financial awareness scoping initiative

Financial Awareness Scoping Initiative Study for IFC and GIZ

Micro-Credit Ratings International Limited

August 2012

Part 2 Inventory of financial education initiatives covered by this study

Part 2: Table of Contents Chapter Page

Abbreviations ii

2-1 Indian Financial Education Initiatives – indexed 1

2-1.1 Mapping initiatives by institutional type 3

2-1.2 Mapping initiatives by intent 4

2-1.3 outreach 5

2-1.4 target segment 7

2-1.5 topic 10

2-1.6 method 12

2-1.7 funding sources 15

2-2 Indian Initiatives – description 17

– description of 63 initiatives in alphabetical order

2-3 International Initiatives – indexed 93

2-3.1 Mapping initiatives by institutional type 95

2-3.2 Mapping initiatives by intent 96

2-3.3 outreach 97

2-3.4 target segment 104

2-3.5 topic 106

2-3.6 method 109

2-3.7 funding sources 111

2-4 International Initiatives of relevance to India - description 112

2-4.1 Initiatives most relevant to the Indian context 112

2-4.2 Initiatives moderately relevant to the Indian context 123

2-4.3 Initiatives slightly relevant to the Indian context 139

Annex South Africa & India: Diversity to convergence 144

People Interviewed 146

Bibliography 147

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Abbreviations

ADS Area Development Services AKF Aga Khan Foundation AKRSP Aga Khan Rural Support Programme AMFIU Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda AP Andhra Pradesh APMAS Andhra Pradesh MahilaAbhivruddhi Society ASIC Australian Securities and Investments Commission BC Business Correspondents BF Business Facilitator BRAC Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee CAIIB Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers CBO Community Based Organization CBSG Community Based Savings Group CCFL City Centre for Financial Literacy CDS Community Development Services CEO Chief Executive Officer CEP Consumer Education Program CF Community Facilitator CGT Compulsory Group Training CPFB Central Provident Fund Board CRECER Crédito con Educación Rural CRP Community Resource Persons CSP Customer Service Point CSR Corporate Social Responsibility CYSD Centre for Youth and Social Development DCCB District Central Cooperative Banks DFID Department for International Development DLT District Level Trainer DVD Digital Versatile Disk ELA Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents FAS Financial Advisory Services FAS Faulu Advisory Services FCAC Financial Consumer Agency of Canada FEF Financial Education Fund FGD Focus Group Discussion FID Financial Inclusion Department FINCA Foundation for International Community Assistance FinLit Financial Literacy Foundation FICCI Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry FINO Financial Information Network and Operations FKDTM Faulu Kenya Deposit Taking Microfinance Institution FLAME Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment FLCC Financial Literacy and Counselling Centre FLIP Financial literacy initiative in Pakistan FSPL Financial Services Private Limited FTC Farmer Training Centre FWWB Friends of Women World Banking GFSPL Grameen Financial Services Private Limited GIZ-MIPSS

German International Cooperation Micro-insurance Innovations Program for Social Security

GTZ GesellschaftfürTechnischeZusammenarbeit

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ICT Information Communication and Technology IDF Initiatives for Development Foundation IEC Information Education and Communication IFC International Finance Corporation IFMR Institute of Financial Management and Research IIBF Indian Institute of Banking and Finance IIMPS Invest India Micro Pension Services IKEA Ingvar KampradElmtarydAgunnaryd ILFS Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services INFE International Network on Financial Education ISMW Indian School of Microfinance for Women JA Junior Achievement JAIIB Junior Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers JFS Janalakshmi Financial Services JLG Joint Liability Group JSS Janalakshmi Social Services KES Kenyan Shilling KfW KreditanstaltFürWiederaufbau (German Development Bank) KVK KrishiVigyanKendras KYC Know Your Customer LIC Life Insurance Corporation MBE Micro Business Education M-CRIL Micro Credit Ratings International Limited MEA Mongolian Education Alliance MFI Microfinance Institution MFO Microfinance Opportunities MIA Micro Insurance Academy MIS Management Information System MIX Microfinance Information Exchange MMFL Madura Microfinance Limited MSDF Michael & Susan Dell Foundation NABARD National Board for Agriculture and Rural Development NAFiL National Alliance on Financial Literacy NAIP National Agriculture Innovation Project NBFC Non Banking Financial Corporation NCR National Capital Region NGO Non Government Organization NHG Neighbourhood Group NPS New Pension Scheme OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OeNB Oesterreichische National Bank OIBM Opportunity International Bank of Malawi PACS Primary Agricultural Credit Societies PAN Permanent Account Number PFRDA Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority RBI Reserve Bank of India RGVN RashtriyaGraminVikasNidhi RRB Regional Rural Bank RSBY RashtriyaSwasthyaBimaYojana SACCO Savings and Credit Cooperative SAFE South Asian Federation of Exchanges SAIA South African Insurance Association SBLP SHG Bank Linkage Programme SCRIPT Savings Credit Remittances Insurance Pension and Technology SEBI Securities and Exchange Board of India

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SED Socio Economic Development SEEDS Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Services SEEP Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (Network) SEWA Self Employed Women's Association SFA SwadhaarFinAccess SFPL Swadhaar Financial Services Private Limited SFPL Saija Finance Private Limited SHG Self Help Group SHPI Self Help Group Promoting Institution SIDBI Small Industries Development Bank of India SLT State Level Trainer SME Small and Medium Enterprise SOFEA Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents SPEED Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development StCB State Cooperative Banks ToT Training of Trainers TTM Trans Theoretical Model UNCDF United Nations Capital Development Fund UN DESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNDP United Nations Development Programme USAID United States Agency for International Development UTI Unit Trust of India UTI AMC Unit Trust of India - Asset Management Company VFS Village Financial Services VOL Voyage of Life VWS Village welfare Society

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2-1 Indian financial education initiatives - Indexed The following is the indexing scheme for Indian Financial Literacy Initiatives studied and described in this part of the report. The initiatives are mapped by… 2-1.1 Institutional type

2-1.2 Intent behind Financial Education Programmes

Term Definition

Free Technical Assistance

Technical assistance provided free of cost – sharing of modules, materials, purely for improving financial literacy in the sector

Fee based Technical Assistance Fee based technical assistance – sale of modules, materials, etc

Sector Development Developing a particular product or service in the financial sector – in this context microinsurance and micro-pensions

Own Business Development

Undertaking financial education with a view to creating demand for the institution’s own products, developing a target segment for the future

Institution dedicated to Financial Literacy

Entity imparting financial education as its core activity, whether with the profit motive or not

Part of Broader Development Agenda

Entity imparting financial education as one of many interventions in its area of operations

Policy/ Government programme

Regulatory, policy initiatives or Government programmes for imparting financial education (may or may not be stand-alone activities)

Type Definition

Technical provider An institution which provides technical services for financial education initiatives (may or may not be fee based)

Government agency or programme

Government-funded agency or programme undertaking financial education initiatives exclusively or along with other activities

NGO Non-Government Organization undertaking financial education activities on a not-for-profit basis

Regulatory Agency RBI, NABARD and SEBI in their capacity as financial sector regulators and broad policy makers

Bank Commercial bank or Regional Rural Bank (RRB)

Banking Correspondent Banking Correspondent/Business Facilitator

Stock Exchange National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange and their affiliate institutions

Share Trading Platform

Share trading and broking companies offering investment services through online platforms

MFI /MFI Group Company

Microfinance institution or sister company of an MFI formed for various purposes including credit-plus activities

Financial Services Provider

A non-microfinance NBFC or other financial service provider, not a banking entity

Financial Advisory Services Provider

Provides financial advice such as debt management, financial planning as its main activity (not an add on activity like investor guidelines provided by broking firms)

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Corporate Social Responsibility

Financial education provided as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility agenda, either due to the entity’s own expertise in the field or because of a felt need for financial literacy programmes in the target population

Investor Education/ Client Protection or Credit plus service

Financial education provided to protect existing customers from undesirable financial decisions, over-indebtedness. Aims at giving customers full and fair information about financial products and services.

2-1.3 Outreach

2-1.4 Target segments addressed

2-1.5 Topics covered

2-1.6 Communication methods used

2-1.7 Funding sources

Coding used in indices

Applicable

o Data not available

Not applicable

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2-1

.1

Map

pin

g In

itia

tive

s b

y In

stit

uti

on

al T

ype

Technical provider

Govt. agency/ program

NGO Regulatory Agency

Bank Banking Correspon

dent

Stock Exchange

Share Trading

Platform

MFI /MFI Group Company

Financial Services Provider

Fin.Advisory Services Provider

ACCION International

Agricultural Finance Corp. Ltd.

Aga Khan Development Network

Reserve Bank of India

Barclays BASIX - SubK

Bombay Stock Exchange

Geojit Cashpor Micro Credit

GE Money Debt Doctor

IIBF APMAS American India Foundation (AIF)

NABARD Citibank India

Eko India National Stock Exchange

ICICI Direct Centre for Youth and Social Development

ICICI ILFS Young Stars Programme

Disha FCC

ISMW – CCFL & NAFIL

Doordarshan Dynamic Tarang

SEBI HSBC FINO India Info Line – FLAME

Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd

Invest India Micro Pensions

Suvision Holdings

MIA Govt of Karnataka

IL&FS Skills State Bank of India

Religare IDF VISA

VKS Creative Expression

Kudumbashree, Kerala

Meljol State Level Bankers' Committees

Janalakshmi Financial Services

Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi

Moneylife Foundation

South Malabar Gramin Bank

Madura Microfinance Limited

Swabhiman campaign

Sanchayan Syndicate Bank

Mann Deshi Foundation

Smile Fndn Parinaam Fndn

St Gregorious Society

Saija Microfinance

Sukhi Baliraja Initiative (SRTT)

Samhita Microfinance

Sanghamithra

Sewa Bank

Swadhaar FinAccess

Bandhan, SKS Fndn, Trickle Up, NEEDS - Ultrapoor

VWS

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2

-1.2

M

app

ing

Init

iati

ves

by

Inte

nt

Free Technical Assistance

Fee based Technical Assistance

Sector Development

Own Business Development

Institution Dedicated to Fin. Literacy


Policy level/ Government program

Corporate Social Responsibility

Investor Education/ Client Protection or Credit plus service




BASIX – SubK Sanchayan Aga Khan Devt Network


Barclays BSE (+BSE Institute)

IIBF MicroInsurance

Academy Cashpor Micro Credit

St Gregorious Society

American India Foundation

NABARD Citibank India Centre for Youth and Social Development

Debt Doctor

Eko India

Dynamic Tarang

Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited

GE Money Disha Financial Counselling Centre

VKS Creative FINO Meljol APMAS HSBC Geojit

IL&FS Skills

Smile Foundation

Doordarshan ICICI ILFS Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd

IDF


Govt. of Karnataka India Info Line ICICI Direct

Janalakshmi Kudumbashree VISA Madura Microfinance

Parinaam Foundation



Saija Microfin’ Swabhiman Moneylife Fndn

Samhita NSE

SEWA Bank Religare


Sanghamithra

SBI SEBI

SLBC VWS

Suvision Holdings

Swadhaar

Syndicate Bank

Ultra Poor progs – Bandhan, SKS Fndn, Trickle Up, NEEDS

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2-1.3 Initiatives by Outreach Outreach

Name <20,000 20,000-50,000

50,000-100,000

>100,000 Not

known



Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd

American India Foundation (AIF)

Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society

Barclays

BASIX - SubK

Bombay Stock Exchange (+BSE Institute)

Cashpor Micro Credit

Centre for Youth and Social Development

Citibank India

Debt Doctor

Disha Financial Counselling Centre

Doordarshan

Dynamic Tarang

Eko India Financial Services Private Limited

Financial Information Network & Operations

GE Money

Geojit

Govt. of Karnataka


HSBC

ICICI Direct

ICICI ILFS

IL&FS Skills

India Info Line – Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment

Indian Institute of Banking and Finance


Initiatives for Development Foundation






Meljol

MicroInsurance Academy

Moneylife Foundation

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

National Stock Exchange

Parinaam Foundation


Religare


Saija Microfinance

Samhita

Sanchayan

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2-1.3 Initiatives by Outreach Outreach

Name <20,000 20,000-50,000

50,000-100,000

>100,000 Not

known

Sanghamithra

Securities Exchange Board of India

Sewa Bank

Smile Foundation


St Gregorious Society for Financial Literacy

State Bank of India

State Level Bankers' Committees


Suvision holdings (Indianmoney.com)

Swabhiman campaign

Swadhaar FinAccess

Syndicate Bank

Ultra Poor programmes – Bandhan, SKS Foundation, Trickle Up, NEEDS

Village Welfare Society

VISA


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2-1.4 Initiatives by Target Segment Target Segment

Name Rural Urban School students

Youth Women Low in-come gp

Others/ General

Count

ACCION International 3 Aga Khan Development Network 4 Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd 3 America India Foundation 3 Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society 3 Barclays 7 BASIX - SubK 3 Bombay Stock Exchange (+BSE Institute) 3 Cashpor Micro Credit 3 Centre for Youth and Social Development 5 Citibank India 3 Debt Doctor 2 Disha Financial Counselling Centre 3 Doordarshan 1 Dynamic Tarang 1 Eko India Financial Services Private Limited 4 Financial Information Network & Operations 3 GE Money 4 Geojit 4 Govt. of Karnataka 5 Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd 3 HSBC 7 ICICI Direct 3 ICICI ILFS 4 IL&FS Skills 4 India Info Line – Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment 1 Indian Institute of Banking and Finance 2 Indian School of Microfinance for Women/Citi Centre for Financial Literacy& National Financial Literacy Drive

4

Initiatives for Development Foundation 3

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Others/ General

Count

Invest India Micro Pensions - Consumer Research Centre for Financial Inclusion 4 Janalakshmi Financial Services 3 Kudumbashree, Kerala 3 Madura Microfinance Limited 3 Mann Deshi Foundation 4 Meljol 4 MicroInsurance Academy 3 Moneylife Foundation 2 National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development 6 National Stock Exchange 4 Parinaam Foundation 3 Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi 5 Religare 2 Reserve Bank of India 7 Saija Microfinance 3 Samhita 3 Sanchayan 6 Sanghamithra 3 Securities Exchange Board of India 4 Sewa Bank 4 Smile Foundation 5 South Malabar Gramin Bank 3 St Gregorious Society for Financial Literacy 2 State Bank of India 4 State Level Bankers' Committees 3 Sukhi Baliraja Initiative (SRTT) 4 Suvision holdings (Indianmoney.com) 2 Swabhiman campaign 5 SwadhaarFinAccess 3 Syndicate Bank 4

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Others/ General

Count

Ultra Poor programmes – Bandhan, SKS Foundation, Trickle Up, NEEDS 4 Village Welfare Society 3 VISA 4 VKS Creative Expression 3

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2-1.5 Initiatives by Topic Topics Covered

Name Savings Credit Insurance Pension Remit-tance

Budget-ing

Invest- ment

Debt mgmt.

Banking Processes

Business devlpt.

Count

ACCION International 5

Aga Khan Development Network 3

Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd 6

American India Foundation (AIF) o o o o 2

Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society 2 Barclays o o o o o o

BASIX – SubK 2

Bombay Stock Exchange (+BSE Institute) 1

Cashpor Micro Credit 4

Centre for Youth and Social Development 2

Citibank India 6

Debt Doctor 2

Disha Financial Counselling Centre 4

Doordarshan o o o o o o

Dynamic Tarang 4

Eko India Financial Services Private Limited 1 Financial Information Network & Operations 6 GE Money 5 Geojit 2

Govt. of Karnataka 1

Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd 4

HSBC 5

ICICI Direct 1

ICICI ILFS o o o o o o

IL&FS Skills o o o o 3

India Info Line 4

Indian Institute of Banking and Finance 7

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Budget-ing

Invest- ment

Debt mgmt.

Banking Processes

Business devlpt.

Count

ISMW – CCFL & NAFIL 6 Initiatives for Development Foundation o 2 Invest India Micro Pensions 2

Janalakshmi Financial Services 5

Kudumbashree, Kerala 5

Madura Microfinance Limited 5

Mann Deshi Foundation o 4

Meljol 3

MicroInsurance Academy 1

Moneylife Foundation 6

NABARD o 5

National Stock Exchange 4

Parinaam Foundation 7

Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi o o o 3

Religare 1

Reserve Bank of India o 5

Saija Microfinance 2

Samhita 5

Sanchayan 7

Sanghamithra o 3

Securities Exchange Board of India o A 5

Sewa Bank 5

Smile Foundation 4

South Malabar Gramin Bank o o A o o o o St Gregorious Society for Financial Literacy 4 State Bank of India 3

State Level Bankers' Committees 3

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Budget-ing

Invest- ment

Debt mgmt.

Banking Processes

Business devlpt.

