Grantham Scholar Eva Andriani is a PhD researcher based in the Management School, focusing on the critical topic of financial literacy in the ESG context for micro and small businesses in developing economies.
Eva is supervised by Dr. Olga Cam as well as Dr. Ozlem Arikan, and is a winner of Sheffield Energy Renewable Hackathon 2023. The strength of her project lies in her extensive prior experience working directly with Indonesian businesses. Notably, her PhD studies are funded by a highly competitive LPDP (Indonesian Educational Fund Management Institution) scholarship issued by the Ministry of Finance. Such high recognition and governmental support emphasise the importance and potential impact of her academic work.
Eva’s project stems from her personal and professional experience of living in Indonesia, where she observed the pivotal role that street vendors play in communities and people’s livelihoods. She also noted that, although these economies are largely outside major debates related to sustainability, they are at risk of facing challenges in the future due to the scarcity of resources for sustainability efforts. Eva foresees that this lack of resources will make it difficult for street vendors to secure funding in the near future, primarily because financial institutions and investors are increasingly favouring sustainable businesses.
Recognising this situation, she established a financial literacy training program a year ago to support 33 street vendors and identified a need for further theoretical and practical work in this area. With her current research project, she aims to develop a training model using various methods to teach financial literacy within the framework of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles.
She will explore the model, including food waste management, recycling, decarbonisation, and other sustainability rules applicable to street vendors’ day-to-day activities. The ultimate goal is to lower business costs, benefit society around the street vendor’s environment, and empower street vendors to access crowdfunding opportunities, particularly from individuals and companies interested in supporting eco-friendly businesses.
This initiative directly and indirectly aligns with an array of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Eva has identified her main SDG focus on quality education (SDG 4) and building sustainable communities (SDG 11). Additionally, given the magnitude of the street vendor economic role in developing countries and the close linkage between the SDGs, it can also be seen that her study will contribute to goals such as supporting the eradication of poverty (SDG 1), hunger (SDG 2), reducing inequalities (SDG 10), and promoting responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).