NSL Blog

Britain microfinance and designing for the human(OS)

December 9, 2011

In NSL we write about another extraordinary person, Faisal Rahman, who belongs to the “don’t just stand there Do something brigade”, and so he set up Fair Finance for Business.

Faisal says we need to design money systems around people, all people. Not around the needs of a few – it many ways it is commonsense.

My great friends at the Do Lectures asked Faisal to come along and share his views on why he does what he does and what motivates him.

Bit of background on Faisel    
Faisel Rahman has a background in international development focusing on the microfinance sector. In 2000 he joined The Environment Trust in East London, where he developed a peer lending microcredit programme and an innovative and sustainable debt advice service. His work has helped hundreds of women create businesses and saved many hundred more from eviction. In 2005 he founded Fair Finance, and is currently its Managing Director. Faisel is a board member of the Debt On Our Doorstep Campaign and European Microfinance Network. He writes a monthly column in the Guardian on financial exclusion.

From an NSL perspective what are the lessons we need to learn?

1. Ways of how you see the world shapes how you act in it
2. Our system of banking and finance in the UK is prejudiced to the point it keeps people in poverty – so its part of the current trilemma
3. Being open to new ideas, and thinking from seemingly disparate sources can enable people to perceive new pathways to finding our best possible future