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Welcome to Peace Dividend. We are an innovative online platform that facilitates direct lending by the Southern Sudanese Diaspora and other individuals to promising Southern Sudanese entrepreneurs who lack access to traditional sources of finance. Our purpose is to contribute to sustainable economic growth (and hence peace) in Southern Sudan, a region recovering from over twenty years of devastating civil war. By promoting economic growth, we also promote sustainable peace.
Our key focus is small enterprises that have the potential to boost employment, increase local production and promote economic growth and stability. We offer an effective way to reduce the risk of lending within Southern Sudan's challenging business environment drawing on the lessons of microfinance and traditional risk management to identify creditworthy businesses and minimise default rates.
We invite you to participate today and have a direct and positive impact on the peace and prosperity of the region by supporting talented and hardworking, but capital-strapped, Sudanese entrepreneurs who are eager to improve their living conditions through their own hard work.
Project Highlight: Lamp Manufacturing
:: A backward linkage from the booming construction industry, we have developed a range of lamps with the support of artist Magda Kasprzycka. These are made from local materials (bamboo and papyrus) and can easily be produced by rural communities at a competitive price (beating Ikea imports from Dubai for instance).
"With both rich resources and an untapped consumer market, Southern Sudan has great potential for investment." - Dr. Benaiah Yongo-Bure (Associate Professor of Social Science, Kettering University, USA)
"Peace Dividend offers a fresh and exciting approach to mitigate conflict through finance and to spur the economy of Southern Sudan through investment. As small and medium entrepreneurs in Southern Sudan today lack the collateral to qualify for bank loans, only an institution that masters the informality of markets can presently lend. Peace Dividend adopts such a model, and as such holds a high promise of success, as well as offering a way for Diaspora to help develop Southern Sudan both economically and socially. I trust the process and believe in the outcome." - Dr. Charles Saki Bakheit (Associate Professor of Statistics, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman).
"Enhancing the interdependency and wealth sharing of tribes as well as the involvement/inclusion of communities is crucial in building stability in Southern Sudan. PEACE DIVIDEND shows much promise in working towards this goal." - Prof. Gérard Prunier (Director, French Centre for Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa)
"Peace Dividend clearly recognizes that the creation of jobs and wealth will only enhance peace if this benefits all key actors, and as such raises the opportunity cost of going back to war." - Matthias Stiefel (CEO, PeaceFunds & Founder/Vice Chairman, Interpeace)
"Melody and Laura offer local awareness, credibility and international expertise - a dream team that I am honoured to be associated with." - Jacob K. Akol (Editor, Gurtong)
"Peace Dividend has tremendous potential in bridging the gap in access to credit and investment opportunities between rural and urban citizens of South Sudan, between men and women, between youth and the rest." - Prof. Jok Madut Jok (Professor of African Studies, Loyola Maramount University, USA)
"Everyone wants to be the boss, but no one can get a job in Southern Sudan. People have to work! Through small business finance Peace Dividend helps people to help themselves." - Manute Bol (Basketball Player and Activist)
"Peace Dividend presents a smart 2.0 model with the potential to harness the Diaspora for information and loan enforcement." - Prof. Paul Collier (Professor of Economics & Director of the Center for African Studies, University of Oxford, UK)
