GMW TURNS 10

In 2022, the Global Money Week campaign, which was initiated in 2012, celebrated its first 10 years of existence. To mark this unique event, the GMW Secretariat and countries around the world implemented a series of special activities.

The GMW Secretariat organised a social media “countdown to GMW10!”, launched special hashtags and invited GMW participants to share their favourite memories of past editions of GMW. Starting 10 days ahead of GMW 2022, a photo collage with images of events from past GMW editions was shared on social media. As mentioned before, the Global Launch of GMW was dedicated to the GMW 10-year anniversary. Global policy makers discussed why GMW was important for their countries and shared insights on its impact on their national financial education ecosystem. The Global Launch also featured a video showing activities from all around the world selected from past GMW editions.

2017

Kosovo GMW2017 

2018 2019

Cape Verde GMW2018   IThe Philippines GMW2019

2021

Slovenia GMW2021 

2022

Countries around the world also marked this special GMW edition with dedicated events, as they celebrated 10 years of implementation of the campaign in their countries. Although it is difficult to estimate the impact of an awareness campaign globally, in the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the GMW campaign, the Secretariat asked GMW participating countries to share their views on what has been the campaign’s impact in their countries.

Many countries acknowledged that the GMW campaign had a significant contribution to the way financial education, and especially financial education for children and young people, is perceived and prioritised in their countries.

Some examples are provided next.2

2 These examples are based on self-reported information from the GMW national coordinators

“I enjoyed the session and realised that saving money matters. I did not pay attention to that before, but from now I started thinking about my spending carefully so that in future when I start my study at university I can have some savings.”

─ ─Student attending session, Tajikistan, GMW2016

GMW as a key initiative to raise awareness on the importance of financial education for students and is well recognised and appreciated by schools and education authorities.

ARMENIA

In Armenia, schools, universities and other educational organisations have become interested in financial education thanks to the GMW campaign and are keen to selforganise various events dedicated to personal finance management during the GMW campaign. Armenia celebrated GMW for eight years.

PORTUGAL

In Portugal, the GMW has become one of the main initiatives to raise financial awareness among Portuguese students. The financial supervisors, under the National Plan for Financial Education (NPFE), assign great importance to the international campaign, which is annually foreseen in their programmes of work and included in activity reports. Since 2013 (the first edition of the campaign in Portugal), the number of schools, students and stakeholders of the NPFE involved in the GMW have increased, showing a growing interest from the Portuguese education ecosystem in the campaign.

COLOMBIA

In Colombia, the GMW helped with establishment of close collaboration among many national stakeholders, as well as of alliances and synergies around the implementation of financial education policies and programmes.

MOROCCO

In Morocco, where the campaign has been implemented for 10 years, stakeholders increased their commitment to the development of financial education policies and programmes and enhanced their efforts to integrate financial education into the school curricula.

SLOVENIA

In Slovenia, the campaign has contributed to shaping the vision of financial education for all ages, by bringing together different stakeholders and by establishing lasting partnerships that promote financial education for all.

 Morocco GMW2017

GMW helped to enhance collaboration among key stakeholders working on financial education.

“We need to speak using simple nontechnical words and we also need a financial, economic and fiscal culture, to ease the process of communication with the public and especially the young people. Financial education is needed to lay the foundations for a real financial inclusion, so our children, all citizens, banks and all the players in the financial market, even the authorities, could get a better grasp of financial and banking concepts through financial education.”

─ Mugur Isarescu, NBR Governor, Romania, GMW2018

“Throughout Global Money Week, we received excellent comments from the students and the teachers from the different educational centers who attended. All were very enthusiastic and commented that this type of event is excellent for the children and youth of the country, and will help them expand their knowledge about economics and finance. What they liked the most is that they learned in an interactive way, through games, dynamics and even plays.”

─ Representative of the Central Bank of Dominican Republic, Dominican Republic, GMW2019

 Zimbabwe GMW2017

PARAGUAY

In Paraguay, where the GMW has been celebrated for 10 years, the Ministry of Education and Science has showed interest in including financial education as a subject in the official curriculum for secondary schools.

SLOVENIA

Slovenia is also preparing for a curriculum revision, where guidelines for the inclusion and expansion of financial education in the school system have been prepared. The authorities also attribute this, in part, to the GMW as a means to raise awareness of the importance of financial education for children and young people in schools.

GMW has also helped with raising the awareness on the importance of introducing financial education in school curricula.

ZIMBABWE

In Zimbabwe, the GMW helped create awareness on the importance of financial education for young people and, as a result, the Reserve Bank is working with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to facilitate the incorporation of financial education in the school curriculum.

ZAMBIA

According to authorities in Zambia, it is also thanks to the GMW campaign that, today, Zambia has integrated financial education in the curriculum for primary and secondary education.

GMW has been institutionalised in some countries, or it is part of national strategies.

“This topic, financial literacy, is extremely important, because our kids are part of financial and consumer world from the earliest age. It is important to raise their awareness about these topics and risks which are connected with money. Children also influence their parents regarding shopping and they have their own pocket money which includes them into consumer world. So we have a lot of responsibility to educate them well in this area of spending and saving money.”

─ M.Jelavić, Croatia, GMW2017

ECUADOR

GMW helped strengthen and better articulate the strategies, actions and policies carried out by the Superintendence of Popular and Solidarity Economy (SEPS) regarding financial inclusion and financial education.

HUNGARY

The campaign has been institutionalised through a Decree by the Ministry of Human Capacities during the 2016/17 school year. It has been celebrated in the country for eight years.

PERU

GMW has earned a special place in the financial education policy in Peru where it is part of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion.