8^th grade children participating in a financial capability workshop in Medellin.

Photo credit: Angela Mesa, Save the Children

By Rani Deshpande & Alejandra Montes Saenz, Save the Children

The extent to which financial education can actually motivate savings is a critical question for many parts of the financial inclusion field – from those working with youth to consumer protection advocates to policy makers.  For YouthSave, it’s paramount because we are implementing some form of financial education, ranging from face-to-face workshops to themed radio dramas, in all of our project countries.  So it was with much interest that we listened to the insights of former Women’s World Banking consultant Ricardo Leon at the recent Colombia YouthSave multi-stakeholder meeting. We felt strongly that his lessons on optimizing financial education for account uptake that were based on his experience working with the MFI ADOPEM in the Dominican Republic were applicable to our context and efforts.

By Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis

In 1950 there were just under half a billion young people from ages 15 to 24 in the world; by 2050 that number is expected to grow to 1.2 billion. Of these 1.2 billion, 90% will live in developing economies. Available evidence suggests that youth savings has the potential to improve the well-being of low-income and vulnerable youth, but globally, the number of youth savings programs is small. Systematic research is required to understand what types of youth savings products and services spur savings among populations of youth around the world.