Central Idea
Develop a mobile phone m-banking application aimed enabling the creation of community based complementary currencies. Using open-source software, FrontlineSMS, the application would operate in much the same way as Wizzit and mPesa.

Stage One
Develop the software application. The application will be built on the FrontlineSMS software and modeled around the existing m-banking interfaces such as Wizzit (http://www.wizzit.co.za) and mPesa (http://tinyurl.com/6es5q8)

Stage Two

Create a complementary currency in a poor community, urban or rural, in South Africa using the mobile application.

A complementary currency is a currency that operates in conjunction with the national currency it does not replace the national currency, rather they merely create additional opportunities for the real economy to operate in times of greatly reduced credit and financial liquidity (for example poor communities with under-employment)

The idea, implementation and value of a creating a community based complementary currency are well documented. There are over 1,900 community-based currencies around the world. Examples include Ithaca Dollars (http://www.ithacahours.org), Time Banks (http://www.timebanks.org) and the lesser known but extremely successful WIR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIR_Bank) based in Switzerland, and by Bernard Lietaer (http://lietaer.com).

All of these examples showed some sort of positive economic impact – creating jobs and keeping businesses open and communities viable. However, there have been very few efforts at creating these sorts of currencies as a potential economic development tool.

A complementary currency based in a community creates the opportunity for the community to actually create their own means of exchange. This is very different from trying to bring money from the outside into the community.
This approach offers a novel development idea and utilizes a very ubiquitous technology to drive the implementation.

In South Africa we will work with the help of organizations like: Community Exchange Systems, Transition Towns South Africa - both of these are part of global networks of people that work with communities to help them in the process. 

In addition we have been in conversation with many experts in the arena: Bernard Lietaer, Arthur Brock, Eric-Harris Braun, and many others. 

The mobile application that is created will be open-source and open to use throughout the world. The final result being an increased ability for local communities to solve their own issues of liquidity and economic development without having to rely on donors or micro-finance options. 

Complementary Currencies do not charge interest!!

In addition:

Saul Wainwright – extensive research into economic development, finance and economic theory, and of course complementary currencies. Saul is also a native South African and holds a degree with honors, from UC Berkeley in Political Economics. Saul was awarded a Haas Scholars Award to fund research into South African Investments in the rest of Africa. He also co-organized the BarcampAfrica at Google in October 2008. He will be leaving for SA in January to start a MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Ken Banks – founder of Kiwanja.net and has over 22 years in the ICT world. Helped create FrontlineSMS, NGOMobile and more. He has received large grants for his work from the Hewllet Packard Foundation, McArthur Foundation and the Open Society Foundation.

Julian Gordon – with over 30 years of experience in the IT world he brings invaluable technical skills to the group. He has also worked on several mobile phone applications. He lived and worked in Silicon Valley through the 90's participating in many startups and large companies. He is currently in SA and will provide extensive technical expertise.