tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/m-pesa-37404/articlesM-Pesa – The Conversation2022-12-20T09:33:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1954572022-12-20T09:33:59Z2022-12-20T09:33:59ZSmall loans: microcredit means more people can borrow money – but more scrutiny is also needed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501098/original/file-20221214-6709-q6m04r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Farmers in India are among communities around the world hit hard by unscrupulous microlending.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Undoubtedly, financial technology (fintech) is driving <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/esade/2022/11/02/how-fintech-can-foster-financial-inclusion-and-literacy/?sh=28ada56b6415">greater financial inclusion</a>. Innovations are giving people more access to financial services through mobile and computing services, the internet, and payment cards. One of these services is microcredit: small loans for individuals and informal businesses. </p>
<p>But a closer look at the microcredit channel of inclusion shows an emerging form of dispossession of the poor. Examples include the catastrophic collapse of microfinance in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/world/asia/18micro.html">Andhra Pradesh, India, in 2010</a>. Microfinance institutions were involved in reckless lending in the chase for abnormal profits. Over-indebted clients could no longer service their debt. Some even took their own lives due to debt recovery-related harassment and the shame of being unable to service debt in group-lending situations.</p>
<p>In an attempt to restore confidence, global development agencies quietly rebranded microfinance. But the microcredit element of financial inclusion still presents problems. It’s even worse now that there is a shift in the funding patterns of microfinance institutions from donors to private capital driven by profit maximisation objectives. </p>
<p>Economists Milford Bateman and Fernando Teixeira
<a href="https://www.tni.org/en/publication/the-promises-and-perils-of-investor-driven-fintech">suggest</a> that the fintech drive in the name of financial inclusion mirrors colonial-style extractivism to maximise profits. </p>
<p>Under this scenario, fintechs brutally extract profits from the financial transactions of the poor. The authors warn against secondary exploitation.</p>
<p>In 2004, Indian-American entrepreneur and author Coimbatore Prahalad published a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Bottom-Pyramid-Eradicating-Poverty/dp/8177587765">book</a> that proposed that the poor hold a “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid”. The book was published amid growing efforts to tap into this so-called fortune for profit in various sectors. Financial services was one of them.</p>
<p>Financial technology firms began to emerge with innovations intended to reduce information asymmetries and transaction costs in providing financial services. This included credit. But there’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/nov/19/microcredit-south-africa-loans-disaster">growing evidence</a> that when left unchecked, market-led financial innovations are more likely to be dominated by profit maximisation objectives at the expense of the very vulnerable. </p>
<h2>Examples of bad practice</h2>
<p>Safaricom and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) are examples of market-oriented initiatives. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wjlta/vol8/iss3/11/">Kenya, Safaricom’s M-Pesa</a> innovation, launched in partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development, improved financial inclusion. It also delivered substantial profits for its private investors and significant indebtedness for its target market. </p>
<p>CPS, a subsidiary whose parent company, Net1 Technologies (Net1), <a href="https://pressroom.ifc.org/all/pages/PressDetail.aspx?ID=18785">received an equity investment</a> from the World Bank’s IFC for broader expansion into Africa, was contracted to disburse social grants in South Africa. The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X19303596">company abused</a> its monopoly position over the personal data of beneficiaries. </p>
<p>The Net1 group <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057070.2022.2004772">made more money</a> from cross-selling financial products, such as microcredit by sister companies, than the CPS contract. </p>
<p>Grant beneficiaries ended up no longer able to meet their households’ immediate needs on a reduced grant and were forced to seek additional debt, likely from unscrupulous lenders, to cover shortages. </p>
<p>The consequences were deepened levels of poverty and the perpetual over-indebtedness of those supposedly getting relief through government grants. </p>
<p>Similarly, in India, the <a href="https://www.chandlerinstitute.org/governancematters/indias-aadhaar-system-bringing-e-government-to-life">Aadhaar system</a> gathers detailed profiles of beneficiaries. These are monetised, and through the process huge profits are made. </p>
