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Rural women farmers face growing climate risks but remain financially excluded, limiting their ability to adapt. This study is important as it examines how financial inclusion can strengthen their climate resilience and livelihoods in Nigeria.

Paper long abstract

Global development policies often equate financial inclusion with access to formal banking, microcredit, and digital finance, yet these approaches frequently overlook the community-based, culturally grounded financial practices that sustain rural livelihoods. This study examines how rural women farmers in Nigeria combine indigenous knowledge, collective action, and both formal and informal financial systems to strengthen climate resilience. Anchored in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and informed by a Gender and Development perspective, the study analyzes the role of formal saving, savings groups, cooperative societies, rotating credit associations, and kinship-based support networks in enabling adaptation to climate stress. Using a mixed-methods design—household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews across three states—the study assesses how these community-driven financial mechanisms together with formal financial services support income stability, food security, and adaptive capacity. The findings suggest that rural women actively design and manage financial systems grounded in reciprocity, trust, and ecological responsibility, challenging policy assumptions that formalization is the primary pathway to resilience. These practices reveal alternative models of financial justice that prioritize collective welfare over individual profit and resilience over extraction. From a policy perspective, the study calls for a reorientation of financial inclusion strategies toward enabling and protecting locally rooted financial ecosystems. Rather than displacing indigenous and cooperative systems, policymakers, financial regulators, and development partners should co-design interventions that complement community agency, integrate informal systems into climate adaptation planning, and address structural gender barriers. Such an approach offers more equitable, sustainable, and context-responsive pathways for climate resilience and rural development.

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Rural dwellers often have limited access to formal finance. This study examines factors influencing participation and intensity in community-defined financial systems. Results show that education, social trust, farm size, and extension contact significantly increase participation and engagement.

Paper long abstract

Rural farmers in Nigeria often have limited access to formal financial services, which makes it harder for them to manage risks, save money, and maintain their livelihoods. This study looks at what determines participation and how actively individuals engage in community-defined financial systems among rural dwellers in Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 160 rural dwellers. Probit model was used to examined the factors influencing individuals’ decisions to participate in community-based financial arrangements, and a Tobit model to examine the determinants of participation intensity, measured by the level of financial contributions. The Probit results show that social trust and education strongly increase the likelihood of participation at the 1% significance level, while farm size and distance to formal financial institutions positively affect participation at the 5% significance level. Access to formal credit had a negative but statistically insignificant effect. Tobit results indicate that education, trust, and frequency of extension contact positively and significantly influence the level of participation at the 5% and 10% significance levels. This study suggests that participation in community-defined financial systems depends not only on economic factors but also on social and institutional influences. The study concludes that community-defined financial systems complement or substitute formal finance by improving rural livelihoods and risk management. It recommends policies that support and strengthen these systems through technical assistance, capacity building, and integration with formal services.

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The study explores indigenous financial practices in Pakistan's agrarian communities, like ROSCAs and Qard-e-Hasna, as decolonial alternatives to mainstream models, and quantifies their impact on financial justice, advocating for policy support of community sovereignty.

Paper long abstract

Financial inclusion in Pakistan has improved over the years, yet agrarian communities face persistent barriers from top-down capitalist models. This research critiques these approaches through post-development theory, emphasizing indigenous systems such as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs, locally known as "committees"), mutual aid networks and interest-free Qard-e-Hasna loans rooted in Islamic ethics. We argue that these practices promote financial justice which entails equitable, sovereign and sustainable resource access, prioritizing collective well-being over profit.

Grounded in theories of social capital and decolonial alternatives, the study highlights how agrarian groups leverage cultural reciprocity and ecological harmony to build resilient economies. It addresses a critical research gap by providing quantitative evidence, lacking in prior studies, on how indigenous knowledge influences outcomes like access equity and sustainability.

Employing a mixed-methods design, collecting primary data from 400-500 respondents via questionnaires measuring constructs like trust, awareness and perceived risks. The research would adopt an econometric approach to contribute to the body of knowledge by quantifying decolonial finance, offer empirical baselines for South Asia and inform policies for institutions like the State Bank of Pakistan (Central Bank) to protect indigenous practices, aligning with SDGs on poverty and inequality.

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Research on social protection in the informal economy has largely prioritised state-led interventions or material support mechanisms, often overlooking everyday financial practices through which informal workers organise security and manage risk. In Ghana, susu, a rotating savings and credit arrangement remains a central but under-theorised institution within informal markets.

