2015 ─ CYFI Awards Report 2015

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony Profile of Award Finalists

10 December 2015 The House of Lords, Houses of Parliament, London, UK

Hello Everyone, The team at the CYFI Secretariat is blessed each day to interact and learn from all the leading practitioners, policymakers, innovators and visionaries that are working around the world to advance economic citizenship for children and youth. The organizations and individuals that you find described in these pages represent some of the most committed and inspired of these industry leaders. Their achievements serve as a powerful testimony to the incredible potential of collaboration and innovation in the field of financial inclusion, education and sustainable livelihoods for young people. Every award finalist you find in this book deserves to be honored for their many valuable contributions to building the Child and Youth Finance Movement worldwide.

CYFI welcomes all participants to this CYFI Awards Ceremony as we take the time to celebrate these exceptional country representatives, financial institutions, civil society organizations and youth champions. May their stories and achievements inspire you to take action, form new strategic partnerships and push the boundaries for new programming, policies and entrepreneurial ventures that serve the best social and economic interests of young people.

CYFI would like to congratulate all the CYFI Award Winners today and wish them continued success in their home countries and local communities.

Sincerely,

Jeroo Billimoria Managing Director Child & Youth Finance International

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2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony Profile of Award Finalists 10 December 2015 The House of Lords, Houses of Parliament, London, UK

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

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2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Award Finalists PIONEER AWARD   

Al-Amal Microfinance Bank – Yemen Kaah Islamic Microfinance – Somalia HFC Bank – Ghana

GLOBAL MONEY WEEK AWARD 2015     

Africa (Sub-Saharan): Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia Americas & The Caribbean: Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay Asia & The Pacific: Bangladesh, Brunei, Nepal Europe & Central Asia: Belarus, Netherlands Middle East & North Africa: Egypt, Yemen

COUNTRY AWARD     

Africa (Sub-Saharan): Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda Americas & The Caribbean: Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru Asia & The Pacific: Bangladesh, Fiji, India Europe & Central Asia: Croatia, Italy, Turkey, United Kingdom Middle East & North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Palestine

CIVIL SOCIETY LEADERSHIP AWARD    

GrassrootSoccer – South Africa MyBnk – United Kingdom Para Durumu – Turkey Society “Our Children” – Croatia

YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD   

Ms. Asel Baidyldaeva – Kyrgyzstan Mr. Brian Kipkemoi Kirotich – Kenya Ms. Laeticia Victoria Mukungu – Kenya

YOUTH FINANCIAL EDUCATION AWARENESS AWARD:   

Ms. Asmaa Ahmed Fatani – Saudi Arabia Mr. Prakash Koirala – Nepal Ms. Araceli Gonzalez Rolon – Paraguay

YOUTH FINANCIAL INCLUSION INNOVATION AWARD:   

Ms. Amina Abdulsamed – Nigeria Mr. Jose Adolfo Quisocala Condori – Peru Ms. Mara-Florina Steiu – Romania

Pioneer Award

Pioneer Award

Al-Amal Microfinance Bank Yemen Founded in 2008, Al-Amal Microfinance Bank (Al-Amal) is the first of its kind in the Middle East and was created based on the principal of financial inclusion for all. It focuses particularly on Yemen’s unbanked population, including young people and women.

Al Amal, in partnership with UNICEF and local authorities in the Taiz Governorate, approaches excluded and marginalized young people in the Muhamasheen community in Yemen and offers Child and Youth Friendly Banking Products. This partnership has focused on child-sensitive education and inclusion interventions through savings accounts for mothers and children aged 17 and under, with the goal to empower the local population to demand and access basic social and protection services.

Overview of activities: Al-Amal has paid great attention to its young clientele by providing financial and non-financial services in cooperation with donor organizations. This includes Youth Loans, which encourages youth entrepreneurship by providing young people with loans to start up or expand their business; Youth Savings, saving accounts targeted at youth aged between 18-30 years old; and Al Amal Child Savings, a product dedicated to building up a savings culture among children (especially those of low income households) by allowing them to open savings accounts.

Al-Amal, in association with different organizations, education providers and governmental entities, delivers programs focusing on: financial inclusion, training of households on basic financial literacy, training on "Savings for Children," life skills training for parents and adolescents, along with youth and financial awareness raising campaigns.

The Child-Sensitive Financial Inclusion of Muhamasheen (Marginalized) Communities Program has been recognized for introducing a financial inclusion program for the most socially excluded youth in Yemen for the first time. 35 per cent of Al-Amal’s savings accounts are for youth and children and 29 per cent of disbursed loans are for youth.

Highlights: 

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Through this program, Al-Amal has seen 20,755 savings accounts opened since 2012 - 11,437 savings accounts opened for children aged 17 years and under (6,196 male and 5,241 female) - 3,572 savings accounts opened for youth aged 18-30 years (2,124 male and 1,448 female) In addition, Al-Amal has distributed over 27,000 loans to youth entrepreneurs By introducing a social & financial education component, 299 training sessions were conducted for 7,473 trainees (2,588 Child, 1,794 Youth, and 3,091 adults) AMB have raised the financial awareness of approximately 75,000 students from schools and universities across Yemen.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Pioneer Award

Kaah Islamic Microfinance Somalia Leading Somali money transfer business Kaah Express joined with regional social initiative Silatech and the American Refugee Committee (ARC) to launch Kaah Islamic Microfinance Services (KIMS). This is Somalia’s first commercial microfinance institution, and has the objective of expanding financial inclusion and stimulating economic development throughout Somalia.

KIMS was established in March 2013 as the first microfinance institution in Somalia/Somaliland targeting youth aged 18-35. Youth are the most marginalized group in Somali society in general and young people have serious difficulties in accessing financial services. The unemployment rate is also much higher amongst youth than in other demographic groups in Somalia.

Overview of activities: KIMS prioritizes enterprise financing through Sharia compliant products but also offers savings to meet community needs, with particular attention paid to female and youth entrepreneurs. KIMS provides a diversified set of commercially viable Islamic financial services to meet the unmet demand for microfinance and to reduce poverty in the region.

KIMS provides financial inclusion and education to youth entrepreneurs with existing and start up enterprises.

KIMS provides affordable Islamic sharia compliant finance which has significant economic, social and educational impacts on Somali youth.

Highlights:  

The KIMS loan recipients created nearly 2000 new jobs to run through their enterprise loans, reaching nearly 15000 indirect beneficiaries through the employees’ households.

KIMS has provided financing to over 500 enterprises with a 99 per cent repayment to date and its operations are set to expand to include South-Central Somalia soon, with services provided in the capital city of Mogadishu before the end of 2015.

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Pioneer Award

HFC Bank – Ghana In Ghana, the YouthSave Project began in 2010, in partnership with HFC Bank and the Institute for Social, Statistical and Economic Research, to design and test the social and commercial impact of youth savings accounts.

HFC Bank- Ghana launched a youth savings product in 2012 called HFC Enidaso (Hope) Account, an interest bearing savings account designed for the youth who are either in or out of school and between ages 12 to 18 years. The purpose of the account is to help low income youth in both rural areas and urban centers save part of their pocket money, help cater to their basic economic needs as well as support their families to meet their educational expenses.

The Bank has participated in several promotional programs to reach out to new youth clients. Some of these programs have included partnering with Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) and The Securities and Exchange Commission in Ghana to celebrate World Savings Day and Global Money Week throughout the country.

This also involved partnering with Springboard Road Show to organize Teenprenuership events.

Overview of activities: Financial Education and transaction support is provided by Bank Officers or Direct Youth Account Sales Representatives. In addition, HFC Bank partners with local NGOs and Schools on various financial education related topics: 

Financial literacy programs where youth both in or out of school are taken through topics such as budgeting, importance of savings, risk monitoring and investment  Savings fairs and outreach programs in schools and at market centers.  Learning Journeys where the youth visit the bank and are taken through the day-to-day activities in a bank.

Savings and risk monitoring games were also developed to educate the youth on how to make safe financial transactions and other important things to know when dealing with financial service providers.

Highlights:   

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When conducting in school banking, outreach programs and direct sales in market centers, HFC Bank offers various incentives including Piggybanks, T-Shirts, pens, pencil cases and rulers.

Since 2012, nearly 15,000 young people aged 12-18 years have opened the Enidaso Account with HFC Bank and had saved the equivalent of over 120,000 Euros.

Research conducted through the YouthSave consortium found that more than 90 per cent of young people who opened accounts said it was their first experience at banking, while 20 per cent revealed that they were the first bank accounts in their households.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

CYFI Awards Ceremony 2014

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Global Money Week Award 2015

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopia Ethiopia has been making remarkable strides over the years in advancing youth financial inclusion and education. There is a greater recognition by both government and non-government institutions on the need for youth economic empowerment and this has led to greater participation in Global Money Week.

Ethiopia carried out a nationwide celebration with various stakeholders, including the National Bank of Ethiopia, Financial Services Providers, Youth Led Organizations and NGOs. Activities included school trips to the National Bank of Ethiopia, an Open Day at financial institutions for young people, youth-adult policy dialogue at the National Bank of Ethiopia, sporting activities (i.e. football tournaments), financial literacy campaigns in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and entrepreneurship workshops organized by youth lead organizations.

Activities Overview: All 22 branches of PEACE Microfinance marked the week with fun and exciting activities including financial literacy campaigns, football competitions, music and dance events.

They also organized a children and youth policy dialogue at the National Bank of Ethiopia.

R & D Group partnered with Nisir Microfiance, Oromia Bank, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Cordaid to launch a national wide financial literacy campaign during the week.

During Global Money Week, the bank opened its doors for kids and youth and taught them how the financial world works. They also opened saving accounts for young people, by providing the initial deposit. More than 40 youngsters benefited from openning savings accounts.

Key Highlights: • Active participation of NGOs with creative activities • Big outreach, more than 397,782 children and youth were directly reached.