<p>Private companies have access to the personal data of government grant recipients. This is used to sell financial products to the grant recipients. Grants get used as collateral for credit, with investors bearing no risk for their commercial enterprise because loan repayments are deducted before grant payments are made to beneficiaries.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/publication/the-promises-and-perils-of-investor-driven-fintech">alternatives</a>. In Brazil, a state-led fintech approach is followed. This works through Banco Mumbuca, a community bank. A community-restricted currency that is pegged at 1:1 to the official currency is created and used to disburse social security payments. </p>
<p>In addition to taxes, the bank is sustained by revenue earned on every business transaction and from the conversion of community currency to official currency. Consequently, microloans made to the community for social development programmes and entrepreneurship are at zero or very low-interest rates. This is much lower than in the market-led approaches.</p>
<h2>Takeaways</h2>
<p>Fintechs are an essential way to address market failures of traditional banking. But market-led innovations exploit the poor. These practices are made possible when governments fail to develop the capacity to deliver social services and outsource them to private entities. </p>
<p>Data is now seen as “the new oil”. It thus makes sense for the state to guard it jealously. Developing countries should protect the interests of the poor by carefully scrutinising market-led financial inclusion efforts. They should develop internal capacity to safeguard citizens’ data, and explore the viability of fintech models.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lungile Ntsalaze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Market-led microcredit innovations dominated by profit maximisation can harm the very vulnerable.Lungile Ntsalaze, Executive Dean: College of Business & Economics, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1637012021-11-02T14:39:16Z2021-11-02T14:39:16ZHow a money transfer system really helped Kenya’s poor – now it must be careful not to leave them behind<p>It started as a development project in Kenya designed to help poor rural entrepreneurs without bank accounts. Now M-Pesa, a phone-based money transfer service, has <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/10/03/what-kenya-s-mobile-money-success-could-mean-for-the-arab-world">millions of users</a> across the country. </p>
<p>So far in 2021, those customers have used M-Pesa (M is for mobile, and <em>pesa</em> is Swahili for money) to <a href="https://www.centralbank.go.ke/national-payments-system/mobile-payments/">move over 580 billion Kenyan shillings</a> (£3.8 billion) per month. </p>
<p>The service has come a long way since it was founded 14 years ago to enable the payment of micro loans. It quickly grew as a popular way to send money back home to dependants, and now supports a full banking service with bill-paying, savings and loan facilities, as well as a system that allows customers to complete transactions even when they lack sufficient funds.</p>
<p>For poor customers, the arrival of M-Pesa offered a way to take control of their lives. Women in rural villages could bypass patriarchal control of family finances to pay school fees and support small businesses. </p>
<p>Workers in cities could send money home quickly and cheaply. The key value of M-Pesa was that it served the needs of people who had previously been unable to access traditional banks. For those living precariously, it offered a route to freedom.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0960085X.2021.1924088?src">our research</a> we interviewed M-Pesa users in some of the poorest villages in western Kenya to understand what the service meant to them. </p>
<p>Their stories of deprivation and the effect of M-Pesa were then transcribed into poetic form to best express their feelings towards the service.</p>
<p>These suggest that a particular value of M-Pesa lay in freeing women from male financial control and supporting informal business relationships. Mothers could send money to daughters whenever they got a bit of money. They could stop husbands and brothers blowing the school fees on alcohol. </p>
<p>A 50-year-old woman customer said M-Pesa was: “Like drinking fresh water on a dusty afternoon.” </p>
<p>She added: “Poverty undresses you, weakens you, exposes you to every attack.”</p>
<p>A 48-year-old woman told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have three men: my husband, my first two boys; all they do is eat, drink and sleep. Every morning they are looking for the best liquor.
They are my burden, so I will carry it.
I use M-Pesa. I send my daughter money in school.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A woman of 18 said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I sent my cousin my number. She has not stopped sending money ever since,
Sometimes in the middle of the night I receive a message.
It’s money; very pleasant surprises, yes very pleasant.
We can receive money. Save. And be safe from idle men.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One 41-year-old man reflected: “I have stopped thinking of M-Pesa as a technology.
