Wellbeing and Fintech: The Power of Community

Conflict and insecurity limit livelihoods. Ask a person to name the biggest challenge facing young people in conflict-affected countries today, and the answer is almost always the same: the lack of jobs and/or a sustainable livelihood. The informal economy is massive. There are simply not enough formal jobs to go around for young people – and there probably never will be. 

Traditionally governments and international organizations see the informal economy as a development failure, offering low wages, limited or no tax revenues, and poor job security. However, as the population and cities grow, it seems the informal sector in many conflict-affected countries will only expand it could be a huge source of jobs for young people. But the mental health of young people working in SMEs is largely neglected in occupational health research and practice, despite the fact that this sector is the most common work setting in most economies for youth.

Most conflict-affected countries have designed innovation labs, small and medium-sized support hubs, and countless livelihood and economic growth interventions, but sadly something is missing when it comes to the uptake of these programs and services. Thus even when young people have the tools required to move forward for some reason they are not doing so. We believe that when young people's nervous systems are in survival mode it is harder to access and use available resources.  For example, when in survival mode you do not connect, you protect.  That protection can take the form of violence as it happens on instinct.  The actions of the survival brain which is also called the reptilian brain will stop at nothing until the nervous system has a different experience and feels safe. 

Our nervous system looks for opportunities for social engagement to feel safe by being with others where one can feel safe and trusted. This has been an antidote to threat that moves us out of physiological states of defense and feelings of anxiety. But during COVID19 such social connection was a threat (to infection). When countries are conflict-affected social connection is also seen as a threat.

But mainstream mental health psychosocial programs (MHPSS) do not typically deal with underlying threats of chronic violence, injustice, inequity, etc... Thus, in most conflict-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, many suffer from mental and emotional ill-health, alone because social connection is viewed as a threat. Moreover, many countries also have highly unregulated financial systems which keep young people poor, dependent, and un-empowered which also impacts their general wellbeing and their mental health. 

GSN is partnering with Onkout, a new Somali-British fintech company to integrate wellbeing and mental health support through peer support groups into the financial application as a first-of-its-kind innovation in Africa and possibly globally. 

Our innovation connects a culturally relevant and unique trauma-informed, collective, mental health peer support program to a virtual business training program, with financial tools to improve young people's lives. The youth mental health component has been developed by GSN, integrated into the new fintech application. Jointly we designed how to integrate the soft side of mental health and social connection, with real business knowledge into a fintech application in order to culturally support young people in conflict-affected countries to begin to access support that is currently not available.

Peer support groups teach self-care methods and provide space for community care, thus giving youth entrepreneurs of SMEs real-time support from others in similar situations. This type of support fills a gap existing within most conflict-affected countries. We believe that supporting young people to engage in healing spaces (particularly from conflict-affected countries) must be a foundation for what is taught to young entrepreneurs if they are going to be successful in the long term.

It is envisioned that a new collective support system will support young people as businesses take advantage of Onkout's unique offerings. Being aware of the brain is crucial to supporting youth’s stress and anxiety while also teaching emotional regulation is vital. Managing to regulate the nervous system and dose down the stress response is an important skill set for healing and success for young people. This can be done intentionally with limited resources and can make a huge difference.

A peer support group is limited to 15 attendees with two facilitators. Initially, GSN provides trained facilitators but as the group matures they begin to take over the leadership and continue to meet and support each other. In our pilot groups, 80% are still meeting 12 months after finishing the initial 12 weeks.  GSN plans to continue to supply new content for groups that continue self-driven collective learning. The whole goal is to give young entrepreneurs resources for deeper connections in a safe environment.

The proposed innovation connects a culturally relevant and unique trauma-informed, collective mental health component to a virtual business training program within the fintech platform. Jointly we have designed how to integrate the soft side of mental health and social connection, with real business knowledge in a fintech application designed by Africans for Africa. Based on our research there is no one else doing this within the Continent. 

The virtual peer support groups utilize a rich African storytelling tradition in the form of short videos and also incorporate embodied indigenous healing practices into the programming. 