• Effective public awareness campaign

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2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda The 2015 Global Money Week in Rwanda saw a record collaborative effort and participation by various national actors from government institutions, NGOs and the private sector, providing the foundation to further develop inclusive financial services for young people in the country. These institutions came together to serve and strengthen a generation of young economic citizens. Activities marking the week included a ‘Ring the Bell’ event at the Stock Exchange, bank visits, public lectures on youth savings, debates, radio shows and youth entrepreneurship forums.

Activities Overview: The Global Money Week celebrations were officially launched with the Ring the Bell event at the Rwanda Stock Exchange. This was followed by many colorful and fun activities for children and youth, including presentations, briefings, drama, a saving shop contest (a practical contest where children and youth learned about how to shop smart, saving while shopping and the financial systems used at the supermarket), lessons in classrooms, club activities, visits to different banks in Rwanda and receiving information on banking operations and available products for youths. Kids also got to join in the celebration of Aflatoun day in Rwanda on March 17th.

Speeches, presentations, and discussions underscored the importance of saving and saving safely. Children and youth were urged to start saving and invest their money to generate revenues. For example, the executive director of Capital Market, in a lecture on savings and collective investment schemes, encouraged students to form investment clubs at their schools and use them to raise funds and invest jointly in capital markets.

Likewise, directors and representatives of different banks urged youth to use banks not just for paying school fees or taking credit to start a business.

During the celebrations there was a special focus on the need for girls to take active participation in finance decisions. The banking institutions urged girls to take interest in learning about monetary systems and to pursue careers in banking and other financial sectors.

Plan International in Rwanda celebrated GMW 2015 through its project “Supporting Girls’ Futures through Education and Financial Education Training”. In addition to promoting the need for financial education and economic citizenship, there was focus on creating awareness about leadership & sexual reproductive health, positive masculinity & gender-based violence, and saving & livelihood skills. Also AIESEC played an important role in coordinating with various partners to conduct events across the country for the Global Money Week celebrations.

Key Highlights: • Active participation of NGOs with creative activities • Well established structure at a national level with over 30 institutions involved • Effective public awareness campaign

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Global Money Week Award 2015 – Sub-Saharan Africa

Zambia Zambia has made tremendous strides in advancing financial education for youngsters. They have adopted Global Money Week as a national campaign for advocating for financial education and financial inclusion for children and youth with the Bank of Zambia leading the celebrations each year. This year, the celebrations in Zambia extended beyond the official 7 day period of Global Money Week and included a platform to encourage youth entrepreneurship in the country.

Activities Overview: Zambia kicked off 2015 Global Money Week with a launch of its nationwide activities on 13 March at the Olympic Youth Development Center in Lusaka. Global Money Week in Zambia was held under the theme: ‘A better Life through saving, every penny counts’’. Activities implemented included provincial exhibitions, film productions on savings, production and distribution of educational materials, media outreach programs and school engagement initiatives.

The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Zambia performed the official launching of the Global Money Week activities. More than thirty Executives from the financial sector and 1000 pupils from 40 schools attend the launch at the Olympic Youth Development Centre in Lusaka. Zambia’s youngest commercial pilot, Kalenga Kamwendo, spoke at the official opening event in Lusaka. This was followed by Global Money Week celebrations across all 10 provinces of Zambia. An estimated 200,000 children and youth were directly reached through these national efforts.

Key Highlights: 

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2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Engaged National authorities and International Organizations reaching 200,000 children and youth in the country Creative and well organized activities Effective public awareness and media campaigns

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Americas & The Caribbean

Colombia Global Money Week celebrations were led by Banca de las Oportunidades (BbO). BdO is the long-term policy program aimed at expanding access to financial services for the unbanked in Colombia. The program especially targets low-income families, micro and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs. BdO, which is managed

by Bancoldex, the Bank for Foreign Trade, in association with Banking Association (Asobancaria), the Central Bank of Colombia, and Plan International, organized a variety of activities all over the country.

Activities Overview: The Central Bank of Colombia organized a workshop on coins and bank notes for children and youth.

Similar workshops were also conducted in its 23 branches.

Asobancaria contributed to spreading the messages of Global Money Week values through a strong social media campaign. Asobancaria’s associate institutions took the financial inclusion and education messages to the next level by organizing hundreds of activities, including workshops, games, and visits to financial institutions among others.

BdO and Plan International put together a grand closing ceremony event. Academic institutions, like the University of Groningen and Georgetown University, and other organizations such as UniSangil and Youth for Finance, took part in a session dedicated to highlighting success stories in financial inclusion and financial education.

Key Highlights:   

Multi-sectorial event with national coverage Outreach to 1 562 389 children and youth Great presence on social media and mass media

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Global Money Week Award 2015 – Americas & The Caribbean

Guatemala Global Money Week in Guatemala witnessed the Central Bank of Guatemala, The Superintendence of Banks, the Banking Association of Guatemala and several other allies, including the national network of libraries, organize a national financial education fair with the objective to disseminate information about the work undertaken by their institutions in the space of financial education and financial inclusion for children and youth.

This celebration was also made special by participation of representatives from the World Bank, the US Treasury Department, and the Superintendence of Banks and Insurance of Peru, making this the only Global Money Week celebration in 2015 that included an exchange of international delegations. This is testimony of Guatemala’s commitment to international cooperation on the matters of financial education and financial inclusion for youth, and their strong support to the Child and Youth Finance Movement.

Activities Overview: At the fair, children, youth, families and teachers learned about the work of the Central Bank and other relevant institutions through interactive sessions, theater productions, and various games. In addition, this year’s GMW celebrations included a financial consumer protection fair, whose objective is to educate the general population about their rights as consumers. During the fair, there was a special focus on children and youth.

Global Money Week celebrations reached 17 of the 22 states in Guatemala through a series of mini financial education fairs organized in various schools, public libraries and public spaces.

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Multisectorial event with 50 institutions involved and invitations to foreign international delegations High quality activities throughout the whole country Strong focus on school-age children

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Americas & The Caribbean

Paraguay Global Money Week in Paraguay was celebrated by a group of organizations who are committed to the cause of financial education and inclusion and to further the impact of the Child and Youth Finance Movement. As has been the tradition, the celebrations this year were launched with a press conference attended by high-level authorities from each of the participating organizations. During the press conference, the participanting organizations presented the details of the events that they had planned to celebrate Global Money Week 2015 in Paraguay.

Activities Overview: Fundación Paraguaya tapped its network of young volunteers to spread awareness about financial education and financial inclusion to schools around the country, while Fundación AMCHAM participated by organizing a series of lectures and a youth assembly. Fundación AMCHAM also participated of several TV and radio spots to spread the message of Global Money Week. Additionally, 27 trainers graduated from Fundación AMCHAM’s “Plan Transitorio Área Ciencias Sociales” program.

These trainers will become ambassadors creating awareness and delivering economic citizenship education in the schools.

This year, the Youth Ambassador program, sponsored by the Department of State of the United States of America, took part of the celebrations of Global Money Week in Paraguay. The Youth Ambassadors Program brings together high school students and adult mentors from countries across the Americas to promote mutual understanding, increase leadership skills, and prepare youth to make a difference in their communities.

The implementing partners also organized similar workshops, visits to schools, a national youth assembly, radio spots, and promotional campaigns. During the closing ceremony, the Central Bank of Paraguay launched newly developed financial education materials, which will be distributed in schools all around the country.

Key Highlights:   

Multistakeholder activities at a national level Diverse youth-lead activities Considerable social and conventional media coverage

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Global Money Week Award 2015 – Asia & The Pacific

Bangladesh The celebration of Global Money Week continued this year in Bangladesh – achieving a large outreach of 220,000 and greater coordination amongst national entities. Patronized by the Ministry of Education of Bangladesh and supported by Bangladesh Bank (the Central Bank of Bangladesh), the celebrations emerged as a national event that involved multiple activities and cut across different industries.

Impressively, Global Money Week in Bangladesh was capped off with a grand gathering of high-level stakeholders and student leaders from across the country at the Senate Hall of the capital city of Bangladesh within the Dhaka University compound. These high-level stakeholders included the Governor of the Central Bank, the Secretary of the Ministry of Education, the CEO of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, and various other leaders within the education, entrepreneurial and banking sectors in the country. More importantly, student leaders from various cities and provinces of Bangladesh also came to the gathering to learn, comment, and take part in the discussion of the leaders. This has garnered exceptional attention from the press and has also launched national attention towards what Global Money Week is about.

Activities Overview: Bangladesh’s 2015 Global Money Week involved a wide range of activities including a press conference with major media agencies in the country, a formal inauguration, ringing of the Dhaka Stock Exchange Bell, workshops and seminars to raise financial awareness, competitions for kids about the importance of savings, essay writing contests, post-card making exercises answering the speech bubble “I save because…”, industry visits for kids to see what future jobs they may pursue, visits to the money museum, mind mapping to envision their future, drama and arts activities that creatively teach money awareness, and visits to various educational institutes to foster cooperation between schools for the empowerment of children and youth as economic citizens.

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Outstanding increase of outreach – from 25,000 in 2014 to 220,000 in 2015 Multi-stakeholder approach and support at high levels Effective youth engagement nationally

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Asia & The Pacific

Brunei Led by the Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam furthered its commitment towards empowering children and youth as economic citizens by reaching 1.500 children and youth which represents over 10 per cent of the young population in a small country like Brunei. The initiative was also supported by the Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam and the Employee Trust Fund of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei Darussalam, and a large part of the banking sector.

Perhaps the most impressive activity organized and unique to Brunei was the Grand Financial ExploRace focusing on the topic of a person’s life stages and the financial responsibilities that come with it, allowing children from all over the country to participate. This has helped them experience financial literacy and how it will be relevant to them in various stages of their life in a fun and interactive way.