It’s become a part of me.”</p>
<p>Our research shows that M-Pesa has clearly improved the lives of many.</p>
<h2>Money on the move</h2>
<p>In April 2020, the South African company Vodacom, jointly with Kenya’s Safaricom, took <a href="https://www.vodafone.com/news/press-release/vodacom-and-safaricom-joint-venture-to-accelerate-m-pesa-expansion">total ownership</a> of M-Pesa from the UK company Vodafone (which launched it with Safaricom), <a href="https://www.telecomtv.com/content/digital-platforms-services/branchless-banking-service-m-pesa-is-now-%20the-biggest-fintech-platform-in-africa-42322/">aiming for</a> further geographical expansion and greater development of financial services. </p>
<p>We hope such ambitious levels of expansion do not end up transforming M-Pesa into a tool for more affluent users, rather than the people who fall outside of traditional financial frameworks. So as the operation grows and becomes more sophisticated (<a href="https://www.potentash.com/2021/06/24/mpesa-super-app-new-features/">it launched</a> an app for smartphones earlier this year), their services should remain within reach of those who only have access to more basic technology (only <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tobyshapshak/2020/04/06/vodacom-and-safaricom-acquire-m-pesa-to-accelerate-mobile-money-services-in-africa/?sh=7b49a2fca392">25% of M-Pesa customers</a> own a smartphone). </p>
<p>Unless that happens, M-Pesa’s original purpose may be sidelined, as it risks looking more and more like any other banking system, rather than a way of helping the poor. </p>
<p>Our concern is that those who cannot afford the latest technology simply get left behind. As M-Pesa (whose owners, Safaricom and Vodacom, declined to comment when we raised these issues) becomes increasingly commercialised with new apps, e-commerce sites and banking structures, there is a risk that its great value to the disenfranchised diminishes – and they become even poorer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We spoke to poor M-Pesa customers in Kenya who said it had changed their lives.Neil McBride, Reader in IT Management, De Montfort UniversitySamuel Liyala, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/913662018-03-19T21:44:47Z2018-03-19T21:44:47ZHow local business innovation equips off-grid households with electricity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210847/original/file-20180316-104639-9ymst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Solar panels sit on the roof of a home in Enkanini, on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If the old adage is true and necessity is the mother of invention, then ingenuity must surely be the father.</p>
<p>Globally, <a href="https://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/WEO2016SUM.pdf">1.2 billion people live without access to electricity</a>. To overcome the decades-old challenges that developing regions face, solutions must not only address today’s needs but also create a bridge toward tomorrow’s opportunities.</p>
<p>Within this decade, the global <a href="https://www.lightingglobal.org/2018-global-off-grid-solar-market-trends-report/">off-grid solar energy market</a> has grown complex and dynamic. Initially, it was marked by low levels of activity and low-power lighting, but there has been significant growth in recent years driven by improvements to hardware and customer service options. </p>
<p>More than 130 million off-grid devices, from solar lamps to high-efficiency appliances, have been sold since 2010, reaching approximately 17 per cent of the global market while generating US$3.9 billion in revenue.</p>
<h2>Off-grid growth</h2>
<p>Sub-Saharan Africa was an early focus of off-grid solar initiatives, and it remains a target for products and services. The region is home to just over a billion people, with more than 600 million <a href="https://www.lightingafrica.org/about/">living without access to electricity</a>.</p>
<p>Within this region, even the most basic access to off-grid solar can have a direct impact on daily life. Solar lamps offer a means to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ina.12377/full">eliminate the need for kerosene</a> and other fuel-based lighting, improving both household health and quality of life. </p>
<p>In 2017, off-grid solar provided electricity to more than <a href="https://www.lightingglobal.org/2018-global-off-grid-solar-market-trends-report/">360 million</a> people globally. While this is an accomplishment, the <a href="http://www.worldpopulationreview.com/continents/africa-population/">projected population</a> growth of Sub-Saharan Africa may outpace its current advances in energy access.</p>
<p>Expanding the systems and structures that support local initiatives will help off-grid solar growth to keep pace. Through developing off-grid solar projects in the Caribbean and the pursuit of solar-based business opportunities in Kenya, I’ve seen first hand how in-depth knowledge of local markets is critical to achieving overall success.</p>
<h2>A mobile economy</h2>
<p>People living off-grid in Sub-Saharan Africa are gaining access to electricity through a number of improvements to solar system efficiency and pricing.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211076/original/file-20180319-31617-zrtba5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman charges her solar torch using a small panel near Marsabit, Kenya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A wide <a href="https://www.gogla.org/sites/default/files/recource_docs/market-pico-solar_web.pdf">array of products</a> has emerged to meet customers’ needs. These range from low-power lighting of less than 10 watts (termed “pico solar”) to larger plug-and-play solar home systems that are capable of powering appliances like televisions, radios and fans. Customers can also purchase and assemble component-based systems consisting of solar modules, batteries and lights. </p>
