2020 Mission Billion Challenge: WURI West Africa Prize
Pension Math, DLT, & Fractional Bonds
One-line solution summary:
Pension mathematics & the granting of fractions of a bond for creating identification and pensions for the informal economy workers.
Pitch your solution.
The workers in the informal sector of West Africa often live in remote regions and are at risk of lacking proper identification documentation and bank accounts, as well as are in often need of a pension and other types of social insurance services.
What is proposed is the use of digital ledger technology for the creation of identification documentation and the granting of fractional units of government and government agencies bonds to the individuals in most need, in the most remote regions. The grants would be recorded by means of Digital Ledger Technology for the participant's benefit. This creates an incentive to participate in the program as well as an incentive to make use of the financial account: ideally for saving money by means of purchasing more fractional units of the bond.
Along with this, free online courses are offered in the business applications of pension mathematics. The goal is to illustrate the expected value of contributions to the pension fund.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Workers in the informal economies of West Africa are at risk of not having social insurance. What is proposed is a granting of small fractions of local government bonds in order to create a defined contribution pension. This can be managed on a digital ledger.
Many of these workers can benefit from understanding the basic pension mathematics in the process of saving for the future.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Informal economy workers who would directly benefit from the defined contribution pension grants. Along with this, offering free online courses on the mathematics of pension savings and how it can be applied to business is also helpful.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize and your selected dimension.
By granting fractions of a unit of local government bonds, a defined contribution pension can be created. By means of distributed ledger technology, the pensions can be managed across borders.
With a free online course in pension mathematics and its applications to business, participants can learn the expected values of any contributions to the pension that they may be able to make. This gives literacy to the topic to those who may be unfamiliar with this topic.
Where is your solution team headquartered?
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USAWhat is your solution’s stage of development?
Who is the primary delegate for your solution?
Winston Grace
If you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
Describe what makes your solution innovative.
It grants fractions of government bonds to migrant farm workers and related professionals, which gives an incentive for the workers to purchase new fractional units. The yield from the bond can be used to pay into a health insurance system. The pension is envisioned to be managed by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). The DLT protocol being considered for this application is the IOTA protocol.
Along with this, a free online course in the business applications of pension mathematics is offered in order to illustrate the expected benefits of contributions to the pension fund.
In terms of the online course, blockchain technology is envisioned for the maintaining student records.
Provide evidence that your solution works.
One example of a solution with some of the attributes of this proposal is the subsidized defined contribution plan that was created in New Zealand, the KiwiSaver plan, which was initiated by the national pension system with government contributions.
In terms of the DLT and pensions, IBM is presently collaborating with Bangladesh for the development of DLT based e-pension for teachers.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
What is your theory of change?
Because of a grant, people will have an interest in participating in a program.
By offering free online courses, those in most need can the possible the expected benefit of pension fund contributions as well as apply the basic math to professional business issues.
Along with this is the proposed use of the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). The IOTA system is considered the protocol. The change it can bring is that allows for mobility of the participants and is without fees. It also uses the Unified Identity Protocol (UIP) in order to uphold the privacy of personal identifiable information.
How can your solution be incorporated into social protection and service delivery systems in West Africa?
It is using digital ledger technology(DLT) and provides incentives as well free classes in order to encourage contributions to the pension fund. It can be incorporated into the social protection system of West Africa by means of the project's ability to create a private pension account with data managed by the DLT technology. The DLT also assists with service delivery systems in that it is allows for workers to travel across borders with the DLT record keeping technology...essentially the personal data is the property of the participant.
Describe how 'user friendly' your solution is to incorporate into social protection programs and delivery systems in West Africa.
-The management by the digital ledger system
-The online course
-Most of all, the granting of the fractional units of the government bonds
Explain how your solution is interoperable with existing technologies and open standards.
The digital ledger makes in interoperable. One protocol envisioned is the IOTA system for the digital ledger and the related identification technology. DLT technology essentially gives personal data ownership to the participant and allows workers in the West Africa region to travel across borders as needed.
How does your solution account for low connectivity environments and for users with low literacy and numeracy levels?
The Distributed Ledger Technology can be used for low connectivity. This technology allows the auditing and record keeping of the contributed government bonds with relatively low connectivity.
By the use of distributed ledgers, the ledgers are decentralized. This creates less of a need to access one site at one central location, making it easier for locations with low connectivity to function.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
It is an idea for a project at this point. In five years, it could serve close to 150,000 people.
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
To create a global project with this system.
What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?
Funding is the main obstacle.
How do you plan to overcome these barriers?
The goal is to overcome this obstacle by applying for grants.
What type of organization is your solution team?
How many people work on your solution team?
1
How long have you been working on your solution?
Less than one year.
Why are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
I have developed a variety of patents in alternative energy and related industries and hope to apply that skill to solve the presented problem.
What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?
At the moment, the project has not partnered with any organizations.
What is your business model?
The business model is, if this proposal wins, to apply the prize money to fund the pensions by means of a digital ledger.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, or to other organizations?
What is your path to financial sustainability?
The project, if successful, will fund itself in terms of participants funding their own pensions after the program is initiated.
If you seek to raise funds for your solution, please provide details.
The prize money would be sufficient to start the project.
What are your estimated expenses for 2020?
The project is scalable as well as flexible. The prize money would be sufficient to fund the project.
Why are you applying to the Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize?
I believe this project is innovative and could be a pilot project for other projects around the world.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Please explain in more detail here.
I will need specialist in the areas of regulatory compliance because the project is to fund private pension for those at risk of lacking social insurance.
I will also need specialists in the areas of monitoring and development.
What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?
The ILO, International Labour Organization.
Solution Team
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Solution Name:
Pension Math, DLT, & Fractional Bonds