SHG Digital

Notes from Apr 6 call w Nathaniel Calhoun (@Andrew Hicks (Unlicensed) and @rikin (Unlicensed) )

SHG Digital

• This does not have the full ledger functionality that we are looking for, but it is open source and he offered to put us in contact with some pro-bono developers that might be interested in helping us build out the features. He is following up with some videos on the app which we can send along here.

• One thing that Nathaniel talked about was how in their projects in Ethiopia (Gates funded, maybe in 2016?) they did not believe that digitizing the book keeping was a good idea because of the risks involved with a glitch or problem with the app, or someone losing their phone, etc could lead to the kind of discrepancy or disagreement that previously the paper based bookkeeping process helped to avoid. It seems like this risk can be overcome, however it is something to keep in mind when we design how we work with the groups to transition from paper to digital, there may be a trust gap the

• They didn't see value in digitizing individual SHG member-level credit & savings data.  They attempted to do so and BMGF (which funded their initial work) was pushing them in that direction but their partners, TearFund (https://www.tearfund.org/about-us/our-impact/where-we-work/ethiopia ) which has set up 20K SHGs in Ethiopia (and who we should connect to) struggled with more basic issues.  

• As a result, SHG Platform focused their app on (1) developing a mobile-based content/ebook curriculum for SHG facilitators and (2) aggregate-level SHG data about membership, meeting attendance, etc. that could inform which SHGs were stronger vs. weaker to target their in-person support to those that needed it.  The groups ended up keeping their books of account on paper also cause there were other issues like how would all the members who don't have phones be able to see their records, how would multiple SHG members sign-off on disbursements, etc..  He did see value in individual member-level data if all savings & credit transactions are handled digitally (e.g., if we integrated those payments with mobile money services like m-Pesa/m-Birr) and all members have a phone, but he questioned whether that's useful (and could actually be harmful by exacerbating asymmetries of power & access) in situations where that's not the case.