Activities Overview: The celebrations in Brunei included a series of events from the 9th to the 17th of March. These involved talks on the differentiating between a need and a want, banner-making, and various avenues to discuss the importance of starting to save today to assure that there will be a safer tomorrow for the young people of Brunei The range of activities that were organized in Brunei were quite diverse from bank visits and money museum trips to organizing skype calls with other countries so that children have the opportunity to share their experiences with other children from other countries – including Russia and the Philippines. As well, banner-making contests were also organized in all secondary schools in Brunei on the topic of “Save Today – Safe Tomorrow”, which have produced great posters used later for the rest of the campaign.

Moreover, they have organized one of the most creative activities from online conferences calls with other countries, a consistent social media campaign targeting youth, and the Grand Financial ExploRace that had kids participating from all over the country. The level of participation was quite interactive, attracting national press coverage around the big activities from schools across Brunei.

Key Highlights:   

Active participation of NGOs with creative activities Well established structure with a reach out of 10 per cent of children and youth in the country Effective public awareness and media campaign

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Global Money Week Award 2015 – Asia & The Pacific

Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank, the Central Bank of Nepal, took the lead to celebrate Global Money Week 2015 in Nepal from 9 to 17 March. It worked in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, including banks and financial institutions, which led to a total reach of 11,400 children and youth. During the week, Nepal Rastra Bank coordinated closely with multiple organizations from the public, private, and civil society sectors.

What has made this year special was the level of participation that was played by the media and the youth sector in Nepal. Moreover, multiple press impressions within the country maximized the reach of this year’s celebrations in Nepal. What is commendable from Global Money Week in Nepal is how deeply financial literacy awareness initiatives have now been embedded within the country and the priority that various stakeholders place on the initiative. Their Global Money Week celebration therefore provided a great snapshot of how far Nepal has come in recognizing and taking action on youth economic empowerment in the country.

Activities Overview: The celebrations in the country were capped off with the Grand Financial Literacy Rally with about 4000 people on 14 March. The rally was represented by some 50 institutions, including bank and financial institutions, schools, scouts, cooperatives, NGOs and donor agencies. For this rally, shirts had the Global Money Week printed in them, as well as the theme “Save Today, Safe Tomorrow”. The rally was inaugurated and addressed by the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank. Many high level authorities of Nepal Rastra Bank and of other government institutions participated in the rally.

Key Highlights:   

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Multi-stakeholder approach and the commitment from high-level officials High quality activities throughout the whole country Strong focus on school-age children Creative activities that engaged a wide range of community actors

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Europe & Central Asia

Netherlands “By equipping the next generation with a thorough financial education, we will bequeath them a valuable heritage that will shape their future well-being, and that of the world.”

The 2015 Global Money Week (Week van Het Geld) celebrations were inaugurated by H.M. Queen Máxima on March 9th at elementary school OBS West in Capelle aan den Ijssel. The goal of this week was to teach primary school pupils about money and to raise their financial awareness.

Activities Overview: Prior to the launch, Queen Maxima attended several guest lectures at the school together with the Minister Education, Culture and Science. During this time she also spoke with students and teachers about the importance of learning how to manage money. The lectures were presented by, among others, senior executives of partner organizations of “Wijzer in Geldzaken.” Lessons with volunteers from the sector (private banks, regulators, ministry of education) also involved seminars, workshops and concerts.

Euronext Amsterdam was festively opened on 11 March by young entrepreneurs from the Yecommunity.com platform – a platform for young entrepreneurs launched by Child and Youth Finance International in December 2014.

Representatives from the Postcode Loterij sounded the gong as a symbol of their support for youth causes. Alongside with the young entrepreneurs and representatives of the CYFI Secretariat, representatives from Aflatoun joined this special ceremony.

Amsterdam Business School shared their facilities with CYFI to accommodate international YouthTalks via Google Hangouts. These online talks connected student groups around the world to learn and discuss about money, saving, financial landscape, entrepreneurship and cultures.

More than 20 students from the Berlage Lyceum visited Tommy Hilfiger’s global head office in Amsterdam.

Students were given a unique opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship, receive a real-life work experience and were inspired to dream big. The event was a collaboration between TommyCares, and CYFI. The Director of TommyCares shared insights into his own choices regarding education and career followed by the story of Tommy Hilfiger’s first entrepreneurial venture. Inspiring Dutch youth entrepreneurs also shared their experiences with students having the opportunity to interact with the speakers and ask questions.

International recording artist Caro Emerald also spoke with students at IVKO college in Amsterdam about entrepreneurship, the music business, and money. Students and fans were given the opportunity to send in questions on why she decided to start her own label, what entrepreneurship skills she thinks are needed and how much saving has helped her in advancing her career. The school was even treated to a short performance of two of her most popular songs.

Key Highlights:   

Engaged national and international celebrities Inspiring and well organized activities Effective public awareness and media campaign

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Global Money Week Award 2015 – Europe & Central Asia

Republic of Belarus The Republic of Belarus participated in Global Money Week in 2015 for the third time with a wide range of activities reaching out to more than 55,000 children.

The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus led the celebrations and involved children and youth from different regions of the country in a wide variety of activities. This included: visits to different financial institutions and organizations, tours of the Belarusian Stock Exchange, events on arts and creativity, and lectures on financial responsibility. Young people also participated in games and contests organized by the National Bank, banking association, commercial banks, universities and other stakeholders in the country.

Activities Overview: Throughout the week a wide variety of activities were organized by various stakeholders in the country, including interactive games in high schools (such as “Financial Football”), screenings of financial education cartoons for young children, workshops and seminars in schools and excursions to the Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange. The financial and economic games tournament for undergraduate students of Belarusian higher education institutions was also held at the National Bank on March 16th.

Commercial banks in Belarus were also active in this year’s Global Money Week and provided trainings, seminars and lectures for children and youth all around the country. Belarusbank alone reached more than 40,000 youth with its activities. Also the National Bank’s representatives carried out a number of training events for children of its employees during the week, and the social advertisements about financial education matters were placed on TV, radio and other media starting March 1st, 2015.

Key Highlights:   

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Multi-stakeholder approach with high level involvement from government authorities.

Increased commitment to Global Money Week since 2012 Effective public awareness and media campaign

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Global Money Week Award 2015 – Middle East & North Africa

Yemen The Central bank of Yemen, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Higher Council of Motherhood and Childhood, launched the 2015 Global Money Week celebrations by inviting the financial institutions in the country and other related organizations to attend and participate in the activities. 2015 Global Money Week celebrations in Yemen focused on providing an opportunity to youth to learn about creating their own livelihoods and inculcating sound financial knowledge and fiscal planning skills.

Activities Overview: In his welcome address, the sub-governor of the Central Bank focused on the importance of financial education for youth and how its role is significant in increasing financial access in Yemen. He also highlighted that the financial institutions in Yemen, including the micro-finance institutions, will benefit from the Global Money Week initiatives as the banks get an opportunity to build long-term relationships with their customers. The CEO of Al-Amal Bank in his speech showcased the outstanding work that Al-Amal Bank has done in spreading financial education in the society and the benefits of the programs conducted in many Yemeni cities.

There were many activities such as competitions and plays that explained basic financial and banking terminologies and how to open bank accounts.

Participating banks visited universities and taught students about the importance of financial literacy and how to start developing a relationship with banks by opening saving accounts. The teams were supervised by two representatives of the Central Bank. In addition, banks also visited many primary and secondary schools in other cities such as Ibb, Taiz, Aden and Haja. The day focused attention on children and youth in schools nationwide and to empower them by enhancing their financial knowledge. Other financial institutions, in cooperation with the Central Bank and the Office of Education in Sana’a, also organized visits to schools and universities in Sana’a during which they conducted a lot of activities. The most important event was the schools’ broadcast and radio shows in Arwa School for Girls wherein all participating banks attended in one or more activities. They gave speeches to the students about the financial services and the importance of financial education.

Many NGOs were also present during Global Money Week in Yemen through the participation of For All Foundation during Aflatoun Day. For All Foundation organized visits to one of the public schools in Aden where experts spoke with the students during the assembly about the importance of saving and how it is important for a bright future. The team focused on certain groups of 4th graders. The session focused on saving through activities such as role plays, songs and Q&A sessions. An impressive number of people participated in these activities. The team distributed yellow badges to all the students supporting saving ideas.

Key Highlights:   

Multi stakeholders and reaching out to children in and out schools despite the difficulties in movement within the country.

The celebration was officially carried out at the national level.

Global Money Week became part of a series of programs and initiatives to promote financial education throughout the year.

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Global Money Week Award 2015 - Middle East & North Africa

Egypt This year, Egypt reached out to around 1,500,000 children and youth, covering the 27 Egyptian governorates during Global Money Week celebrations.

Financial awareness sessions were offered (face to face) to children and youth, including a master trainers’ session for the employees and volunteers of the Ministry of Youth and Sports who are conducting awareness sessions in schools and community centers throughout the country.

Also, worldwide leading NGOs like Plan International participated in the celebration with different activities.

In the media, Global Money Week 2015 activities were fully covered by “El-Felous WE El- Nas Programe “ and more than 65 children and youth made videos about saving and financial education. A series of daily radio financial literacy tips were aired through the Youth and Sports Radio Channel during the week. At a fundamental level, a seminar was held in Cairo University where youth and policy makers had an open debate about financial related matters. The debates carried on among youth with their peers as well. The Egyptian Banking Institute created a financial booklet with a series of stories for children and youth entitled “ ‫عشان بكرة نحوش‬/Let’s Save for Tomorrow” and ,"‫ عشان بكرة نخطط‬/Let’s Plan Financially for tomorrow”.

A special saving booklet called “Hafiza” has also been created and distributed to school children. EBI distributed these financial awareness booklets and publications to more than 50 schools for the dedicated section for financial literacy within their libraries.