Using a qualitative methodology, this study draws on in-depth interviews with 55 food traders to examine the moral economy underpinning susu practices at the Madina Market in Accra, Ghana. It analyses how these arrangements function as informal systems of collective risk pooling and social protection, exploring traders’ accounts of participation in susu, obligations of contribution, enforcement mechanisms, and meanings attached to trust, reciprocity, and discipline.

The findings reveal that susu operates as a robust social safety net governed by disciplined reciprocity, providing essential social protection for participants. There are primarily two typologies of susu, playing complementary roles. The Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA), a group-based model where members periodically contribute to a common pool distributed in rotation while the individual or personal susu, more prevalent among traders, involves a one-on-one relationship with a susu collector.

Beyond its financial function, susu is embedded in a moral economy shaped by trust, reputation, and shared responsibility, offering predictability and assurance in contexts marked by income volatility and limited formal protection. The study contributes to social protection theory by foregrounding informal finance as a moral-economic institution, calling for a greater analytical attention to collective, trust-based mechanisms in understanding protection beyond formal insurance models.

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The paper assesses the effect of financial inclusion policies on women and finds that, though financial inclusion initiatives promise greater integration, government-endorsed capitalist systems ultimately force women to participate in a deficient financial cycle.

Paper long abstract

Financial inclusion has been touted as a means to integrate women into the financial economy, providing credit and other relevant financial products to support their businesses. In reality, it brings the unbanked population into government regulation and stealthily into taxation regimes. The government of Ghana, aware of gains to be made, implemented several measures to rope the vulnerable, usually women, into the finance sector. From liberalisation of the banking sector in the early eighties, through the introduction of a Microfinance Policy in 2006, to a Digital Financial Services Inclusion Policy in 2020, support to the vulnerable has evolved. This paper draws on relevant policies and in-depth interviews with females, males and young people in Ashanti, Western and Northern Regions of Ghana, to examine the effects of the government’s financial inclusion on women. Foucault’s concept of governmentality illustrates how the state sustains market-driven rationalities that compel individuals to assume responsibility for their own economic well-being. Similarly, I argue that despite the existence of a financial inclusion policy, the government has effectively shifted responsibility for women’s financial empowerment to women, via the private sector. These private providers focus on profit maximization through electronic platforms and products, compelling women to circulate their limited funds among themselves. Consequently, women remain caught in a recurring financial cycle marked by restricted credit access. I conclude that financial inclusion integrates women into the formal economy but fails to address structural barriers that impede access to meaningful financial support. These findings have implications for future policies.

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Although there is literature on cash transfers, including the South African Child Support Grant (CSG), there is limited research on how transfers for children can support youth transitions. Soweto households are sampled to assess savings and assets built for youth transition for long-term outcomes.

Paper long abstract

Many countries have adopted diverse social protection strategies to enhance cash transfer beneficiaries’ productivity through livelihood support, education, and targeted training for specific life stages (Patel et al., 2023). While social assistance programmes hold potential as transformative mechanisms, their impact depends on design and integration with complementary initiatives. One possible mechanism for making cash transfers transformative is through savings and building assets. Bastagli et al., (2019) and Churchill et al., (2024) have argued that greater poverty alleviation could be attained if recipients save a portion of the transfer income received.

While there is a significant body of literature on cash transfers, including the South African Child Support Grant (CSG), a means tested cash transfer, and evidence regarding their impacts in alleviating childhood poverty (Garman et al., 2022; Patel et al., 2018; Zembe-Mkabile et al., 2015), there is limited research on how cash transfers for children can support youth transitions towards long-term outcomes such as higher education and training enrolment, employment seeking, and starting an entrepreneurial business using savings and asset building.

This article investigated how the CSG might help young people transition towards long-term outcomes. The aim was to examine whether and how caregivers and children receiving the CSG in Soweto, saved money and built assets for youth transition. A qualitative research method was used, within an interpretivist paradigm.

The findings point to a number of interconnected causes the inability to save and build assets for youth transitions and the ways that structural realities influence aspirations and behaviour.

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The paper investigates how access to capital shapes the community identity in a south-Indian metro city. It studies the Marwaris, a hereditary mercantile community with a history of indigenous financial practices to understand caste-based exclusion and loss of traditional financial practices.