Count

Sukhi Baliraja Initiative (SRTT) 5

Suvision holdings (Indianmoney.com) 4

Swabhiman campaign 6

SwadhaarFinAccess 5

Syndicate Bank 3

Ultra Poor programmes – Bandhan & others 5

Village Welfare Society 3

VISA 4

VKS Creative Expression 5

2-1.6 Initiatives by Method Communication Methods

Name Printed material

Audio-visual

Games Folk/Street plays

Classroom trainings

Website Helpline Groups / clubs

Others Count

ACCION International 5 Aga Khan Development Network 3 Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd 4 America India Foundation (AIF) 2 A.P. Mahila Abhivruddhi Society 3 Barclays o o o o o o o o BAS0IX - SubK Slogans 5 Bombay Stock Exchange Workshops 2 Cashpor Micro Credit 1 CYSD 4 Citibank India 5 Debt Doctor 2 Disha Financial Counselling Centre 2

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Audio-visual


Classroom trainings


Others Count

Doordarshan TV programme 2 Dynamic Tarang Radio 2 Eko India 4 FINO 5 GE Money 2 Geojit 1 Govt. of Karnataka School

curriculum 3

Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd Letters 4 HSBC 5 ICICI Direct 2 ICICI ILFS o o 3 IL&FS Skills o o o o Workshops 2 India Info Line – Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment

Massmedia 5

Indian Inst. of Banking and Finance 3 Indian School of Microfinance for Women/ CCFL &NAFIL

5

Initiatives for Devlpt. Foundation 2 Invest India Micro Pensions Calculators 6

Janalakshmi Financial Services 4 Kudumbashree, Kerala 2 Madura Microfinance Limited 3 Mann Deshi Foundation Mobile van,

Radio 4

Meljol Songs, visits to banks, Aflatoun Savings bank

6

MicroInsurance Academy 6

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Audio-visual


Classroom trainings


Others Count

Moneylife Foundation Online library 3 NABARD 5 National Stock Exchange 1 Parinaam Foundation Calculators 7 Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi 4 Religare o o o o o o o 2 Reserve Bank of India 3 Saija Microfinance 1 Samhita 3 Sanchayan Text messages 6 Sanghamithra 4 Securities Exchange Board of India 4 Sewa Bank 5 Smile Foundation Songs, music 5 South Malabar Gramin Bank o o o o o o o 0 St Gregorious Society for Fin. Lit. 1 State Bank of India o o o o o o o 1 State Level Bankers' Committees o o o o o o o 0 Sukhi Baliraja Initiative (SRTT) Farmer clubs 1 Suvision holdings (Indianmoney.com) 2 Swabhiman campaign o o o o o o o Depends on

implementer 1

SwadhaarFinAccess 5 Syndicate Bank 2 Ultra Poor programmes – Bandhan, SKS Foundation, Trickle Up, NEEDS

2

Village Welfare Society 4 VISA Social

networking 3

VKS Creative Expression 4

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2-1.7 Initiatives by Funding Sources Funding Sources

Name Institution (As donor or CSR)

Donation or government grants

Customer contributions



Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd

America India Foundation (AIF)

Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society

Barclays

BASIX - SubK

Bombay Stock Exchange (+BSE Institute) Cashpor Micro Credit o o o Centre for Youth and Social Development

Citibank India

Debt Doctor

Disha Financial Counselling Centre o o o Doordarshan

Dynamic Tarang

Eko India Financial Services Private Limited

Financial Information Network & Operations

GE Money

Geojit

Govt of Karnataka


HSBC

ICICI Direct

ICICI ILFS

IL&FS Skills

India Info Line – Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment

Indian Institute of Banking and Finance

Indian School of Microfinance for Women/Citi Centre for Financial Literacy& National Financial Literacy Drive

Initiatives for Development Foundation

Invest India Micro Pensions - Consumer Research Centre for Financial Inclusion





Meljol

MicroInsurance Academy

Moneylife Foundation o o o National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

National Stock Exchange

Parinaam Foundation


Religare

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2-1.7 Initiatives by Funding Sources Funding Sources

Name Institution (As donor or CSR)

Donation or government grants

Customer contributions


Saija Microfinance

Samhita

Sanchayan

Sanghamithra

Securities Exchange Board of India

Sewa Bank

Smile Foundation


St Gregorious Society for Financial Literacy

State Bank of India

State Level Bankers' Committees


Suvision holdings (Indianmoney.com)

Swabhiman campaign

SwadhaarFinAccess

Syndicate Bank

Ultra Poor programmes – Bandhan, SKS Foundation, Trickle Up, NEEDS

Village Welfare Society

VISA


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2-2 Indian Financial Education Initiatives – description

A description of financial education initiatives in India follows – in alphabetical order

1 ACCION International

Background: ACCION International started operations in India in 2005, with the objective of making ‘substantive contribution to the outreach and impact of microfinance in major urban markets’. ACCION has a hub office in Bangalore and a Global Training Centre in Mumbai, through which it offers technical assistance, management services, investment and training support to partner MFIs – including SwadhaarFinAccess and Saija Microfinance, covered later in this chapter. In 2009, ACCION received funds from Visa to develop content and modules for its financial literacy programme. Programmes: ACCION hired consultants to develop its toolkits. ACCION studied financial institutions and MFIs who were implementing financial literacy programmes to understand the models in use and existing gaps. Toolkits were designed to cover financial planning and financial literacy comprehensively. ACCION provided the materials along witha Training of Trainers (ToTs) to ensure effective use of the toolkits. ACCION sells the toolkits to MFIs/NGOs who in turn deliver the trainings to the target audience. The training of trainers programme is offered as an optional session based on the institutions’ decision to buy minimum number of toolkits. Each toolkit is priced at Rs10,000 ($200). Most of the institutions have placed an order to do 1-2 pilot tests, but have not been able to scale the programme thereafter.

Though initial focus was on selling the toolkits to MFIs, ACCION realized that scaling up in an MFI context is difficult, and financial literacy had to be viewed as a dedicated programme rather than an add-on. Presently, the focus is to find NGO partners, who have a dedicated team and work at a community level for various programmes. ACCION has sold its toolkits to Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), and is also conducting ToTs. ACCION’s role is limited to providing the toolkits and ToTs; there is no control over implementation. Outreach: Over 30,000 individuals have been trained through ACCION’s toolkit by different institutions, though AKF accounts for the majority of this figure. Material: The toolkits are designed to support a participatory method of delivery. They use creative renditions, story formats, local symbols/icons and games to make inputs interesting and relevant to low income groups. Microfinance Opportunities was involved in designing/fine-tuning the training methodology and Freedom from Hunger reviewed the materials. The toolkit set is in two parts:

Model Through partner organisations - Sells financial literacy toolkits and provides Training of Trainers (ToTs) support to NGOs/MFIs

Target clients Low income groups

Outreach ~30,000, mostly in Bihar

Strengths Toolkits designed to support a participatory method of delivery. Creative renditions through story formats, local icons and games

Limitations Weak monitoring of quality of implementation

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Staff: ACCION has 3 certified master trainers who impart ToT sessions to MFI/NGO staff. The trainers have been given intensive inputs, before certification by ACCION. The quality of training sessions conducted by them is closely monitored. Impact: Since ACCION is not directly involved in implementation, no formal impact study has been conducted on the effectiveness of the toolkits. However, the Client Education Team collects informal feedback from the implementing institutions. ACCION has received negative feedback on audio-visual formats in India, as retention levels are low, and infrastructural constraints limit its use. Scale-up and sustainability: Since the toolkits and ToTs are paid for by partner MFIs, the programme is sustainable for ACCION, though it requires funding for the implementing agencies. ACCION plans to have multiple approaches to reach low income groups. In addition to literacy programmes through the toolkit, it plans to hold mass awareness programmes that could reach out to 100,000 persons a year. The aim is to re-design the existing concepts of fundamental financial planning to a scalable model, and to introduce other concepts like pensions, insurance, remittances, and responsible borrowing. ACCION suggests two models to conduct these programmes:

i. An indirect model: ACCION will invest in financial literacy through partnerships with MFIs/NGOs and take a stake in their programme to closely monitor and control implementation

ii. A direct model: ACCION will implement mass awareness activities directly through consultants and tie-ups with rural banks and Financial Literacy and Counselling Centres (FLCCs).

ACCION plans to conduct mass awareness activities to spread financial literacy. Auto rickshaw campaigns, financial inclusion awareness stalls, newspaper publications, hoardings, interactive games, village congregations, and workshops at schools are some of the ways envisaged to spread these messages to the masses. Another strategy is to offer ToT programmes customized to the existing programmes in the MFI/NGOs.

2 Aga Khan Development Network

Background: The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a private, non-denominational development agency, established by His Highness the Aga Khan in Switzerland in 1967. The foundation ‘seeks sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty through an integrated, community based, participatory approach that reinforces civil society and respects local culture’. In India, AKF works in three thematic areas: Health, Education and Rural Development. AKF in collaboration with its

Module Topics covered

Fundamentals of financial planning

- To make people realize the need for financial planning - To make them understand the cycle of poverty and ways to break it - Analyse existing vs. planned scenarios

Achieving your financial goals

- To make an effective financial plan given an understanding of the concepts and tools provided.

- Covers savings, cash flow, budgeting, debt

Model Through partner organisations – integrated with Community Based Savings Groups (CBSG) programme

Target clients Poor women

Outreach ~28,000, in three districts in Bihar

Strengths Financial literacy trainings are followed by a community savings programme, thus encouraging the trainees to practise what was taught.

Limitations No efforts to link trainees with formal financial institutions

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implementation partner, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme [AKRSP(I)], has devised a long-term strategy to create opportunities of financial inclusion through supporting and facilitating innovative Community-based Savings Groups (CBSGs). The programme, implemented in three districts of Bihar, aims to mobilise women from marginalised communities to form savings groups and organise simple savings and lending practices that help cushion them against economic shocks and avoid debt in the face of emergencies. It is implemented through four local partners – AKRSP(I), NavJagriti, NIDAN and SAKHI. Each CBSG comprises 15 to 25 women. Individual savings are pooled together and internally lent at a pre-defined and mutually agreed upon interest rate. A management committee is elected to constitute policies about savings and to ensure procedural discipline. Lockable cash boxes are used to keep surplus cash and records. At the end of every year, the group closes its books. The individual savings are treated as shares of the group and members are eligible for their savings, and a proportionate amount of interest earned from the internal lending. Programme: AKF piloted financial literacy training to the audience using ACCION’s modules customized for CBSG members, in 2010. After evaluating the impact, it was decided to integrate financial literacy training with the programme to facilitate the savings and lending process. ACCION also supported AKF with Training of Trainers programme. Around 60 staff from AKF and its partner NGOs have attended ACCION’s trainings. Key financial messages on financial planning, cash flow, budget, savings and debt are imparted to CBSG members using a comprehensive story-based interactive curriculum using flipcharts, and games. ACCION also provided the trainers with a handbook to conduct the sessions. The programme also enhances members’ awareness about skills in book keeping practices, transparency in transactions, savings and lending policies and adherence to group policies. Financial literacy trainings are given when the groups are formed, for 1-1.5 months. Key messages are reinforced during the weekly group meetings. Materials: All modules are sourced from ACCION. Staff: AKF has a State Programme Manager and a Programme Coordinator who monitors the implementation of the programme. Refresher trainings are given by AKF, based on initial trainings by ACCION. Impact: AKF is planning to conduct a qualitative study through external parties to assess the effectiveness of the programme. Scale-up & sustainability: AKF plans to expand the programme and reach-out to 1 lakh persons. Presently, the programmes are funded by Aga Khan Foundation, U.S.A and the Marshall Foundation.

3 Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd (AFCL)

Model Leveraging SHGs and Farmers Clubs to provide financial literacy training using RBI’s material

Target clients Rural adults, especially women

Outreach 21,000 individuals

Strengths Variety of communication methods and comprehensive coverage of topics

Limitations Very small geographical coverage

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Background: AFCL, in partnership with NABARD has been conducting a Financial Literacy Programme in Murshidabad district in West Bengal focused on rural adults especially women. The package has been designed to leverage on the existing infrastructure created and/or supported by government – rural bank branches, RRBs and State run SHG programmes. This programme is being delivered to selected Self Help Groups and Farmer Clubs.

Programme:The Financial Literacy Programme has been structured to support the participants’ progress towards meeting their savings and asset goals. The training also provides programme participants with opportunities to develop skills and acquire knowledge necessary to effectively manage their own financial situation. AFCL has used RBI’s available material to design its modules and has delivered them in the local language, while amply using role-plays and local forms of entertainment to make the sessions more interactive and useful for participants. Members from identified SHGs/FCs have been trained as master trainers and in turn they provide training to the rural youth. The training covers: Awareness about money Management Cash flow Basic economic/ financial concepts Thrift and savings Attitude building towards financial security Healthy investment and retirement funds Freedom from indebtedness Outreach: The Financial Literacy Programme covers about 21,000 youth through SHGs and Farmers’ Club (FC) in 7 talukas of Jangipur Tehsil of Murshidabad district (West Bengal).

4 American India Foundation (AIF)

Background: It is estimated that 90% of India's youth will drop out of school before completing their secondary education and majority of these will be limited to low paying job opportunities in the informal sector. At the same time, India's rapidly growing economy has resulted in an increased demand for skilled workers, but the country's capacity to meet this demand isvery low. The Citi Foundation has been supporting the American India Foundation's (AIF) Market Aligned Skills Training Programme (MAST) since 2011.The MAST programme seeks to address this gap by training unemployed youth for jobs in high growth service sector industries. The programme seeks to provide unemployed low-income youth, predominately from urban slum communities in India, with the training and support needed to access service-sector jobs. Programme: AIF conducts thorough market research into the target community to determine the employment need and recruits and trains the target group to acquire the skills needed to fill those employment opportunities. Part of the skills taught to the youth revolve around financial planning and management, so that once they start earning they can save and provide for future needs and

Model Provide unemployed low-income youth from urban slum communities in India, with the training and support needed to access service-sector jobs

Target clients Low income youth, who have not completed higher education

Outreach Over 65,000 youth

Strengths Combines financial literacy with skill training as part of a larger mandate

Limitations Financial literacy training precedes linkage to jobs – youth may not retain and implement learnings imparted before they accessed jobs and regular income.

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contingencies. The different modules covered are employment and earnings, spending, savings, borrowings and financial planning. Outreach: MAST, which was developed by AIF in 2008, has provided over 65,000 low-income youth with the knowledge and skills needed to enter the formal economy and secure gainful employment.

5 Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society

Background: APMAS was set up in 2001 on a public private partnership model with the objective of enhancing the quality and sustainability of the SHG movement and other community-based inclusive finance interventions for engaging in microfinance and sustainable livelihoods. APMAS is headquartered in Hyderabad with five regional and eight offices in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Programme: APMAS started a pilot programme to facilitate self-regulation of SHGs and Federations in 2010; financial literacy is also a component of the programme. The SHG members and Governing Committee members of the federations are given specific trainings that are relevant at each level. Community Facilitators (CF) are identified in each village, who monitor and support the activities of 10-15 SHGs in the village. APMAS has trained the CFs to train the SHG and Federation members. The messages are refreshed during the monthly meetings at the Mandal (sub-district) level. The financial literacy involves significance of savings/thrift and how to use credit wisely. The rest of the training is focused on Book keeping, interest calculation, auditing, and importance of democratic processes in SHGs. The trainings at SHG level is for 3 hours each for 3 days, usually during the SHG meetings. The Federation trainings are for 6 days, 6 hours on each day. Outreach: The programme is presently implemented in one block of Andhra Pradesh which has around 3400 SHGs, each having an average of 8 members. Materials: Booklets have been developed on each topic in story format in local language and are distributed to the Community Facilitators, to aid them in training the SHGs in a participative manner. Posters have also been designed and pasted on Federations’ notice board. Staff: APMAS has 4 staff and 116 Community Facilitators involved in this training programme. APMAS has conducted 10 ToTs comprising a total of 25 days of classroom sessions with CFs, and each SHG has been trained at least once. Scale-up & sustainability: The pilot programme is funded by DGRV (German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Confederation). APMAS is planning to make the programme sustainable in terms of funding, by channelizing customer contributions. The costing is estimated to be Rs350-400 per SHG for financial literacy training along with audit and other support services.

Model Training imparted to SHG members by community volunteers who have been trained by APMAS

Target clients SHG members

Outreach ~27,000, 1 block in Andhra Pradesh

Strengths Toolkits designed to support a participatory method of delivery. Plans to make it financially sustainable

Limitations Limited to awareness on savings on financial literacy. Other modules focus on SHG administration and discipline Weak monitoring of quality of implementation

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6 Barclays

Background: Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal and corporate banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth and investment management services, with an extensive presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. With over 300 years in banking, Barclays operates in 50 countries, employing over 140,000 staff. Barclays invests in community welfare in keeping with its strategy of community investment. The four focus areas for community investments are youth development, income generation and financial inclusion, preventive health, and environmental sustainability. Barclays believe that through such projects it can create positive impact on communities, and also realize business benefits by creating good will for its brand. Programme: ‘Banking on Brighter Futures’ is Barclays’s flagship programme through which it seeks to use its expertise and financial capabilities to tackle social issues. Barclays has pledged to invest US $150 million over the next five years in this programme. 1,500 projects around the world are being supported in financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, education, enterprise, skill building for employment. As part of this project, a US $10mn global partnership has been formed with UNICEF, of which US $1.68 million is being invested in a three-year project in India. The project addresses the ‘current lack of business skills and financial literacy among disadvantaged girls and women, to help them create sustainable livelihoods’. Adolescent girls arebeing provided with life skills education, including financial literacy and leadership skills. Women are being supported to develop key business management skills, enabling them to increase their income and financial security. A £1.5m global partnership has been formed with Junior Achievement (JA), a non-profit organization that specializes in financial education to students through a specially designed curriculum delivered by a trained classroom volunteer. The course provides entrepreneurial opportunities, work readiness and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on modules to young adults. This partnership extends over a 3 year period. During the first year, in India, two programmes – B-INSPIRED for school students in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kanchipuram and Junagadh and B-SMART for secondary school students in Mumbai and New Delhi were launched. Through the B – INSPIRED programme, students from Standard 7-9 are given a “real life business challenge”. These students are then allowed to brainstorm and innovatively create a feasible solution to the problem. This programme is focused on making students think as a team and to provide a more interactive learning experience. In the B – SMART programme, secondary school students learn important entrepreneurial skills through creating their own student company and operating through an entire business cycle. They make and market real products, use “real” share capital and make “real” profits (or losses) with the support and mentoring of a wide range of professionals, the Barclays volunteers.

Model Through partner organisations - Sells financial literacy toolkits and provides Training of Trainers (ToTs) support to NGOs/MFIs

Target clients Adolescent girls, young adults, women

Outreach Planned: 70,000 adolescent girls; 140,000 women

Strengths Staff involvement in projects, provision of technical and professional expertise

Limitations Not all staff volunteers may be effective trainers

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Outreach: It is estimated that a total of 70,000 adolescent girls will be provided life skills education, including financial literacy and leadership skills; 140,000 women will be supported to develop key business management skills, enabling them to increase their income and financial security. Staff: Barclays’ employees are engaged in the project, providing technical and professional expertise and knowledge in life skills such as financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business management. For the programme for young adults, the employee volunteers go through a ‘Train the Trainer’ programme that is designed to share with them how they can add significant value to the students. Barclay’s employees are being encouraged to volunteer a combined total 150,000 hours of work for the “Banking on Brighter Futures” programme. Barclays offers a comprehensive range of support to colleagues, including matched fundraising, time off work and grants for volunteering.

7 BASIX –SubK

BASIX Sub-K iTransactions Limited (Sub-K), is a BASIX Group company which provides residents of rural and semi-urban areas with a mobile technology based transactional platform for access to digitized services. These include Banking Services, Savings, NREGA and other Government Payments, Money Transfers, Utility Payments, Prepaid Mobile Top-ups and others, enabled through a network of Basic Convenience Outlets (BCO) operated by company agents. Sub-K, which means ‘less than 1,000’, helps people access services within distances of 1000 meters, with transaction values under Rs1000, by incurring transaction fees less than Rs. 10, through outlets that typically serve 1,000 customers in a locality. Sub-K works on appointing service providers/banks at one end and BCOs at the other to bridge the digital divide and create a more prosperous, ‘financially included’ society. Sub-K’s approach is to set up BCOs in each locality of 1000 families. These BCOs are existing grocery stores with good reputations and large numbers of foot-falls, especially among women. By having such BCOs many individual accounts can be opened, thereby increasing the savings by the community in a formal system, provided they understand the system through financial literacy drives. Sub-K operates on a 3-pronged approach, deploying effective measures on the ground to: 1. Make the BCO a place to go to 2. Entertain and educate villagers by involving them 3. Build the BCO’s credibility by 3rd party endorsement Making the BCO a go-to place implies that it is seen as more than just a bank or a store. This prompts villagers to engage in conversation, leading to word-of-mouth publicity for the BCO and its services.A lot of the information is transferred through entertaining formats such as skits and plays in the local dialect, often aided by musical instruments. Since the BCOs are chosen for their credibility in the area, the messages are usually well received by the public.

Model BC model, programme is focused on increasing the penetration of savings bank accounts in unbanked villages

Target clients Unbanked villages with population under 1,000

Outreach ~75,000

Strengths Interesting programme, based on slogans, easily understood memorized by customers

Limitations Focus only on the relationship with the BCO and the products that are being offered by the BCO

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Sub-K’s primary focus is on encouraging saving. Stories speak of persons who saved and prospered vs. those who did not. Pro-saving slogans are taught to the audience and repeated by them during the sessions. Sub-K’s secondary objective is to ensure transactions occur in a way that minimizes chances of fraud or deceit. Slogans, repeated by the audience, include: “Parchi Nahin to Paisa Nahin” (no money exchange till a receipt is generated and issued) and “Ledger mein sign karo…phir BCO se bahar chalo” (leave the BCO only after signing the ledger book)1. The only drawback of the programmes is that they focus only on the relationship with the BCO and the products that are being offered by the BCO, rather than building holistic financial awareness on a broad range of topics. However, the programme has been successful in generating new customers for the BCOs and thereby achieving financial inclusion. The Sub-K programme had created 76,410 new savings accounts till October 2011.