Activities Overview: More than 1,500 schools and university students visited bank branches throughout the week. Students also visited the stock exchange where they attended awareness sessions on financial education and the operations of the stock exchange. Three visits to the Money Museum were also conducted for 75 schools and university students. There were also a series of entertaining and educational activities such as theatre plays inspired by real life financial-related situations, financial cartoon videos, art exhibitions and songs written about financial matters.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, financial competitions and contests were conducted. Participants took part in activities like drawing and short story writing workshops and other entrepreneurship competitions. A stock exchange simulation game called “Stock Riders” was organized. A research competition about financial matters took place as well. The Egyptian Banking Institute sponsored University Students Simulation Models, providing them with the financial courses and awareness sessions. School students conducted charity and fund raising activities through their own entrepreneurial projects.

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Impressive outreach of Global Money Week activities to 1,500,000 young people Innovative campaign at the national level Effective public awareness and media campaign

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

CYFI Awards Ceremony 2014

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Country Award

2015 Country Award – Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya In 2013, the Kenyan delegation at the 2nd CYFI International Summit and Award Ceremony in Turkey returned home to establish a National Steering Committee for Financial Literacy and Education. This committee is currently engaged in an exercise to develop financial education curricula to be integrated in the national educational system.

This initiative is spearheaded by the Kenyan Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) with technical support from the organization Aflatoun.

The committee has developed a framework for the incorporation of financial education curriculum and is piloting the first round of lessons in October 2015.

CYFI and other institutions are at the moment working with this committee to also developing a road map for a national strategy for financial education and inclusion and a proposed governance structure for a multi-stakeholder national platform.

Kenya is also leading a curriculum harmonization exercise within the East Africa Community (EAC). This will see to financial education becoming part of the national educational system for countries forming the EAC. Aflatoun recently run a workshop organized by KICD on financial education curriculum development for curriculum developers within the ECA region.

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Kenya has been organizing activities to commemorate Global Money Week since 2012 The current administration has amended procurement rules to allow 30 per cent of contracts to be given to the youth, women and persons with disability without competition from established firms.

Since 2013, CYFI partners and collaborating institutions in Kenya have increased considerably.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Sub-Saharan Africa

Malawi The proportion of young adults with formal financial access in Malawi increased from 10 to 12 per cent between 2011 and 2014. Although this represents a modest increase, it is important to note that Malawi has made considerable progress on the financial education front by developing a national financial literacy framework and prepared to pilot a financial education curriculum at the start of the 2015/2016 academic year.

The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) is leading a multi-sectorial committee to advance financial education in Malawi. Over the years, the Bank has been very proactive in the implementation of various activities to combat financial literacy among the adult and young population. RBM launched an annual Financial Literacy Week celebration. This event is aimed to promote personal finance management through a focus on budgeting, savings and investing culture among specific target groups. Additionally, RBM intends to generate a general awareness of services and products offered by a wide range of financial institutions, promoting awareness of the financial consumer’s rights and responsibilities, and creating awareness of existing complaints and dispute resolution mechanisms and procedures for consumers of financial services.

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Malawi has a national financial literacy framework and a financial education curriculum, which was developed through a collaborative effort between the Reserve Bank of Malawi, the Ministry of Education and other relevant stakeholders.

The Director of Microfinance and Capital Markets Supervision at the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) launched the 2015 Global Money Week in Blantyre, emphasizing the need for Malawian youth to be financially literate.

Future plans - SchoolBank, Product Development Workshop and Ye! A stakeholder meeting with relevant institutions in Malawi

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2015 Country Award – Sub-Saharan Africa

Rwanda In 2013, the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR) partnered with Aflatoun and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (UKDID) to launch an educational program in Rwanda that will teach entrepreneurial, savings and financial skills to youth. Beneficiary students were offered financial education through the use of savings clubs and also given the opportunity to open a savings account with Rwandan MFIs to learn about business and finance in practice.

VISA also launched a localized financial literacy program in partnership with the Government of Rwanda consisting of national road shows with 12 episodes of a financial literacy radio drama series, followed by a mobile phone sms competition. Using the radio drama mini-series and combining the episodes with the music of the most popular local Rwandan musicians, VISA produced a CD to distribute to taxi drivers so that they can play it in their vehicles. VISA licensed and paid for the Rwandan musicians’ music.

Rwanda has made some progress in financial inclusion in recent years. The proportion of young adults with formal financial access increased from 17 per cent to 23 per cent between 2011 and 2014. The Government of Rwanda is deeply committed to addressing financial exclusion. The country has an agenda to raise financial inclusion to 90 per cent by 2020. There are many financial institutions in Rwanda currently targeting youth and many others with the capacity to offer financial services to young clients across the country. An example of this would be KCB Rwanda, FinaBank, EcoBank and Banque Commerciale du Rwanda which offer Financial Junior accounts or other youth savings accounts for minors to save with no minimum balance. Banque de Kigali also offers products specifically designed for students and has undertaken a widespread advertising campaign to encourage youth savings and account uptake.

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The national program on Financial Education worked with approximately 100 schools and trained 500 teachers around the country.

The Rwandan government supports entrepreneurship in the country among youth. In this regard, it employs various mechanisms to encourage youngsters to start their own business. The Human Capital & Institutional Development Department (HCID), for instance, used the Entrepreneurship Development Program to increase business starts-ups by providing training opportunities aimed at empowering youth and women with entrepreneurial skills to achieve their dreams.

Rwanda organized an impressive Global Money Week celebration for the first time in 2015. The event was coordinated by AISEC Rwanda. An estimated 27,577 youngsters participated in the celebration. During the Week, the Ministry of Finance announced the launching of a SchoolBank Project.

KCB Rwanda and AISEC Rwanda will initiate a SchoolBank Project in the country with CYFI in January 2016.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Americas & The Caribbean

Jamaica Jamaica has been advancing the topics of financial inclusion and financial education for young people at home as well as being a leading voice on the topic at the regional level, encouraging other Caribbean nations to start their own similar initiatives. Authorities in the country has been developing different activities and involving regional bodies in the development of a policy agenda that includes financial education and financial inclusion for youth.

Jamaica has scaled these plans significantly.

Although initiatives do not reach yet the national level, significant progress has been done in the development of initiatives with a sustainable outreach in a number of key districts in the country.

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Financial education is not formally integrated in the school curricula, but is provided in special programs in schools across the country in partnership with Junior Achievement During Global Money Week 2015, the Financial Services Commission of Jamaica (FSC) took school children to visit the Central Bank’s Money Museum. Children enjoyed learning about their country’s currency and financial system. In addition, other activities like financial education modules, educational tours to the central bank and other financial institutions, an essay competition, and a logo competition were also conducted.

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2015 Country Award – Americas & The Caribbean

Paraguay The country launched its national strategy for financial inclusion in Dec. 2014. The strategy, unlike others in the region, includes a multistakeholder approach and was designed and developed with the participation of various actors in the Paraguayan financial system. The country is looking to integrate SchoolBanking models as part of their national strategy for financial inclusion.

The Central Bank of Paraguay was one of the first partners of the Child and Youth Finance Movement in the Americas. The CYFI Secretariat has been closely involved in the development of the national strategy for financial inclusion. The country has actively carried out events related to financial education and financial inclusion for children and youth, specifically during Global Money Week.

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Entrepreneurship has been considered in the development of the national strategy for financial inclusion and it is one of the main topics of the strategy document The national strategy for financial inclusion is a multistakeholder effort coordinated by the Central Bank of Paraguay Global Money Week in Paraguay was celebrated by a congregation of organizations who are committed to the cause of financial education and inclusion and to further the impact of the Child and Youth Finance Movement in the country. As has been the tradition, the celebrations this year were launched with a press conference attended by high-level representatives from each of the participating organizations. During the press conference, the participating organizations presented the details of the events that they had planned to celebrate Global Money Week 2015 in Paraguay.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Americas & The Caribbean

Peru Peru has been a leading voice in the region for pioneering youth financial inclusion and financial education for more than 5 years. This has led to the development of a full-fledged financial inclusion strategy that is considered among the most comprehensive in the region, and indeed around the world.

The Peruvian financial inclusion strategy has a particularly strong focus on children and youth. The launch of the strategy has been accompanied by a law in the parliament that encourages the creation of simplified Child and Youth Friendly bank accounts to promote financial inclusion from an early age.

Special consideration has been given to include a financial education component to these accounts.

The leading organization of the Superintendence of Banks, Insurance and Pension Funds has been a partner of CYFI since 2013. CYFI has actively participated in the discussions around the development and drafting of the country’s national strategy.

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Entrepreneurship is well embedded in the school curricula, in which the topic has been established as one of eight main learning outcome categories.

As in previous years, Global Money Week 2015 celebrations were spearheaded by the congregation consisting of the Superintendence of Bank, Insurance and Private Pension Funds (SBS) and Banco del Estudiante in Arequipa. Talks on savings were organized in three primary schools and two secondary schools, reaching approximately 2,500 students. Students were urged to inculcate the habit of saving, a fundamental tool especially for those looking to become entrepreneurs.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

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2015 Country Award – Asia & The Pacific

Bangladesh Bangladesh is a pioneering country in the implementation of a national program that aims to reach young people, including street children, in order for them to be financially included. The Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank of Bangladesh) has done this through their SchoolBanking program that has so far reached at the end of 2014 about 800.000 Bangladeshi kids, of which 325.000 are from rural areas. Children in this program have been able to collectively save over $100 million USD. This program allows children aged 6-18 to open their own bank accounts, providing a critical link to financial access for young people in the country.

The success of this program has been achieved by using a multi-stakeholder approach, with solid partnerships with important actors such as the Ministry of Education and the banking network in Bangladesh. In addition, Bangladesh should be commended for reaching such considerable scale with this program despite it being a poor country and having the program target such a vulnerable population in street children.

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Youth Entrepreneurship is a burgeoning topic in Bangladesh. Programs and general advocacy campaigns toward entrepreneurship have been started at the national level in 2015.

Bangladesh has celebrated Global Money Week at the national level since 2014 under the joint leadership of the Bangladesh Bank and the Ministry of Education. Global Money Week 2015 in Bangladesh included a wide range of activities including a press conference with major media agencies in the country, a formal inauguration, ringing of the Dhaka Stock Exchange Bell, workshops and seminars to create awareness and various competitions for kids about the importance of savings.

