Financial and digital inclusion for last mile payments: Trends, sustainable land use and disruptive financial service options

May 1, 2023May 1, 2023Mike Hope Leave a comment

A lot of hard work here by my very dear friend who is more like a brother and son to me, and his associate Stephano Celeda

Helping to change the world!

Publication year

2023

Resource type

UNCCD Publication

As the world addresses the necessary realignment in investment strategies to tackle a range of existential issues including climate change, land degradation, polluted oceans and gender inequality; new ways to securely transfer funds and boost digital & financial inclusion are emerging. A high volume of transactions into more hard-to-reach areas are taking place along non-traditional payment corridors, especially where financial infrastructure is limited or does not exist.

Digital identities, mobile wallets, distributed ledger technology, remote Digital, Monitoring Reporting & Verification (DRMV) techniques as well as advancements in mobile network coverage are presenting new opportunities for rural communities and women to participate financially in the green transition. A range of secure ways to pay recipients government subsidies or aid is also an opportunity for organizations to augment and target their impact on the ground.

Governments and global institutions have an important role to play in providing favorable regulatory conditions and in supporting infrastructure for digital solutions, to enable mass adoption and financial inclusion. There has been significant progress and learnings from the private and public sectors on the Indian Subcontinent that have embraced the opportunity afforded by digital identities and mobile wallet technology. This has also provided a platform for start-ups to focus on financially disenfranchised groups, such as, rural communities and women.

As for purpose companies, tech for good, non-profits and NGOs look to create longer term sustainable development, leveraging advances in disruptive fintech and digital infrastructure is key. As the cost of these technologies fall, the greater the opportunity becomes to make a significant environmental and social impact in LMICs.

In this report we examine a range of interconnecting elements that make up financial inclusion and last mile payments and will provide the reader with tangible examples that can be deployed in remote areas to empower underserved groups such as young people and women…

230417-unccd-financial-and-digital-inclusion-for-last-mile-payments-eng Download

Thank you for taking a look and if you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know.

Mike-Hope

Rainforest Connection – Phones Turned to Forest Guardians

July 10, 2014July 10, 2014Mike Hope Leave a comment

Hi all,

I have been checking this out and find it fascinating on how we can use old phones to potentially stop illegal deforestation of the rain forests, in both Africa and South America. This illegal logging speeds the extinction of endangered species and significantly adds to the effects of global climate change! This ultimately effects every one of us as we share this planet with many other creatures all of which have a right to survive. Take a moment to check it out and I think you’ll appreciate what these guys are trying to do. They can also use a little help to get this great project well and truly off the ground. Great work guys and you’ve got my support!!!

Here is a an extract from their site – the project is supported by KICKSTARTER…

See what Neil Young, Environmentalist, Musician, Inventor, has to say...

Watch the Video

Technology to stop illegal logging and poaching on-the-spot. It’s our answer to climate change & mass extinctions.

Rainforest Connection – Kickstarter

How will it be done…

Rainforest Connection

What is Rainforest Connection?

Rainforest Connection (RFCx) transforms recycled smartphones into autonomous, solar-powered listening devices that can detect and pinpoint signs of environmental destruction activity—such as chainsaws, gunshots and animal distress calls—at great distance.

Current detection systems rely on satellites which show rainforest destruction days or weeks too late. Our system provides the world’s first real-time logging/poaching detection system. We can pinpoint deforestation activity the moment it begins, while simultaneously streaming the data openly and immediately to anyone around the world.

Rainforest Connection – Kickstarter

With the Rainforest Connection mobile app, any interested person from around the world can listen-in on the rainforest anytime, from anywhere…

Taking it one step further: the Rainforest Connection mobile app

PLAY

In late 2014, web & mobile apps will be released to let backers stream the LIVE sounds of the rainforest in Africa and the Amazon. Just click Play above to hear the sounds of the rainforest as captured by the RFCx system in Sumatra.

Rainforest Connection – Press

Rainforest Connection

Learn more…

VIDEO

I really appreciate you taking a moment look at this as it’s using technology for a great cause! I like it a lot…

Mike-Hope

COSMOS -A Spacetime Odyssey

June 2, 2014Mike Hope Leave a comment

Have you been watching Cosmos 2014 with Neil DeGrasse Tyson? This is quite amazing and a real tribute to Carl Sagan who co-wrote and presented the original awesome series!! If you haven’t seen this series you should check it out the production is amazing and the logic flawless. The last enthralling episode will help many of us understand more fully the causes and consequences of global climate change. For some this may be an eye opener and for all it should be a call to action!! You can check it out on-line at COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey

“We are alive thanks to our countless ancestors who have survived for over 3 billion years”

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Carl Sagan

Let’s turn Carl Sagan’s vision and Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s tenacity into reality. We can make this into a “Garden of Eden“, we have the power if we have the will!! The strength of humanity is in it’s common bond and that common bond can drive us to great things. As it says on the web photo “We are alive thanks to our countless ancestors who have survived for over 3 billion years” To reflect on this, just for a short time, makes us realise that hardships and sacrifices they all went through to bring us to this point in our long and turbulent history. Let’s not forget our heritage and do what all those millions of voices would be imploring us to do! After all it is their world too…

Thanks for stopping by,

Mike Hope