This is a three year EPSRC funded project to look at how participatory rural appraisal can be used with participatory software design methods to develop appropriate (and appropriated) ICT solutions in microfinance cooperatives. The project will also seek to develop enhanced business models using the opportunities afforded by ICTs.

Specific aims of the rural e-finance project will be:

• To unify and relate methods from rural development, sustainable business modelling, and ICT design;
• To understand the specific needs and problems of rural cooperatives and how these can be met through ICTs;
• To find ways of undertaking ICT for Development that contribute to building innovation capacity in beneficiary communities;
• To create sustainable business models for ICT supported services delivery and information inequality reduction in disadvantaged communities;
• To disseminate the methods and findings to academic and practitioner communities;
• To explore the transfer of lessons learnt from one location to others (e.g. India to China).

Further information can be found in the Project document ( 83kb)

The main goal of the project will be to improve cooperative service delivery in India by leveraging ICTs to enhance impact on underserved communities.

Although the focus will initially be on microfinance, one aim will be to develop concepts for a flexible platform for multiple services that can be adapted to unique combinations of business strands in cooperatives (see diagram).

RSDP = Remote Service Delivery Point

For more information please contact:

• Dr Andy Dearden, Sheffield Hallam University (Project Manager and coordinator of participatory design elements)
• Dr Xiaolan Fu, Cambridge University (Business model development)
• Mr Paul Matthews, Overseas Development Institute / Seb Wills, Cambridge University (Collaboration and ICT evaluation) 
• Mr Subodh Gupta, Saral Services (Local implementation and liaison, adaptation of participatory methods and business models in the local context