they do so more regularly, which are dissipated in household expenses relatively quickly.  By highlighting "research that we are seeing" that "documents behaviors of women and girls," Mann expressed her hope that the daily expenditures of the very poor could be better understood.  She also took a moment to promote the Grand Challenges initiative, which in the past has tackled design challenges that range from the toilet to the condom, and its efforts in a new program for "Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development."

In "Mobile Money, Social Capital, and Financial Behavior of Women’s Cooperatives in Rural Nigeria" by Onyima Jude Kenechi and Onugu Charles Uchenna of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, researchers asked the following question: "What are traditional ways of storing and transferring wealth?"  This fundamental baseline provides a key way for understanding how was/would mobile money be transformative, if "mobile money adoption changed the financial behavior of rural women."  Among their informants, 38% had no formal education, and 73% came from households with more than six occupants.  Among them were office cleaners, casual workers, petty farmers, hawkers, sales attendants, and apprentices.  99% own mobile phones, but they used them primarily for calls, texts, and downloads of music and pictures.  93% did not have ownership of a bank account, and only 5% participated in micro finance institutions.  In this demographic only 8% of respondents had heard of mobile money, and only 3% have used such services, as opposed to 46% awareness statistics in urban areas in which 16% of residents are also users.  Researchers attributed slow uptake to a number of factors, but singled out  lack of coordination between the National Communication Commission and the National Bank of Nigeria as a key problem.  Despite entry into the Nigerian market by 10 mobile money operators, relatively few of those most in need signed up for accounts.

Many informants mentioned the role of community leaders, particularly for authority figures and peers among church attendees, as important influencers in their decision making.  For example, researchers reported statements such as "I will use it if someone I trust like our priest educates me" or "I am not comfortable with it, but I can use it if our church member encourage it" or "If it’s that useful, how come other women in our church do not use it?”   Valuables were often kept by ministers, who might also participate in lending activities, serve as guarantors, or provide advice about financial services.  As the Ghana research team reported, the role of deities was also significant in the Nigeria study.

Issues of trust and difficulties in cooperatives also emerged as factors when "arguments and quarrels" were seen as likely consequences for business relationships outside of family structures.  Many respondents were still using advance payments to accumulate capital, despite a relatively strong home saving rate of 20%.  Other mechanisms included informal savings clubs, cooperatives, and thrift collectors.  (For context, respondents reporting spending 30% of their incomes on food.)

Women had access to a number of methods of storing wealth, however, including holding membership in groups, managing the marriage of a girl child, and benefitting from the role of in-laws, as well as from apprenticeships, church sources, title taking, and deities.  Material stores of wealth included jewelry, livestock, utensils, palm oil, and tubers as storage media.  Mobile money adoption had no significant effect on traditional modes of storing wealth, although it did reduce the use of bus drivers, relatives, and others for in-person transfers.  These new financial products also seemed to reduce the risk of being subject to creditors of a debtor coming after family members or being coerced into making sacrifices to deities.  They also appeared to reduce dependence on advance payment instruments.  Mobile money's effects on attendance at cooperative functions was not significant, because there were other socio-cultural reasons for attendance, although it did facilitate certain forms of joint liability by providing a means for peer screening, peer monitoring, and resolving information asymmetry.  Its role in kinship ties among cooperative members and growing a level of trust seemed significant, although fears of members performing transactions without anyone else’s knowledge remained, although members acknowledged it could be helpful in spotting fraud.  At 8% adoption, researchers argued that novel approaches needed to be pursued.  They asked another significant question: "How sacrosanct are the words of religious leaders in money matters and how could they be used to propagate and instill trust?"  Although they still wondered under what conditions could a bank-led model be preferable to operator-led model, they thought that religious leaders could certainly at least promote awareness.

"Assessing the Impact of Financial Knowledge on Adoption of Mobile Payment Systems among Enterprise Owners in Dharavi, Mumbai" by Mudita Tiwari and Deepti KC of India's Institute for Financial Management and Research presented a study conducted in the slum of Dharavi in Mumbai that gathered data from 100 business owners, 20 suppliers, 115 clients, 2 bank managers, and 25 banking agents in order to promote understanding movements of cash.  Researchers reported a strong cash preference, which could be attributed both to savings on taxes and to a lack of awareness and trust in financial products.  Consequently they argued for context-specific financial literacy modules for two groups: migrants and female entrepreneurs.  Despite a range of financial services available, including Tatkal agents able to remit money and employers able to transfer salaries to bank accounts directly, many still prefer informal economies and unbanked financial practices. Researchers showed a range of unconventional saving strategies involving hiding places that have become common practices of money management for women.  Money may be hidden in dirty boxes, talcum powder jars, and other nooks and crannies, but discovery often leads to domestic disputes and even violence from male partners.