<p>Financial innovations have also helped to lower the barriers to accessing off-grid solar. Consumers can now purchase solar products with cash or under a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) business model. The PAYGO model allows customers to meet their long-term energy needs at a lower upfront cost, while the company owns and maintains the solar system. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/04/15/cell-phones-in-africa-communication-lifeline/">growing and diverse</a> use of <a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/africa/">mobile phones</a>, in combination with remote system-metering and monitoring technologies, has been a driving factor of the success of the PAYGO business model. </p>
<h2>Business innovations</h2>
<p>Several companies have embraced new technologies to ease access to renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.angaza.com/pay-as-you-go-platform-manufacturers/">Angaza, a U.S.-based company, manufactures the hardware and monitoring systems</a> that enable other companies to integrate PAYGO into their off-grid solar solutions. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/what/m-pesa.html">M-Pesa, founded in Kenya, allows customers to pay for goods and services</a> by transferring money via their mobile phones. More than 30 million people in 10 countries spanning Africa, Europe and Asia now use the service. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.m-kopa.com/">M-Kopa Solar</a>, a Kenyan off-grid solar supplier, allows its customers to avoid high upfront costs for solar systems. It leverages the M-Pesa platform, offers PAYGO service and accepts instalment payments. </p>
<p>Other companies employing a PAYGO model in the African market include Mobisol, Azuri Technologies, BBOXX and SolarNow.</p>
<p>While these companies have achieved some success, it’s important to remember that 46 culturally and geographically diverse countries make up sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, a flourishing business model in rural Kenya may not translate into success in rural Senegal. </p>
<h2>Empowering ingenuity</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.lightingglobal.org/2018-global-off-grid-solar-market-trends-report/">World Bank Group</a>, companies that offer a full range of energy products, provide PAYGO services, replicate proven business models in established markets or focus on achieving excellence in a specific aspect of the off-grid solar market will have a competitive advantage in the coming years. </p>
<p>While no one model is expected to dominate, businesses that leverage local market insights will increase their odds for success. Empowering local ingenuity through education, shared development initiatives and technology transfers will further the creation of solutions from the very areas where need is most keenly felt. </p>
<p>The road to full-energy access will be filled with challenges, <a href="http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/about/outreach-programmes.html">but the institutions</a>, <a href="https://ae4h.org/projects/social_entrepreneurship">the businesses</a>, organizations <a href="https://www.delivery.go.ke/flagship/lastmile">and the nations</a> pursuing energy access solutions are meeting them head on. </p>
<p>Those that overcome these challenges will have an enormous impact on a region that will continue to undergo dynamic socio-economic changes through the coming decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Greene does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Innovation in small-scale solar systems and mobile money systems is giving people in sub-Saharan Africa access to electricity at a lower cost than diesel or kerosene.Patrick Greene, Research Associate - Sustainable Energy, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/785392017-06-01T14:02:44Z2017-06-01T14:02:44ZSocial policies work best if they’re bespoke solutions to local problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171615/original/file-20170531-25664-1mhx9hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cycle lanes work in Florence, Italy. That doesn't mean they'll work everywhere.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Max Rossi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>My morning commute to work in Johannesburg takes me past city streets flanked by the strange strips of green-painted road surface that some people call “bicycle lanes”. But to call them that flies in the face of experience.</p>
<p>Usually these lanes are occupied by cars using them as makeshift parking bays; taxis veering to a halt to drop off or pick up passengers – and very occasionally by a brave pedestrian. The one thing I’m pretty confident of never seeing in these lanes is a bicycle.</p>
<p>This isn’t a rant about roads, though. It’s an example that calls attention to an inconvenient fact for policymakers who must make decisions about how to improve societies. Successful policy interventions, especially those in the social realm influenced by the vagaries of human behaviour, don’t seem to travel well. </p>
<p>To paraphrase philosopher Nancy Cartwright’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Evidence-Based-Policy-Practical-Guide-Better/dp/0199841624">warning</a>: “Just because it worked there, doesn’t mean it will work here”. Policies and interventions that work really well in one context often fail dismally in others. These failures can be extremely difficult to pre-empt.</p>
<p>Johannesburg’s cycling lane <a href="https://theconversation.com/johannesburgs-bike-lanes-are-not-well-used-heres-why-75068">debacle</a> nicely illustrates a research problem known as <a href="https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/external.php">external validity</a>. This is basically about determining whether causal relationships transport to different environments or can be generalised across many environments. Simply put, the puzzle is why cycling lanes cause a reduction in traffic in some cities but not in others. </p>
