Daivi Rodima-Taylor

Daivi Rodima-Taylor is a social anthropologist and Africanist whose research focuses on mutual help associations and the informal economy; non-western fiduciary culture, microfinance and financial inclusion; and migration and remittances. She is Research Associate at the Center for Finance, Law and Policy of Boston University, and Visiting Researcher at the African Studies Center. Daivi is Lead Researcher of the interdisciplinary Task Force on Post-Conflict Remittances that was established to systematically analyze remittance systems in the contexts of forced and refugee migration, and their impact on national reconstruction and development. Her research interests lie particularly in informal remittance systems, novel solutions in integrating remittances into broader financial inclusion frameworks – including the role of ICTs and mobile money, and diaspora collective remittances and co-development initiatives.

Daivi has taught sustainable development and anthropology, and participated in international development work in Africa in the fields of microfinance, participatory planning, and community governance. Her longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in Tanzania, East Africa concentrated on informal mutual help associations, including cooperative labor groups and rotating savings-credit associations, and their effects on personhood and gender identities, and local valuations of money and labor. She has published on the topics of informal cooperation, mutuality and indigenous entrepreneurship; land tenure and environmental management; and institutional innovation and climate vulnerability in Africa.