First the group described their financial literacy strategy for their target group of 120 migrant workers, which was structured around 3 visits within a month.  34% were aware of mobile banking and 87% visited banking agents after training sessions, and they also seemed better equipped to control gambling, consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, and other “temptation expenses,” despite erratic income, leading to an almost 50% decrease in spending practices that undermine financial stability.

As a co-author of the comic book textbook, Understanding Rhetoric, I was particularly interested to see their financial literacy tools for women, which emphasized graphic media for storytelling and sequential art as a means of communication.   Before adopting this approach they found that the lack of information impeding financial uptake was compounded by apathy toward generic information that "didn’t click."  Those needing advice wanted to relate to stories and characters to understand how cash-only vs. cashless tradeoffs worked, their long-term savings capabilities, and possible improved decision-making processes.  Forgetfulness was also an important issue.  To provide context an interactive story-telling approach using comic books was deployed featuring two memorable practitioner-characters: Radha, who is always struggling with financial adversities, and Saraswati, her sensible money-managing friend who offers approachable solutions that reduce savings inertia over the long term.  Researchers actually used real-life stories to compose the narrative.  Next steps include expanding efforts to  Utter Pradesh and Bihar, making training videos on YouTube that animate the content, and translating existing comic books in different languages.  Audience member Jing Gusto was so enthusiastic about this approach, based on his own experiences of the educational value of telenovelas and SMS questions, that he proposed adapting 3 of the 7 stories of the Indian researchers for use in the Philippines and was counseled to emphasize  how to increase savings as a priority.

"Women, Monetary Practices, and Technological Innovations" by Kone Nara Kanugui Idriss of ENSEA emphasized that although the time of intense crisis in Côte d'Ivoire may have largely passed, which required many women to take children into their families, the financial repercussions continue.  He noted that Orange Money became the first mobile money services in Côte d'Ivoire, but was soon followed by MTN Mobile money, CelpaiD, and Flooz.  Yet even with four providers of mobile money services and 5 million accounts created between 2008 and 2014, obstacles remain.  His team of researchers designed a questionnaire with five sections: access, use, perceptions, monetary practices, and demographics.  Drawing upon a simple random sample of 477 respondents, drawn from Guro market women, one third of whom were single.  Many of those studied only had a primary school education, although they did benefit from a quasi-universal access to cell phones.  Mobile money services were popular among women, who identified their principal sources of information as being entourage influences, media messages, advertisements, and panels.  Only 32% had mobile money accounts, and 4 in 10 users were at the earliest stages of experimenting with mobile money. Trade was the main reason they ventured into novel financial products and services, although they reported occasional misadventures with PIN use, suspicions of agents, and long wait times.  Despite a general perceived ease of use and level-headed approach to risk, doubts sowed by the possibility that "they don’t give you all your money" remained.  Questions were designed to differentiate benefits.  For example, question eighteen dealt with gaining time "in your daily activities," while question nineteen addressed possible increased revenue.   More than a third of women surveyed still appeared to have serious doubts about mobile money services and reported low levels of financial inclusion in an environment in which 8 of 10 might have no access to financial inclusion.  In filling out the profile of a typical mobile money user, the women who emerged had secondary school education, reported perceived ease of use, and had access to the more established Orange mobile network.

Moderator Rebecca Mann challenged panelists to consider financial services beyond savings, including insurance and agricultural investment.  The Indian group of researchers did describe programs for mortgage payments, “good saver” programs that offered low-interest loans, and potential construction of women-only banks.  In the question-and-answer session, the audience expressed admiration for the Indian researchers' abilities to build such trust that the women were willing to show their secret hiding places.  Tiwari and KC explained that these results were the product of multiple trips, going without paper and pen, talking about their own lives, and telling stories with aggregated effort in 20-25 trips over two months.  "That’s why our sample size is so small!"