Timothy Jenkin – Community Exchange System

Victor "Global X" d'Allant
Former Executive Director, Social Edge

Timothy Jenkin has been a Cape Town-based political activist all his life. He launched the Community Exchange System (CES) in 2003 to create a new money system, and was elected Ashoka Fellow in 2007.

As Timothy Jenkin explains it, CES is a community-based network using a ‘money’ created by its users, one that can never be in short supply –so long as one can offer something of value, you can always receive from the community goods and services of similar value.

This helps township citizens be part of the local economy without incurring huge debts due to predatory lending. Transactions are computerized so that users can maintain their personal accounts through computer kiosks or mobile phones.