8 Bombay Stock Exchange

Background: Bombay Stock Exchange Limited is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. Popularly known as "BSE", it was established in 1875 and is the first stock exchange in India to obtain permanent recognition in 1956 from the Government of India under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. Earlier an Association of Persons (AOP), the Exchange is now a de-mutualized and corporatized entity incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. Programmes:Workshops/ seminars: As per BSE’s website, it has conducted over 700 workshops across the different parts of India, in FY 2011-12. Many of the workshops were sponsored by NSE, Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL), NSDL, Delhi Stock Exchange, and various investors associations and topics included investor education, prudent investment practices, monitoring of investment performance, etc. Seminars on BSE SME exchange: BSE conducts seminars across the country to educate shareholders, market intermediaries and investors on the importance of listing small & medium enterprises on the BSE SME Exchange. The initiative is aimed at creating awareness on raising of equity capital by SMEs, thus promoting financial inclusion. It seeks to facilitate development and enhance competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises. Research and publications: The Economics & Research team of the BSE is engaged in collection, analysis, and dissemination of information pertaining to Indian and international capital markets. The team has launched two publications, namely the "Indian Journal of Capital Market" (IJCM) and the "SENSEX", which aim at making in-depth analysis of various issues and ideas pertaining to the capital markets available to policymakers, regulators, academics, investors and capital market professionals.

1http://subk.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Financial-Literacy-Programmes.pdf

Model Workshops and seminars; dedicated institution for higher education (BSE Institute)

Target clients Investors, general public and students.

Outreach Indeterminate

Strengths Workshops are successful in delivering investor protection and prudent investment messages to the target audience

Limitations Communication methods assume a fairly high level of general education and mathematical competence in the audience.

http://subk.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Financial-Literacy-Programs.pdf

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The BSE Institute Ltd. is the learning solutions arm of the BSE Limited. BSE Institute inherits BSE’s knowledge and insights into the capital markets industry. The institute offers courses and programmes like full time MBA in financial markets, and long and short term certification courses in various aspects of financial markets and commodity trading. Website: A guide to investors is available on the BSE website. BSE India, in collaboration with Morningstar India, has launched a dedicated website to ‘empower investors with relevant information and tools on evaluating Mutual Fund investment opportunities.

9 CASHPOR Micro Credit

Background: CASHPOR started microfinance operations in eastern Uttar Pradesh in India in 1996 and currently operatesin the form of a not for profit Section 25 Company, CASHPOR Micro Credit (CMC).Currently CMC is operating in 11 districts in Uttar Pradesh and 4 in Bihar.Since July 2011, Grameen Foundation India2 has been facilitating CMC to offer savings products using mobile technology. Presently CMC has roughly 67,000 clients covered under savings BC model across its operational areas. Programme: Financial literacy efforts form part of the savings model and is in the process of being rolled out. CMC and GFI engaged ECubeH to conduct market research prior to developing financial literacy modules. Market research had the twin objective of understanding savings pattern, motivator and saving experiences of the clients as well as assessing an appropriate medium to communicate and decide stories and allegories which clients would be able to relate to. Outreach: The financial literacy trainings are intended to target approximately 67,000 clients who are currently savings with CMC under the BC model. Materials: ECubeH is still in the process of developing materials based on findings from market research. 40% of the focus will be on savings (how to save, how much and where to save), 20% on mobile literacy and remaining 40% will be on other products and services including recurring deposit, fixed deposit, insurance and general financial terms. Staff: ECubeH will provide training to CMC’s training team (10 staff), Operations Managers (District Managers, Area Managers) in the initial round of Training of Trainers (ToT). The idea is to subsequently train the Centre Managers (field staff) so that financial literacy training module is integrated into their routine activities. Scale-up & sustainability: As financial literacy module is part of savings BC model, financial literacy efforts are expected to drive demand for CMC’s deposit service. Since higher number and amount of transactions entails greater revenue for CMC, it would offset cost of financial literacy efforts.

2 Grameen Foundation India (GFI) is a social business that strengthens double-bottom-line organizations that serve the

poor. GFI is also exploring ways to leverage mobile phones to deliver information and other services to the poor and CMC is one such example.

Model Training with focus on savings

Target clients Cashpor clients who are saving under BC model

Outreach ~ 67,000 clients under the BC model

Strengths Educates clients on the importance and value of saving

Limitations Limited to only savings products, currently the training has limited value as it is made available to those who have already availed the savings product

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10 Centre for Youth and Social Development

Background: Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) is an NGO registered under Societies Registration Act 1860.CYSD was established in 1982 to address the severe development gaps affecting the state of Odisha, by undertaking interventions in elementary education, sustainable livelihood, governance, health & sanitation and gender issues. CYSD started mobilising groups and helped them in mobilizing thrift and saving habits and eventually established a separate organization for micro finance activities – a not-for-profit company called “Swayamshree Micro Credit Services”. Programme: CYSD undertook its financial literacy programmes in partnership with the Indian School of Microfinance for Women (ISMW), and the National Alliance for Financial Literacy (NAFIL). CYSD was a nodal organization for the financial literacy initiatives of the above-mentioned entities, and covered 20 districts with an integrated project which offered several interventions including financial literacy. ISMW provided the tools and the modules as well as funds to facilitate outreach of the financial literacy component. Tools included a movie on financial planning and budgeting, and how to identify the best avenues for saving and credit. Funding was initially extended for event-based programmes to create awareness about saving and credit products and their terms and conditions. However, during review meetings it was found that most of the trainees also demanded information regarding investment practices, financial planning, business development, etc. CYSD started imparting the trainings to borrowers of the SHGs under the microfinance programme, but wanted to give these inputs to a larger audience, so it organized training of trainers programmes to increase the pool of qualified trainers (only women were chosen). Field level volunteers and trainers were used to spread the module across farmers meetings, SHGs, etc. and also in schools run by CYSD. 3 modules were imparted to trainees over 1 day per month, so that they could absorb the learning from one session before attending the next. Not being able to link to providers was a key challenge. Trainees would learn about the value of saving with a formal institution, but banks still were not very cooperative in opening their accounts. CYSD also offered “Couples counselling” on mature borrowing and smart savings – this module consisted of a session delivered to couples about balancing income and expenditure, and was conducted in batches of 10 couples each. The programme started in 2005-06 and ended in 2009-10. Now CYSD is continuing these modules as an accessory to other programmes. Staff trained as trainers continue the programme as part of other activities - mostly among tribal women, but this is only a small part of gender mainstreaming activities, so there is not much focus and hardly any reporting. Since CYSD is the pioneer for the tribal meets in the State it uses these meets and festivals as a forum for screening of the financial literacy movie to spread messages regarding cutting consumption and saving securely.

Model Used ISMW’s toolkits to train groups of borrowers; provided “couples counselling” to large-ticket-size borrowers; 500 trainers trained in ToT programmes

Target clients Existing borrowers of CYSD

Outreach ~ 70,000 borrowers

Strengths Convenient timings of trainings (during group meetings), low-cost of outreach

Limitations Stand-alone programme; no measurement of change

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Outreach: More than 70,000 women were educated in the state under the programme. CYSD also undertook TOTs and has trained more than 500 trainers who will carry on these modules if funding can be obtained. Materials: ISMW modules and movie developed in Hindi were used after translation into Oriya. CYSD also developed 21 posters of its own, covering highlights of the different modules. The Couples counselling module usesa film based on the lives of a fictional couple from the same socio economic background as most clients. Staff: CYSD had a consultant working on social services, with a special focus on the financial literacy programme. She continues to work part-time with CYSD on capacity building and advisory services. Most of the trainings are imparted through the operational staff of CYSD or Swayamshree, making the delivery of trainings cost friendly. 5 staff from the livelihood team and 2 staff each in 5 project offices across Odisha are involved in financial literacy initiatives, taking the total team size to 16 people, all of whom are involved part-time. No incentives were given for outreach as this was considered one of the staff’s key deliverables. The 500 trainers who have been trained by CYSD are all graduates, many of whom were selected from among SHG animators, chosen for their good communication and rapport building skills. Some are staff from Swayamshree, but there is no monitoring of whether they are actually passing on these messages at the regular SHG meetings or not. MIS: The trainings were completely module-based so CYSD did not strictly monitor the quality of delivery of trainings in the villages as staff would follow the modules exactly, after which they would screen the movie for clients. However, efforts were recorded in the following ways:

Staff performance was assessed on the basis of MIS reports which were prepared weekly and followed a minutes-book type of format, including large sections of audience feedback.

Couples counselling covered many details of household budgeting, and required staff to fill in detailed reports, indicating a summary of their inputs. These were also used for staff assessment.

Quarterly report to ISMW from CYSD covered number of training programmes completed, outreach indicators district-wise and summary of feedback from trainees.

Impact: No baseline survey was undertaken. Evaluation of the programme had been done by ISMW in 2010-11 – it was entirely qualitative and indicated that many women had started businesses, other had minimized expenses and many had started saving. Some of these had opened bank accounts and a small proportion had taken insurance policies. Sustainability: Funds have mostly come from ISMW, own sources, or through links with government agencies. CYSD has tried to mobilize resources from other surplus of other programmes, but this is difficult as most programmes do not have any surplus. NABARD, SIDBI, etc. had given funds for programmes which included a financial literacy component under capacity building, but these did not cover costs of scale up. CYSD has spent around Rs10 lakhs on development of materials and training trainers, part of which was funded by ISMW. CYSD feels that these costs have to be amortized over a long time and a large number of clients so assessing sustainability is not appropriate at this stage. CYSD has never had any plan to charge fees for financial literacy because no one would have paid as the target group have a very low income level. Also, CYSD feels that there is no point in charging unless the institution itself offers third party products like savings and insurance products, as the trainees feel cheated when they realize the importance of these financial services but are still denied

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access to them by the formal providers. CYSD has started charging other institutions for the printing cost of sharing its materials, but does not factor in the cost of developing these materials.

11 Citibank India

Background:Citibank, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts has been committed to promoting Financial Capability & Asset Building through its “Office of Financial Education”. Launched in 2004, this institution aims to meet the financial education needs of communities outside the formal banking sector. Citi announced a 10-year, $200 million global commitment to support financial education and by 2010 had already invested over $167 million in 73 countries. Programmes:Citi’s aim is to provide wide-ranging financial literacy inputs so that trainees can develop short-term and long-term financial plans, select appropriate financial products or services to implement those plans and develop financial strategies for periods of economic prosperity & instability. The results sought are: • Increase in the number of low-income adults who adopt positive financial behaviours and

accumulate and preserve financial assets • Increase in the number of low-income youth who demonstrate their ability to earn, keep and

spend their money wisely Initiatives in India: The Corporate Citizenship function is the umbrella entity for all Corporate Social Responsibility activities undertaken by Citi India. Programmes include: In 2004, the Citi Foundation provided core funding to set up the Indian School of Microfinance

for Women (ISMW) in Ahmedabad. The Citi Centre for Financial Literacy focuses on conducting financial literacy awareness campaigns for grassroots women borrowers and training programmes for NGO/MFI staff. This initiative has been covered separately in this chapter.

In 2007, Citi extended support to MelJol, an innovative programme that brings financial education to schools across 6 states in India and teaches underprivileged children about savings through its “Aflatoun” savings programme for children aged 6-14 years. Citi’s partnership enabled MelJol to initiate a financial literacy programme outside Maharashtra for the first time. The Citi-Financial Financial Education Summit also provided a strong platform for MelJol to network with stakeholders & potential partners. The MelJol programme has been covered in detail in this chapter.

Citi has also partnered with Swadhaar FinAccess since 2009 for developing an 8-module bi-lingual financial education programme for 1,200 women in two slum communities in Mumbai covering management of cash flows, importance of budgeting, how and where to save and how to manage credit. This programme has been mainstreamed by SFA, and has also been covered separately in this chapter.

In 2011, Citi partnered with the American India Foundation to support a project that will enable AIF to add financial education to its successful Market Aligned Skills Training (MAST) programme and provide unemployed youth with the skills needed to secure service-sector jobs. This programme has also been covered separately in this chapter.

12 Debt Doctor

Model Support to other implementing institutions (ISMW, MelJol, AIF-MAST and Swadhaar FinAccess

Target clients All financially uninformed and financially excluded persons


Strengths Multiple initiatives in India through partner institutions, specially created entities

Limitations All efforts are grant funded – no emphasis on sustainability

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Background:Debt Doctor is a debt management and debt negotiation company which provides financial advice to people who are contemplating taking a loan as well as advice and corrective action to heavily indebted persons who are having difficulty repaying their existing debts. Programme:DebtDoctor liaises with CIBIL for availing the credit score of the client, and correction of wrong credit history in its records. It also takes clients through a step by step process of improving their credit score, in case they have had a problem with repayments in the past which has lowered their score. Debt Doctor also provides debt negotiation and settlement services, where its personnel intervene on behalf of the client with the credit card or other loan companies, for reducing the total amount of debt by cancelling fines and penalties on the promise of regular repayment. Material:The website offers several guidelines for better debt management, self-evaluation of levels of indebtedness, budgeting, etc. There is also an online chat facility where basic “financial counselling” is given to persons exploring the site for solutions. Sustainability:While the material on the website is free, all services which involve customized advice to the client, or liaison with the client’s bankers and other creditors are paid services.

13 Disha Financial Counselling Centre

Background:Managed by Disha Trust, set up under the aegis of ICICI Trusteeship Services Ltd., Disha Financial Counselling Centre provides financial education, credit counselling and debt management services to consumers free of cost, irrespective of the bank the consumer deals with. Programme:The centre endeavours to assist the vulnerable and disadvantaged consumer in financial crisis by analysing their situation, counselling them and providing professional advice on solutions. The website provides several tips and guidelines for responsible financial behaviour. However, the bulk of Disha’s services are provided directly by one of its counsellors through dialogue with the client rather than through modules on the web.

14 Doordarshan

Model Fee based advice on debt management; free material on web

Target clients General public

Outreach 500+ locations across India, no data on number of customers reached

Strengths Effective as it not only educates customers but helps them implement remedial measures

Limitations Only restricted to debt management rather than holistic financial literacy

Model Free financial education, credit counselling and debt management services


Outreach No data was made available

Strengths Focussed inputs customized for each individual

Limitations Not scalable

Model Through TV programmes



Strengths Highly scalable

Limitations Retention levels may be very low

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Programme:Doordarshan has been commissioned to produce and direct a half-hour financial literacy programme series (of 24 episodes) in Hindi, under a project sanctioned by NABARD with grant assistance of Rs. 3.28 crore,to be telecasted by six centres (DD Kendras of Lucknow, Bhopal, Patna, Jaipur, Raipur and Ranchi). Doordarshan has also telecast a series of 52 episodes called Money Plant, which caters to all sections of society and discusses importance of savings, basics of investment, how to borrow responsibly and within one’s means, do’s and don’ts and pros/ cons of various investment schemes. The programme has been very popular with persons from varied backgrounds and income levels, as it offers practical advice to the common man on how best to optimize savings and investments. The episodes have featured financial advisors of national and international repute.

15 Dynamic Tarang

Background: Dynamic Tarang is a private limited company registered under Company’s Act 1956 and started its operation in 2005. The company has an experienced team with expertise in varied fields in the area of Social Development, Health, Education, Livelihood, Women & Child Development, Governance, Water & Sanitation, Tourism, Technology and Mass Communication including Radio. Programme: Radio Sheetal is a professional platform, which caters to all aspects of Radio projects from concept to completion. NABARD has launched its maiden pilot project in Khunti in Jharkhand to make villagers financially literate through community radio and is fielding local youths to send home the message. In a survey carried out by Dynamic Tarang, it was found that a large population in Khunti’s villages is not well acquainted with basic banking services, such as opening a savings account, and government schemes. Hence, the idea to involve local residents in radio programmes to impart lessons on financial literacy. Shortlisted village Radio Jockeys (RJs) are trained in radio programming, scripting, recording and studio discipline. At the audition, the team tests voice quality, modulation and expressions. Initially, a 15-minute slot was purchased to broadcast programmes weekly from AIR, Ranchi, for a year. Since radio production hasstarted on a pilot basis, it will be extended across the state only if found fruitful. The estimated project cost is Rs5.07 lakh. Though the RJs are not paid a regular salary, they receive an honorarium and travel allowance. The episodes are not just broadcast on AIR, but the RJs are provided with CD players so that they can tour villages to play the recorded programmes. This is to increase the reach of the programmes, which are in Hindi with a subtle blend of local dialects. The idea is to use local people as RJs rather than professionals, so that the target audience is more curious and inclined to listen. The episode content is decided after completion of the auditions and feedback is also collected from the participants for use in designing future programmes.

Model Messages through Radio Sheetal, a community radio channel

Target clients Pilot with villages in Khunti district, Jharkhand, programmes will be broadcast throughout Jharkhand if pilot is successful


Strengths Takes messages to the target community without any disruption of their regular routine; gains attention quickly

Limitations Unsuitable for delivering complex or comprehensive messages

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16 Eko India Financial Services Private Limited

Background: Eko is a Business Correspondent which has partnered with SBI, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank for increasing the volumes of their banking products among low income customers in both rural and urban areas. The Eko model works on the fundamental premise of giving everyone a bank account. Eko is in the process of building a low cost financial services infrastructure to increase the reach of financial institutions to the unbanked through innovative models and mobile technology.Eko is leveraging existing distribution networks, existing behaviour and interaction mechanisms to ensure barriers for adoption are lowered. Customer interactions are performed by designated “Customer Service Points” (CSPs) who are individuals like shop-owners and traders registered with Eko after a strict screening process. Programme: Eko has initiated a financial literacy drive to educate the customer on the benefits of savings and of holding a bank account. When a customer opens an account, s/he receives an Account Activation Kit containing an explanatory booklet. Post registration of the booklet s/he can deposit and withdraw cash from the nearest Eko CSP and conduct a host of other transactions. The programmeis based around distribution of comics and pamphlets to walk-ins at CSP outlets. Three versions of this series have been released since inception. The stories have been modified to keep the interest of readers intact, however the message delivered is the same. In Urban areas, Eko distributes material to the CSPs monthly, replenishing stocks when needed. The CSPs distribute the comics to walk-in customers and explain the process of opening SBI Mini savings account. They also distribute the comics to children who share the information with their families. Promoters - mostly agencies in partnership with Eko – are also involved in this drive. They interact with the communities and educate them. The main objective of the promotion is to spread awareness among the people. As the people in urban areas are migrants, the accounts are opened with minimum documentation and KYC. Benefits of remittances are also explained to migrants in detail. In the rural areas, the Eko representatives meet the village head/pradhan and the influential people of the village and explain them their objectives. They then announce for a meeting and conduct the same where they educate the villagers through comics, pamphlets and street plays. In Bihar, Eko has also conducted campaigns, road shows, meetings and distributed pamphlets. There is a dedicated call centre which explains product terms and conditions to callers. The Marketing department of Eko looks after the design of the communication material and their distribution. Outreach: Eko has its presence in Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh (Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi), Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The company is planning to expand to Kolkata and Bangalore. There are 350 Customer Service Points (CSPs, who are representatives of EKO, appointed to carry out field transactions) currently. Eko is also acting as a BC for several MFIs including CASHPOR for opening of savings accounts for their clients.

Model The Financial literacy module is developed to supplement the fundamental premise of creating a bank account for unbanked low-income individuals.