So while many projects have developed SME business training programs, this program is different in that it tangibly links users to how to use Onkout's business tools while providing SME entrepreneurs an active, thriving support community through activating the youth mental health peer support feature. Peer facilitators are trained in building a community of support for young business owners as well as the people that work for them.

We are targeting young people living in conflict-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We are specifically targeting those interested in joining virtual rotating savings and credit groups, and young people starting up a business who are customers on the Onkout platform.

We are working to develop various incentives (like internet credits) with Onkout to encourage various groups to join the virtual healing spaces. Onkout's business model seeks to help its customers THRIVE. Thus their customers' health and wellbeing are directly linked to Onkout's business philosophy. Many fintech companies across Africa give cutthroat loans to young people and others in order to profit. They are not concerned with the financial, social, mental, or emotional health of their users.

Many projects have developed SME business training programs, this program is different in that it tangibly links users to how to use Onkout's business tools while providing SME entrepreneurs an active, thriving support community through activating the youth mental health peer support feature. Peer facilitators are trained in building a community of support for young business owners as well as the people that work for them.

The virtual peer support groups utilize a rich African storytelling tradition in the form of short videos and also incorporate embodied indigenous healing practices into the programming. Most conflict-affected countries have started innovation labs, small and medium-sized support hubs, and countless livelihood and economic growth interventions, sadly something is missing when it comes to the uptake of these programs and services.

The GSN has developed and successfully piloted a unique virtual wellbeing program. GSN's specialty is in developing culturally relevant programs for the African context. Onkout's CEO and GSN's Executive Director have collaborated for over a decade in developing transformative programming and are both passionate about finding ways new and innovative methods to help individuals and communities living in conflict-affected countries thrive. 

We are disrupters with a purpose.

There are several ways which becoming a Solver will move us forward. They include:

1. We are looking for experts on how to build a sustainable business model for integrating peer support groups within the fintech platform.

2. We are looking for ways to share the benefits of our innovation. In the next year, we are looking to build out our social media platforms providing evidence on how individual and social healing is fundamental for economic growth.

3. We are seeking funding to support our Youth Development Fund so that we can combine the capital support grants for youth SMEs with the trauma-informed peer support groups.

4. While we have our main trainers ready to go, we will need some funds to recruit and train some of our initial virtual facilitators. We will be targeting youth entrepreneurs 18-35 years old as facilitators.

There are a couple of reasons that make this project innovative.

1. The majority of fintechs in Africa are predatory in nature. For example, it is common for fintech companies in Kenya to give high-interest loans to desperate young people on their phones. Onkout is different. We want to be a part of a strong future for countries in deep crisis today. This means that we are investing in the health and wellbeing of each user and their community to ensure they THRIVE and not just survive. Thus incorporating the social healing and mental health aspect into a fintech vision is to create reliable, robust, and stable financial services allowing the movement of money, auditing of transactions, and inserting regulatory systems into the larger macro-economic system where today in some countries this is non-existent or extremely fragile.

2. Few organizations have developed sustainable, culturally relevant, grass-root trauma-informed interventions outside of North America. Yet there is a direct link between levels of trauma in vulnerable communities and the challenges faced with justice, reconciliation, security, and overall economic and social wellbeing. 

Every violent act begins with a thought which is cognitively processed. Yet, as peacebuilders and development practitioners we ignore how trauma influences our attitudes, behavior, and choices. A trauma-informed approach is a foundational building block that most peace and governance programs do not incorporate into their design, development, and implementation. If global leaders, donors, and organizations understood the importance of incorporating a trauma-informed foundation into their work, we believe it would change the way global development programming is designed, implemented, and measured. And it would improve the success of such interventions.

Onkout's overall goal is to create a reliable, robust, and stable financial service and payment system allowing the movement of money, auditing of transactions, and regulation of a larger micro-economic system. It is to improve the lives of the unbanked and poor in conflict-affected countries. This will not be achieved solely by giving people fintech solutions. The environment is complex thus the point of the social healing / mental health component is that Onkout supports its users to thrive. 