<h2>Different contexts, different solutions</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/johannesburgs-bike-lanes-are-not-well-used-heres-why-75068">failure</a> of Johannesburg’s cycle lanes has very little to do with the way they were implemented. The real problem is that policymakers should have foreseen that cycle lanes were never the right intervention in the first place, if the aim was to find an effective way of alleviating the city’s traffic problem. </p>
<p>It’s easy to be smug with the benefit of hindsight. But if we consider things from the perspective of those who had to make the decision, opting for the cycle lanes isn’t as risible as it seems now. Their thinking must have gone as follows: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We have a serious traffic problem. What have other big cities done to improve congestion? Answer: bicycle lanes. Solution: build bicycle lanes.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The mistake, I believe, was trying to import a successful mechanism – in this case in the form of infrastructure – from a different context, and expecting it to have the same effect in the local environment. Demonstrating the effectiveness of these mechanisms is one thing. It’s inferring from this effectiveness that the same mechanism will be effective in other contexts that can easily lead people astray.</p>
<p>Modern science is becoming increasingly adept at developing sophisticated methods for discovering mechanisms that underpin causal relationships. </p>
<p>This approach has worked well in the health sciences. It continues to yield important <a href="http://www.aicr.org/continuous-update-project/reports/breast-cancer-report-2017.pdf">new breakthroughs</a> in our knowledge about lifestyle factors in cancers. Attempts to identify similar mechanisms in the social sciences often result in failure. Nancy Cartwright’s discussion of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Evidence-Based-Policy-Practical-Guide-Better/dp/0199841624">the failure</a> of the World Health Organisation’s nutrition programme in Bangladesh is a good example. Its success in India was falsely thought to be a good reason to implement it elsewhere.</p>
<p>Thinking this way would have encouraged the false opinion that as long as Johannesburg copied the correct mechanism, its traffic problem would be solved.</p>
<p>A more illuminating approach to dealing with external validity problems is to start with an analysis of the “human ecosystem” that brings about the conditions responsible for the problem. In the same way that we pay attention to the conditions that support life in natural ecosystems, this view encourages us to identify similar conditions for human populations</p>
<h2>Human ecosystems thinking</h2>
<p>In diagnosing Johannesburg’s traffic congestion, attention should have been paid to some fundamental questions about the broader socio-economic factors influencing the city’s transportation network. This should have included a thorough analysis of where people live and work, how far they have to travel and why they choose their preferred methods of transport.</p>
<p>One factor that such thinking would have unearthed is the <a href="http://www.patrickheller.com/uploads/1/5/3/7/15377686/ijur_cartography.pdf">spatial separations</a> brought about by apartheid. Townships, where a significant proportion of the city’s workforce live, are situated on the outskirts of the metropolis. That’s far away from the city’s economically active areas where the bulk of the jobs are. </p>
<p>So, the people most adversely affected by Johannesburg’s traffic problem live too far from their workplaces to even consider cycling as a feasible solution. Those who can afford to live closer to their jobs are typically not tempted by the little money they would save. </p>
<p>This is why the city’s cycling experiment fell short of the critical mass needed to make it work.</p>
<p>A big advantage of this type of ecosystems thinking is that, instead of misguided attempts at importing foreign solutions, it encourages us to attend to local problems by paying closer attention to the local context. Policymakers are pushed to develop solutions inspired by local knowledge and sensibilities.</p>
<p>A more locally-driven approach would instead emphasise practical ways of linking township residents with more economically active areas. This might be done by expanding existing infrastructure which already does this, such as the <a href="https://www.reavaya.org.za/">Rea Vaya</a> bus routes. Or some jobs might be moved to townships.</p>
<p>Some of the solutions inspired by an ecosystems approach might seem unconventional at first – because they would be unprecedented. But this was the way people felt about innovations like <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-18">Kenya’s M-Pesa</a> mobile money system. If we want bespoke solutions to unique local problems, we shouldn’t expect to find them elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chad Harris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Successful policy interventions, especially those in the social realm influenced by the vagaries of human behaviour, don’t seem to travel well.Chad Harris, African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (ACEPS), Philosophy Department, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/756462017-04-19T09:09:03Z2017-04-19T09:09:03ZHow ‘frugal innovation’ can fight off inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164914/original/image-20170411-26720-1pbqpse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=889%2C197%2C4491%2C3134&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businesswoman-bulb-head-multiplied-on-grey-135618452?src=LpuLHVAYCk4WR3gXIS27Bw-1-26">ESB Professional/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Inequality is the defining social, political and economic phenomenon of our time. Just 1% of the world’s population now holds over 35% of all private wealth, <a href="http://inequality.org/99to1/facts-figures/">more than the bottom 95% combined</a>. Bad as this may seem, trends suggest that the situation will only get worse. Addressing it will involve multiple strategies working together, but one which is less well understood is how simple, affordable solutions to people’s problems can make a genuine difference from the bottom up.</p>
