Designing and implementing financial literacy programs !
Adele Atkinson, PhD Policy Analyst Financial Education and Consumer Protection Unit
10th March 2011
What role for financial education?!
• When a consumer interacts with financial services, they need to be both protected and informed
• Consumer protection and harmonised prudential frameworks are essential to promote trust in the markets and safeguard individuals
• Financial education helps individuals make informed decisions
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High level principles on financial education!
• Government leadership ensures credibility • Coordination at national level: ideally
through a national strategy • Responsible involvement of private sector
& public private partnerships • Bottom up and top down approaches • Start early and in schools • Ensure sufficient resources • Evaluate
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Implementation!
A national strategy provides the best opportunity to apply these principles, ensuring:
• National recognition of the issues • An agreed vision of the solutions, intended
benefits and wider, economic implications • Scale – reaching enough people to have a
national impact and doing so on a scale that reduces unit cost
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First steps!
• Identify the issues at national level • Data (surveys, consumer complaints,
financial difficulties)
• Map existing resources and initiatives to avoid duplication:
• Who are the providers? • What materials and pedagogical tools do
they use? • Have they identified efficient practices? • Where are the gaps?
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Design appropriate programmes!Take financial education to the public: • Make it easy to access, appealing, engaging • Use trusted sources; publicise well • Tap into teachable moments to reduce the time
between teaching and action • Use environments that support learning • Incorporate financial education widely • Use simple and engaging messages and tools • Provide participants with goals or a plan of
action to change behaviour
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The importance of evaluation!
(Good) evaluation can tell you whether: • Particular programmes have been effective • The same programmes could continue to
be effective with new audiences • Certain programmes meet a specific
objective more effectively or efficiently than others
• Certain objectives are better met by other means
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Evaluation and Monitoring go hand-in-hand
Evaluation is not widespread!There are a number of hurdles: • Willingness to scrutinise provision and
potentially identify ‘weaknesses’ • The variations in design, delivery and
content of financial education provision • The range of target audiences • The skills and experience of potential
evaluators • The money, time and other resources
needed to undertake evaluation 8
Evaluation and the OECD INFE!
The INFE has therefore developed: • A summary of existing evaluation evidence • A critique of current evaluation practice • Guides for designing and implementing
robust financial education evaluations* • General principles on evaluation – to be
developed into OECD recommendations • A dedicated area on the secure website to
discuss evaluation issues 9
Detailed Guide!
• What evaluation is • How it fits with programme objectives • The steps involved:
– Planning – Implementing – Reporting and using findings
• Various additional considerations • Where to find evaluation resources
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/3/49/47220488.pdf
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A 14 page guide with case studies, explaining:
Guide to Evaluation!
• Plan the evaluation carefully • Find a reliable evaluator who ….
i. Matches methods to objectives; using existing tools where possible
ii. Considers who should participate, ensures confidentiality
iii. Analyses the results cautiously iv. Reports the findings objectively
• Use the results http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/3/47/47220527.pdf
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And a 5 page guide as a reminder to>
Some key take-home points!
• Significant sums of money are spent on programmes that may be inefficient
• A good evaluation will be cost-effective • Think carefully about what you expect • If resources are limited, prioritise: evaluate
one aspect of the programme robustly, don’t try to do too much at once
• Seek objective outcome measures linked to the aims of the programme
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