Target clients Unbanked individuals in rural & urban areas

Outreach 350+ Customer service points (CSPs) across Delhi NCR, U.P., Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Mumbai, Hyderabad. Exact number of recipients of financial literacy inputs is indeterminate.

Strengths Financial literacy driveby distribution of comics and pamphlets. A popular comic character is chosen which increases visibility and acceptance.

Limitations The awareness programme is limited to the operational network of Eko’s CSPs.

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Materials: Materials include comic books, pamphlets, banners and scripts for street plays. The comic character chosen for the stories is “ChachaChaudhary” who is a popular character and thus increases visibility and acceptance.

17 Financial Information Network & Operations

Background: Financial Information Network & Operations Ltd (FINO) was founded in 2006, as an innovator and integrated technology solutions provider. FINO was funded by a number of banks and financial institutions which sought common technology solutions such as electronic payment platforms, biometric smart cards, hand-held devices, etc. FINO has been an important player in developing branchless banking infrastructure in the country. FINO formed FINO Fintech Foundation to enable its solutions to reach micro customers through promotion of sustainable livelihoods, awareness training and technical assistance. Fino3 is a Section 25 company under the Indian Companies Act of 1956 and was established in 2007. Programme: Fino defines Financial Literacy as "Knowledge of basic financial concepts and the skills to translate this knowledge into improved financial behaviours". Currently Fino is running various financial literacy campaigns with World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Microfinance Opportunities, and UNDP-NABARD as partners. All these programmes are being run as formal research studies, piloting financial literacy initiatives with an experimental group of customers, in order to assess the differences between their levels of financial inclusion and formal financial sector involvement post training, as opposed to their control group peers. FINO had faced issues of clients opening accounts but not using them due to fear of high transaction costs, fear of interacting with branch officials and lack of awareness of what services were linked to their accounts. Its financial literacy programmes therefore focus on teaching the knowledge and skills required to adopt good money management practices for budgeting, spending, and saving. Participants in these programmes are intended to become equipped with the information to make better financial choices, work towards their financial goals, eventually enhancing their economic well-being.Fino’s initiatives aim at higher financial stability of the customers, reduced financial stress (vulnerability), better saving habits, and higher usage of formal savings accounts (provided by banks) through the FINO card. Fino has conducted 3 separate programmes in financial literacy. The first was undertaken with funding from IFC, Microfinance Opportunities and MasterCard Foundation. The second was funded by the World Bank. The third was under UNDP – NABARD.The programmes mainly focus on:

Financial Planning and Budgeting Savings Borrowings

3In the context of this document, Fino Fintech Foundation is referred to as “Fino”, while the parent company is referred to

as FINO.

Model Through existing network of Bandhus as well as trainers and service providers

Target clients All financially excluded persons in villages chosen for pilot programmes

Outreach ~54,000 across 7 states, under 3 different financial literacy programmes

Strengths Toolkits are comprehensive; linkages to relevant products are provided by Bandhus to those interested.

Limitations Financial viability, scalability yet to be demonstrated as all programmes are in pilot phase and are being run as research studies

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Insurance and remittance Financial Know-how

Fino’s interventions are closely linked with the FINO network of 27,000 Bandhus, who are banking correspondents, drawn from local areas, often from the same villages as the programme audience. Bandhus act as FINO’s network of agents for partner commercial banks, by opening accounts for interested persons, selling insurance products and providing information on financial products and services available. Bandhus have a rich knowledge of field level dynamics and are also invariably persons with good communication skills. FINO is accredited by NABARD as a certified trainer for capacity building of BCs across India, and has been able to capitalize on this expertise. For the IFC-MFO project, a customer survey was done in Saharanpur, following which Jaunpur and Mau districts of Uttar Pradesh were chosen as the programme districts. Content was developed on the basis of feedback from the initial survey. Modules were piloted and amended based on feedback from the pilot.

The target group consists of existing customers as well as non-customers (a potential group who can be enrolled after the trainings). Among existing customers, those who have not transacted for an entire month are chosen, as these would not have understood the benefits of their accounts or are reluctant to transact because of hidden fears. In some villages the trainers sense hesitance from female trainees when males are present, so a few workshops are done exclusively for women. During the workshops trainees are provided with refreshments as well as small gifts for correct answers, to keep them interested. Workshops were conducted in 2 hour sessions, for 3 days, each day covering a different module – on insurance & remittances, savings and credit respectively. However, since there were dropout issues, the modules have been adapted so that 3 hour sessions can be held for 2 days. Group size is maintained at around 30 so that debate and discussion can be encouraged. One of the major challenges is dropout, which is estimated at around 20-25%. Materials: Most of the materials were developed in-house by Fino’s team of content developers, who design their training modules for Bandhus. Illustrations and a small part of content were outsourced. Staff: The Project Head handles all 3 financial literacy programmes and has been placed under the Product Development team. There is one Master Trainer for each project. Master trainers in Fino do a TOT workshop for trainers as well as for Bandhus. The trainers are therefore a mix of Bandhus and non-Bandhus. A total of 70 such trainers are engaged full time engaged in the financial literacy projects. Every 3-4 months, refresher training is conducted. Trainers meet and share experiences on

IFC-MFO World Bank UNDP-NABARD

No. ofclients ~15,000 ~4000 ~35,000

States Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh 7 UN Focus States in India: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh

Districts 2 2 14


Materials used

Illustrative Training, using classroom models used for teaching FINO Bandhu /agents; Street plays; audio visual clips, flip charts, picture books, posters and cartoons

Movie screenings, street plays, financial diaries

Street plays, movie screenings

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a regular basis for skill up-gradation. Appraisal of the trainers depends on the change in transacting volume and frequency depicted by customers post-training, which would indicate behaviour change from the customers. However, there are no monetary incentives based on such parameters. Also, if there is a reduction in calls to the Helpdesk from a particular trainer’s area, it would be understood that s/he had conveyed the product and service features well to the clients. MIS: Data from all the financial diaries is captured and consolidated on a weekly basis. This is done by a separate team which carries survey forms to be filled on-site. This team helps ensure that the clients are also filling their diaries by constantly following up with them. Currently the surveyors are in the 9th week of data collection.

Impact: Baseline and evaluation survey both capture a lot of socio economic data in addition to data on financial product usage. Questionnaires cover savings behaviour, credit behaviour, expenses, etc. Scale-up & sustainability: Fino’s aim is to increase the activity in accounts opened for low-income customers, after they have availed of the trainings and been informed of the various features associated with financial products and services. This is yet to be estimated through the post-programme evaluations which will take place in the future. Once it is established that there are significant differences in account usage, frequency of transactions and quantum of money involved, Fino may consider scaling up the programme, and approaching partner banks and insurance providers to bear or share the costs for the same.

There is no plan to charge fees as the target audience would never agree to pay. Costs have been estimated in the table alongside. Talks for further funding are in process with DFID, USAID, IFC and SIDBI. However, Fino

feels that banks and other providers who use the BC/ agent model should also share the costs, if not bear them altogether, as client education will have a direct bearing on the extent of product uptake and usage.

18 GE Money

Background: GE Money is part of the GE Capital operating division of General Electric. The company offers a range of financial products, including credit cards, personal loans, bank cards, debt consolidation, home loans, and credit insurance. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts in India, it has undertaken the financial literacy initiatives mentioned below. Programme:GE Money India launched a financial literacy programme for women and youth of urban slums in Delhi, in March 2008. This is an initiative by the company in partnership with HOPE


Assessed by IMRB IFMR Not yet completed

Objective Are clients transacting more frequently post training? Are more people enrolling post-training?

Are clients transacting more frequently post training?

Is there a link between the financial literacy training and financial inclusion?


Costs Rs. 200 per individual

~ Rs. 150 per individual

~ Rs. 150 per individual

Model Financial literacy training in classroom scenario and through website

Target clients Women and youth from urban slums

Outreach Planned at ~ 10,000

Strengths Different programs for different target segments

Limitations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Capital

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_consolidation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_consolidation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_equity_loan

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Foundation, an NGO affiliate of HOPE Worldwide. The financial literacy programme aims to create awareness amongst the women and youth in urban slums about the need for proper financial planning to help empower about 10,000 women and youth in a 3 year timeframe. The programme is divided into three phases. In the first phase, it was rolled out in Delhi, training 740 people in the first year. In the second phase, the programmehas been launched across 5 more cities, followed by key regional cities in the third phase. GE Money India is also in the process of setting up a new website around financial literacy and education. This website will contain information about fundamentals of financial planning and guidelines for consumers.

19 Geojit

Background:Geojit BNP Paribas has 25 years of in-depth broking experience in the Indian capital market. It has over 600,000 clients in India and manages assets worth over Rs 12,000 crore. Among its investor education services, Geojit undertakes financial literacy programmes for youth. Programmes:In order to inculcate a savings habit and ability to make sensible investment decisions among students of professional colleges, Geojit Financial Services has launched a national financial literacy campaign across India. The strategy of the programme is to “catch them young” by approaching colleges for delivering the modules on financial literacy.Currently Geojit has 26 instructors who have conducted 4,400 seminars covering over 200,000 students across more than 800 educational institutions across South India. Geojit’s education among young professionals who are expected to earn substantial incomes, aims to foster a commitment to savings and investment among them so that responsible financial behaviour takes precedence over wasteful spending.

20 Government of Karnataka

Background:RBI, in collaboration with Government of Karnataka (GOK) launched a Pilot Programme for financial literacy in the State, as part of the former’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Karnataka has been chosen as a pilot state for launching various initiatives in financial literacy and is cooperative with RBI in making the programmes a success. Programme:In keeping with its objective to achieve financial literacy in the form of formal and non-formal education in schools and colleges, material on financial planning and products developed by

Model Deliver modules on financial literacy at professional colleges

Target clients Students of professional colleges

Outreach 4,400 seminars covering over 200,000 students across 800 educational institutions

Strengths Catch them young strategy suitable for students

Limitations May require follow-up to be effective in terms of behaviour change

Model Material on financial planning and products included in Karnataka State Syllabus text books.

Target clients Students in classes V, VII, VIII and IX


Strengths Use of engaging and entertaining materials, quiz shows and debates

Limitations May have limited effectiveness as school students have limited decision-making power over family finances and limited resources of their own.

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RBI has been included in Karnataka State Syllabus text books for classes V, VII, VIII and IX for the academic year 2010-11. Co-curricular activities like quiz and debate etc. have been included to achieve financial literacy through non-formal education. RBI was given the responsibility to conduct State-wide quiz competitions at the block level. To help the students in preparing for the quiz competition, around 8.80 lakh comic books were distributed to the schools and colleges throughout the State. The block level competitions culminated in a State level event in association with GoK and Lead Banks. The quiz competition questions and answers, based on comic books - Raju and Money Kumar series, (which had earlier been developed by RBI under Financial Literacy Series) have been published in both English and Kannada. Outreach: The lessons are part of curriculum for all schools affiliated to Karnataka State Board. The State Level Quiz competitions were conducted at RBI in March 2010 for different categories in both English and Kannada. The participants for written quiz competitions at both the taluk and district levels were selected from 6,089 schools and 1,872 colleges in 181 taluks in the 29 districts of Karnataka, thereby ensuring that the financial literacy messages received widespread publicity among the target audience.

21 Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd

Background: Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd (GFSPL, hereafter referred to as GFS) is a registered non-banking financial company engaged in the microfinance sector (NBFC-MFI). GFS provides poor borrowers in both rural and semi-urban areas with financial (credit and micro-insurance) services and non-financial services which include training and enterprise development, education and women’s empowerment through spreading awareness. As on 31st March 2012, GFS had 313,610 members and loans outstanding of Rs381.26 crores across 168 branches in 3 states. Programme: GFS has since inception undertaken basic finance training for its clients, focusing on its products and processes during the Compulsory Group Training (CGT) phase which precedes loan approvals in the Grameen methodology. However, with increased problems in the microfinance sector such as multiple borrowing and pipelining of loans to third parties, GFS included key risk factors and caveats to group members about over-indebtedness and consumptive borrowing in the script of the CGT. This was followed up with a movie, which was developed in 2010, using parts of SEWA Bank’s financial literacy module and showing the dangers of multiple borrowing using the example of a fictional microfinance client. However, GFS also wanted to stress on the importance of planning finances according to life cycle needs. This was done through a movie in Kannada, which was screened at its “Socio Economic Development (SED) workshops”, which comprised 2-3 representatives from each of GFS’s microfinance groups at the branch level. ~ 70,000 customers in Karnataka were covered through these screenings. On an average, 20-30% clients were covered per year through SED workshops. Messages on financial planning are conveyed as part of these discussions.

Model Through letters from a peer read at group meetings of microfinance borrowers (content developed by GFS and associates)

Target clients Borrowers of GFSPL

Outreach ~1,96,000

Strengths Very cost friendly; covers wide range of topics

Limitations Results and outcomes can only be qualitatively assessed

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GFS also conducted Financial Literacy workshops in partnership with other microfinance institutions in Karnataka, using the Sankalp film developed by Parinaam Foundation. Screenings were attended by various dignitaries such as the District Collectors and political leaders. Staff of various MFIs also performed skits indicating the hazards of multiple borrowing and wrong utilization of loans. Thereafter, GFS tried to implement some of the modules designed by ACCION, which involved training individual members in financial management and entrepreneurship. However this proved quite costly and could not be scaled up. SEWA Bank’s ToT manual which had been translated into Kannada for the state chapter of NABARD’s programme formed a useful basis for providing training to new borrowers in Karnataka. In GFS’s two new states of operation (Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh) the original Hindi movie which accompanies the manual is also screened for new clients. GFS’s latest intervention was started in 2012, through Phicus, a development consultancy firm promoted by GFS in partnership with Cocoon Consulting, a firm with extensive experience in providing consultancy support for HR and training to the microfinance sector. This intervention, called “Jagrithi” follows a unique and interesting format as it seeks to train GFS’s microfinance clients through the medium of weekly letters from a fictional client named Jagrithi. These letters are read out during the regular meetings of the microfinance borrowers. They cover a wide range of topics, from financial planning to health and hygiene, to legal rights, education, government programmes and how to access them, etc. The scripting is done by Cocoon and GFS together and standard operating manuals have been created for these. Phicus wants the materials to be open source so that the initiative can be taken on by other MFIs as well and eventually all rural women can be considerably empowered through information sharing. This initiative is low on technology and is also extremely cost friendly as it is a simple typed letter which is read out to the clients. Jagrithi talks to the clients through the letter and also answers their questions from previous sessions (these are relayed back by the field staff during their weekly reporting) Outreach: Jagrithi - 28 letters in 28 weeks, reaching 196,000 women across 17 districts. Materials: All specialized financial literacy materials and modules have been sourced from SEWA Bank/ ISMW, Parinaam Foundation, and ACCION. Jagrithi materials are developed by GFS and Cocoon Consulting through Phicus. The film can be viewed at the following web link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDswuWtuXjY&feature=youtu.be Staff: Field staff read out the letters to clients during the regular weekly group meetings. There are two full time staff coordinating the initiative – both were chosen for their ability to build rapport with the community. There is no training of trainers as staff simply need to read out the letters with a slight touch of dramatization. Most feel a strong sense of ownership with the programme, and some even translate the letter into the local dialect for a better impact. MIS: MIS captures when the letter was read, the reasons for not reading, level of engagement exhibited by the group (number of members showing high/ medium/ low interest) and any positive or negative feedback from the group. Also any questions asked by members are noted in this MIS format and these are consolidated, to be addressed in subsequent letters. Impact: GFS has not undertaken any assessment of the initiative yet, as it is too soon and also quantitative measurement would be quite difficult. Initial feedback shows that the clients appreciate the inputs from Jagrithi and have made some changes in their behaviour patterns based on her advice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDswuWtuXjY&feature=youtu.be

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Scale-up & sustainability: Jagrithi has been launched in 90 branches in Karnataka and there is now focus on scaling the initiative in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as well. Phicus also plans to pitch small films through MMS technology – but this may not be very scalable so a pilot will be done first. The cost has been Rs. 15,000 per branch for the screening of films, and entire budget on workshops has amounted to Rs. 2 lakhs hitherto. The costs of 2 full-time staff are Rs 30,000 per month. These efforts have been entirely funded by GFS from its own resources. No fees are charged, neither is there any plan to do so. Phicus estimates that the programme will need Rs25 lakhs to scale up. Phicus feels that the programme needs to extend to several MFIs to be beneficial for the entire community and the organization is making efforts to air the programme on radio as well. Conversations are underway with Akshara (www.aksharacentre.org) to implement this plan. Phicus has still not worked out the costs of radio airing, but if these programmes are successful, fund mobilization will be undertaken to scale them up.

22 HSBC

Background:HSBC in India partners with non–governmental organizations across country that works with underprivileged communities as part of its CSR activities. Among HSBC’s key areas of intervention is women’s empowerment. One way of resolving the problem of women’s lack of access to financial products and their constant dependence on men for financial needs, is through delivery of financial literacy programmes, which give them a step towards financial inclusion. Programmes:HSBC supports projects that provide entrepreneurial trainings and information access to make dignified economic opportunities and self-sufficiency a possibility. Among HSBC’s interventions in financial literacy are the following projects4: Mann Deshi Udyogini Business School for Rural Women: HSBC has collaborated with Mann Vikas SaajikSanstha in Satara to provide financial literacy and management skills to girls and women with no formal education (covered in detail earlier in this chapter). SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise):The HSBC Global Education Trust and HSBC launched a programme with Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) in 2005 to encourage financial literacy with an emphasis on young people aged 16-25 and financial success skills for female entrepreneurs. HSBC and the HSBC Global Education Trust provided an initial US$ 3 million to fund the initiative for 2 years in 29 countries. Through this relationship, the funders utilized SIFE's university network of students to develop community projects that provided financial education directly to more than 415,000 people in a wide range of audiences including children form 3-11 years, youths of 12-15 years, young adults

4http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/miscellaneous/about-hsbc/corporate-sustainability/projects

Model Funding of interventions by NGOs, funding to youth for designing and delivering financial literacy programmes across 40 countries

Target clients Financially unaware populations in all age groups

Outreach Over 425,000 persons

Strengths Different programmes in place for different target segments; SIFE involves students who deliver financial literacy as a community project

Limitations Large-size interventions are difficult to monitor

http://www.aksharacentre.org/

http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/miscellaneous/about-hsbc/corporate-sustainability/projects

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from 16-19 years, university students of 19-25, adults 26-59 years old and senior citizens of 60 years and above. Additional audiences given special inputs were school dropouts, physically and mentally challenged individuals and female entrepreneurs who lacked advanced financial skills. The project is now active in more than 40 countries and establishes student teams on university campuses. It works in partnership with corporate and higher education schools/ colleges. Several teams that participate in the SIFE competition from India apply for the HSBC Financial Literacy Grant, which gives them the opportunity to work with financial literacy projects in communities across the country. India employees of HSBC participate in mentoring college teams. Junior Achievement: A programme that aims at educating students about entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy through experiential, hands–on programmes. In partnership with businesses and educators, JA provides a bridge between education and industry by offering the students the chance to unlock their business and entrepreneurial potential through better awareness about financial concepts.

