Mozambique: Looking back on seven successful years of cooperation
German Sparkassenstiftung in Mozambique
German Sparkassenstiftung first became active in Mozambique in 2014 when, at the initiative of Mozambique's central bank, it supported and helped shape the launch of the first World Savings Day (2015). To promote savings culture and the mobilization of (formal) savings in Mozambique in the longer term, DSIK initiated the Financial Education Partnership Project in 2016 and opened its country office in Maputo. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Project objectives in Mozambique
Since then, DSIK in Mozambique has pursued the goal of promoting the financial inclusion and education of disadvantaged women, micro-entrepreneurs and informal savings groups in rural areas of Mozambique through needs-based education programs. To this end, the team worked closely with its partner organizations, the local community associations Kukula and Ophavela. Both maintain a close network with the communities and their traditional savings groups, the "xitiques," in the populous provinces of Inhambane and Nampula.
To ensure that the partner organizations fulfill and continue their educational mission independently in the long term, the project also supported the partners in their strategic and operational planning and organizational development.
New teaching format for a rural target group
DSIK was able to achieve a high impact for the rural target group in Mozambique primarily through the creative and targeted adaptation of its training formats. The simulation game Jogo das Nossas Finanças (translated roughly as: Our Household Finance Game) is a simulation of private and small business household finances. It was developed and introduced based on DSIK's experience with interactive board games, i.e. the Business Games. The simulation game Jogo das Nossas Finanças is specifically tailored to the needs of rural populations with exceptionally low literacy levels.
Thus, textual presentation was largely omitted for illiterate people. A locally produced savings song summarizes the benefits of saving and motivates the group during the training. The qualified trainers come from the communities where the simulation is used. In total, over 6,000 savings group members participated in the new training during the project period and improved their skills in predictive budgeting, formal savings, and business start-up.
Using an educational radio drama during the pandemic.
In the wake of the Covid pandemic and weeks of in-person training cancellations, the team in Mozambique faced the challenge of reaching savings groups in mostly remote communities with financial literacy messages despite limited contacts and a lack of digital infrastructure. The solution was an educational radio play with core messages on finance and entrepreneurship, translated into local languages and broadcast on local radio stations with the help of partners. In total, it reached an estimated 230,000 listeners. Later, the radio play was supplemented by discussion sessions in which the savings groups discussed what they had heard and deepened their entrepreneurial knowledge under the guidance of the multipliers.
All's well that ends well
The project in Mozambique may have come to an end, but Deutsche Sparkassenstiftung's footprint remains: The needs-based financial literacy training formats will continue to be used by local partners to make a further contribution to financial inclusion in rural Mozambique.