Bangladesh has been closely working towards increasing awareness also on the financial education front. This has been carried out in partnership with CYFI on celebrating Global Money Week every year. Moreover, CYFI now has established closer partnership with the Bangladesh Bank and the Ministry of Education to start the consideration of developing a strategy towards achieving better financial education for young people at a national level.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Asia & The Pacific

Fiji Fiji’s Reserve Bank has launched direct financial literacy programs on themes related to personal money management and investment in 2013.

These topics were implemented in 2014 in the core curriculum from Class 1 to Form 6. The country has made clear progress across the years from creating a general national strategy in 2012, to making changes in financial regulation in 2013 to finally implementing running programs in 2014.

Moreover, Fiji is seen as a key example in the Pacific region in terms of bringing together financial and education authorities in government to jointly implement financial education programming for young people Fiji’s Reserve Bank has so far reached about 200,000 young people directly with their financial literacy program.

The main channel used for this financial literacy program has been the school system, with 900 schools participating in the program across the country.

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The Reserve Bank of Fiji led this year’s Global Money Week celebration in the country. This involved giving away materials to develop money-wise habits and also listening to young people’s views on how they could reshape their future. In this effort, the Reserve Bank of Fiji worked in cooperation with the Capital Markets Development Taskforce, and received key support from the Ministry of Finance of Fiji, the Fijian Holding Unit Trust and the Unit Trust of Fiji. “Be Money Wi$e – securing my future goals today” was an essay competition on Global Money Week 2015’s theme of “Save Today. Safe Tomorrow.” Students aged 15 to 19 years participated in the competition penning and sharing their thoughts on how they could secure their future goals by becoming wiser in the way they handled their money from an early age.

Fiji is a clear example of how countries could move significantly from planning & strategy to implementation.

While this has been led by the Reserve Bank of Fiji, with the support of UNDP’s Pacific Financial Inclusion Program (PFIP), the majority of it has been achieved through the country’s core efforts and political will to advance children and youth economic empowerment.

Systematic change is also seen from the country as the government has been implementing long-term programs in support of financial inclusion and education for young people.

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2015 Country Award – Asia & The Pacific

India India has advanced significantly with policies in the past two years for children and youth economic empowerment. In April 2014, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) substantially lowered the age to open and operate a savings account independently for children aged as young as ten years.

This is coupled with India’s National Strategy for Financial Education (NSFE), launched in 2012, of which the integration of financial education to the national curriculum for both basic and secondary students is included. In 2013, India established the National Center for Financial Education (NCFE), which now takes the leading role in implementing the NSFE through the creation of financial education materials, conducting of financial education campaigns, and with the central objective of catering to all parts of the population.

The country is now currently a pioneer in terms of financial regulations that allow children from age 10 to open and operate their savings account – a clear indication for other countries to move forward with an innovative approach towards youth financial inclusion.

Starting at the end of 2014, CYFI has now worked closely with the Indian Banks’ Association, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Women & Child Development in order to launch a national SchoolBank program. Thus far, 36,000 schools are slated to participate, wherein there is an approximate potential reach of 3,600,000 young people from rural and peri-urban areas.

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At the moment, the SchoolBank program has been translated to 13 languages and training of trainers have been carried out to those who will directly teach children about money & savings, as well as accommodate them in opening their bank accounts.

India has step-by-step advanced systems change within the country with primarily only NGOs working on the space of economic empowerment of children and youth, to now having government authorities implementing a wide scale program for joint financial education and financial inclusion for young people in 2015.

Meljol and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences once again took part in the Global Money Week 2015 celebrations. Meljol organized many activities including a signature campaign by school children, rallies, fun games, and role playing to make people aware and understand about the importance of saving and responsible spending. The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, with the support of the Reserve Bank of India, organized various activities from bank visits to interactive fun activities and workshops on money management, savings, and investing for futures.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Europe & Central Asia

Croatia Croatia has revised its national curriculum to include elements of Economic Citizenship Education (financial, social and livelihoods education). In addition, children have been reached with specific financial education programming through civil society organizations across the country.

The new revised Curriculum for Cross-Curricular Implementation of the Citizenship Education for Primary and Secondary Schools was developed and published in August 2014, which gave the Curriculum an obligatory status for schools. The Curriculum is implemented through 35 hours per year in 8 years of primary school and 2, 3 or 4 years of secondary school. The national strategy for financial literacy was adopted at the beginning of 2015, led by the Ministry of Finance and involving a wide range of stakeholders.

The country made significant progress over the past years, moving from general national efforts in 2011 to creating the national working group/platform in 2013/2014. This led to the creation of a national strategy in 2014, with a clear focus on children and youth as a target group, and now the active implementation phase in 2015.

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More than 500,000 children have been reached with elements of financial, social and livelihoods education through the school system. More children are reached via activities and programs of civil society organizations, Croatian Banking Association and several financial institutions.

Croatia has celebrated Global Money Week on the national level since 2014 with the whole national working group involved under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance.

In 2015 the national platform for the mapping of existing youth banking products was led by the Croatian National Bank, and three members of the national platform agreed to participate in the Balkan Working Group on youth financial education and inclusion

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

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2015 Country Award – Europe & Central Asia

Italy The country made significant progress over the past years, developing a platform for financial education of which most of the relevant stakeholders are involved.

The Ministry of Education is also in the process of adopting guiding principles for financial education that should be taught in schools, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Italy. A financial education (FE) observatory on schemes implemented is not available. However, PattiChiari Consortium, CYFI partners since February 2013, and “Fondazione Rosselli” (an independent research institute) have been working together to report on those organizations providing financial education schemes and on the characteristics of the schemes provided (Le esperienze di educazione alla cittadinanza economica. Indagine sulla realtà italiana nel contesto internazionale). 235 organizations (out of 256 which answered the questionnaire) state they implement FE programs. Most of them are banks/banking institutions, consumer associations, and public bodies. With respect to the 235 organizations, 71 per cent do not have a department specifically in charge of FE programs, but other departments such as human resources, communication, external relations, and CSR are in charge of them.

The target groups of the FE programs are students (primary, secondary, and university), women, senior citizens, teachers, investors, SME entrepreneurs, migrants, families and consumers in general. The main delivery channels are training courses/seminars, classroom lessons, websites and games, and the most used tools are leaflets/ printed toolkits and on-line tools such as CD-ROMs and digital files. Cooperation between public and private stakeholders concerns only 28 per cent of respondents. 23 per cent of respondents organize FE programs on their own and 48 per cent participate in other parties’ FE programs. Only 41 per cent of respondents monitor FE programs.

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In 2012 Isfol started to conduct research regarding entrepreneurship education and training in high schools and universities. 5000 students per year for each organization, and 900 teachers involved in the projects, have been analyzed.

Italy has also celebrated Global Money Week since 2013. Italy’s 2015 Global Money Week started with a brief presentation on the importance of financial education and themes such as saving money and responsible spending. Useful examples such as the Marshmallow Test and the Italian tale Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi were used to deliver the message to the students. After the presentation, a short speech to greet the students by the Bank of Italy’s Governor, Mr. Ignazio Visco, focused on the importance of being able to carefully manage money, especially in the light of the current financial conjuncture. La Fondazione per l’educazione finanziaria e al risparmio (Italian Education Foundation) also organized a series of events dedicated to Global Money Week.

Most of the events consisted of lessons for junior high school students, primary school students and high school students.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Europe & Central Asia

Turkey Turkey has taken a nation-wide coordinated approach to financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, financial education and consumer protection, with a particular focus on children and youth.

In reaction to a nationwide financial capability survey conducted by the World Bank in 2012, which determined that Turkish households lacked financial knowledge, the Turkish Government has been very active in promoting financial education. The country made significant progress over the past year, moving from general national efforts in 2011 to hosting the CYFI Summit in 2013 which increased awareness in the country around the topic. This led to the creation of a working group on financial education and the adoption of a national strategy on financial education in 2014. Its implementation will occur through a participatory approach with different organizations active in the field participating under the coordination of the Capital Market Board (CMB) of Turkey. The national strategy has a vivid focus on children and youth as a target group. CMB has a mandate to coordinate actions specified by the national strategy on financial education. The action plan encompasses various target groups with a particular focus on school-aged children.

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Turkey has a wide network of support to entrepreneurship both through governmental programs (a network of more than 40 centers to support entrepreneurship in the country) as well as through private initiatives.

Turkey has celebrated Global Money Week since 2013. In 2015, the Habitat Center for Development and Governance organized a series of activities for Global Money Week, covered by a UNDP podcast. The podcast was broadcasted primarily on university radio channels.

The Turkish Government has created the 2023 Project of Istanbul International Finance Center, of which one of the pillars is increasing financial literacy. A national strategy was drafted by CMB and other stakeholders and was approved in 2014. One of the priorities is contributing to the teaching of financial concepts by means of developing materials and training the teachers. Collaboration with the Ministry of Education has been initiated and teaching materials will soon be available for the use of teachers and students.

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2015 Country Award – Europe & Central Asia

United Kingdom The United Kingdom (UK) has a nation-wide coordinated approach to financial education and consumer protection, a focus on children and youth and great support to youth entrepreneurship The UK has promoted financial education through different initiatives and institutions for the general public and for children and youth since the early 2000s. The Money Advice Service (MAS), an independent service set up by the government, ultimately has the national remit for financial education for the general public.

MAS is funded via the Financial Services Authority’s statutory levy on the financial services industry. MAS has been a strategic partner of the Child Finance Movement since 2013.

