IDEO.org is partnering with Mercy Corps, BanKO, and CauseLabs on an eight-week project to create a mobile cash experience for empowering communities with new solutions to rebuild their livelihoods. 

On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines and became one of the most powerful storms on record. Known locally as Yolanda, the storm made landfall in the Visayas region, clocking 195-mile winds that shredded roofs of homes and buildings. A 25-foot storm surge devastated coast lines and took countless lives. Yolanda resulted in over 6,300 deaths, damaged 1 million homes, and has disrupted communities, infrastructure, and local economies to this day. 

Among the 16 million people affected, 40% were already living below the poverty line. In the hardest-hit islands of Leyte and Cebu, many were rural smallholder farmers, farm workers, and fisherfolk. For coconut farmers specifically, Yolanda’s effects are extreme and long-term: the storm destroyed 33 million coconut trees. Farmers must wait 7 years on average for new trees to re-grow and bear fruit. 

This presents a major challenge for rural poor Filipinos who are both recovering from disaster and loss and are rebuilding damaged homes and communities. Additionally, since many of the rural poor are unbanked, they must attempt to restart livelihoods with limited access to capital. The informal financial options to which they do have access typically offer unfavorable, unsecured, and sometimes predatory terms.

Six months after Yolanda, this focus on livelihoods is what we hope to address. 

IDEO.org has partnered with international organization Mercy Corps and Philippines mobile-banking institution BPI Globe BanKO to help low-income Filipinos affected by Typhoon Yolanda to rebuild financial stability and livelihoods through new mobile solutions. We’ve also partnered with Causelabs to design and develop a mobile financial product that Mercy Corps and BanKO can take to pilot. 

Mercy Corps has launched an innovative program to deliver monetary relief in the form of unconditional cash transfers to rural poor Filipinos most affected by Yolanda. The program, called TabangKO, disburses aid directly to beneficiaries via mobile money, thanks to BanKO’s mobile-banking platform. Through registration and financial literacy “caravans” across Cebu and Leyte, Mercy Corps registers beneficiaries for their aid program and at the same time allows them to sign up for a bank account. For many rural poor Filipinos, this is their very first bank account. 

At the caravans, beneficiaries receive a mobile SIM card to receive their cash disbursements, as well as an ATM card. In addition, they also get access to a savings account (and other mobile money and financial services) via a USSD-based cellphone and an agent/partner network. Recently, Mercy Corps surpassed a milestone of enrolling over 22,000 beneficiaries.

What can IDEO.org do to help?

We think Mercy Corps and BanKO’s work offers an exciting window of opportunity. They’re offering unconditional cash transfers at a critical moment when Yolanda survivors are beginning to rebuild their livelihoods. But one lump sum of cash is not enough. By providing financial-literacy education and prompting beneficiaries to use a mobile-banking platform to receive aid, they’re also building baseline behaviors and uses of mobile money through which they can access new financial solutions for greater growth and longer term financial stability. 

How might we help low-income unbanked Filipinos rebuild their financial lives after Yolanda? How can we deliver this help through a mobile-banking experience? How might we align with what poor rural Filipinos care about most? And, how might we help our partners Mercy Corps and BanKO build on their innovative work and successes to deepen their impact among the rural poor in the Philippines? 

To answer these questions, our IDEO.org team—Mariana, Behrouz, and I—will engage in human-centered design research, concepting and rapid prototyping in the Philippines, collaborating closely with our partner organizations Mercy Corps and BanKO, to arrive at a final concept which we can take to pilot. We’re also excited to work closely again with Causelabs who will bring their deep experience in prototyping and developing digital and mobile solutions with a focus on user needs.  

So, how can human-centered design help survivors of Yolanda? We have eight weeks to find out. 

Read more about this project from Mercy Corps and Global Envision.