23 ICICI (Young star programme with IL&FS)

Background: ICICI Bank is India's second-largest bank in terms of total assets; it offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialized subsidiaries in investment banking, life and non-life insurance, venture capital and asset management. IL&FS Education and Technology Services (IL&FS ETS), also known as IETS, is the education infrastructure development initiative of IL&FS India. The objective of IETS is to make learning an experience-led, interactive, insight-based and stimulating journey. The ICICI Bank Young Stars programme is conducted in association with IL&FS Education and Technology Services (IETS). The programme is fully sponsored by ICICI Bank and is free for the schools as well as students. Programme:The programme is a once a week lecture on some simple aspects of finance, which include examples to be practiced on worksheets. The target group is students between the ages of 10-13.Over and above the theoretical classroom training, students also get a chance to get a first-hand experience of a bank's functioning at select ICICI Bank branches. Here they undergo practical training on the usage of an ATM, demonstration of a cash counting machine, identifying fake notes, Internet Banking and Phone Banking. ICICI Bank has trained local educated housewives to teach in the school and it pays them a stipend for this. The written material also includes a mention of the “Young Stars Account” that ICICI Bank has for young people.

Model Once a week lecture on some simple aspects of finance, exposure visits to ICICI bank, dedicated website with materials and games.

Target clients Children in the agegroup of 10-13


Strengths Classroom training followed up with hands-on demonstrations

Limitations Unless reinforced with constant use of a savings account, lessons learnt may be forgotten easily.

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Material: The young-stars.com website is a virtual world for children and their parents, aimed at providing certain educative financial information. Children can learn and understand the basics of money management and banking through simple tools, an online “Bank Account” and educational games. Most importantly, they will have an enjoyable experience while they learn, as key messages are conveyed through games on the website5.

24 ICICI Securities/ ICICI Direct

Background:ICICI Securities Ltd is an integrated securities firm offering a wide range of services including investment banking, institutional broking, retail broking, private wealth management, and financial product distribution. ICICI Direct is a share trading platform which links banking, trading and demat accounts. Programmes:ICICI Direct Centre for Financial Learning is an initiative of ICICI Securities Ltd set up with an objective of simplifying financial knowledge and increasing financial literacy amongst prospective or experienced investors & knowledge seekers. ICICI Direct has been conducting free Investor Knowledge Programmes on multiple financial topics for more than 5 years through a network of over 250 branches.ICICI Securities has launched Webetorial – a live online classroom through ICICI Direct Centre for Financial Learning that enables retail investors and knowledge seekers to participate in various financial programmes using internet as a medium. Webetorials are virtual classrooms where participants will be connected on a real-time basis to a financial expert on the internet from the convenience of their home or a cyber cafe. Various knowledge programmes such as stock investing, derivatives, mutual funds, insurance planning, retirement planning and tax planning are being offered by ICICI Direct Centre for Financial Learning through Webetorials. These investor education programmes are conducted by reputed financial experts, mostly free of cost. There are also several premium programmes which have been organized for advanced training. These include Webinars, or web seminars covering equity, mutual funds, insurance, investment advice, derivatives trading, financial planning and market strategies. Even persons who are not customers of ICICI Direct can participate in these programmes. The aim is to simplify the understanding of financial products for the investors in India and target outreach is over 22 lakh participants. In 2011, ICICI Direct Centre for Financial Learning launched knowledge programmes in stock investing, derivatives & personal financial planning and has trained over 50,000 retail investors.

25 IL&FS Skills Development Corporation

5http://www.theyoung-stars.com/index.php

http://www.nabard.org/fileupload/DataBank/Newsletters/April2005.pdf

Model Investor education programmes, including webetorials and webinars

Target clients Retail investors and knowledge seekers


Strengths Easy to access Webetorials

Limitations Learnings may be forgotten if not implemented immediately.

Model Entrepreneurship and financial literacy training

Target clients Currently limited to SHG members of State led programmes

Outreach 200 women

http://www.theyoung-stars.com/index.php

http://www.nabard.org/fileupload/DataBank/Newsletters/April2005.pdf

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Background: IL&FS Skills Development Corporation (ISDC) is a joint venture between IL&FS and the NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation), established with an objective to build and manage 100 multi skill schools across India. ISDC aims to train around 2 million people (over the next 10 years) across various skill sectors including textiles, engineering, construction, leather, auto and various service sectors. Programme: ISDC has joined hands with Government of Gujarat for ‘Mission Mangalam’, a programme initiated by the state government for the benefit of the women. The programme aims to organize the rural poor women into Self Help Groups / SakhiMandals, help them in providing linkages with banks, conduct capacity building programme and thus help them in getting livelihood opportunities.Under this initiative IL&FS Education is conducting entrepreneurship training for around 200 women of two Talukas (Dholka and Ranpur) of Ahmedabad during the pilot phase. The four-days training will include fund management (understanding basics of accounting, costing and banking procedure), along with topics like personal skills such as communication methods, motivation techniques, interpersonal skills), social entrepreneurship (relationship with social network and appreciation of social and economic capital), benchmarking/learning from others (awareness about the best practices/initiatives in India) and inter-personal relationships (understanding and utilizing networks resourcefully to provide timely and relevant services).

26 Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment (FLAME)

Background: FLAME is an India InfoLine (IIFL) initiative to promote financial literacy amongst the masses. The aim is to help low income groups avail of products which foster financial growth and security through better awareness and education on the variety of financial products while helping them avoid the lure of and losses from unrealistic claims made by unscrupulous agents.This is a CSR activity of IIFL, completely sponsored by it. A separate platform is used to conduct literacy drives across the country. The target audience for these programmes ranges from underprivileged and handicapped to school children. Programme: The model of delivery is limited to partnering with various institutions such as NGOs, schools and delivering the material to them for training. The material is developed in-house and is customized for various segments. Training covers rights of investors, mutual funds, insurance, loans, tax, equities, gold, investments, banking and personal finance. IIFL has set up a website which regularly posts articles on financial literacy. There are financial experts on line who answer the specific questions on financial issues. In addition there is a dedicated call-centre with a helpline number where FLAME addresses the queries of callers in Hindi and English.

Strengths Links financial literacy with entrepreneurship training

Limitations Financial literacy is just one of several topics covered

Model Financial Literacy Agenda for Mass Empowerment (FLAME) is an IIFL initiative to promote financial literacy amongst the masses.

Target clients The target clients are varied ranging from the underprivileged and handicapped to school children.

Outreach 500+ locations across India

Strengths The training material is developed in house and is customized for various segments. The delivery mechanisms are varied from website, helpline, books, mass media campaigns, workshops and school courses.

Limitations The trainings are not conducted by FLAME, so effectiveness is uncertain

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FLAME has published a book “108 mantras for Financial success” which is a compilation of basic tips regarding financial decisions with pictorial examples. The comic illustrations help readers to understand financial concepts easily so it has wide acceptability. Initially 30,000 copies were distributed free in seminars and workshops. The book is now available at a subsidized rate of Rs. 99 at bookstores, and has been published in various vernacular languages. ‘Train them Young’ programme: FLAME offers courses in schools to educate the youth on financial literacy. These tie ups are with 40+ schools pan India. These courses are focussed on money management. FLAME has tied up with KendriyaVidyalaya this year. The courses are delivered free, however some schools insist on a nominal fee so as to not dilute the seriousness of students. The courses are delivered by the existing faculty and the material is provided by FLAME. Doubt clearing sessions are organized to have an understanding of the impact of the courses. Mass media Campaign: There is a nationwide print campaign to demystify financial literacy concepts through simple illustrations. FLAME has tie-ups with Economic times, Business times and other Hindi and English newspapers. Volunteer work: FLAME had supported SomaiyaCollege, Mumbai to hold a volunteer programme where the students trained underprivileged and handicapped people in Mumbai over a period of 6 months. Future plans: FLAME plans to introduce some training modules for senior citizens and housewives.

27 Indian Institute of Banking and Finance

Background: Established in 1928 as a Company, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) is a professional body of banks, financial institutions and their employees in India. IIBF’s mission is ‘to develop professionally qualified and competent bankers and finance professionals primarily through a process of education, training, examination, consultancy/counselling and continuing professional development programmes. IIBF now has over 662 institutional members and 3.45 lakh individual members and till now has serviced over 8 lakh members and awarded over 5 lakh banking and finance qualifications (JAIIB, CAIIB, Diploma and certificates in specialized areas). Programmes: Financial literacy initiatives of IIBF emerged from the CEO’s belief that financial inclusion is not possible without financial literacy. Subsequent to RBI’s policy of permitting banks to use the services of BCs and BFs for boosting financial inclusion, banks felt the need to groom such BCs and BFs. Consequently, a training course for BCs and BFs was launched BY IIBF in April 2009 based on in-house developed training material. Considering the limitations of geographical reach, IIBF accredited 14 institutions including Genesis, Crux, ILFS and Sparta to conduct the ground level 5-day training for BCs with IIBF limiting its role to quality control by way of developing methodology and conducting tests on the last day of the training.

Model Training of BCs/BFs through partner organisations Certification of BCs/BFs

Target clients BC/BF clients

Outreach 20,000 individuals certified as BCs/BFs

Strengths Course material in ten languages, modules developed internally with significant input from sector experts, financially sustainable model

Limitations Mostly restricted to BC/ BF trainings. Effectiveness depends on how the BCs/ BFs implement and use these trainings in their dealings with end clients.

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Recently, the scheme has been redesigned in consultation with NABARD and Department of Financial Services, GoI. Under the new scheme, NABARD has taken over the role of identifying a pool of trainers at the State and District level. There are three layers of Trainers – IIBF, State Level Trainers (SLTs) and District Level Trainers (DLTs). IIBF is the national level trainer which imparts training to SLTs. The SLTs train the DLTs and the latter impart training to BCs/BFs/BCAs in their respective districts. While the initial training of 5 days continues, the new scheme also envisages a 1 day refresher course after one month and 3 days advanced course after 3 months. Course modules for refresher and advanced training will be developed by IIBF in local languages. Outreach: From inception of the programme till May 2012, IIBF has produced course material in ten languages and nearly 20,000 individuals have been certified as BCs/BFs across 400 centres in India.IIBF has started training SLTs under its Master Trainers Programme and covered 65 individuals. Materials: IIBF has financial literacy modules or “Learning Vault” on its website in both English and Hindi for general public. The module is primarily question/answer based and covers general banking aspects of deposits, loans, remittances, credit cards etc. in addition to separate module for school children. Each section has objective type questions on various themes with detailed explanation of the correct answer. The website also contains advanced content called “Finance Quotient” on 16 diverse topics (general banking, foreign exchange, macro-economics, anti-money laundering, mutual fund, home loans, SME, commodity derivatives, central bank etc.) for students, employees, executives, customers, policy makers and senior decision makers. Staff: IIBF has around 10 faculty members who conduct the trainings. The certification course module and other modules are developed in-house with significant input from the CEO himself. Scale-up & sustainability: IIBF plans to release a financial literacy video through DVDs in different languages, tweaked to incorporate local context for better understanding. It plans to make these DVDs available at Lead Bank offices, KrishiVigyanKendras (KVKs), Farmer Training Centres (FTCs) and also show at SHG meetings to improve the financial literacy of target clients. However this has not been undertaken due to fund constraints. . The certification of BCs/BFs is a low cost win-win model. Earlier, 75% of the participant’s cost was met by NABARD and 25% by banks to which the BCs were attached and on the provider side IIBF had 25% share while accredited institutions had 75% share with the overall cost per certification at Rs4,000. Under the new scheme, IIBF will receive Rs1,000 per BC/BF certification, while other costs will be met by NABARD. The overall cost per certification remains the same. The online resources are free and entail only initial development and hosting cost for IIBF.

28 Indian School of Microfinance for Women/Citi Centre for Financial Literacy& National

Financial Literacy Drive

Model Through partner organisations - Developed financial literacy materials and provides handholding to NGOs/MFIs. Earlier the materials were distributed for free, now working out a cost sharing basis with partners

Target clients Low income women, usually MFI clients

Outreach ~5,00,000 microfinance clients across the country

Strengths National Alliance on Financial Literacy (NAFiL) - a knowledge sharing network on

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Background: The Indian School of Microfinance for Women (ISMW) was established in June 2003, to address capacity building needs in the microfinance sector. ISMW is promoted by SEWA Bank, FWWB India, and Coady International Institute, Canada. The school gives special focus to women, as they are the primary participants in microfinance interventions. SEWA bank conducted a study, and realized that in spite of loans from MFIs, many people were still dependent on moneylenders on unfavourable terms. The study revealed that while their incomes increased, expenses were also increasing, suggesting that many poor people do not know how to manage money, and exhibit impulsive financial behaviour. The school was established to conduct research and build capacities of the different stakeholders in the microfinance sector. ISMW set up a separate wing called Citi-Centre for Financial Literacy (CCFL), in 2005 to focus on ‘disseminating financial literacy amongst poor, especially women, by building their knowledge and skill to enable them to avail financial services and manage their personal finance efficiently’. CCFL functions from the main office in Ahmedabad with the support of regional centres, having an estimated outreach of 500,000 stakeholders from 89 MFIs, out of which 400,000 are Self Help Group (SHG) members. Programmes: CCFL conducts 1) Concept sharing workshops with the key functionaries of MFIs. These are usually conducted for

two days and cover the major components of financial literacy. CCFL facilitates discussions on the subject and provides suggestions for effective training for field level officials.

2) Mass awareness campaigns - usually a one day programme aimed at introducing financial literacy to grassroots audience in a particular area. These campaigns are conducted in an audio visual mode and usually reach out to about 800 people.

3) ToTprogrammes for various stakeholders like NGOs, Banks, SHGs, individuals and MFIs. Innovative participatory training methodology is used to make the training effective for the participants.

National Alliance on Financial Literacy (NAFiL) was set up by CCFL with the objective to ‘serve as a knowledge sharing network on financial literacy at the national level’. The network initially had 10 members – NGOs and MFIs from different parts of the country. NAFiL has expanded since, and has reached ~4 million women though its 49 partner organisations in 24 states in India. ISMW’s approach:ISMW has been selected as a State level trainer by NABARD and is involved in imparting ToTs to Business Correspondent (BCs)/Business Facilitator (BFs) as part of the assignment.After an initial concept sharing workshop with NGOs and MFIs, a small mass awareness campaign is organized. Once they become the partners, 5-day ToTs are conducted.Modules are updated based on changing needs. Information about facility providers and the process of credit/savings/insurance, and how to choose a financial product have been included recently. UNDP- IKEA Project: The project is operational in 3 districts of Uttar Pradesh through linkages with other institutions. It involves development of customized financial literacy packages, conducting orientation programmes for Master Trainers, organizing finance camps for target women for banking services (saving, credit, and remittance) and insurance products. Programme outcomes include ensuring that at least 75% of the trainees should have access to formal financial institutions and out

financial literacy at national level. Modules are continuously revised and updated. Songs, stories, audio-visuals and games are designed to make messages relevant to the target audience

Limitations Weak monitoring of quality of implementation at grassroots level

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of them 50% are linked with financial instruments such as insurance, loan, pension, etc. The programme also includes organizing experience sharing / appreciation programmes for bank managers and representatives of financial service providers operating in project villages. Master Trainers conduct sessions for staff and agents of these bankson how to perform the functions of a Business Correspondent effectively; and proactively interact with local banks to adopt BC as an outreach strategy. Materials: ISMW provides materials and ToTs to the partner organisations. The modules cover Savings, Credit, Remittances, Insurance, Pension and Technology enabled services (SCRIPT). Songs, stories, audio-visuals and games are designed to make the messages relevant to the target audience. Staff and advisors: ISMW has a 24 member team, which is involved in designing the modules and conducting the ToT workshops. The staff receive internal trainings, and also from sector experts like NABARD, IIBF and CAB for different projects. Impact: ISMW is not directly involved in monitoring the implementation of the programme by the partner organisations. Their role is limited to providing them the material and know-how. Sustainability: ISMW is considering registering NAFiL as a Section 25 Company and thus exploring possibilities for generating revenue. The school has mobilized funds from different donors like Citi Foundation and UNDP. Citi Foundation funded the programmes of CCFL till recently. Earlier all costs were borne by CCFL, but now a cost-sharing model has been introduced with ISMW’s partners. Till it can break even, the school islooking for more grant funding.

29 Initiatives for Development Foundation

Background: Initiatives for Development Foundation (IDF) is a non -profit organization founded by former development bankers from Karnataka with expertise in micro-credit, social research, rural micro-enterprise development, sustainable agriculture, and transfer of technology. Initiatives for Development Foundation (IDF), was set up as a Registered Public Charitable Trust during November 2001. IDF Financial Services Private Limited (IDF FSPL) was carved out of IDF in April 2009, and operates as an NBFC, providing microfinance and allied financial services. Programme: Field studies of IDF indicated the need for providing a basket of services to the financially excluded for developing their capacities in sustainable livelihoods (farm and nonfarm based), financial literacy and prudent financial practices. IDF therefore embarked on an innovative project on financial inclusion for livelihood security of marginal farmers, landless labourers, tenants, lessees, artisans, etc. IDF partnered as a BC/BF of SBI, to support its “Financial Inclusion for Livelihood Security (Sujeevan)” programme, partly funded by Hivos and partly by commission income from SBI. Financial inclusion of excluded farm families through BC-BF model and promotion of sustainable livelihoods through participatory approaches are the twin features of the project.

Model Covers module on financial literacy through counselling provided to farmer groups

Target clients Groups of farmers, landless labourers, lessees, artisans, etc.

Outreach ~12,000 in Kunigal block, Karnataka

Strengths Forms part of comprehensive training provided to farmers on better farming practices, debt management, etc.

Limitations Weak monitoring of quality of implementation and no measurement of outcomes

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SHGs are formed between farmers and women and aggregate into village forums called KrushikaraKootas, or “learning groups”. This group is trained and then disseminates its learning in financial literacy and good farm practices to other interested persons in the village. The focus is on experiential learning and sharing – for instance, those who have availed financial products and services share their experiences with others to encourage them to avail of well designed, cheaper or more convenient products. This feeds into IDF’s role as a BC while overcoming financial exclusion. Often, members are invited from neighbouring villages so that inter-village exchange of information and best practices becomes possible. IDF has put in a trained project team from the rural community to work in the villages as Farmer Facilitators. This team has been organizing and managing Farm SHGs, motivating the farmers to learn and adopt sustainable practices, training on value addition, giving financial counselling, framing farm/business development plan of each member and linking to SBI for banking services (savings, credit) through suitable processes. IDF was also responsible for translating SEWA Bank’s modules on financial literacy into Kannada, with the funding support of NABARD. These modules are used by all the SHG federations in Karnataka and also several MFIs in the state, including GFS. Outreach: 'Sujeevan' is being implemented in Kunigal block of Tumkur district, considered the most backward block by the Government of Karnataka. Outreach has crossed 184 villages in 2011, reaching over 12,000 financially excluded farmer households.