When it comes to children and youth, the Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for the national strategy of schools, curriculum and young people. The DfE has been reviewing the National Curriculum since 2010. During that time there was a sustained campaign to include financial education in the National Curriculum, led by PFEG, Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert.com and the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People. The APPG was established in 2011 and has 253 members, making it the largest active group of its kind. The size and strength of the group enormously helped to raise the profile of financial education in Westminster and has enabled PFEG, an NGO promoting and developing financial education programs for young people, and CYFI partner since 2012, to coordinate the campaign with government and key bodies. The group has held two inquiries, which mapped provision of financial education across England in schools and further education institutions. The reports produced by these inquiries were presented to the Department for Education and were crucial in the decision to include financial education in the curriculum.

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The draft National Curriculum was put out for consultation on 7 February 2013 and finally adopted in March the same year. It proposes that financial capability is a requirement for 11 – 16 year olds in the programs of study for mathematics and citizenship. Financial mathematics is integrated into the key learning objectives of problem solving, calculation, accuracy and developing fluency. Financial planning and budgeting skills, knowledge of financial products and services, financial risk, wages, taxes, credit and debt are included in citizenship education.

Non-statutory Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHEe) contains much of the subjective side of financial capability.

Building on the first UK strategy for financial capability, issued by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in 2006, the MAS called for evidence which would allow building a new strategy for the five years 2014-2018. A strategy built on a robust body of evidence, evidence of work focusing on preventative money advice right through to crisis debt advice, will have a better chance of identifying and delivering effective interventions across the plethora of factors underpinning poor financial capability.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Middle East & North Africa

Egypt Egypt is in the process of drafting a strategy on Financial Inclusion and Economic Citizenship Education (ECE). There is a national committee in place that works as a platform for enhancing ECE and Financial Inclusion in the country. This national committee includes different stakeholders from the private and the public sector and is led by the Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI)/ Central Bank of Egypt. Through this national committee, Egypt is running various initiatives that aim to advance ECE and Financial Inclusion in the country, producing financial education material to be taught in schools as an extra subject. This curriculum was developed and customized by EBI in collaboration with Aflatoun.

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Financial Education is part of the national curriculum in Egypt and is taught is schools as an additional subject.

This applies for elementary and secondary school.

Social and livelihoods education are embedded in the extra financial education subjects taught in primary and high schools in Egypt.

Egypt has been participating in the Global Money Week since 2013 and this year it reached out to 1.5 Million children and youth around the country with a large celebration on a national level.

In regards to financial inclusion, Egypt has been proactive in encouraging financial institutions to adopt Child and Youth Friendly Banking Principles. EBI and CYFI organized a Child Friendly Product Development Workshop in March 2015 to support financial institutions in their effort to develop more Child-Friendly banking products, linked with educational programming.

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2015 Country Award – Middle East & North Africa

Morocco Morocco has been a long-time supporter of the Child and Youth Finance Movement and has participated actively in CYFI events. The Moroccan National Foundation for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion has involved different stakeholders from the public and the private sector to develop a national policy for financial education, financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, with a children and youth as a specific target group. This policy has already begun to be implemented throughout the country.

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Financial Education has been introduced to the national curriculum in Morocco and is taught in both primary and secondary schools as an additional subject.

Morocco is running many events on a regional level in support of financial education and financial inclusion, among which a conference is to be organized with the Arab Monetary Fund in March 2016 focusing on this topic in the Middle East & North Africa region.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

2015 Country Award – Middle East & North Africa

Palestine The Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), along with Palestine Capital Market Authority (PCMA), have worked hard to establish a financial inclusion strategy across the country, with a particular focus on expanding access to finance for those under the age of 18. The PMA connects with local financial institutions to assist in the design and delivery of Child and Youth Friendly Banking Products. There are plans to change financial regulations in the country that would allow children to open bank accounts and have control over deposits and withdrawals as of ten years old.

The Country is also working to include elements of Economic Citizenship Education, particularly financial and social education, into the national school curriculum at the primary and secondary school level. This involves efforts from leading education authorities and civil society organizations working throughout the country, with a combined emphasis on non-formal education with the distribution of pamphlets and learning materials on topics related to financial responsibility and entrepreneurship.

Palestine has also participated in the Global Money Week since 2013, bringing together a number of nation-wide activities from PMA, PCMA, the Palestinian Banking Association and other leading NGOs to reach an increasing number of children and youth through engaging activities and workshops.

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Strong leadership from PMA on expanding access to Child and Youth Friendly Banking Coordinated effort to bring financial, social and livelihoods education to young people in the country through formal and non-formal approaches Consistent participation in Global Money Week celebrations.

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Civil Society Leadership Award

Civil Society Award

GrassrootSoccer (South Africa) The Coach Development Program of GrassrootSoccer (GRS) is creating financially educated and socially aware change agents across South Africa. It is a leading global sport for development organization that trains and empowers young community leaders and role models as coaches to deliver critical life skills education and support to adolescents. GRS Coaches are between 18 and 25 years old and reside in some of the most marginalized and impoverished communities within South Africa, putting them at high risk of chronic unemployment, low productivity, crime, and health problems such as HIV and AIDS. Through this two-year program, coaches are effectively ‘employees’ of GRS, gaining crucial work experience and a skill set that enables them to find further employment, education, or training (EET) after their time with GRS. The Coach Development is innovative and unique from other projects in that it takes a holistic approach to employability - focusing on development of employment skills while simultaneously transforming coaches into well-rounded, confident young leaders.

Overview of activities: Through the program, youth become part of a formalized and positive social network. Coaches work five days a week to facilitate GRS’s soccer based life skills curriculum to youth and check in daily with their GRS Coach Development Coordinator. This routine replicates a real job experience and creates appropriate patterns of behavior. When they are not delivering curriculum, coaches participate in their own development activities facilitated by GRS staff, including 1-on-1 sessions and weekly group development courses. Some of the topics covered include financial literacy, computer skills, CV development, management, and health counseling.

The Coach Development model comprises 6 key programmatic components: 1. Leadership identification 2. Individualized assessment and development plans 3. A structured, paid, and meaningful work experience with individual support 4. Accredited trainings 5. Networking and sourced EET opportunities through public and private sector partners 6. Alumni support & networks

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Coach Development was designed by GRS staff in consultation with technical experts, community leaders, program beneficiaries, and private sector partners in order to create an effective and sustainable program. GRS staff continually work with the private sector to identify real market needs and collaborate with the South African Football Association (SAFA).

Amongst a cohort of 55 individuals, the Coach Development program saw a remarkable 73 per cent of Coaches graduate into employment, education, or training, and 100 per cent open a bank account.

The direct impact of the Coach Development Program includes 480 children and youth, of which 100 per cent are living in poverty and are also out of school.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Civil Society Award

MyBnk (United Kingdom) Together with young people, teachers, parents and financial experts, MyBnk has created a range of workshops tackling saving, budgeting, public finance, debt social enterprise and independent living. Full time and highly trained staff then deliver these projects directly to 11-25 year olds in schools and youth organizations. They have helped 600 schools and youth groups embed financial education into their institutions, delivering a wide mix of programmes to all age ranges, alongside academic year long saving and enterprise banks.

Delivered by specialized and experienced trainers who know the field, MyBnk offers a fresh approach to personal finance. They embrace creative and new teaching methods to maximize the impact and learning for young people. Their brand, website and materials have won praise and awards for their innovative nature. From taking out an interest free loan to starting their first business to figuring out which supermarket deal is giving them the best value for money, young people learn by doing. MyBnk’s approach is inspired by young people themselves.

Overview of activities: By taking a holistic approach to education, and catering for learners with ability variations, MyBnk is able to ensure that no young person is left behind. Using real life case studies, colourful resources, games, videos and links to popular culture, they enable young people to gain practical skills and explore and form their own opinions regarding their relationship with money and enterprise.

The flagship programme, Money Twist, helps young people understand their rights and responsibilities in three ways.

1. The programme is fully mapped to the new National Curriculum standards for Maths and Citizenship.

2. It then focuses on choices tackling needs and wants, lifestyle choices, budgeting, household costs, insurance, pensions, investments, risk and saving. Younger pupils learn about budgeting, youth employment, minimum wage, needs and wants, shopping deals, risk and saving.

3. Finally, they look to the future when young people will deal with things like interest, banking terms, current and savings accounts, flow of money, consumer choice, and forms of payment, borrowing, credit and debt and others.

The addition of enterprise workshops gives financial education a practical application. After a series of money workshops, young people will go through a time bound business challenge that ends in a market place. Young people receive sales, bookkeeping, product development and business planning training, boosting their employability skills.

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MyBnk courses are often a young person’s first exposure to these topics and they know first impressions last – which is why they build programmes with young people themselves through our Youth Advisory Panel, a group of financial education and enterprise enthusiasts from all ages.

MyBnk has reached over 100,000 youth locally.

Backed up with their school savings schemes, thousands of pupils also started to save for the first time, stashing £3.41 a week, or 53 per cent of their pocket money. Teachers recognized the benefit of outside help, with 77 per cent rating their content very valuable and 93 per cent of young people grading their trainers very good/good.

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Civil Society Award

Para Durumu (Turkey) The objective of Para Durumu’s “3 Kumbara" program is to develop greater saving behaviours amongst the next generation by educating children at an early age. Financial literacy education at a young age acts as a support for habit building in money related matters and paves the way for responsible financial decisionmaking in the future. It is also important as children are key actors of change for their families and will be the socially and economically engaged citizens in the future.

3 Kumbara Financial Literacy Training Program aims to be sustainable, educating students, and parents alike, using a holistic approach which widens its target group. The 3 step awareness-raising sustainability model of financial literacy aims to induce the children to save, create awareness and consciousness about the concept of money and convey that money is merely a tool that needs to be managed and not an aim in life.

Whereas the education of the parents aims to induce a sense of communication regarding money related issues within the family, whereby the children receiving the education also act as change agents within the household.

Overview of activities: 3 Kumbara is being rolled out to 81 cities across Turkey. The in-class education model is innovative as it has been designed to be interactive. A 3 D animation film has been developed to attract attention and be more relevant to the students. The 3 Kumbara trainers uses the animation film as a story line and implement the activities in between certain scenes of the film.