Paper long abstract

Marwari baniyas are a hereditary mercantile community constituted by several castes with a history of indigenous financial practices. In the 21st century, they have taken up occupations in formal banking and finance. Despite having alternative financial practices and the social processes supplementing them, the community has seen decline in wealth and loss of traditional financial practices. I investigate this loss in the city of Hyderabad, a south-Indian metro-city where Marwaris have been migrating since the 16th century. I triangulate my study of the Marwari community by conducting interviews of 15 business family households, tracing the role of Marwaris in the state by archival work and look at their representation among the wealthy elite by analysing secondary data. I adopt the social reproduction approach by Barbara Harriss White to study the Marwari caste associations, their community identity and their interaction with the state. In this paper, I argue that access to capital in the city of Hyderabad has produced a larger Marwari identity. The paper underscores that the Marwari identity has expanded due to access to capital as more castes have come to identify as Marwaris in the city. It suggests that caste based financial practices despite being indigenous remain discriminatory and contribute to loss of community knowledge.

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The study examines how esusu, a form of informal saving, has assisted wealth creation among women in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Most women's financial independence and economic breakthrough have been attributed to esusu. The government should support esusu and lift more women out of poverty.

Paper long abstract

Traditionally, women's economy has been tied to men’s economic success. Esusu is a form of traditional cooperation, whereby groups of individuals contribute to informal savings and credit associations. Esusu contributions have been employed among women to enhance their economic well-being. Women need money to support their homes and expand their businesses. Available means of accessing finances are not open to women; they have no assets, collateral, or surety. There are banks, finance houses, and wealthy individuals. These financial institutions hardly lend grassroots women money.  This study argues that esusu's contributions have been successful because it is locally owned. Talcott Parsons’ Theory of functionalism was employed in this study to explain latent and manifest functions of esusu among women in Ile-Ife. The qualitative method of data collection was employed in this study. In-depth interviews were conducted among fifty-seven women. The study found that esusu has empowered women significantly in Ile-Ife. Esusu contribution happens daily, weekly, monthly, or periodical. Women used esusu contributions to finance the education of their children. Women have also used esusu to generate more wealth. There are women who used esusu to build large scale businesses. Esusu has improved the social relevance of women. Some participants revealed that their businesses have become upgraded, and they have also been recognized in the community. It is important to state that there is a succession plan and continuity in esusu. The study concluded that the government should invest in esusu to assist grassroots women and emancipate more women from poverty.

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Paper short abstract

Despite Nigeria's financial inclusion progress since 2015, true justice—equitable access amid exclusions—eludes vulnerable groups. This paper will examine the role of community agencies' using indigenous knowledge to bridge gaps and enhance the achievement of financial inclusion and justice.

Paper long abstract

Financial inclusion in Nigeria has advanced significantly since 2015, yet achieving true financial justice—equitable access that addresses systemic exclusions—remains elusive for vulnerable populations. This paper proposes to explore the pivotal role of community agencies in leveraging indigenous knowledge to bridge these gaps, drawing on longitudinal data from Waves 3 (2015-2016), 4 (2018-2019), and 5 (2023-2024) of the Nigeria General Household Survey-Panel (GHS-Panel). In particular, the study will examine how local organizations facilitate informal and digital services, incorporating social norms to promote resilience.

Key objectives include evaluating agencies' impact on inclusion, analyzing gender dynamics in finance adoption, and assessing vulnerability mitigation for groups such as women, migrants, disabled individuals, and ethnic minorities in underserved regions. Employing difference-in-differences modeling and disaggregated analysis from ICT, safety nets, and community modules, the research will highlight intersections including how women's lower digital literacy affect gender-based violence and pandemic-induced inequalities.

Focusing on vulnerabilities, the paper will underscore how indigenous practices empower marginalized communities, countering formal biases. Expected outcomes include scalable guidelines for community-driven models with gender mainstreaming, a policy paper, and a capacity-building toolkit, contributing to sustainable financial justice in Nigeria's evolving landscape.

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Paper short abstract

This study explores how gender inequalities in rural financial systems shape how men and women fish farmer’s access and negotiate agricultural credit, with implications for productivity, power relations, and livelihood security.