30 Invest India Micro Pension Services

Background: Invest India Micro Pension Services (IIMPS) was established in October 2006 by experts in the sectors of development and pension with the objective ‘to enable low income informal sector workers to build up savings for retirement in a competitive and well regulated environment’. IIMPS offers pension and insurance products and services to low income workers in collaboration with micro-finance institutions, cooperatives, self-help groups, worker unions, multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, government departments and finance firms. The company has developed a proprietary 'Micro Pension' to deliver individual pension and insurance services to the poor and also link its pan-India partnership network. It is a model developed by IIMPS for the purposes of channelling retirement savings, short-term savings and insurance premiums of low income individuals to regulated asset management and insurance companies. IIMPS is also working with some government departments in design and turn-key implementation of co-contributory pension and insurance schemes targeting the poor. Programme: IIMPS reaches the target segment through 10-12 partner NGOs/MFIs, spread across 10 states of India. The institution undertakes a range of client education efforts to promote voluntary

Model Through 10-12 partner NGOs/MFIs. Creating demand in the partner institution’s clients for pension and insurance services through awareness trainings, and catering to that demand by offering these products

Target clients Working poor, especially women workers

Outreach 3.5 lakh customers

Strengths Sustainable model, as behavioural change in the target audience earns revenue for the company Good monitoring system for assessing the training quality

Limitations Limited to pension and insurance

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coverage of pension and insurance and then links these efforts to the products/service. The programmes are focused on working poor, especially for women workers. Using a grant by KfW (a German Government-owned development bank), and in partnership with a variety of institutions including SEWA Bank, FWWB and ISMW, IIMPS has produced a range of financial literacy tools targeting the customers of micro-finance institutions and members of cooperatives and worker unions. IIMPS reaches out to both rural and urban low income groups. Special efforts are taken to assure quality of trainings and the retention by target members. The messages are focused on reducing unnecessary expenses and investing money for calamities (insurance) or for help in old age (pension). Recipients of trainings are given time to discuss with their families and enrol for products later. IIMPS encourages people to take all the products they offer, as a basket: 1) Pension plan UTI: IIMPS has adapted UTI’s pension plan to suit requirements of their target

segment 2) New Pension Scheme (NPS), PFRDA: IIMPS has partnered with PFRDA to promote enrolment to

NPSLite, a pension offering for low-income groups. 3) Janashree Bima Yojana, LIC: It is a co-contributory scheme for rural and urban poor. 50% of

premium amount is borne by the social security fund. IIMPS has set up a ‘National Micro-pension Helpline’ for client enquiries and feedback. A 12-member strong team calls those persons who have completed trainings and checks their understanding of the schemes, and collects their feedback on the training session. If the client retention is not found adequate, the entire training is cancelled and re-trainings are conducted. Once the trainers are certified, 20% cases are checked through this system. NABARD project: IIMPS, along with NABARD and UTI AMC, has launched ‘a national-level project to design and develop a sustainable and scalable strategy to enable individual members of bank-linked SHGs and other economically vulnerable rural poor to save for their old age through a new, integrated SHG-Bank linked Micro-Pension® model’. The objective is to facilitate SHGs to be an effective channel for delivering regulated pension and mutual fund products to low income informal sector workers in rural areas. Financial education is also given thrust in this project, as in other programmes of IIMPS. This new model is currently being piloted in 8 districts – 2 each across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. The programme targets coverage of 40,000 rural poor over one year. Outreach: IIMPS currently has an outreach of 3.5 lakh customers across 10 states of India. Materials: IIMPS has a set of standardized tools, tested and developed over the last 3 years, which is used to create awareness among the target group. The tools include a short course on financial concepts (ABC of Money), films, street plays, simulation calculators (pension calculator based on age and pension required at old age, tells the client how much to invest now) and comics in multiple languages. Staff: IIMPS has a team of 120 field workers who are trained and certified in delivering the educational modules. ACCION has been conducting ToTs for IIMPS’ staff to ensure quality. The initial trainings are for 3 days, at the end of which they are tested and certified. Impact: No evaluation has been done of the post-programme effects yet. However, IIMPS maintains a record of the trainees who have signed up for various products, thereby indicating that they have understood the importance of pension and insurance from the training inputs.

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Scale-up &sustainability: IIMPS earns commission on all three schemes it promotes. It has mobilised grant funding from KfW. For the Rural SHG project, the Financial Inclusion Department (FID) has sanctioned a grant to fund studies, district-level capacity building and stakeholder training, field promotions, public education and retirement literacy interventions, mass-production of IEC material and the establishment of Micro-Pension® Help- Desks at the 8 pilot districts. Operating expenses and commercial incentives for SHGs, banks, PACs, NGOs and SHPIs for supporting retirement literacy efforts, enrolments, data entry, service delivery and operations are being met by IIMPS and UTI AMC. IIMPS is planning to raise funds to expand the NABARD initiative. IIMPS is also working with Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to design a social security product for migrant workers. The company also has plans to reach out to more occupational groups with innovative models.

31 Janalakshmi Financial Services

Background: Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS) was established in 2008 as an NBFC, to continue the work of Janalakshmi Social Services (JSS) which had been conducting microfinance operations since 2005. JFS is one of the earliest MFIs to concentrate purely on the urban sector. JFS has sought to design products to cater to specific needs of the urban market, and to offer its clients not only loans, but a suite of financial products and services. Financial literacy was envisaged in JFS as a necessity to create understanding about formal loans and other formal financial services, as urban unbanked were already taking loans and saving, but most of these routes were in the informal sector with chit funds and moneylenders, which offered expensive solutions. The Customer Insights Group within JFS (which also undertakes Product Design) constantly analyses socio-economic and financial data of JFS’s customers to gain insights into their financial management patterns. A Share-of-wallet survey6 conducted by this team revealed that customers still approached informal providers for a large proportion of their financial products and that micro-credit was just one of the many sources of credit they accessed. Programme: In order to provide financial literacy to its customers JFS conceptualized a process called ArthikaNakshe in 2008 revolving around three key messages/outcomes: a. financial literacy b. discipline in managing money through budgeting c. encourage savings experience

6Share of wallet survey was conducted with 100 customers –feedback indicated that they want home improvement

products, health products, education products and want an institution like JFS to cater to all these needs instead of having to approach several players for each need. Also, the outlook of a family with a male child of working age is different from one with female child of marriageable age, so family composition affects saving and borrowing patterns significantly.

Model Screening of film in “melas” and workshops; piloting a financial literacy training with financial diaries to be maintained over a year

Target clients Borrowers from JFS

Outreach ~ 10,000 for film; 204 in financial diaries programme

Strengths Financial diaries have monthly follow up from JSS team, constant interaction with customers ensures that theytake an interest and benefit from the programme

Limitations High cost of follow up, difficult to scale up quickly

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ArthikaNakshe aimed at educating clients on how they can identify unnecessary expenses and reduce these to save more. This was started with 100 customers, who were trained in how to maintain a daily financial record, using picture-based diaries for categorisation of expenses. However, many found it difficult to maintain the diaries on a daily basis and the pilot was not scaled up. The challenge for JFS was to design a programme which would bring about a behaviour change – i.e., to shift customers from informal and expensive providers to formal, regulated (as well as less risky) providers. Since JFS did not have the bandwidth to undertake non-financial services through its financial services team, it shifted these programmes to JSS in 2010. Sensing issues of multiple borrowing and third party interference in the microfinance industry especially in JFS’s first state of operations Karnataka, JSS decided in 2010 to introduce financial literacy and financial responsibility modules which would have a mass appeal across a wide range of its customers. JSS had raised funds from MSDF for various non-financial services including financial literacy campaigns. Part of this was used for developing 5 short films (scripted and conceptualized in-house), covering the following topics: i. How to avoid multiple borrowings or to manage them better ii. How to manage daily expenses and keep them in check iii. Importance of book keeping (keeping household and business spending separate) iv. How having a long term relationship with a financial organization is beneficial to customers v. How to make own financial decisions without outside influence. The films have a conversational appeal and have been made by a documentary film-maker from Delhi and a Kannada serial expert from Bangalore. The films have mass appeal because they are not didactic, but merely tell a story. JSS, using the branch infrastructure of JFS, subsequently began to offer Financial Advisory Services (hereafter referred to as FAS) at three levels (Mass level, Group level and Individual level). Mass level These are gatherings of 200-300 customers at branches, where the 5 short films were screened. “Special focus branches” or those having problems of overdues were prioritized. Older branches in Bangalore, Coimbatore and other vintage cities of operation were also chosen. The screenings were organized like a “mela” so that customers would be motivated to attend. In many branches which had experienced mass default due to misunderstanding about the micro-pensions product, the issues were cleared, trust was re-established during interactions with JSS/ JFS staff, and overdues were recovered. Group level a. Group Training takes places for all customers before they become eligible for JFS loans – this

includes responsible borrowing, not using loans for unproductive purposes, and resisting taking loans on behalf of third parties. However, much of this training pertains to specific product and process information and not to bigger-picture financial planning and management; hence benefits to customers are limited.

b. In addition to this, 204 “mature and loyal” customers (all in second cycle or higher vintage and all subscribers to pension products or having an existing savings bank account in their names), were chosen for piloting of an improved financial diary. The trainings to customers were delivered in modules which themselves evolved over time.

• Initially the trainings were organized at JFS’ branch premises, but these proved too small for

large meetings, and disturbed the operations of the branch. Besides, attendance dwindled

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for subsequent modules. JFS staff were not interested in facilitating any of the training as it interfered with their regular collection schedules.

• Efforts to hold trainings at the time of disbursements also failed. Customers were reluctant to undergo a long training at the disbursement time and this began to affect their willingness to take JFS loans. Besides, this also delayed the disbursements in the branch.

After completion of at least 1 module with 2500 clients, JSS sought feedback before finalizing the current formats which are being used for the selected 204 customers. These 204 customers are approached individually and participate in a series of exercises/ games which help them individually identify: (i) their savings goals, (ii) needs vs. wants within savings goals, (iii) changes in savings needs and goals with progress in life cycle, (iv) sources of income, (v) heads of expenditure and (vi) mapping existing loans from various sources. After these exercises (which take about 3 hours in all, spread over 2 sessions) the customers are taught how to maintain the financial diary, which has to be updated weekly. They are visited on a monthly basis for 12 subsequent follow ups. Currently the 6th monthly follow-up is being undertaken. Individual level a. JFS’s enterprise finance clients (who fall in the SME segment) were invited for a workshop with a

Chartered Accountant who advised them on better tax planning, working capital management, pros and cons of various investment routes, etc. However, this was done with very few clients and proves too costly to be extended at present.

b. A “Nano entrepreneurship” training module is being envisaged for this profile of customers at a later stage.

c. Eventually these individual advisory sessions will build into the Jana One strategy Outreach:

Indicator Number

Number of melas held 9 Number of customers reached through melas ~10,000 Number of customers with financial diaries 204 Number of months of follow up completed 6 Number of staff involved full time 3

Materials: Includes 5 short films, flip charts, trump cards (features of each savings provider, loan provider, etc.), diagrams and charts for identifying savings priorities and expense heads, financial diaries and FAS formats for copying the information form the diaries (Excel format maintained). All materials were designed in house or in association with an agency only for execution. All ideas have come from within JSS/ JFS. Staff & advisors: There are 4 staff involved in FAS • JFS’s Head of Customer Insights Group and Product Development group. • JSS’s Head-Financial Advisory Services, who does module design, organization of trainings and

liaisons with the 204 customers who comprise the financial diaries experimental group. • 2 field staff, both of whom are former operational staff of JFS, who were promoted to their

current role. Both are very motivated in the field and enjoy interacting with customers - this formed the basis for their selection. They are paid Rs12,000-15,000 and performance appraisal is on the basis of their efforts and the customer feedback, but not on outreach to large numbers, as a lot depends on quality rather than quantity in this initiative

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The staff are trained in house, done by Roxanne and another trainer. The training mostly constitutes the script which accompanies each game/ activity with the individual clients. Financial Literacy reports are overseen by JSS and JFS top management and Board members who include eminent persons such as founder Ramesh Ramanathan and Prof. M.S. Sriram. MIS: The data from the financial diaries is copied during monthly follow ups and entered into Excel sheets which constitute the MIS of the programme, where information is consolidated. Experimental group = 204 customers, Control group = 194 customers (follow ups are done monthly for the control group as well). Data of monthly follow-ups is analysed according to occupation profile, age profile, average income, average savings, purpose of JFS loan, loans other than JFS (number and value), changes in contribution to MPS with increase in number of follow-ups. Since each family has its own circumstances surrounding financial behaviour, there is not much that comes out of the aggregations. Rather, there are 204 different “stories” to be told. Impact: The programme has 2 deliverables: i) Behaviour change in terms of maintaining financial discipline (regularity of saving, no overdues

on loans from various providers) ii) Tangible Financial benefit – opening an account with a bank and benefiting by building savings

into a sizable chunk Qualitative feedback: Customers cite that their biggest learning has been how to cut back on expenses by maintaining the diary. Some of them now buy household groceries in bulk at cheaper rates, use electricity sparingly, etc. and can see the immediate benefits in their expense reduction. These may not show up in the diary as additional savings – as the money saved is often used for debt repayment or for expenditure on something else. Customers also cite that they never felt in control of their finances before this programme, but now feel that they can make a difference to the amount they spend. Scale-up & sustainability: The FAS team feels that in the interest of practicality, it makes sense to restrict such interventions to existing or vintage clients and not to deal with the new customers who are in any case getting used to the product and process rules of JFS. As the pilot is being conducted with just 204 customers and is still open to tweaking and improvements, there is no plan to scale this up until the impact in terms of the 2 deliverables mentioned above is assessed. JSS is deliberating on how long after the 12th follow-up these changes will be measured and what is the best way to measure them. The only cost-friendly scalable activity is the melas (film screenings) which JFS will continue to do. Customers see the benefits of the programme but would never agree to pay for it. However, JSS is planning to charge a nominal cost from customers during the scale-up, after completing the follow ups with current group of 204 customers. Already, it is very difficult to follow up with customers because most are working women. For this reason scalability in an urban context is very low. It is difficult to do costing at this stage because material for the programme was designed and printed earlier for a far higher number than 204 customers. This has to be amortized over a much larger number of customers eventually. The designing and printing cost was Rs12 lakhs. The making of 5 short films cost Rs15 lakhs. Incremental costs of follow-up are 12 months’ salary of 3 staff, approximately Rs9.6 lakhs per annum, of which 50% has already been incurred. Approximately Rs3 lakhs has been spent on installing large TV screens and DVD players in selected branches where melas have been held.

32 Kudumbashree Mission

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Background: Kudumbashree was launched by the Government of Kerala in 1998 ‘for wiping out absolute poverty from the State through concerted community action under the leadership of Local Self Governments’. The programme has 37 lakh women members and covers more than 50% of the households in Kerala. The programme is built around three critical components - micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment. The women form Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs), structure similar to Self Help Groups (SHGs) at the community level, which are federated at the village (ward) level as Area Development Societies (ADS). It is further federated at the district level to form Community Development Societies (CDS). Kudumbashree Mission now has more than 2.17 lakh NHGs. Programme: Kudumbashree introduced a financial literacy campaign to build knowledge about banking procedures, interest rates and awareness about various products and services through banks among the NHG members. The first phase of the campaign was launched in 2010-2011. It focused on Kudumbashree schemes related to microfinance, proper book keeping and banking procedures, services etc. As a part of this campaign, trainings were provided to Community Resource Persons (CRP) (active members identified from the NHGs), Bank Managers/officers, CDS Representatives by Kudumbashree directly, and Panchayat level training workshops with Office bearers of each NHG. All NHGs, CDSs were provided a Financial Literacy Handbook in the local language containing details regarding NHG-Bank account opening, NABARD-Bank linkage grading process, and Banking ombudsmen services. In addition to NHG level orientation and training, District level and Panchayat/Block level banking parliaments were organized.

Presently, Kudumbashree is in the process of developing the second phase of its Financial Literacy Campaign. In this phase, the emphasis is more on developing and fine tuning the savings habit of NHGs. The campaign will also consist of building awareness among NHG members about Govt. Schemes, State and Public facilities like PDS, NREGS, Schools, Hospitals, Civil Supplies Corporation, RSBY and also innovative cost reduction and environmentally sustainable practices of energy auditing and saving electricity and use of bio-waste. The campaign will also include user-friendly books with chapters in the form of stories and cartoons highlighting the messages. The distribution of books to the NHGs will be preceded by workshops at each Panchayat. The workshop will also bring in the NHG representatives and local bank managers on a common platform where discussions on credit-savings will be organized as part of Financial Literacy Campaign. Kudumbashree is not involved in monitoring the quality/ effectiveness of the campaign.

Materials: The booklets and other materials are developed internally – one senior staff, a consultant and 4-5 community representatives are involved in this exercise. The booklets are in cartoon format, making the messages interesting and reader friendly.

Staff: Kudumbashree has about 250 staff in total, of which about 30 are involved in the financial literacy campaign, along with the CRPs.

Model Once a year training to the NHG/SHG members through community volunteers, who are trained by Kudumbashree

Target clients Low income women (NHG/SHG members)

Outreach ~37 lakh women in Kerala

Strengths Booklets designed internally,involving community representatives so as to ensure relevance of messages for the target group. Different focus each year, along with reinforcing basic messages

Limitations Weak monitoring of quality of implementation

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Scale-up & sustainability: Kudumbashree’s activities are funded by the state government, and through central government schemes for urban slum development. The programme reaches out to all the NHGs registered in Kudumbashree with state-wide coverage.

33 Madura Microfinance Limited

Background: Bank of Madura, pioneered the SHG movement in Tamil Nadu in 1995 as a sustainable form of rural banking. 95 rural branches of the bank were developed and equipped for SHG based lending, showcasing rural lending as an activity with profit potential. By the year 2000 Bank of Madura had developed 1,500 SHGs, the largest SHG project undertaken directly by a commercial bank. In 2000, the Bank of Madura was merged with ICICI Bank where the SHG lending operations were rapidly scaled over five fold. During this time Microcredit Foundation of India was founded and functioned as a not-for-profit section 25 company which was intended to pilot the development of sustainable models for delivery of banking to rural poor. Madura Micro Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) took over portfolio of MCFI in 2005. Programme: MMFL has focused on customer education as an important add-on to financial services. It offers all customers training through its “second meetings” which focus on a variety of topics including financial literacy. The “second meetings” are so named because they do not involve any financial transactions, but are held for the sole purpose of educating customers on health, sanitation, gender issues, financial planning, good farming practices and environment protection. MMFL publishes a monthly magazine which covers a particular sub-topic in any one of these areas in detail and this is read and discussed at the second meeting. MMFL has also designed a “microeducation” framework, which follows five principles: i. The programme must be completely contained within the video/audio framework with no

requirement for a trained teacher, internet access or literacy on the part of the student ii. It must set up a clear motivation and establish an emotional connect with the audience iii. It must successfully promote peer to peer classroom interaction iv. There must be an easy distributed mechanism for knowledge validation that does not require

literacy beyond basic number recognition v. It must be affordable to clients at Rs1,000 or less As part of this “micro-education initiative” MMFL is experimenting with different modules, delivered through video and mobile phone based media. Knowledge testing and certification is offeredthrough an oral test conducted through voice authenticated mobile phone basedmechanism.Examinees are identified through voice recognition based on a voice signature provided at the time of registration. Re-authentications placed randomly within the exam enable single person test taking. The voice signature on file can be used for future verification of the examineeorwritten exams can also be done in designated centres.The courses require only an administrator/equipmentoperator rather than a trained teacher, making them easily accessible and affordable.

Model Training provided directly to women entrepreneurs from amongst MMFL borrowers and other interested persons

Target clients MMFL borrowers and other interested persons

Outreach 120 clients

Strengths Designed to help women entrepreneurs with all the skills necessary for establishing, running and scaling up a business.

Limitations More in the nature of a business development training, rather than financial literacy. Results, usefulness and implementation of learning difficult to assess.

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The Micro Business Education (MBE) programme was created by MMFL in collaboration with the Marketplace Literacy Project, USA, founded by Prof MadhuViswanathan, Marketplace Literacy Communities, Chennai, and filmmaker UshaRajeswari of PrakritiJiva Media. This course is designed for both illiterate and semi-literate entrepreneurs in rural Tamil Nadu as well as graduates of rural schools and colleges seeking self-employment opportunities and is delivered in 14 modules of 2 hours each. The course begins with a full length feature film called Shakti Pirakkudhu (A New Strength is Born) to create an emotional connect for the programme in client’s minds. This is a key element to set up a personal motivation for the rest of the course. To prevent clients from merely staring at the screen without absorbing the messages, the MBE programmecontains several peer-to-peer in-class exercises where student present business ideas to one another.

