Financial Capabilities
Blog Post: Colombia Wins Global Money Week Award
By Alejandra Montes and Dasha Kosmynina, Save the Children
At the second annual Child and Youth Finance International(CYFI) Summit awards ceremony last week in Istanbul, Colombia received an award for Global Money Week 2013, a week long set of activities in which “children and youth from across the world learn about saving, banking, giving back to the community and sparking their entrepreneurial spirit,” organized by the CYFI movement. According to CYFI, 80 countries, 185 institutions, and 1 million children officially participated in over 1000 organized activities throughout Global Money Week, which ran from March 15 to 21, 2013.
Taking the Pulse: The Role of Technology in Youth Financial Inclusion
Technology, particularly mobile phones, seems poised to rapidly increase access to financial services in developing countries at a time when youth populations are exploding. Some view this as a natural mutually-reinforcing relationship in which mobile access can drive youth empowerment and vice versa. At the same time, there is still much to learn about the contours and intersection of technology and youth access, usage, and development.
Blog Post: Increasing Economic Citizenship among Children and Youth
By Rodrigo Sermeno, New America Foundation
Recently, the Citi Foundation asked members of its Research Working Group to write a paper analyzing the existing literature on the key components of economic citizenship among children and youth. The paper entitled, “Children and Youth as Economic Citizens: Review of Research on Financial Capability, Financial Inclusion and Financial Education,” was presented at the Children and Youth Finance International (CYFI) summit in April. Among the members of the committee working on this paper was YouthSave’s Margaret Sherraden, who contributed to the sections pertaining to financial inclusion and financial capability.
Blog: Contrasting Lessons from Colombia´s Economic & Financial Education Workshop with the Citi – FT Financial Education Summit
By Alejandra Montes, Save the Children
Recently, Jaya Burathoki, Save the Children Project Manager in Nepal, blogged about the highlights from the Citi – FT Financial Education Summit in Jakarta. She raised interesting takeaways, such as the strategy that different governments in East Asia are using in the formulation of their financial education programs, the broader scope that financial education acquires when linked with financial access, and the urgent call for data to perform program evaluations.