Thus layering GSN's intervention into the fintech platform is critical. Users may be interested in running their SMEs, participating in rotating table banking savings, or even those interested in qualifying for Youth Enterprise Grants where the informal, unbanked youth could get a one-time cash grant to inject capital into their business - but if people's nervious systems are constiantly in their survival mode having good business tools will not actually help them change their lives. The idea is that by building a safe community and by learning to cope better with daily lives, they will begin to utilize the tools and resources they have at hand.

The following is a list of post-intervention significant findings we have seen in our peer support programming in the past.

• Participants’ ratings of how healthy their stress alleviation practices are increased significantly.
• Participants’ reporting on the strength of their support system increased significantly.
• Participants’ involvement in social groups that meet regularly increased significantly.
• Participants’ trust in members of their community increased significantly.
• Participants’ opinion that former members of armed groups should be allowed to return to their communities increased significantly.
• PTS scores are found to be significantly lower post-intervention.

By adding the livelihood component these would be new types of impact measurements we would be regularly collecting and reviewing.

• Participants' ability to meet monthly saving goals.
• Participants' income increases.
• Participants SME has grown and is thriving.

By promoting trauma awareness and healing in a virtual community, users will be encouraged to engage in healthy coping mechanisms thus improving people's livelihoods and overall economic stability in conflict-affected countries.

Our work uniquely combines new fintech technology and new research in neurobiology and the nervous system while leveraging traditional, African, communal healing practices. 

Imagine a cracked cup is the community. When resources are poured into the "community", it leaks. Thus, when the cracks are repaired, resources can be utilized. This is similar to when a community begins a healing process. Today we have a proof of concept, a working road map of how we can address the connection between these critical (i.e. impact of violence, trauma, livelihoods, stability, and peace) yet forgotten issues in a scalable, practical yet transformative way because of combining technology by leveraging traditional and ancestral healing practices.

We are a non-profit partnering with a for-profit fintech company to add a missing component of social healing and mental health peer support.

We are a diverse, multi-disciplinary team of peacebuilders, economists, computer programmers, entrepreneurs, community development workers, psychologists, artists, multi-media professionals, web designers, and researchers designing healing-centered interventions and methods for their evaluation. We are primarily Kenyans and Somalis, made up of men and women. We are also of many different ages with lots of different life experiences. We are immigrants and diaspora as well. We seek to incorporate different elements allowing leadership and the people working on the initiative to bring their whole selves to the work. We celebrate our differences.

Onkout is a multi-purpose, standalone, visual application that is culturally relevant, and highly secure with the goal of re-stimulate unstable and developing economies. Onkout serves as a perfect fit for mobile money applications, which play a dominant role in developing nations. Onkout solution ensures the users have easy access and comprehensive security to pay bills, buy goods or services, and a local peer-to-peer money transfer. It is an entirely open ecosystem, empowering entrepreneurs in supporting their self-reliance and economic engagements. The application and its features are fully trackable. Onkout returns trust in the micro-economic system. 

By layering social healing and mental health into the application we are building a critical element into an existing platform that normally would not be put together. But our world is complex and we need to offer people options that respond to that complexity. We will offer incentives to users to engage with the mental health and social healing services - as we believe it will make them better users of the system. Our business model is to help our users thrive - when our users thrive then Onkout will thrive. 

Onkout as a business is financially sustainable. We are in the process of exploring and looking for experts to help guide us on how to build a sustainable business model for integrating the peer support groups within the fintech platform.

We are also working on marketing the peer support groups to businesses and universities. In the last few months, we have had some success on this marketing and this may be a way that long term we bring revenue into the system to support the training for the facilitators and continue the improvement of the program videos.  

We received grant funds in 2020 to design and test the virtual peer support groups outside of the Onkout platform (about $25,000). Currently, we have four companies (from local South African CBOs to a national Kenyan NGO, a large international organization in NE Nigeria, to a university in Canada wanting to provide this type of support to African students) all ready to sign contracts to use the service and engage with the programming. This represents about 35,000 USD in fees to use the service. We have only just started to advertise the service and we see that this could grow quickly. We will train around 56 peer facilitators and will offer the service to almost 500 participants. We have started to apply for funding to support both Kenyan and Somali SMEs as well.