We are honored to announce that the first Community Currency Design Course is now available for free on the Grassroots Economics website. The quality of the course is surely granted by the extraordinary experience and knowledge of Dr. William O. Ruddick and his staff behind the Grassroots Economics organization. The course is divided into 5 modules, each one dedicated to a specific topic. Mainly addressed to practitioners, the goal is to understand how to set up and design a community currency project. [ 1 ]
Background
On May 2010, Dr. William O. Ruddick introduced Eco-Pesa to three informal settlements inside Kongowea Location in Mombasa County, namely: Kisimu Ndogo, Shauri Yako, and Mnazi Mmoja. Later he founded Grassroots Economics Foundation and in 2013 developed the Bangla-Pesa model based on the results of Eco-Pesa, in the informal settlement of Bangladesh, Kenya.
Other currencies in Kenya that follow the Bangla-Pesa model include Gatina-Pesa in Kawangware, Kangemi-Pesa in Kangemi, Lindi-Pesa in Kibera, Ng’ombeni-Pesa in Mikindani. K’Mali in Kokstad South Africa, as well as Berg-Rand or BRAND in Bergrivier South Africa, also follow a similar model. [ 2 ]
All local currencies that emerged after the Eco-Pesa in Kenya (six in 2017) experience are now grouped under the label Sarafu-Credit, but they originally were issued under the supervision of an association named Koru Kenya, which does no longer exist. In 2017, six communities are currently using Sarafu-Credit in Kenya totaling over 1200 users. The system is the same in all of them, though each community uses its own version of Sarafu-Credit, giving it a unique name depending on the local toponyms, and managing it independently. [ 3 ]
About the author
Dr. William O. Ruddick is a development economist focusing on East Africa. After completing graduate school researching high energy physics as a collaboration member at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, he found his analysis skills and passion drawn to alternative economics and development. Since 2008 Will has lived in East Africa and managed several successful development programs in environment, food security and economic development. He is dedicated to connecting communities to their own abundance, and is an advocate for, and designer of, Complementary Currencies for poverty eradication and sustainable development. Dr. William O. Ruddick has pioneered Community Currency Programs in Kenya since 2010 and is the founder of the award-winning Bangla-Pesa program. He consults on Community Currencies worldwide and while researching with the University of Cape Town’s Environmental Economics Policy Research Unit. Dr. William O. Ruddick is also an associate scholar with the University of Cumbria’s Institute for Leadership and Sustainability. [ 4 ]
Sources
[ 1 ] https://www.grassrootseconomics.org/mooc
[ 2 ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-Pesa
[ 3 ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarafu-Credit
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