WHAT IT IS
Ma'at is a revolutionary collective credit system that allows farmers to build their own group fund and to access credit as per their established group rules. Farmers can borrow and pay back according to their needs and to the cropping calendar.
The fund includes a solidarity fund to cover unforeseen events. There are no collateral nor risks associated. There is no dependency to a bank, a donor, or a public institution.
Ma'at creates wealth and well-being and is based on independence, autonomy and self-determination. It pools local value and reinvests it into the community. It allows small groups of farmers to thrive and self-replicate.
HOW IT WORKS
The Ma'at system is presented to the farmer communities and the approach is discussed at various local events. Those interested create their own groups. A Coach trains and accompanies the groups until they become self-sustained.
Each group selects its own Facilitator who will later be paid by the group. In each group around 20 farmers meet regularly and agree on the set of Ma’at rules that best apply to them. They elect their leaders. They build their own MA’AT Fund which allows them to take credit and reimburse as and when needed.
The Ma’at App encapsulates the Ma’at Rules. Data is recorded in notebooks and in the group smartphone and is transferred to a server managed by the Ma’at administrators in the Ma’at Peasant non-profit. The data is fully transparent to the group members and available at any point in time.
The farmers use the funds to invest in their fields, in seeds, in school material for the children, in building terraces, agroecological gardens, marketplaces, wells, irrigation systems etc.
WHAT IT SOLVES
Ma'at overcomes lending bottlenecks:
Banks: collateral, distant, high transaction costs, power imbalance, complex blueprint, compulsory payments, fixed interest rates
Microfinance: small business, monthly payments, fixed interest rates
Local lenders high interest rates, social pressure
In the case of Ma’at, interest rates are a collective decision by the group, reimbursements are flexible within the established rules, the App allows to enforce the rules and to train the users, through a user-friendly approach. Ma’at ensures solidarity, respect, mutual support and compliance through the group democratic, horizontal governance.