Outreach: 120 clients have completed the course.

Materials: The Shakti Pirakkudhufilm: The protagonist of the film is a young village woman whose life reflects the common issues faced in the village and follows her struggle to start and succeed in a business. Key learning messages are embedded throughout the film. Trailers and further information about this film can be seen at www.shaktipirakkudhu.in or www.shaktirising.in. The course material supplements the film with cartoons and role plays to explain concepts. Successful completion of the course and examination engenders eligibility for a microenterprise loan from Madura Microfinance.

MMFL Curriculum

Session 1: Introduction Session 2: Film Shakti Pirakkudhu Session 3: Social & Business Problems Session 4: Expectations & Evolution of Exchange Session 5: Customer Need Session 6: Value Chain Session 7: Customer Literacy Session 8: Assessing Opportunity, Strengths & Weakness Session 9: Research & Consumer Behaviour Session 10: Product design Session 11: Pricing Session 12: Promotion Session 13: Distribution Session 14 Accounts and Ethics

Scale-up & sustainability: MMFL has been charging around Rs400 for the entire set of modules constituting the MBE certification. However this does not cover the costs entirely and MMFL is still trying to scale up the programme so that costs of developing the materials can be recovered in the long run.

34 Mann Deshi Foundation

Model Through a “Business School” for rural women, a mobile school and a radio channel

Target clients Rural women of Mann Deshi’s operational districts in Maharashtra

Outreach Over 71,000 women through various training modules, several thousand more through radio inputs.

Strengths Reaches the customers through a variety of programmesranging from radio to intensive classroom sessions in a rural business school

Limitations Would not be sustainable in the absence of grants

http://www.marketplaceliteracy.org/

http://www.shaktipirakkudhu.in/

http://www.shaktirising.in/

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Background: The Mann Deshi Foundation serves as the NGO arm of Mann Deshi Mahila Group. Established in 1994, the Foundation works with the Mann Deshi Bank by providing a variety of non-financial services to their clients aimed at improving the quality of life for rural women and their families in India. Programmes:Basic Financial Literacy programme: Mann Deshi Mahila Bank Ltd has made a special effort to bring illiterate women into the formal sector through bank linkage. Mann Deshi has developed a comprehensive programme tailored to the needs of the women in rural Maharashtra. The course has been prepared in Marathi and is translated and distributed within the all areas of the Business School's operation. Mann Deshi Business School for Rural Women (MDBS) is a new programme that provides training in technical, financial and marketing skills to women with no formal education and to girls who have dropped out of high school, allowing them to start and improve their own small enterprises. The Mann Deshi Business School for Rural Women helps to make microfinance available to all women by providing not just business capital but also skills, knowledge and motivation. With the support of Mann Deshi Mahila Ltd. Bank, the business school guarantees suitable loan options to its graduates for seed capital to start micro-enterprises. Most courses are offered in a classroom setting located in Vaduj, which opened in December 2006, although some classes are also offered in Mhaswad and in smaller villages through the Mobile Business School. A business school was set up in Satara in September 2010 and in Hubli in May 2010. The courses are designed to provide the skills needed to start and run a successful enterprise in the local market. The levels of the courses range from basic to advanced, to meet the varied needs and skill levels of women. Courses last between two and eight weeks, and are offered on at least a two-year rotation, ensuring that the market will be able to absorb new graduates. A bus has been designed and converted to operate as a mobile classroom which travels from village to village within Maharashtra and Karnataka. Mann Deshi Tarang, an FM Community Radio Station, has been set up with the objective to improve the wellbeing of the community in and around Mhaswadthrough useful and relevant programmes which will enrich the listeners’ civic responsibilities and cultural life. The station is operated under the guidance of the Mann Deshi Foundation, but is owned by the Mhaswad village community and surrounding coverage areas. The objectives of the station include promoting economic, social and cultural development through targeted programming in a wide range of relevant topics, including health, agriculture, financial literacy, education, rural livelihoods, capacity building, the environment, self-help group support, and other issues of local relevance to promote social development. The community radio’s programme is divided into 3 equal parts – education, information and entertainment. Some of the topics broadcasted are: Forming an effective farmer's cooperative, Microcredit Programmes, How to Prepare a Home First Aid Kit, food and nutrition, HIV/AIDS awareness, gender issues - Property and Inheritance, etc. Although the broadcasting content mostly is given by the Mhaswad community, it is structured by a programming team. Material: In the Basic Financial Literacy (BFL) programme conducted by the Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, more pictures are used so that semi-literate and non-literate women can understand it easily. The pedagogy followed by the MBDS is suitable to the target segment.

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Outreach: To date, more than 16,110 women have benefited from the basic financial literacy programme course.As on June, 2011, there are 39,970 Women's Business School graduates. Of these graduates, 60% have started their own businesses. Over 14,452 women have graduated from the Mobile Business School. Funding: The BFL project received funding from Association for India's Development (AID) Inc., Portland chapter. HSBC is the founding sponsor for the Business School for Rural Women. The British Asian Trust supports Mann Deshi business school for rural women.

35 Meljol

Background: MelJol started its activities in 1991 as a field action project of the Department of Family and Child Welfare at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. It focuses on ‘fostering healthy attitudes among children, creating awareness of the different needs of children from varied backgrounds, and building the spirit of confidence and entrepreneurship in order to create a civil society based on the spirit of coexistence and achievement’. MelJol seeks to develop children’s citizenship skills by focusing on their rights and responsibilities and by providing them with opportunities to contribute positively to the environment. All of MelJol activities are centred on “Aflatoun” (a traveller), who, on visiting various places on planet earth, attempts to learn more about its people and life. He does so by following the motto of “Separate Fiction from Fact, Explore, Think, Investigate and then Act”. The emphasis is that each and every child is an Aflatoun and consequently thinks, reasons, and only then acts. The programme’s objectives include making children keenly aware of their rights, inculcating the habit of saving among rural and tribal children, developing their sense of responsibility, their abilities to handle money, and a sense of pride at their ability to intervene and participate in their own world7. The Aflatoun Child Savings Programme was started in India in July 2001. Informal surveys in the various regions’ schools covered under the MelJol programme showed that approximately one-third of students come from homes where there is absolutely no habit of saving. It was also seen that children often have money, which they receive as gifts for festivals, or by working part-time, which can be channelized to savings and proper utilization of money. Programme: The programme is implemented by the teachers (trained by MelJol) with the help of the Aflatoun books series created by MelJol with financial support from SEBI (available for free download on SEBI investor education website). Aflatoun targets children in local government schools/tribal schools. Children are encouraged to form school level councils to bring about desired changes in their environment. Since children are traditionally left out from the formal banking system in India, Aflatoun bank (bank at school level) was introduced to encourage a savings habit in children and to give them an opportunity to manage money.

7MelJol Annual Report 2009

Model Programme directed at children to encourage them to save and understand financial issues from an early age. Direct coordination with schools and partnership with NGOs.

Target clients Children from underprivileged sections

Outreach Over 3 lakh children through partnerships with NGOs, over 50,000 directly

Strengths Arms children with financial literacy as well as a savings facility to safeguard their savings

Limitations Sustainability remains a challenge

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MelJol follows 2 major models for implementation of the programme. In the direct model, regions are identified and MelJol directly coordinates with the school for implementation. MelJol also implements the programme indirectly through partner NGOs. MelJol trains the NGO staff and is also involved in trainer reviews and partner meets. MelJol seeks permissions from Department of Education in every new area it identifies, and maintains close association with it. The programme outreach and progress are regularly reported to the Department. The Aflatoun programme includes classroom sessions on the various topics covered like savings, loans, banking, investment and budgeting, along with many child right and social awareness issues. Camps are conducted at school and zonal levels and exposure visits to banks are arranged. Many other events are also organized to keep the children interested. The banking system and transaction methods are explained to the children, along with the different financial structures/systems/services, types of Bank accounts and their use, understanding the difference between real and fake currency notes, etc. It also encourages children to open bank accounts and make savings a regular practice. MelJol recently organized an educational visit to RBI for 52 children from BMC schools in Mumbai. These children visited Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with the objective of getting an understanding of RBI's roles, responsibilities, functioning and its relations with other banks.Children were given information about currency notes. They also watched a film on issues related to finance and economics and played related games too. Material: Theprogramme uses child-friendly methods, and places children at the centre of the learning process. The techniques include songs, games, stories and activities. Aflatoun is a character to which children can emotionally relate. The materials are adapted to identify with the local names and language. Outreach: By 2011, MelJol had reached out to 51,777 children directly and 311,704 children indirectly through partner NGOs.

36 MicroInsurance Academy

Background: The Micro Insurance Academy (MIA) is a not-for-profit organization registered under Indian Trust Act 1882, at New Delhi providing technical assistance in microinsurance to organizations that work with low-income communities. It works in liaison with partners from civil society, academia, development agencies, insurance industry and national governments. MIA's approach to microinsurance combines research, structured technical assistance, capacity building, advocacy and advisory services and innovative training methods, and has won international recognition.

Model Through partner organisations, NGOs/MFIs – trains the community to create demand for insurance, and sets up community based organisations to design, deliver and manage microinsurance service to its members.

Target clients Local communities who do not have access to insurance

Outreach 17,000+ members across India and Nepal

Strengths The workshops, games and audio- visual channels encourage interactive sessions with the communities thereby increasing their understanding. The mass media campaigns raise the awareness level among a wide audience.

Limitations Only Insurance is covered in the financial literacy drives

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Programme: Micro Insurance Academy provides technical support to partner NGOs, in the form of capacity building exercises to help communities understand the essence of insurance. Due diligence is conducted online by MIA with the partner NGO, after which a field visit is done to assess the relation of the NGO with the community. A baseline study is conducted for 2 months with a suitable sample based on which a framework is prepared for programme design. An induction workshop is organised which is attended by the key NGO staff and motivated persons who can spread the message from the workshop to the community. The workshop is followed by day to day trainings of the NGO staff. A series of workshops are organised over a period of 4 – 5 months on the basis of baseline data which includes workshop for tool identification and for tool development.When the community members have understood the need of insurance and they have made a choice as a group of the product they need, they are registered as a Community Based Organization (CBO). In many cases, the CBOs are SHG Federations promoted by the partner organisations, and they are registered as MACS, Societies, etc. The community structures are managed by the community leaders under the support of the local NGO partner. In the next 3-4 months, the CBO is trained on administration of the scheme and the process of claim settlement. An Insurance Activist (cluster level) and an Insurance Coordinator (top level) are hired by the CBO whose salaries are drawn from the premium received. Some facilitators are hired who are incentive based employees. The CBOs are designed to be self-sustaining; the daily operations and staff salary are drawn from premiums paid by the community. The entire process takes 1-2 years. There are many challenges involved in this model, including the product design, capacity of the community and its long term sustainability. MIA feels that the data gathered is not sufficient to prove impact in the long run. Outreach: MIA has set up CBOs in 7 locations in India and Nepal, and has impacted over 17,000 members. Materials: Materials developed by MIA include visual and audio aids, interactive health games such as CHAT (Choosing Health Plans All together), street plays, songs and a ‘Bollywood-style’ film titled “Sab TujhseHai” (literally meaning “Everything is in your hands”). The fiction movie, shot in Hindi, aims at educating people on micro health insurance through entertainment. It has been dubbed in Oriya and Nepali. The workshops, games and audio- visual channels help MIA to have interactive sessions with communities and elicit more participation. This multiple channel approach helps to reinforce the messages with higher retention. Staff: MIA’s team comprises 71 members - researchers, training specialists, medical advisors and implementation experts. The ToTs are provided in house after induction of trainers. They are later involved in preparation of the material for subsequent trainings which helps them learn on the job. MIS: MIA supports the CBO with initial infrastructure and know-how, and specially designed MIS software to manage and report the operations of the CBO. Scale-up & sustainability: The initial costs of setting up the CBOs are born by MIA through development funding. In addition MIA also undertakes fee-based research and consulting work and part of revenues earned through such activities are also used in promoting CBOs. The CBOs are designed to be self-sustainable, once up and running. The annual growth in MIA revenue has been steady- Rs5.65 crores in FY 2011-12, up from Rs4.31 crores in FY 2010-11.

37 Moneylife Foundation

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Background:Moneylife Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to spread financial literacy and give a voice to Indian savers. The Foundation was launched in February 2010, and at the hub of its activities is its resource free online library, the Moneylife Knowledge Centre. Programmes:Moneylife Foundation spreads financial literacy through a free reading room of business books, workshops, counselling and lectures by experts, which provide inputs for effective decision making. Membership to the Foundation is completely free and gives access to a wide range of resources on the above topics. The foundation has held seminars on the Union Budget, investments, savings, mutual funds, financial scams, pensions, insurance, inheritance laws and procedures, m-commerce, real estate, credit cards, tax returns, how to deal with mis-selling by banks, credit bureaus & credit scores, etc. Moneylife Foundation has also tied up with DISHA Financial Counselling of ICICI Bank (covered separately in this chapter) to spread financial literacy through workshops, besides creating forums for debt counselling. The effort aims at enhancing the overall financial health of consumers, especially those who are suffering from debt-related issues. DISHA Financial Counselling endeavours to assist anyone in a financial crisis by analysing his/her situation and providing suggestions and alternatives on a best-effort basis. Under this arrangement, experienced bankers from DISHA conduct free one-to-one sessions with those facing difficulty managing credit at the Moneylife Foundation office on a confidential basis. With the support of DISHA, MoneyLife holds free weekly workshops on ‘How to be safe and smart with your money’ and other topical issues. DebashisBasu, the editor of Moneylife regularly conducts training sessions where he advises on planning ones finances, investing safely, the importance of early savings and how to avoid scams and fraudsters when evaluating investment options. These sessions also take participants through the risk involved in various asset classes and how much returns these assets are expected to generate. The sessions advise on avoiding speculative investments in gold, and how to choose cheaper and effective insurance products which do not combine insurance with investment. Participants are given facts about investing in stocks and many myths revolving around investing in stocks are debunked. These sessions are attended by many lay people who wish to better understand product details and investing principles. Participants of the financial literacy course receive certificates and free e-books on relevant issues. Moneylife Foundation also conducts an eight-part financial literacy programme spread over two days in various metro cities. The sessions cover the topics mentioned earlier in extensive detail. Of special importance in the two-day course is the focus on how to identify pyramid or chain-money schemes, various Internet-based scams and unregulated schemes, credit card related issues, and importance of maintaining a good credit score. The programme also takes participants through the various intricacies involved in buying insurance and the importance of reading the fine print.

38 National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development

Model Free online library, seminars and talks, training programmes



Strengths Completely free, online reading resources can be accessed any time

Limitations Effectiveness is difficult to measure and may be limited to those with existing levels of financial and mathematical ability

Model Multi-pronged approach involving monitoring of FLCCs and now FLCs through its

http://foundation.moneylife.in/promotion/foundation/index.html

http://foundation.moneylife.in/promotion/disha_moneylifefoundation_tie-up/index.html



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Background: NABARD’s financial literacy initiatives began due to a realization that demand for financial services had to grow in order to complement supply side interventions such as rural branches and RRBs. The philosophy behind NABARD’s financial literacy interventions was that vast unmet demand would not be filled by formal sector providers till there was enough awareness about the products and services being offered by banks, especially in rural areas. Uptake of loans and savings products had not been commensurate with expectations because a large section of the public was still afraid of transacting with the formal sector – this fear stemmed from ignorance about the transaction costs involved and documentation required. It was hoped that financial literacy would also increase the confidence of the target segment to approach banks for their financial requirements. The term “financial literacy” was formally used in the Dr.Rangarajan committee report on financial inclusion (2008), which advised that RBI and NABARD spearhead efforts in this direction. While RBI initiated the concept of FLCCs in selected districts, NABARD was appointed to monitor the activities of these institutions, and identify and financially support grassroots initiatives in financial literacy. Programmes: SHGs had been identified as an important means of financial inclusion since the mid-90s and financial literacy had been indirectly propagated through them. With the opening of the Financial Inclusion Department in 2007-08 in Mumbai, NABARD was able to streamline its support to SHGs and their federations. Regional Offices (ROs) were set up in all the state capitals, each looking after the funding and support requirements of SHG federations, Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centres (FLCCs) and other initiatives in their State. A Financial Inclusion Fund has been designated for promotion of development activities, including financial literacy and capacity building of SHGs, federations, NGOs and other institutions. This Fund also extends support to FLCCs for special outreach programmes, such as financial literacy camps in villages. Guidelines are given by NABARD for how the trainings should be organized and what topics should be covered. Methodology, training materials and scheduling of sessions is left to the Lead Bank or Sponsor Bank to decide. NABARD encourages these institutions to take help from local NGOs with expertise in training and content development to design and conduct the programmes. Most programmes hitherto have been 1 day workshops with low budgets ranging from Rs. 8,000-15,000, but NABARD is encouraging RRBs and rural branches of banks to devise more deeply engaging financial literacy programmes. Up to end of May 2012, Rs. 10.81 crores had been sanctioned to Lead Banks to set up FLCCs in 129 districts of 12 states. With the compulsory setting up of FLCCs in all districts, the usage of available funds is expected to increase substantially. As per the new guidelines (which have designated FLCCs as Financial Literacy Centres or FLCs) , banks have to submit an annual plan for financial education activities, targeting the most unbanked areas within their operational districts first. Costs for programmes have to be submitted in a proposal, which is sanctioned by the NABARD RO and accordingly monitored.

Regional Offices in each state. Financial support extended for financial literacy initiatives through ROs.

Target clients Country-wide unbanked and financially uninformed population


Strengths The institution has financial resources to undertake extensive interventions, action research. Technical cell called Financial Inclusion Department currently working on appropriate material and methodology in consultation with leading NGOs in financial literacy space

Limitations Performs the role of monitor more than implementer. Disparate programs are difficult to track in terms of outcomes and effectiveness.

