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.

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.