Another example includes handing out piggy banks that provide three divisions to save-share-spend. The children learn how to set a target and how to make a plan to reach the target for the saving part of the piggy bank.

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The program was designed in collaboration with education experts, class room teachers, academics, financial literacy experts, pedagogues and was meant to suit the target age group. The team of experts reviewed the entire elementary education curriculum of the National Ministry of Education and identified the main concepts, thus developing 3 Kumbara content so as to enhance the prevailing concepts and being complementary to the national curriculum.

So far 252,187 students have attended the "3 Kumbara" financial education program carried in 31 cities, 72 per cent of which are living in poverty.

The program is on track to reach 500,000 students in all 81 cities across Turkey by the end of 2017.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Civil Society Award

Society “Our Children” (Croatia) Society "Our children" is an association that works at a local, national and international level on youth education and empowerment.

At Society "Our children", young people can participate in organized Children's City Council, children's forums, meetings with local leaders and in other political activities.

The Children's City Council in particular offers children the possibility to advocate and raise awareness on financial decision at the City Hall. The Council has its own budget and can also give suggestions on municipal affairs.

Overview of activities: Through the program, students become familiar with the institutions and other public firms that are under the direction of the City of Opatija. For example, they visit schools, firefighter halls, museums and other municipal organizations and learn about their business and institutional management. The Children's City Council has existed for the last 15 years, organizing 10 assemblies that have actively participated in adult council meetings here important decisions are being made that impact the lives of children and youth.

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The Children's City Council has their own budget and can decide on what projects best improve the lives of the children of Opatija, allocating money where appropriate.

Adults in the city ask the children of Children's City Council to give them proposals for budget allocation in the City of Opatija.

Each assembly has approximately 25 members, so the project has involved nearly 250 children over the years, with some children serving two terms.

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Youth Awards

Youth Entrepreneurship Award

Mr. Brian Kipkemoi Kirotich (Kenya) Living in rural Kenya, GreenChar’s founders and co-founders (Tom Osborn, Ian Oluoch and Brian Kirotich) experienced firsthand the devastating effects of using wood-fuels in a Kenyan household. One of their mothers was diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection caused by household air pollution. Realizing that her story was not unique (there are nearly 10 million women in Kenya like her) these three young men all under the age of 18 founded Greenchar.

Greenchar is a social business that is impacting the community by providing cheaper, higher energy and ecofriendly charcoal briquettes. Greenchar's production plant is based in the Nyabera village in Awendo, Kenya. The plant has been set up in a place that was off grid and did have power supply. However, now the village has electricity due to the existence of a factory.

One of the most amazing things from the Greenchar is that is owned and run by directors who are all below 20 years old. They have realized the key importance of financial knowledge. At Greenchar, they have 6 employees who are below 25. As they have been working, they have since learnt basic finance and financial reporting. Greenchar also is a Key partner of Hasla, a Kenyan enterprise making bank accounts tailored for university students. The partners have been instrumental in building networks for Greenchar and providing financing for expansion. Greenchar has also worked with two Youth Groups who have been collecting feedstock and raw materials. Other key stakeholders working with Greenchar are: Echoing Green, Anzisha Prize, Silicon Valley Foundation, Envirofit, 1% Club and Global Minimum.

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70% of Employees at Greenchar come from the local region. Greenchar employees have since received financial education and personal loans to cater for their welfare.

Greenchar has 13 employees, of whom 10 are between 19 and 28.

They also help get rid of sugarcane waste by providing a cleaner energy solution.

Since Greenchar is run by Youth below 20 years, it inspires and encourages other youth into taking the leap into entrepreneurship. Greenchar is helping roll out Hasla, bank account with a local bank (Chase Bank). This is to help promote savings among the youth in Kenya. www.greenchar.co.ke

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Youth Entrepreneurship Award

Ms. Asel Baidyldaeva (Kyrgyzstan) "Sport for Life" is a center for elderly people with diabetes that has programs specifically designed for them. The goal of this center is to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle for people with diabetes through sports coaching.

This center houses 72 diabetics with prices below market rates and has a medical endocrinologist also working on site at the center. "Sport for Life" thus allows people with diabetes to do sports to reduce the complications of diabetes. This business is unique because there are no other specialized centers for people with diabetes in Kyrgyzstan. While there are ordinary fitness centers throughout Kyrgyzstan, they are not equipped specifically for those with diabetes. At the Sport for Life center, individuals are assessed by the doctor so that trainers are aware of what specific levels of exercises the participant can have at the moment.

Sport for Life helps to address the lack of specialized sports centers for patients with diabetes, which increases the risk of developing serious complications like stroke, heart attack, blindness, kidney failure and the amputation of limbs. The project is supported by the Diabetes and Endocrinology Association of Kyrgyzstan, and it provides a basement free of charge that allows saving money and keeping the price of training low.

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The young but perspective activists are organizing awareness campaigns within the project "Sport for Life". They are hired to organize flash-mobs and bike rides They learn the fund-raising process, organization and management of the business Specialized courses are created for patients at the center through expert coaches who know the conditions of diabetes; Multi-stakeholder social project with impact on at least 72 persons; Collaboration with with Diabetes and Endocrinology Association of Kyrgyzstan and AIESEC Kyrgyzstan

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Youth Entrepreneurship Award

Laeticia Victoria Mukungu (Kenya) Financial stability and provision of education to underprivileged kids can be achieved through investment in small, white and fluffy animals: rabbits!

The Africa Rabbit Centre is an organization that has established rabbit farming for sustainable development that empowers poor women, orphans, and under-privileged children in Butere, rural Western Kenya. The organization was founded in 2009 by Laetitia Mukungu, then a 14 year old student who was moved by the high poverty levels in her community, who decided to find a solution to it. Currently the organization employs 15 women and supports 400 primary students. Spending months in a full time apprenticeship program, women emerge from ARC proficient enough in rabbit farming to earn roughly $30 monthly and support themselves and their families.

Laetitia and the team improve the livelihoods of rural women and their families in Kenya by producing alternative source of income through the sale of rabbit meat and by-products. By extension, they also support the underprivileged children of these woken.

The participants are mostly uneducated and jobless, aged between 27 and 40 and mostly single. Rabbit farming equips them with skills to breed and sale rabbits for continuous income while the provision of education to the children helps them be qualified for eventual inclusion in the labour market, as well as gain rabbit farming skills from ARC as a back-up source of income. While the women learn on-the-job skills, ARC supports itself by selling rabbits (180 annually) to other rabbit suppliers and restaurants in Kenya.

The Africa Rabbit Center also supports Sofia Primary School, a center that is home to 400 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), most of who are affected by extreme poverty. These children are aged between 5 and 14 and the goal is to provide quality education to all them regardless of their backgrounds.

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The ARC worked together with the head teacher of Bukura Educational Complex, a local primary school in the village, to fundraise Ksh.40, 000 ($500) as start-up capital for ARC. With his help, they identified 15 most needy students in the school then extended the invitation to their mothers as they are the ones that struggle with the responsibility of providing for the family.

The ARC reduces food shortage at the household level by supporting them to buy farm inputs like seeds.

Both parents and children are involved in the project where the parents receive training and support to start mini-rabbit farms for increased household income and to keep their children in school.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Youth Financial Education Awareness Award

Ms. Asmaa Ahmed Fatani (Saudi Arabia) Edkary's goal is to chance the saving culture and behavior in the region.

Project Ekary is an initiative that teaches financial awareness in the community through campaigns, workshops and tools. This business is unique because it focuses on simple yet beneficial personal saving services for young people.

It also provides content in methods that are appropriate and attractive to the target youth segment.

It teaches and encourages the youth to make better use of their money. Children and young people learn the meaning of savings through this program. Asmaa herself has gained knowledge from the Riyali Financial Literacy Program which has helped her to better learn about investment, savings and borrowings. In turn, this has also helped her to share her knowledge with Saudi youth community through her own financial awareness project.

Project Edkary builds positive financial behavior so that youth can become better entrepreneurs and manage their money efficiently with higher impact. This will also encourage others to do the same and invest their small budgets to reach a wider audience and create a deeper impact in the youth community.

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The name of the project, Edkary, means `my saving` in Arabic.

Asmaa worked with the Riyali Financial Literacy Program Project Edkary is the winner of the Riyali Entrepreneurial Award Received help from Samsung through the 'Launching People' competition in which Project Edkary took 1st place Discounts in various shops are available through Project Edkary 377 beneficiaries in 18 months

‫إدخاري‬

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Youth Financial Education Awareness Award

Prakash Koirala (Nepal) “The youth community needs us more than ever” This project deals with financial literacy and business management training to children, youth and women, so that they better understand the functioning of the financial services offered by banks. It also teaches them successful strategies regarding the management and marketing of their businesses. The project provides participants with financial literacy resources/toolkit according to their capacity. Prakash arranged invites to experts in financial education to give lecture in his class and organizes training on practical matters regarding financial education. He also had the chance to speak about the importance of youth financial education in front of the Ministry of Finance, laying out his financial education plan for another 20 years of development.

The project provides youth with a technique to start up their own local businesses in their community. Prakash has also made recommendations towards creating a national platform for empowered decision makers in order to encourage, support and facilitate the delivery of financial education in the country. In Bajhang, a very remote place of Nepal, the project conducts financial literacy drama, art and oratory competitions reaching more than 1000 youths.

Furthermore, in September, Prakash distributed more than 120 Piggy Banks (Khutruke) for students to save excess money.

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Prakash has worked with 16 schools in Nepal and one bank as a partner, Nepal SBI Bank Recently, Prakash has made an agreement with a well-known college in Nepal. There are 5000+ students and he will teach them about financial education and economic citizenship.

Nepal Rastra Bank honored Prakash because of his work in Global Money Week 2015 Prakash’s main focus is to build the confidence of young people and ensuring that their role in decision-making processes gets full attention.

