People-centred development: The value of mutual aid financial groups by Africana women with Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein BA’93

Step back into the classroom and learn how women of the African Diaspora engage in solidarity economies through a specific form of mutual aid – formally referred to as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) – to meet their livelihood and social needs. These women call themselves the Banker Ladies, and the ROSCAs they run are rooted in equity, mutual aid and self-help.

Our speaker, Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein BA’93, is the Canada Research Chair of Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy and Associate Professor of Global Development at the University of Toronto and cross-appointed to the graduate programme of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is Founder of Diverse Solidarity Economies (DiSE) Collective pushing for equitable economies. She holds an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2018-2023) and her project “African origins in the Social Economy” was previously funded by SSHRC (2017-2020).

Sponsored by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in honour of its first president, David Hopper.

Register now! Homecoming 2022 Back to the Classroom | Saint Mary's University Giving Portal (smu.ca)

Bio:

Dr. Caroline Hossein is a Canada Research Chair Tier 2 of Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy and Associate Professor of Global Development and cross-appointed to the graduate programme of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is the Founder of Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective. She holds an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2018-2025) and SSHRC (2017-2020). Hossein is a board member to the International Association of Feminist Economics, advisor to Oxford University Press, editorial board member to the U.N. Task Force for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Kerala University’s Journal ‘Polity & Society’. Hossein is the author of ‘Politicized Microfinance’ (2016), co-author of ‘Critical Introduction to Business and Society’ (2017); editor of ‘The Black Social Economy’ (2018), co-editor of ‘Community Economies in the Global South’ (2022) and ‘Beyond Racial Capitalism: Cooperatives in the African Diaspora’ (2023) both by Oxford University Press. Her forthcoming books are ‘Cooperativism’ by Cambridge University Press and ‘The Banker Ladies’ by the University of Toronto Press. Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for 9 years in a number of global non-profits and 8 years as a self-employed consultant to the World Bank Group, UNDP, USAID, IRC, CIDA, IADB, and the Aga Khan Foundation.  

Abstract: 

Women of the African Diaspora engage in solidarity economies through a specific form of mutual aid – formally referred to as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) – to meet their livelihood and social needs. These women call themselves the Banker Ladies, and the ROSCAs they run are rooted in equity, mutual aid and self-help. The members, mostly women, decide on the rules and processes of how to make regular contributions to a fund that is given in whole or in part to each member in turn. Banker Ladies draw on ancient African traditions of Ajo, Equub and Susu that are purposefully informal institutions. Canada has a rich history of mutual aid collectives, and Canadian policymakers are called on to support solidarity economies, and to ensure there is space for Black co-operators by creating a Global ROSCA Network. This lecture draws on empirical work that involves hundreds of Black women in five Caribbean countries, in Toronto and Montreal, as well as field work in Ghana and Ethiopia to locate the co-operative contributions of people of African descent. To understand co-operativism in international development, means situating Black political economy as a theoretical framework. The Black Social Economy challenges global solidarity movements to ensure that there is space for marginalized Africana people. By valuing these informal co-operative institutions, and acknowledging the expertise of Banker Ladies, this can help build a pluralized economy, bridge the gap of inequity here and elsewhere, and by extension revolutionize Canadian international development policy.