Pacific Cash Learning Event 2022: Locally-led Cash Initiatives
Session 3: Locally-led Cash Initiatives
Pacific government actors, organisations, service providers, and other key CVA stakeholders highlight their innovations and learnings.
When and where
Date and time
Location
Online
About this event
How do we deliver cash assistance in the Pacific? How we can do it better? And how can we align our strategies to strengthen the impact of CVA to best support people affected by crisis? These are questions we invite you to help us explore at the Pacific Cash Learning Event 2022.
In this session, Locally-led Cash Initiatives, you'll hear from a variety of different Pacific cash and voucher assistance stakeholders. From financial service providers, to mobile service providers, local organisations implementing cash programs in partnership with UN organisations and government ministries, this session is focused on highlighting the innovative work happening in the Pacific. From this, you'll be able to learn the benefits of partnerships, how to strengthen them, and approach them in a way that creates the best impact for CVA recipients.
Chair for the session:
Sepesa Rasili, President of the Fiji Council of Social Services,
Chairman of National Executive Committee, FCOSS
Chairman, Suva DCOSS
General Secretary, Pacific Island Association of NGOs (PIANGO)
From Nasarowaqa in Bua. Started as a volunteer while being a student at USP. Worked mostly in CSOs and has had experience in SRHR, Gender transformative approach, community capacity development, humanitarian coordination, and climate justice. Has been involved with FCOSS as a volunteer in District Council of Social Services since 2018 as a member of the Bua Urban Youth Network. Currently a Senior Campaigner - Pacific for Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS) is a charitable organisation set up in 1957 to provide welfare and relief to the vulnerable and marginalised in Fiji. The organisation was inaugurated in 1960 and is now registered under the charitable trust act. FCOSS is also registered under the 1998 Natural Disaster Management Act to coordinate and represent Civil Society Organisations (CSO) during humanitarian response.
Who will you hear from?
Anup Kumar, Regional Head of Mobile Financial Services, Digicel Pacific.
Soane Patolo Jr., CEO, Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovation (MORDI) Tonga Trust.
The Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovation Tonga Trust is a Non-Government Organization in Tonga that focuses its help on isolated remote rural communities within Tonga. It helps to shift the communities’ way of thinking in order to help them advance into a better state of living, one which is more sustainable. The Programme, which became operational in 2005, has four distinct objectives: (i) institutional strengthening of existing community-based organizations (CBOs) of youth and women as well as community institutions; (ii) increase employment and sustainable livelihood opportunities especially for youth and women; (iii) documentation of sharing of learning from best practices and innovations across the region; and (iv) establishment of sustainable processes that enable remote rural communities to link with national policy and planning processes.
Shailendra Prasad, Head of E-Commerce, Vodafone Pacific.
Mr. SHAILENDRA PRASAD is the Head of eCommerce, Digital Finance Services & Corporate Affairs at Vodafone Fiji. As head of the FINTECH solutions team, Shailendra was instrumental in the launch of region’s first and most successful mobile wallet service known as M-PAiSA enabling greater financial inclusion to the excluded population. He has enabled international money transfers to be made directly to mobile phones which now accounts for around 35% of total IMT in Fiji – a lifeline for many Fijians. Shailendra appears regularly as a panelist in international FINTECH conferences, bringing the Fiji example to the world. Recently, (September, 22) Shailendra was a panellist at the Asia Pacific Ministerial conference on Disaster Risk Reduction presenting on the topic the use of technology in particular Vodafone’s M-PAiSA Mobile Wallet in distributing disaster cash assistance. Shailendra also spear-headed the launch of Vodafone’s and Fiji’s first online eCommerce trading platform, known as VITIKART helping MSME’s to trade online. Passionate about digital inclusion and empowerment of the excluded, underserved and vulnerable members of the society.
Jaive Smare, a journalist turned digital entrepreneur, developed Jive Market, an app for mobile phones that allows users to buy and sell power.