A youth club was formed due to Prakash’s initiative. He has also set short term, medium and long term goals for follow-up that can be prioritized by the needs of young people

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Youth Financial Education Awareness Award

Araceli González Rolón (Paraguay) “We can be heroes making a real change with concrete solutions, saving resources for a good today and a better tomorrow.”

As a member of the CYFI Youth Committee, Araceli’s mission has been to develop a project with kids in the countryside where Araceli went in January. She taught them about financial awareness as she believes this ise essential in giving the youth of Paraguay the confidence they need to feel part of the socio-economic change in the country. She travelled for 10 hours from home to a village near Brazil, where the local kids don’t have many opportunities to participate in workshops or have contact with organizations or enterprises. There were 50 kids from 4-12 years old. The ages were an obstacle for everyone to discuss financial topics at the same time, so the first day she separated them in working teams along the following ages: 4-6, 6-8, 8-10 and 10 to 12 years old.

The workshop was 4 hours per day for7 days and engaged kids that usually do not attend school because they are from a very low income family and also are frequently pushed by their parents to work at the farms. Araceli started to talk with the people from the town and especially with the teachers and parents of the students. To her surprise they loved the idea and even the principal of the school called the government representative of education of Canindeyu State for support with materials.

Participants were able to understand how the economy works in the world and felt part of the movement of financial active citizenship. The young people felt confident that better financial education could help solve many social needs.

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After the workshops, Araceli has received invitations to continue working together to develop a full financial education project within the schools.

This project has also allowed her to create awareness and to start her own inclusive program; The principal of the school called the government representative of education of Canindeyu State and the donated many materials like crayons paper sheets and paintings for the kids. They also provided milk with cereals for the breakfast when the workshops were being carried out.

With the teenagers, Araceli created a link through Social Media to keep talking about their projects so they can start their own activities.

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Youth Financial Inclusion Innovation Award

Amina Abdulsamed (Nigeria) “Most of the games on financial literacy like Monopoly and our own Bizkidz are hard copy games or computer games. This is a mobile app that anyone can have access to.”

Money Maker is a smartphone game providing financial education in an innovative way. The mobile app teaches people, particularly youth, about savings, investment, starting small scale businesses, measurement of profit and loss and general business principles/rudiments as youth unemployment is a very pressing issue in Nigeria.

Most of the games that already exist teaching financial literacy, like Monopoly and their own game “Bizkidz”, are hard copy games or computer games. Money Maker, on the other hand, is a mobile app that anyone can have access to as most people have phones which are more portable than laptops and desktops.

The Money Maker app was developed in order to be dedicated to combing the importance of financial knowledge with the importance of today’s young future leaders in a manner that is relevant to the digital lifestyle of youth today. Via this app, youth learn about the practical aspect of business, and the application shows that success in business requires skill and an element of luck.

Most of the young people who have used the award winning Money Maker app appreciate the concept and the easy way it uses animation to teach young people what they can do with small amounts of money.

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Money Maker is an eco-friendly game which discourages the use paper/falling of trees to reduce the menace of global warming.

Money Maker has won the Best Entrepreneurship Project at the last SAGE competition in FCT Abuja, Nigeria.

Most of the people who have played Money Maker appreciate the concept and the easy way it uses animation to teach youths what they can do with small amount of money.

Money Maker’s main focus is to imbibe the culture of self-reliance and self-employment from their youth.

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Youth Financial Inclusion Innovation Award

Jose Adolfo Quisocala Condori (Peru) “The school believes that it is important to teach in a practical and experiential way how the real world of business and finance functions.”

Jhose worked together with peers to create their own Financial Education School (Escuela de Educación Financiera). At the school, children and young people take part in a course to learn about and use free financial products that exist in the financial system of Peru, thus promoting the financial inclusion of children and youth. The school believes that it is important in order to teach in a practical and experiential way how the real world of business and finance functions. As such, the school created two of their own financial products, the "Savings Consumption" and "Saving Investment", in order to contribute to the capacity and savings culture of children and young participants of the Financial Education School. The Financial Education School, by the creation of various financial tools for young people, is dedicated not only to CYFI’s principles for Child Friendly Banking, but is also in line with CYFI’s Economic Citizenship Framework, combining education together with inclusion for maximum economic empowerment.

Saving Investment: the school has created its own “currency” that children and youth can use through their own savings accounts to purchase different items with parental supervision. The "currency" can be invested in the ecological store of the school as it will be converted to local “soles” in order to buy nonperishable staple items such as school supplies and appliances. The profits are distributed among all partners under this model of savings, receiving a monthly deposit into their savings accounts. In the future, the school is exploring ways to use this money to finance youth entrepreneurial ventures to decrease the percentage of youth unemployment in the community.

Savings Consumption: once the child has a savings account, the kids can buy staple foods, school supplies and small appliances (which is done on behalf of their parents) at the ecological store. The child has a special price (cost price), but pays the market price; the difference between the two prices (special price and market price) is returned in the child’s savings account, making a deposit weekly for all purchases made during the week. Thus, the child’s savings grow rapidly.

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The financial education school has also created two financial products for youth as well as a mobile app; The mobile app, Tu Dinero Móvil, is a tool that allows the true financial inclusion of children and youth; So far more than 1,500 children and youth who have their savings account at the "Student Bank" and received their "debit" Mastercard The school’s own "currency” system was created in a way so that other schools can replicate the module; The Financial Education School works together with 2 primary schools and 4 secondary schools, but will begin working with more local municipalities; Banks that helped Jhose initially were La Caja Arequipa, Banco Azteca and Presta South Cooperative; Jhose and the team are now creating their own products, but he is also negotiating with an insurance company MAPFRE, for students to learn about micro-insurance.

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Youth Financial Inclusion Innovation Award

Mara Florina Steiu (Romania) Dedicated to making a youth-centered product!

Mara created the Lurnia mobile game for computers and smartphone that teaches high school students financial literacy through fun, entrepreneurial challenges. Her game introduces youngsters to the world of money by giving them a broad understanding of financial concepts, from the most basic concepts to the most advanced ones, while instilling students with an entrepreneurial mind set. They offer the game to educational programs focusing on entrepreneurship, leadership, management, and social work.

These programs are situated in Eastern Europe and are present in a large number of schools. One example of such a partner program is Ustvarjalnik, Slovenia’s best social impact startup, which opens startup accelerators in high schools from Eastern Europe. The Lurnia game is designed as a comprehensive story which takes the player through a diverse range of scenarios that require systemic thinking and entrepreneurial mindsets (e.g. founding a hot dog stand, renting it, taking a loan from the bank, building a coffee shop). More specifically, the players have to create the entrepreneurship ecosystem of an initially empty Lurnia planet.

Dedicated to making a youth-centered product, they tested their initial version of the game with 120 students from Romania and Slovenia (also in the My Money Week program from Romania, at Transylvania College). They have organized little workshops in which youngsters were playing and learning from the game (e.g. managing a stand, making profits, investing saving, stock management, insurance), but were also taking part in non-formal competitions. After feedback from financial education events in schools, they modified their initial storyline of the game and came with a new one, in which the player creates the entrepreneurship ecosystem of a Lurnia planet.

To create the game, Mara and team partnered with financial institutions (banks and insurance companies) and other private ventures that promote themselves in the game and get in direct interaction with the young players.

In this way, the team aimed to create a bond among different sectors of the society in an educational context. This flexibility allows for multiple players to take part in the game, which is another innovative aspect of the program

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Youth expect more action from games and are still not aware of the vital importance of financial education; this is why the program is addressing students aged 14-18 Youngsters love being entrepreneurs and taking risks; this is why the project is introducing all kinds of surprise elements in the game (e.g. a storm destroys your current business and you need to find solutions) Youngsters need incentives; this is why the project offers badges, introduce charts in which they see their friends' performance.

Luria has won multiple prizes: Forbes Magyarorszag (Hungary), first place at Startup Pirates Cluj and was also selected as one of the 8 out of 123 international start-ups at Ashoka and SAP’s IT4Change 2014 Lurnia has been presented at Tech Open Air Berlin 2014, at Brain Bar Budapest 2015 and at Ustvarjalnik’s conference in Slovenia

2015 CYFI Awards Ceremony

Special Thanks to our CYFI Awards Jury CYFI would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the members of the CYFI Awards Jury. Through their richly varied backgrounds, our Jury Members have brought years of professional experience to the Jury selection process as practitioners and thought leaders in the area of financial services, child welfare and non-profit development. 

Chair: Baroness Valerie Howarth is the Member of the House of Lords from Breckland, the Chair of Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, and the former Chief Executive of ChildLine UK. She has also served in leadership roles in a number of other social initiatives.

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Jerome Cowans is a young entrepreneur from Jamaica, and a former CYFI Youth Award winner, currently studying for an MSc in Management at University of Birmingham.

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Prof. Tahira Hira is Senior Policy Advisor to the President at Iowa State University and a noted academic. She has conducted research in a wide range of finance-related subjects.

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Dr. Henrik Naujoks is a Director at Bain & Company and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Global Exchange for Social Investment.

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Shaun Mundy is a consultant who specializes in issues of financial capability and regulation. He has worked with CGAP, the OECD, the World Bank, and many other leading international organizations.

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Nita Wakan is Founder and Managing Director of Youth Finance Indonesia, and a former CYFI Youth Award winner, currently studying Economic and Business at the University Gadjish Mada in Indonesia

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Lauren Young is the Personal Finance Editor at Thomson Reuters and works closely with both Reuters.com and other Thomson Reuters platforms

CYFI has greatly appreciated the time that the Awards Jury has spent reviewing the shortlisted candidates and deliberating over the eventual award winners. There was an overall consensus that this year’s candidates were all of exceptional quality, making it extremely difficult to arrive at the final decisions. As the CYFI Awards honor excellence in the field of Economic Citizenship, our Jury members ensure that fairness and integrity remain central to the selection process.

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Child & Youth Finance International PO Box 16524, 1001 RA Amsterdam the Netherlands T + 31(0)20 5203900 www.childfinanceinternational.org