Paper long abstract

This study examines the structural and gendered determinants of access to formal, semi-formal, and informal credit among small-scale fish farmers in Nigeria. Drawing on primary data from 134 male and 107 female farmers, the analysis employs Binary Logistic Regression and Average Marginal Effects (AME) to compare how methodological choices reveal gendered patterns of financial inclusion. The results reveal differentiated drivers of credit access across gender and credit regimes. For formal credit, access among women was positively shaped by farming experience (β = 0.262, p = 0.039) but constrained by loan default history (β = −2.345, p = 0.038), reflecting institutional perceptions of risk that disproportionately disadvantage female farmers. Among men, age (β = 0.117, p = 0.018) and ease of repayment (β = 0.373, p = 0.027) were significant, suggesting differing social positions and bargaining capacities within financial institutions. In the semi-formal sector, near-universal access among women (102/107) resulted in quasi-complete separation, highlighting methodological limitations and the potential homogenizing effect of some community-based structures. For informal credit, production cycles moderately shaped access among women (β = 0.675, p = 0.069), whereas training (β = 1.165, p = 0.020) and production cycles (β = 0.672, p = 0.047) were key determinants for men. The AME analysis further identified education and ease of access as substantively important. Overall, the findings underscore the layered nature of gendered financial exclusion and the need for policies that address structural constraints, institutional bias, and the differentiated credit ecologies shaping agrarian livelihoods.

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Development often fails because it does not listen. This study shows how Yoruba musical practices function as systems of economic trust, accountability, and justice, arguing for development frameworks that recognise sound as infrastructure and indigenous knowledge as policy relevant

Paper long abstract

This paper examined how indigenous musical practices in African societies, with particular reference to Yorùbá musical epistemologies, functioned as agents of financial justice and community-led development beyond dominant, top-down financial models. Responding to persistent critiques of market-centred development and financial inclusion frameworks, the study argued that prevailing policy approaches continued to marginalise agrarian and indigenous communities by overlooking culturally embedded systems of value, redistribution, and governance. Drawing on Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital Theory, the paper conceptualised Yorùbá musical practices as forms of embodied and institutionalised cultural capital through which communal labour, mutual aid, and moral economies were organised. Musical genres associated with work, festivals, praise, and social satire were theorised as regulatory mechanisms that reinforced accountability, reciprocity, and collective responsibility within community financial life. The analysis was further informed by Decolonial Theory, which framed Yorùbá sound worlds as epistemic interventions that disrupted Eurocentric development logics and monetary reductionism. Indigenous musical knowledge was shown to encode alternative economic rationalities grounded in relationality, dignity, and intergenerational sustainability rather than accumulation. Insights from Sound Studies repositioned music as a material practice of governance and agency, through which communities mobilised participation, negotiated authority, and imagined future-oriented social orders. The paper concluded that development policy debates must move beyond instrumental notions of financial access to recognise indigenous sonic practices as legitimate infrastructures of financial justice. By foregrounding African musical epistemologies, the study advanced a culturally grounded framework for reimagining development that centres community agency, epistemic plurality, and locally articulated futures in an uncertain global context.

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This paper argues that indigenous festivals, ritual performances, and communal theatre practices among Yoruba communities function as informal financial infrastructures, embedding redistribution, trust, accountability, and collective survival that challenge top-down financial inclusion models.

Paper long abstract

Abstract

Contemporary development discourse often frames financial justice in the Global South through access-driven paradigms such as banking penetration, microfinance, and digital inclusion. This paper challenges such top-down approaches by foregrounding indigenous performance practices as community-based financial pedagogies embedded within Yoruba festival systems in Southwestern Nigeria. Drawing on post-development theory, decolonial finance, and political economy perspectives, it argues that indigenous festivals function as informal financial infrastructures through which communities encode principles of redistribution, trust, accountability, and collective agency. Yoruba festivals and ritual performances are not merely cultural expressions; they operate as spaces where economic ethics are dramatized, negotiated, and transmitted across generations. Through performative enactments, symbolic exchanges, and communal participation, these practices sustain indigenous financial systems such as ajo/esusu (rotational savings), gift economies, labour-sharing, and ritualized accountability mechanisms that challenge extractive financial logics. Rather than privileging individual accumulation, such systems emphasize relational wealth, social security, and communal resilience, offering viable alternatives to neoliberal financial inclusion models. Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach combining performance analysis with ethnographic insights. By reframing indigenous performance as economic knowledge production, the paper contributes to debates on power, agency, and alternative development futures, concluding that recognizing indigenous performative systems as financial infrastructures is vital to advancing financial justice and community-led development in the Global South.

Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge Systems; Financial Justice; Community Agency; Informal Economies; Post-Development Futures