Challenge
Women and girls often have lower financial literacy rates than men, which presents a barrier to their financial inclusion and economic well-being. Managing personal finances, starting a business, and participating in household decision making all require financial literacy.
Solution
Room to Read, with funding from the global financial institution, Credit Suisse, implements Financial Education and Life Skills Clubs (FELS) for adolescent girls in Sri Lanka and Tanzania. These voluntary after-school clubs allow girls to build and practice financial literacy and critical life skills so that girls are better equipped to make informed decisions about their personal finances. Club curriculum topics include saving and spending, planning and budgeting, and financial enterprise development — all of which contribute to girls’ economic empowerment.
Based on the success of the program in Sri Lanka and Tanzania, Room to Read plans to expand the model to seven additional countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Vietnam, and Zambia. Ahead of scaling, Room to Read is partnering with Making Cents International to strengthen the financial education program design and curriculum.
To capture lessons learned from the pilot, Making Cents conducted an analysis of the existing program design and curriculum, including reviewing the curriculum scope and sequence, facilitator manuals, and other materials. Following this review, Making Cents worked on strengthening the financial education curriculum and training materials to prepare for program expansion.
Since completing the improved FELS curriculum, Making Cents led a Training of Facilitators (ToF) to certify Master Trainers who trained Room to Read staff in Tanzania to implement the updated FELS curriculum. The new curriculum will be piloted in Tanzania, but the organization hopes it will eventually be implemented in every Room to Read country.
Making Cents also developed a report with recommendations for adapting Room to Read’s global Girls’ Education Program (GEP) curriculum to examine how to add more financial literacy and career planning themes to GEP as well as proposing how it can integrate with FELS content and activities.