Matslats - Community currency engineer
"Blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessing" - Thomas Carlisle
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Transition bonds?Transition Network aims to make necessary, large-scale, pervasive changes to the infrastructure of our civilisation and to our society while appealing for funds from charitable organisations and grant-making bodies, much as a donkey sanctuary might. In a period of capital squeeze, small business, local businesses have less access to captial than ever, because the monetary runes dictate that large, asset stripping organisations make better investments than local, productive, resilient, enterprises. Those who have heeded the 'Move your money' campaigns are now using their money for sticking plaster solutions - credit unions are a boon to the poor, and they help deleverage the banking system, but why are they the only game on town? 'Ethical investing' as marketed by the city, is about getting a return on capital while doing no evil. 'Impact investing' may salve the consciences of the guilty rich, but even this is not the ethics of transition. So what about capital that wants to create employment, stay local, spread the risk, hedge and mitigate against economic collapse, and maybe even provide a return as well? It is much easier and safer to invest in the Chinese high street and to share the benefits with a long chain of finance professionals, than to invest in my own high street or local cottage enterprises. A really committed investor could of course seek out local entrepreneurs and work with lawyers to draw up loan contracts. It is of course possible to to lend £1000 at a time, and exhort local businesses to support each other and hence, the investment. But I don't know anyone that committed. The lawyers and the courts and the Inland Revenue are all geared for efficiency, not resilience. I want to be able to go into my local solicitors' and buy local bonds at £1000 a pop. I want to know that the money is managed under trust law. Then I want to attend a quarterly meeting in which bondholders decide how best to invest the capital. I may or may not need a financial return on the bonds, but if I could get perks from the businesses, I would feel much more engaged.
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Ubuntu-Pesa The project is
Ubuntu-Pesa
The project is called Ubuntu-Pesa ~ venture-capital for the poor, similar to Zidisha but mainly for the unbanked. There are some other differences.
1) The loans Ubuntu-Pesa members make are interest-free (as per 'Islamic finance'), and
2) Ubuntu-Pesa raises capital only from migrants and ex-patriots (the diaspora), which they invest in entrepreneurs from low income countries at the greatest risk and who need the most help ~ Liberia, Niger, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Madagascar etc., and
3) Ubuntu-Pesa is a "for-more-than-profit" organisation which, in order to create a legal framework that allows its members to provide interest free capital, our corporate structure is very different from most companies. We are a co-operative of co-operatives.
Later, Ubuntu-Pesa itself will also invest in, and raise charitable funds from individuals, foundations and corporations for, a sustainable development fund to help the poor create social infrastructure, affordable healthcare, housing, energy, schooling, roads, clean water etc, then let them make their own priorities and funding decisions ~ using some insights I learned from Wangari Muta Maathai.
For the final stage of this project ~ the sustainable development fund ~ "Transition Bonds" might be something we can use. How can I find out more?
Terence.
“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” ~ Mark Twain
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