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neev
Neev is a digital tool that gives simple, efficient and expert housing solutions for the informal sector. Designed to make technical constructional information more accessible, it hopes to facilitate transparent and trustworthy relationships between homeowners and financial institutions
1. The Context
As an organisation, mHS CITY LAB focus their research on innovative financial and technical products to support the informal housing sector. Their goal is help make cities of today socially inclusive and encourage safe building practices.
High rate of urbanization leads to
“Prioritising Quick and Cheap Solutions, Resulting in Poorly Constructed, Non-Durable Houses!”
2. The Pain Points
MHS recognized the important stakeholders who would be essential to the functioning of the digital tool with whom we’d like to intervene. Each stakeholders’ problem areas were noted which established the essential services that would go into the designing and wireframe.
Frequently caught in cycles of debt
Overspending and inaccurate fund utilisation
Lack access to financial and basic construction knowledge
Informal technical appraisals
Poor sanctioned fund utilisation
Disorganised project management
Unskilled construction workforce
Not adhering to safety standards and good construction practices
Prioritise quick and cheap housing solutions
3. The Opportunities
How might we empower homeowners to plan their finances better and make informed construction decisions?
How might we equip financial institutions with necessary tools for better fund utilisation and project management capabilities within the informal sector?
How might we adequately skill construction personnel with good construction practices in order to build safer, durable houses?
.. Helps homeowners plan and budget their finances.
.. Supports financial institutions streamline organisational operations.
.. Gives access to better, more accurate construction drawings and plans to build safer, more durable houses.
4. The Service: NEEV
In its current form, NEEV is a B2B2C product. We have piloted the tool with three organizations in India and have trained personnel from a microfinance bank in Afghanistan, as well. The tool is envisioned to work in the global context. Essentially, it is a digital repository of construction, technical solutions, mapped per geography, climatic conditions and seismic zones,
The service design of the digital tool involved in-depth conversations with financial institutes, beneficiaries, pilot organizations (housing finance companies and microfinance institutes) and construction personnel.
The inputs from all the stakeholders informed us about the features that are required in the digital tool.
We piloted the project with an organization SEWA MHT. We realized that the majority of loan requests were for renovation and retrofit. Also, the organization had a cap on the loan amount which mostly could never cover the cost of new construction typologies. I did a capacity building workshop with the staff members of SEWA MHT and SAATH Charitable trust in Ahmedabad, India to disseminate basic construction practices, understand the organizational hierarchy and roles, as well as, take NEEV on field and understand how were they responding to it. We added options new construction options on the too. This made NEEV a more well rounded product that would actually be used by the organizations on field.
5. The Capacity Building Module 6. The App Mockups
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