<p>One way of measuring inequality is known as the Gini coefficient. It gives us a useful and straightforward number between zero and one, where zero represents perfect equality where everyone has the same income, and one expresses the maximum of inequality. In the countries which make up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the Gini was at 0.28 in the mid-1980s, but <a href="http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/rich-nations-poor-people.23-11.html">increased by 10% to 0.31 by the late 2000s</a>.</p>
<p>Inequality is a global problem. In the form of absolute poverty, it exists across countries. About 4 billion people – more than half the world’s population – <a href="https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/3c2787004cc75e6094d7b59ec86113d5/Pub_009_The%2BNext%2B4%2BBillion.pdf?MOD=AJPERES">live on less than US$9 a day</a>. But inequality is also a problem within countries. By the late 2000s, income inequality measured by Gini had risen in 17 out of the 22 OECD countries – in Finland, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden and the US, <a href="http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/rich-nations-poor-people.23-11.html">it increased by more than 4%</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164807/original/image-20170411-1900-vstkyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cold, hard truth of inequality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/disaster_area/6963702941/in/photolist-bBmNgP-9sAAws-5dzE53-cK8apW-4vKX3h-amppHS-cK89j7-NAg96H-RtamdV-4vFRqc-9mrTqT-nZYykb-57UBH1-drWqhs-7ys672-4aRmxv-yRfxk-oXruJw-9QwXRH-5rHuTQ-cs2vhW-bjvK1F-Gnmt8M-4Ehov3-g4is8q-nwjnVN-e14b9n-amph6u-8FuRX9-rt1cr9-Ns8Aqu-Mn1yYd-TyY63i-Tix8Qu-SGr2Su-SaLMP8-RMBM71-7tKPu3-aC45rz-ftU6r4-hiKvV9-5K2aSi-8nV7Tz-4JdiyJ-6MgAhd-gg3at8-9odgEr-6PDZSz-9nKXb8-7Qbj1r">The Hamster Factor/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making demands</h2>
<p>Inequality is also a problem that exists on both the demand and supply sides of the economy. On the demand side: large numbers of people are excluded from the fruits of the economic process as they lack access to basic healthcare, education, nutritious food, and clean energy. This is largely an emerging world problem, but it is also increasingly a problem in the developed world. </p>
<p>On the supply side, large numbers of people are excluded from the economic process because they are shut out of employment in <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmberr/746/74605.htm">high-value-adding industries</a> which rely heavily on skills and technology. This is largely a problem in the developed world where globalisation and tech have hollowed out manufacturing, but it is a problem in some developing countries too.</p>
<p>My work over the last decade leads me to believe that an important part of the battle against inequality lies in what could be termed frugal innovation. Simply put, it is about applying human ingenuity to create faster, better and cheaper solutions for more people in core areas such as financial services, health, education and energy. We can call it “frugal” because this is not about massive state-level or corporate investment, but it is about developing and delivering affordable technologies and ideas to meet basic needs at scale. This has the potential to address both supply and demand side aspects of inequality.</p>
<p>On the demand side, developing these frugal solutions across sectors promises to include large numbers of people currently without access to affordable financial services, education, and healthcare. Indeed, such a frugal revolution is already taking place in <a href="http://www.jugaadinnovation.com">emerging markets in South Asia, Africa and Latin America</a>. In India, such solutions in healthcare are bringing free or highly affordable services to large numbers of people in areas as diverse as cataract and heart surgery and prosthetics. Across the country, Devi Shetty has applied medical and management principles to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/india-doctor/">reduce the cost of heart surgery</a> to US$1,200 while maintaining global quality standards. He wants to get the price down to US$800.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164808/original/image-20170411-1860-pyw5xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mobile payments in Kenya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/134037448@N03/29755155584/in/photolist-bnYk3T-MkmX6S-MkmWzG">WorldRemit Comms/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Africa, an earlier telecoms revolution is now driving a second generation of frugal solutions in key sectors such as financial services. <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/06/do-we-really-need-banks/">M-Pesa</a>, an SMS-enabled service that enables unbanked people to send and receive money though their mobile phones, has empowered over 25m Kenyans (many of whom have small businesses) to improve productivity and gain access to revenue-generating opportunities. Such mobile based payments are in turn driving affordable market solutions in areas such as solar lighting for those living beyond the reach of the electricity grid. </p>
<p>Similar frugal solutions in clean cookstoves, medical devices, transport, pharmaceuticals, sanitation, and consumer electronics are positioned to drive growth in Asia and Africa over the next few decades, helping to raise millions <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578665-nearly-1-billion-people-have-been-taken-out-extreme-poverty-20-years-world-should-aim">out of absolute poverty in the process</a>. </p>
