“Developing national strategies for financial literacy” – this was the headline of the four-day workshop organised by the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in mid-May for 20 representatives from central banks, banking supervisory authorities and education ministries from Latin America.
The workshop focused on the exchange of experience about how financial literacy strategies are put into practice. In Latin America, financial literacy gains more and more importance, but there are large discrepancies with respect to the level of development. While some countries – like Peru and Honduras – have already passed a national financial literacy strategy, other countries like Colombia and El Salvador are still in the phase of development. Within the scope of its partnership projects, Sparkassenstiftung actively supports its partner countries in this process by giving new impulses and acting as mediator.
Learning from success models and working together
For a successful and sustainable introduction of financial literacy strategies, it is of strong importance that all stakeholders cooperate with each other. This precondition was also highlighted by the seminar leader, Shaun Mundy, who developed and introduced the financial literacy strategy in Great Britain.
The workshop participants strongly profited from Mundy’s extensive experience in this field and vividly discussed with him about methods and guidelines for the development of a national financial literacy strategy. In follow-up sessions, the participants made practical use of their freshly achieved knowledge, while transferring it to the situation in their home countries. In so doing, they gained a comprehensive impression of country-specific requirements which need to be observed when introducing such strategies.
At the end of the workshop, all participants were convinced of the significance of a nationwide financial education. They agreed on pushing forward the financial literacy issue on their home countries’ political agenda. Ana Rosa Sardiñas, the vice president of Cuba’s central bank, was very impressed by the standing and progress of this topic in other Latin American countries. She is determined to actively campaign for a better development of financial literacy strategies in Cuba to bring this issue to the forefront.
The participants from Mexico took the greatest advantage of the workshop: To promote financial literacy in their home country, representatives of four Mexican government organisations joined their forces and set up a working group to work on the development and introduction of a national financial literacy strategy.
National strategies carry financial literacy to remote areas
Financial literacy is a core issue, which is strongly pursued by German Sparkassen (savings banks) and by Sparkassenstiftung. Getting a sound rudimentary grasp of financial matters and being able to responsibly handle one’s income and expenses is of special importance for people in developing countries and emerging economies. Being financially literate can particularly help the poorer segments of the population to provide for rainy days on a sustainable basis and avoid falling into debt.
The outreach of financial literacy can be significantly increased with the help of a national strategy. Coordination, strategic planning and definition of target groups as well customised programmes, evaluation and output indicators are the success factors of such a concept.
Contact partners:
Inka Rank / Carina Lau
Sparkasssenstiftung für internationale Kooperation
Simrockstraße 4
53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 9703 6631 / 6608
Fax: +49 228 9703 6613