Girls from the Binti Pamoja Center in Nairobi participate in a pilot test.

A remittance receiver's house in Cuenca, Ecuador.

New Modules

ln addition to the core curriculum topics (Bank Services, Budgeting, Debt Management, Financial Negotiations and Savings) the Global Financial Education Program has developed additional curricula on new topics relevant to diverse market segments.

Beginning in 2006, the Global Financial Education Program developed four new modules with a different set of partners. Each module targets a specific population or a specific product. The modules are:

• Young People: Your Future, Your Money
• Remittances: Make the Most of Them
• Risk Management and Insurance: Protect Your Family's Future
• Consumer Protection: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities

Young People: Your Future, Your Money
The youth module was developed through a partnership with the Binti Pamoja Center in Nairobi, Kenya, an affiliate of the local youth organization in a low income area of Nairobi, Carolina for Kibera. Market research interviews and discussions held in March, 2006 identified four key topics: budgeting, savings, banking services, and earning money.

Learning sessions on these topics were pilot-tested in July 2006 with 20 graduates from the Center. Following this pilot test and refinement of the learning sessions, a trainer’s guide was developed and used to train the same 20 young women in a training-of-trainers workshop.  Since January 2007, 120 girls have been trained through Binti Pamoja’s Safe Spaces project. 

To make the Kenyan module generic, the Global FEP held a cross-test meeting March 10-13, 2007 in La Paz Bolivia with partners from Pro Mujer (Bolivia), Save the Children (Nepal), Zakoura (Morocco), and BRAC (Bangladesh). The purpose of the workshop was to build capacity for these organizations to conduct market research to adapt the financial education curriculum to their local contexts and then rollout the training to their target population.

For more information about the curriculum, view the PowerPoint Presentation that was presented at the Youth Microenterprise Conference in Washington, DC by members of the Global Financial Education Program youth curriculum development team.

To request a training of trainers workshop or obtain a copy of the curriculum, please contact financialed@mfopps.org.

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Remittances: Make the Most of Them
In August 2006, Global FEP in partnership with Accion International, conducted market research with Banco Solidario in Ecuador. The market research identified the current financial behaviors of people who receive remittances and the impact of remittances on the household budget. 

The remittance team conducted in-depth interviews with Banco Solidario staff, remittance receivers, and informal remittance providers in Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca. They also conducted focus group discussions with six separate groups from the three cities. One financial behavior of remittance receivers is to manage the remittance through a four-stage process:

1. Immediate—Payment of debt for emigrant trip to bank or informal money lender. This trip usually costs at least $12,000 and takes at least 2 years to repay.

2. Short term—Household needs (food, education, clothing)

3. Medium term—Construction of house or home improvements for personal use

4. Long term—Additions to house such as additional floors to rent out and to facilitate retirement

The results of the market research were used to develop the remittance module, which was pilot tested in Ecuador in May 2007 with Dialogo de Gestiones. Five partners in the Philippines and Central America were then selected to cross test the module. In October and November 2007, GFEP held meetings in the Philippines and El Salvador to get feedback from the cross test partners and the final curriculum was published in 2008.

To request a training of trainers workshop or obtain a copy of the curriculum, please contact financialed@mfopps.org.

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Risk Management and Insurance: Protect Your Family's Future
The new Global Financial Education Program curriculum, Risk Management and Insurance: Protect Your Family’s Future!, was developed and pilot tested the risk management and insurance curriculum with MDF-Kamurj (Armenia); the Association of Colombian Insurers - FASECOLDA and its non-profit organization, FUNDASEG; SEDPI, a training institute who tested it with Agriculture and Rural Development for Catanduanes, Inc, Loan Collection and Disbursement Point and Katipunan Bank (Philippines); and Mann Deshi Bank (India).

The curriculum focuses on the challenge of protecting one’s family against the unexpected shocks that can erode financial stability in seconds. Natural disasters destroy crops and homes without warning; illness and death bring grief and threaten family income; theft can close a business. Low-income families are especially vulnerable to potential crises, and less prepared to cope financially with their negative impact. The Risk Management and Insurance curriculum reviews the strategies – both proactive and reactive – that can be used to manage risk. It highlights how saving for emergencies and other strategies to mitigate risks in anticipation of a crisis can reduce the financial costs of strategies employed after the fact, such as borrowing, working longer hours or selling assets under duress.

The curriculum also introduces insurance, a concept widely misunderstood and often mistrusted among low-income families. It helps participants understand the concept of pooled risk and guides them through common insurance terms, equipping them with the knowledge and skills they will need to make informed choices about insurance. The growing availability of microinsurance products is a positive development, but only if potential customers are fully informed about how they work and how they can help protect financial welfare.

To request a training of trainers workshop or obtain more information about the curriculum, please contact financialed@mfopps.org.

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Consumer Protection: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities
In preparation for the development of a new GFEP module on consumer protection, GFEP partnered with Finrural, a Bolivian association of MFIs, to conduct market research with 64 clients of eight regulated and unregulated MFIs in Bolivia. The team also conducted interviews with the Office of Bank Regulation (Superintendencia de Bancos), the staff of the eight MFIs, and members of the Debtors’ Association (Asociación de Deudores).

Overall, the team found that clients have little or no knowledge about their rights as users of financial services. The only right clients instinctively mentioned during FGDs was the right to receive good treatment from the MFI staff. Key consumer protection issues in Bolivia are transparency of interest rates and debt collection practices.

After conducting market research, the GFEP team led a concept development workshop to identify knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for designing the module. The goal of the module is to increase ethical practices between clients and MFIs. In order to ensure that MFIs will be interested in delivering this module to its clients, the module will balance both consumer rights and responsibilities. The pilot test of the module will be conducted in Bolivia in late April with regulated and unregulated MFIs. The curriculum is being finalized and will be available in spring 2009.

To request a training of trainers workshop or obtain more information about the curriculum, please contact financialed@mfopps.org.