<h2>Job makers</h2>
<p>On the supply side, frugal innovation offers the possibility of generating more high value adding employment for more people, <a href="http://www.frugalinnovationhub.com">particularly in Western economies</a>. Big corporations are increasingly lean and no longer hire the large numbers of people they did in the past. And so entrepreneurship is more than ever a key driver of growth, both in terms of output as well as in generating employment. Young people entering the workforce can no longer expect to be job takers; increasingly, they are expected to be job makers.</p>
<p>Luckily, they are now more empowered to do so: small teams of people can set up new companies and achieve scale in ways that weren’t possible before.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164913/original/image-20170411-26730-1f9vpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New tech for old problems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kakissel/6165114664/in/photolist-aoMPNq-fAEPuj-ojxNWp-pP47oB-o34pDP-jwwkay-iBqoj8-o6JYWw-o8DZ53-HHCg2-9eRvpL-iBpBAc-ehXgTt-eEebd7-kbSyGA-iBqmjQ-eCqqQT-r2r8JQ-p9Aekw-dYwj4o-d6qvJL-KokTM-rxZbnU-bWHGb7-oNS3SV-aban9Y-nRhYQZ-ab7wdD-qmVbnT-fyxvny-rpYFzx-qzRf6V-djuc2n-7Pbpsw-ojvS9Y-mWPNTg-qVLZVC-h7NPPX-payu2G-qNSoHZ-o7RMAm-efkcM4-nDwehj-edqyur-dj1hLt-pHPDRf-95hFtg-pHz4MQ-s9k2KC-qi6CgA">Keith Kissel/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Technologies such as cheap computers, sensors, smartphones, and 3D printers are enabling such teams to invent and prototype in ways that were only available to large corporations or government labs in the past. This in turn has given rise to the maker movement where budding inventors can tinker in <a href="http://www.makespacestudios.com/">Make Spaces</a> and <a href="http://fablabsuk.co.uk/">Fab Labs</a> with other like-minded people and develop solutions to problems they face in their communities. Ideas that have come out of Tech Shops and Make Spaces include the <a href="http://extreme.stanford.edu/projects/embrace">Embrace Baby Warmer</a> and Simprints, a <a href="https://www.simprints.com/">biometric device to manage medical records</a> in the field in developing countries.</p>
<p>If these “makers” wish to commercialise their solutions, they can <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/crowdfunding-4039">crowdfund the capital needed</a>, outsource the manufacturing, list their products on amazon.com to help with distribution and use social media to spread the word. Indeed, such “maker spaces” could well morph into the high tech, local, sustainable factories of the future, delivering high value adding, creative manufacturing opportunities to cities where 20th-century polluting manufacturing has been systematically weakened over the last few decades, and where lost jobs in those sectors have sharpened inequality.</p>
<p>While most politicians and policy makers fulminate and flounder in their attempt to deal with rising inequality worldwide, a quiet frugal revolution is already addressing the problem right before their eyes. The state need not be a bystander. Now is the time for governments to sit up, take notice and spur this revolution on. Doing so could help save their societies and economies before it is too late.</p>
<p><em>This article has been co-published with the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/system-initiatives/economic-growth-and-social-inclusion">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaideep Prabhu has received funding from the ESRC. </span></em></p>Redressing the balance can start from the bottom up.Jaideep Prabhu, Director, Centre for India & Global Business, Cambridge Judge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/754982017-04-04T14:04:33Z2017-04-04T14:04:33ZProviding sustainable energy isn’t just about gadgets and dollars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163454/original/image-20170331-31733-lkjdlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">World Environment Day 2016 in Nairobi celebrated under solar-powered floodlights.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Daniel Irungu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, 1.1 billion people <a href="https://www.iea.org/topics/energypoverty/">have no electricity</a> and 2.9 billion can’t cook with <a href="http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/energyaccessdatabase/">“clean” energy</a>. The international community has big aspirations to tackle this challenge, and its focus is on sustainable energy. </p>
<p>This involves providing poor women and men with affordable access to electricity for modern energy services like lighting and communications. The needs also extend to clean cooking options to mitigate the negative health effects of cooking with wood, charcoal, coal or animal waste. Many of these people live in remote locations with no access to electricity grids, or live within reach of the grid but cannot afford to connect. This has led to a focus on the potential of off-grid, renewable energy options.</p>
<p>A UN scheme – called the <a href="http://www.se4all.org/">UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative</a> – has set itself the goal of ensuring that everyone in the world has access to sustainable energy for all by 2030. This is a big ambition. Yet the international community still doesn’t understand enough about how to overcome the problem of energy access, and what’s needed to deliver it for everyone.</p>
<p>Two dimensions have dominated the debate: hardware and finance. We need technological hardware (for instance solar PV or wind turbines) and we need finance to pay for it. Much of the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=_afgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT42&lpg=PT42&dq=hardware+and+finance+for+sustainable+energy&source=bl&ots=LBBjeQ1mF8&sig=CVIK9wJKOq8bs4WdkeXE28Calek&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIpsXe84fTAhUsBcAKHUIoC3UQ6AEIPzAA#v=onepage&q=hardware%20and%20finance%20for%20sustainable%20energy&f=false">research</a> on the problem has come from engineers and economists, informing policy agendas that respond to their concerns.</p>
