The DiFF team is pleased to announce the release of a report, The Financial Ecosystem for Smallholder Farming Households in Lao PDR. The report maps the financial ecosystem for smallholder farmers in Laos and makes recommendations for stakeholders to develop the ecosystem while mitigating risks.

Our recent qualitative fieldwork in Laos and Cambdia showed very different results in the two countries. In Laos, many farmers were using digital financial services, but in Cambodia they were not. Why the difference?

On Wednesday, 1 November, the DiFF team held a workshop at the Crowne Plaza in Vientiane to present the initial results of our exercise to map financial inlcusion stakeholders in Laos. Here we present the group discussion on the state of digital financial services in Laos and how the results of our work might be used.

Between mid-October to mid-November, we did the first round of qualitative fieldwork in Laos to begin collecting data and exploring questions regarding discernible impacts of digital financial services on smallholder farmers. In this post we reflect on our process and initial observations.

International organizations and many researchers believe that digital financial services can help lessen the hardships such women face. However, little research has been done on whether digital financial services actually make women’s lives easier. What is the evidence?

As part of our workshop in Laos, the DiFF Team undertook a field study tour to a farm in Xienglom village in Luang Prabang Province on Wednesday 25 January 2023. The project team also had the opportunity to visit a local market to observe activities, especially the use of mobile money.

From 23-27 January 2023, members of the DiFF project team gathered for a workshop in Luang Prabang, Laos, to discuss the project objectives, concepts, research activities and methods, research questions and research planning for the immediate future and also for the next five years.

What’s a project without in-person meetings to clarify goals and build the team? This month, Dr. Isaac Lyne (WSU) and myself headed to Phnom Penh and Vientiane along with Dr. Todd Sanderson (ACIAR) to meet with our in-country project teams.

We’re pleased to welcome you to Digital Finance and Farming (DiFF), a 5-year project investigating the impact of digital financial serivces on farming households and women.