<p>But there are three other dimensions that have been largely ignored in research and policy. These are culture, politics, and innovation. Looking at past successes in sustainable energy shows why they are crucial, and why ignoring them could lead to disappointment or failure.</p>
<h2>Behind Kenya’s incredible success story</h2>
<p>A key “transformational” example often referred to by international policy makers and researchers is the <a href="http://steps-centre.org/publication/energyaccess/">incredible success</a> of the off-grid solar PV market in Kenya. This includes solar home systems, for which Kenya is estimated to have one of the largest per capita markets in the world. There’s also a rapidly expanding market for solar portable lanterns. It also includes the rapidly emerging phenomenon of pay as you go, mobile-enabled solar PV.</p>
<p>In our <a href="http://steps-centre.org/publication/sustainable-energy-for-all-innovation-technology-and-pro-poor-green-transformations/">recent book</a>, we have constructed the most detailed account to date of the history of the off-grid solar PV market in Kenya – drawing on a decade of empirical research, including over 100 hours of interviews and workshops in the country.</p>
<p>This market is often described – wrongly – as an “unsubsidised”, <a href="http://users.humboldt.edu/arne/AJacobson_PhD_Diss_final04.pdf">“free market success story”</a>
Supposedly, as the technological hardware emerged, it became cheap and reliable enough and, thanks to a lack of any government meddling, private sector entrepreneurs grew the market to what it is today.</p>
<p>Our research reveals a very different story, dating back several decades. Back then, a few early champions saw the opportunities for solar PV to provide energy access in Kenya.</p>
<p>Besides some shrewd <a href="http://steps-centre.org/publication/energyaccess/">political manoeuvring</a>, these pioneers also had to understand the social and cultural reasons behind the ways that households, schools and hospitals consumed and paid for energy services. They also had to use the right language to persuade donors, obsessed with ‘fixing’ market failures, to support long-term capacity building. </p>
<p>This included market research, training for local technicians, installing demonstration solar home systems, helping vendors to understand systems and how to support customers.</p>
<p>The result was a thriving innovation system around solar PV. The early pioneers, who understood the importance not just of tech and finance, but also politics, culture and innovation, used these insights to build the foundations for the private sector growth we see today in Kenya. Lighting Africa, a later initiative, seems to have taken these political, social and cultural aspects seriously too, which has been material to its success in Kenya.</p>
<p>Now, another new form of energy access has built on these foundations: mobile payments for solar PV. This <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308518X15615368">“pay as you go”</a> model for solar electricity relies on the combination of two technologies: cheap Chinese solar PV and mobile banking. It has been held up as a transformational new technology and, on the surface, it looks like a mainly technical achievement.</p>
<h2>Why culture and politics too</h2>
<p>But when you dig down deeper, a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308518X15615368">better understanding</a> begins to emerge of the early development of pay as you go solar PV models. You learn how much time these early innovators spent understanding the socio-cultural dimension of this issue. </p>
<p>People who are now CEOs of booming pay as you go solar companies spent years living with local people and developing in-depth knowledge of how culture, and even gender, affected how people paid for and consumed energy. To be successful at meeting people’s needs, they had to think through and experiment with how to structure these payments.</p>
<p>There are also clear political dimensions to the pay as you go solar PV phenomenon. For example, the UK’s Department for International Development was only able to help develop the M-Pesa mobile banking system in Kenya because of political relationships and the government’s willingness to work with donors around a “private sector entrepreneurship” agenda. But if mobile payments for solar PV began to look like a serious challenge to the central government’s investments, the Kenyan story might look very different.</p>
<p>Understanding these deeper aspects of innovation could help donors who are now looking to support Sustainable Energy for All. Of course, technology and finance are crucial to making it happen. But so are culture, politics and the broader sense in which innovation happens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Ockwell receives funding from HEFCE and ESRC and has received funding from the Climate Development Knowledge Network and DFID in the past. He is affiliated with the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Byrne receives funding from HEFCE and the ESRC. He has also received funding from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). The funding provided by both the ESRC and CDKN supported the research underpinning this article. Rob is affiliated with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Low Carbon Energy for Development Network and Climate Strategies.</span></em></p>The UN Sustainable Energy initiative has set the goal of ensuring sustainable energy for all by 2030. However, the international community still can’t overcome the problem of energy access.David Ockwell, Reader in Geography, University of SussexRob Byrne, Lecturer, SPRU, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.