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A NABARD-UNDP Collaboration has been undertaken in partnership with Fino Fintech Foundation –to address the challenge of financial inclusion in the UNDP focus States viz. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh through financial literacy as well as simultaneous financial inclusion efforts. The project aimed to provide customised financial literacy to poor women and men and attempt to link them to the formal financial sector and facilitate knowledge sharing between the financial services sector players related to design and delivery of pro-poor financial products. The project was also envisaged to build capacities of project staff in project implementation and management through a range of training inputs.NABARD had a plan for 90 camps in 6 districts per state, covering 54,000 individuals, but this was scaled down to 2 districts per state, due to discontinuation of funding by UNDP. This programme is significantly different from others in that the Fino’s agents (called “bandhus”) not only provide literacy inputs, but follow up with product linkage, so uptake is expected to be significantly better in the programme areas. (Details under FINO section, separately covered in this chapter) Under the collaboration, various initiatives have been undertaken for imparting financial literacy at the grass roots level. Some of these are listed as follows: • Block level meetings – Sensitizing the various stakeholders for designing village level

programmes. • Village Level Meetings - Villagers sensitized on available banking facilities. • Puppet Shows/Street Corner Plays - Scripts contained information on various financial products. • Quiz programmes conducted for students, thereby generating awareness among teachers and

students. • Wall Paintings - Paintings done on compound walls of Schools, public places, offices etc.

displaying features of Savings, Loan, KCC, SHG highlighting through slogans. Data is awaited from FINO to determine the outcomes of this intervention. ISMW’s Training of Trainer (TOT) programmes were supported through NABARD grants in several districts. Technical training of banking correspondents and their field staff is also sponsored by NABARD. Some challenges being encountered in the BC/ BF model are dormant accounts, community mobilisation, technology integration and training requirements. Keeping this in view the government requested NABARD to prepare a training module and impart training to the BC/BF/BCAs on various issues pertaining to general banking, business model and income generation potential for the BC, mobilization of business for bank, micro pension and micro insurance products, etc. The strategy planned by NABARD has three layers of trainers, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) at national level, state level trainers and district level trainers. In each state, unbanked villages with a population of minimum 2,000 persons are identified. With NABARD’s coordination these are systematically covered by various banks through ultra-small branches or BCs. Grant assistance of Rs3.28 crore was extended to Doordarshan in 2010, for producing and directing a half an hour financial literacy programme in Hindi to be telecast by six DD broadcasting stations across the country. The telecast of the proposed 24 episodes in all the centres has been completed. SHG Bank linkage programme:The SHG-Bank linkage programme, conceptualized and launched by NABARD in 1992, attempts to link the poor in large numbers to the formal banking sector in a sustainable and cost effective manner. By handling savings and internal lending, the groups mature and acquire credit worthiness for themselves and earn the confidence of banks for loans by providing enhanced trust as collateral. The SHG model promoted financial literacy and financial inclusion at the same time. Group members became aware of interest rates, savings balances,

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transaction charges, bank loan eligibility and several other terms and conditions pertaining to bank transactions. This has emerged as the predominant micro finance model in the country and is now a proven method for financial inclusion, providing the unbanked rural clientele access to formal financial services from the existing banking system. Till March 2011, the amount of outstanding institutional credit extended by banks to SHGs was Rs31,200 crores, an achievement unparalleled by any other country8. The model has provided Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion services to rural and financially deprived segments, particularly women. A drawback of the programme is that financial literacy benefits would have mainly accrued to the group leaders, transacting representatives and book-keepers rather than to all the group members uniformly. Village knowledge Centre under Farm Innovation and Promotion Fund: The project on Gram GyanVahini, a Bankable Model of Village Knowledge centre (VKC), has been completed by BAIF Institute for Rural Development- Karnataka (BIRDK) in Tumkur district of Karnataka. The brief highlights of the impact of the project are presented below:

The project was an experiment to establish self-sustaining viable and bankable VKCs. 19 VKCs were established under the project, each has about 180 paid members. These members avail information on agriculture, banking services, subsidy schemes, etc., free of cost from the VKCs. Interested SHGs are also given membership. VKCs indirectly promote financial literacy as their members are made aware of banking products, terms and conditions, how to carry out transactions, etcwhen they approach the VKC for related information. VHCs have also been successful in imparting book-keeping training to SHGs.

VKCs have been running profitably and customers have been servicing their loans regularly; many VKCs have supplemented their income with telephone, internet, fax and photocopying services. Most VKCs have made excellent progress in information dissemination on various financial products and services.

In addition to these interventions there are many effortssponsored or monitored by NABARD and implemented by NGOs, banks and SLBCs in the area of financial literacy and financial inclusion. Most of the scheduled banks in the country are undertaking financial literacy interventions in the form of camp and workshops, though these usually lack adequate documentation and publicity. Materials: NABARD’s support has been limited to financial inputs, but there is a need for technical inputs such as pre-designed modules and training support to assist banks in conducting programmes on their own. There has been some discussion on the utility of a nationwide standardized programme, but deliberation on how to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers is still underway. Challenges: 1) One of the main challenges is that rural branch employees do not feel motivated to make extra

efforts in financial literacy programmes as these do not yield immediate results and require high involvement. Employees see it as wasted effort, since they usually get transferred after 2-3 years.

2) There is complete lack of coordination by players in an area. Ideally, networks at block level between NGOs and RRBs or rural branches of commercial banks are needed – these networks can then pool their resources and outreach capabilities to run successful programmes.

39 National Stock Exchange

8www.nabard.org/departments/

http://www.nabard.org/departments/

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Background: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is one of India’s two leading stock exchanges. Programmes: The NSE has been carrying out financial literacy programmes in various forms. It offers courses for schools and colleges in financial literacy and conducts training programmes for investors, students and market participants. NSE has joined hands with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd. (MKCL) to educate learners on simple concepts of personal finance. The course covers topics such as income, taxation, expenditure, savings & investment avenues, borrowing, managing risk and budgeting, in simple language. Participants also learn about various financial institutions and in what ways they can benefit from them. The course helps participants to become aware of different financial products to suite their financial needs and learn about the benefits of prudent financial behaviour. The course is presently available at select MKCL’s Authorised Learning Centres across Maharashtra only. There are many such centres, thus giving greater access to participants who are interested in the course. The course comprises of 14 modules of 1 hour each. At the end of the course there is an online examination and successful candidates are given an NSE-MKCL certification in basic financial literacy.

40 Parinaam Foundation

Background: Parinaam Foundation (referred to as Parinaam) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2008. Its mandate is to provide social services to poor women and their family members in India. Parinaam provides services in the areas of healthcare, education, professional development and community development initiatives. Its financial literacy efforts complement the financial services provided by its sister concern, Ujjivan Financial Services, an MFI which has been in operations in 20 states across 299 branches, and has reached over 1 million customers since its inception in 2005. Parinaam had undertaken financial literacy programmes with its own customers from 2009 onwards, before the microfinance sector crisis in 2010. Parinaam and Ujjivan wanted to provide a holistic financial literacy programme to educate customers on financial management so as to deal with the problem from the demand side. Programmes: In order to estimate demand, Parinaam undertook FGDs with 25-30 customers each in 4 locations, collecting feedback on the nature of topics which customers would be interested in and what appealed to them most in terms of teaching methodologies. Customers said were doing a lot of

Model Online course and certification in basic financial literacy.

Target clients Investors, students and market participants.


Strengths Adopts a certification approach which ensures seriousness

Limitations Assumes an existing level of financial awareness and mathematical capability which may be prohibitive for a large segment of the population

Model Directly through Sankalp film screened at workshops and Diksha programme, covering 5 detailed modules

Target clients Microfinance clients of Ujjivan Financial Services

Outreach ~3.5 lakh customers over 95 branches

Strengths Both programmes are very cost effective. Clients are constantly engaged and kept interested through interaction, homework and innovative teaching methods.

Limitations Currently restricted only to Ujjivan clients

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short term adjustments to manage debt repayments, and that they required help in opening savings accounts, which they viewed as inaccessible. Parinaam experimented with ACCION’s manuals and toolkit, wanted to develop tools suitable to their customers. At this time, Unitus Labs made a grant to Ujjivan, which was used to commission Parinaam to develop materials for a scalable financial literacy initiative. Parinaam & Ujjivan’s two financial literacy programmes are aimed at training customers on how to manage debt prudently within their financial capacity and investment needs, and also emphasizing the importance of a clean credit history, given the advent of credit bureau(s). The aim of both programmes is to help customers resolve fundamental issues of over borrowing/lending while avoiding using loans for unproductive purposes. i) The first programme, Sankalp (meaning “resolution”), is a high impact film consisting of two 15

minute stories, which creates awareness on issues relating to over-borrowing and ghost lending. The storyline of Sankalp was created by an external consultant from real life Ujjivan case studies. The stories depict the experiences of a client who has taken a ghost loan on behalf of a person who eventually defaults and a client who takes several loans for unproductive purposes, thereby ending up in a debt trap. The stories also introduce the customer to the concept of credit bureaus and the impact on their financial lives.

ii) A structured training module was felt necessary to augment the learning of the documentary film, in order to drive home key topics of financial literacy training. Ujjivan & Parinaam Foundation analysed current financial literacy levels amongst their customers and Parinaam designed a programme that included pictorial stories, homework assignments, pictorial financial dairy and role play activities. Based on customer feedback and FGDs the training was fine tuned into the second programme- Diksha(which means “purpose”), a follow-up to Sankalp, comprising five modules.

The programme is an in-depth training that enables customers to sharpen their numerical skills through a calculator, provides an understanding of household cash flows using a financial dairy, and helps them gauge debt servicing capacity through realizing the pros & cons of different types of debt. In addition, Diksha also trains them on saving options and how to save. Training kits have been developed by Parinaam. Q & A Sessions covering topics like the credit bureau, multiple lending, ghost loans and issues surrounding savings accounts have provided a forum where customers and Ujjivan staff are able to understand each other better, and staff can advise customers on improving their credit worthiness. Modules are delivered to groups of 25 customers, which allow members to participate freely and clear doubts. Ujjivan has incorporated the Sankalp video in its compulsory new and repeat loan trainings. Delivery of the Sankalp screenings and the Diksha training was challenging, taking into account customer time commitments, perceived value, varying education levels and customer needs (savings, budgeting) rather than the MFI’s focus on debt management. To provide as wide an outreach as possible, all training and promotional materials have been translated into several languages. For the success of the programme, full-time Project managers and a well-trained team at regional level need to overcome logistical challenges such as scheduling of training sessions, effective quality control and impact evaluation. Outreach:

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Sankalp - For the pilot stage, Ujjivan aired the film, ‘Sankalp’ at Centre Leader functions, Centre meetings, by Cable TV, during CGT, and in Anganwadis.

Region Centre leader functions

Centremeetingshows Cable TVshows

North 14 functions 4,999 clients

3,588 shows; 57,853 clients 4 branches, 9,100 clients, 8 lakh population

South 26 functions 17,625 clients

5,176 shows; 74,956 clients 35 branches, 132,917 clients, 1.1 crore population

East 30 functions 16,960 clients

3,953 shows; 50,789 clients 43 branches, 1,49,416 clients, 8.1 lakh population

West 24 functions 7,948 clients

1,119 shows; 17,908 clients 13 branches, 6,000 clients, 8 lakh population

Total 94 functions 47,532 clients

13,806 functions; 2,01,506 clients

95 branches, 3,51,433 clients, ~2.1 cr. population

Diksha

Total branches covered 4

Total No. of customers who started 484

No. of customers who completed 5 modules and are certified 372

Dropout rate 23.1%

Total no. of savings accounts opened 232

Documents submitted pending bank process 65

Materials: The Sankalp film is available at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKflRIcSaY Materials for screening the film include a TV and DVD player which have been supplied to all branches in which the programmes are being conducted (about 200 branches hitherto). 5 modules for Diksha have also been developed, which include role playing activities, discussion points, stories, calculating exercises, homework sheets and financial diaries. Each Module has a built-in reward structure for customers to attend and continue their training over the 5 weeks. The rewards include a calculator, financial dairy, saving box and graduation certificate. At the end of the training those customers who have attended all 5 modules are awarded a certificate and are assisted by branch staff to open savings accounts at a nearby bank. Parinaam has also designed posters outlining the advantages and disadvantages of various financial service providers commonly accessed by low income segments – separately for loans and for savings. The content was sourced directly from the field, during FGDs conducted by the Parinaam team. The posters have a mix of pictures and writing and are attractively designed for maximum visual appeal. Staff: The staff involved in Sankalpincluded 4 regional representatives (1 from each region) of Ujjivan, who coordinated the areas under them, collaborating with various staff to ensure systematicimplementation of the project. The resources used for Diksha pilot were 2 trainers, one each from Ujjivan and Parinaam, a Programme coordinator from Parinaam and Ujjivan’s South Regional representative. There was also an FLP assistant reporting directly to Parinaam, who undertook field supervision and maintained the programme’s MIS. These staff were in addition to the entire top management team of Parinaam which did all the background work from demand estimation to content development to monitoring of the rollout. For the planned scale up, there will be a National Project Manager assigned from Ujjivan for the Financial Literacy Programme. As Ujjivan has 4 regions, there will be 4 Regional Managers who will

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKflRIcSaY

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also be the Regional Master Trainersfor the programme. Below them will be4 field coordinators who will train the branch trainers. Branch trainers will each be responsible for 5 branches. The programme will eventually have 62 branch trainers across the country. Ujjivan’s excess branch staff will be redeployed from merged branches as branch trainers. Customer “champions” from trainings already completed will also be invited to become trainers. Trainers would be given a designation slightly higher than the equivalent of an Ujjivan Branch Manager. Salaries would be fixed at ~ Rs10,000. No incentives are being planned based on outreach, as this would dilute the quality of trainings. MIS: MIS is maintained on the outreach levels at each screening of “Sankalp”, the responses from the post-module Q&A sessions and the level of involvement displayed by customers. An Evaluation Matrix for Diksha, starting with a baseline survey of pre-literacy levels is also maintained. To complete the evaluation, surveys are conducted at intervals of 1 (dipstick), 3 (midline) and 6 (end-line) months to analyse the impact of the project and the change in behaviour and knowledge of Ujjivan customers. However, due to irritation on the part of some customers, the number of follow ups may be reduced to 2. The surveys are supplemented by a final field staff report based on the use of the financial diaries. Diaries track whether customers are maintaining their cash-flows, are demanding more information on interest rates, EMIs, tenure on their loans prior to taking them and repayment frequencies, and also ensure that the savings accounts are being utilized to save regularly. Impact - Feedback from Customers (related by Parinaam): • Customers have received information imparted through the Sankalp videos and the interactive

Diksha modules well, as they could relate to these easily. They were keen to understand the financial options available to them and to implement better debt management practices as well as to open savings accounts.

• Customers particularly liked the homework component in the modules. • 80% of customers have opened savings accounts with local banks after completion of the pilot

trainings, with facilitation by Ujjivan staff. • The 23.1% dropout rate was mainly due to the inability of customers to manage the timings of

the training with their work as domestic maids, factory workers, etc. Impact evaluation: To understand how customers’ financial behaviour has changed, Parinaam has created “Success Parameters”, to be evaluated 6 months after programme completion (currently being undertaken with at least 240 of the customers who were certified in the Diksha programme). Success Parameters are as follows: • 50% customers will learn to plan their budget, expenditure and family income and use basic

numerical skills (Usage of Calculators) to manage their finances. • 50% will learn to track the money which comes in and goes out with the help of the Financial

Diary and a calculator • 60% customers will understand the need for financial planning & can differentiate between

wants and needs, • 60 % customers will have planned for their future needs • 60% customers will change their status of black marks or negative points with the Credit Bureau

due to their improved, positive borrowing habits • 50% customers will reduce dependence on informal borrowings such as money lenders, chit

funds and pawn brokers • 60% Increase in formal savings accounts with banks and post offices • 60% customers will reduce dependency to save with informal methods such as chit funds and

SHGs

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• 70% customer children are initiated into financial literacy by understanding savings and using a savings box to save for their future needs.

• 40% customers use their calculators to understand the components of their loans (Principal, interest & instalments)

One of the key problems for the poor is their inability to open bank accounts. Ujjivan staff are being trained to help certified customers to open accounts, which will be monitored on utilization (at least one transaction per month). Scale-up & sustainability: Parinaam has shared both Sankalp and Diksha materials with other MFIs, regulators, government officials and bankers in the hope that its initiatives will be scaled up by other sector participants as well. Recently, the RBI has shown an interest in using the materials developed as resources for its own financial literacy programmes which have a country-wide outreach. Hitherto the programme has been running on Ujjivan infrastructure, so there has been limited incremental cost. To make the scale-up of the programmes to all Ujjivan’s customers strategically manageable, it will be done in 3 phases. • Phase I will cover 33,000 customers in 110 branches with 22 trainers lasting for 8 months. Every

branch has 4,000-6,000 customers. Ujjivan has to take responsibility for the rest. • At the end, Ujjivan’s 302 branches will have 61 experienced trainers who will continue training

customers in their respective branches until the entire client base is covered in the remaining two Phases (to be outlined at a later stage).

• Trainers will be chosen from among Ujjivan field staff and selected customers as they have good rapport-building skills in the field

• Customers will be given 10 different session timings as choices, so that they can pick whatever is most convenient. Those who have missed any one module will be able to make it up at a special 6th session to be organized if needed.

• Parinaam plans to design an interactive DVD session to reduce the cost of trainers physically delivering trainings. This will reduce costs to just a TV + DVD player at each training location.

Costs: Total spent hitherto on the financial literacy programme has been ~23 lakhs. i) Sankalp - the cost for concept, development and promotion of the two 15 minute illustrative

stories on film was about Rs20 lakhs, a large proportion of which has been funded through Unitus Lab’s grant and one from Lok Capital. Ujjivan has already purchased a large number of DVD players to screen the Sankalp film on a regular basis.

ii) Diksha - the cost for concept, design, development and roll out of the financial literacy training modules was about Rs2.35 lakhs, including the cost of the kits distributed to customers. For Phase 1 of the Diksha roll-out to 33,000 customers from 110 Ujjivan branches across India (300 customers/ branch with 1 trainer/5 branches; 30 participants/ group) the following costs need to be considered:

Item Cost (Rs)

Total Programme cost broken down into a cost per branch (includes personnel costs; train the trainers; training material & translations into 8 languages; travel/accommodation for trainers & customer consumables)

66,572

Training Kit in different languages (including training manual; flip charts; 1 set of customer consumables; miscellaneous training materials)

3017

Consumables related to customers (financial dairy, calculator, savings box, graduation certificate & refreshments)

76/ customer

Total programme cost per customer 308

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Unitus Labs has supported Parinaam with funding hitherto. However, for the scale up of these programmes, Parinaam is approaching various funding agencies for support. In order for the financial literacy programme to be successfully carried out across Ujjivan’s 1million customers in India, Ujjivan or Parinaam will need a sponsor of grant funds to cover the costs of the basic infrastructure such as kits, trainers’ training and DVD sets to show the Sankalp films. Ujjivan will allocate funding from its own resources to rollout the programme to the rest of their customers. The consumables (calculator, financial diary, saving boxes) cost of the Diksha pilot for 484 customers was high at Rs221 each. With intended scale up, this will fall to Rs76 per customer, as indicated in the table above. Ujjivan will also test the possibility of charging customers a small fee of Rs50 each during the roll-out.

41 Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi

Background: Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN) was established in 1990 and since then it has been operating as a national level development organization in the eastern and north-eastern parts of India. Programme: With a financial support of Rs5 lakh from NABARD Assam, RGVN has implemented & conducted a series of One-Day “Awareness & Training Programmes on Financial Literacy” in 50 revenue villages under 17 development block covering 9 districts of Assam. Outreach: A varied cross-section of the population was covered under the campaign in respect of their ethnicity, economy and social status. The consolidated number of participants was 3,295 out of which 1,226 were members from SHGs, 69 were from Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and 69 were from Farmers Clubs. Villages from the districts were selected as per the sanction and men and women, village heads, local youth leaders, SHGs, local NGOs, teachers, etc. were targeted for the trainings. In some of the villages, staff from the local banks and DDM, NABARD also attended the training. Staff: RGVN has a team of resource persons for the Financial Literacy Programme trained by ISMW, Kolkata and has experience in conducting such programmes. Materials: RGVN used pamphlets on financial literacy and customized presentations on flex-slides for enhancing retention among target groups. All materials were prepared in Assamese. Related films were shown, and games organized around financial literacy topics.

42 Religare

Model 1 day training under NABARD-funded financial literacy project

Target clients Members from SHG, JLG, FC, village heads, local youth leaders, local NGOs, teachers, officials from local banks

Outreach 3,295 in 50 villages covering 9 districts in Assam

Strengths Customized toolkits for better understanding Wider coverage in terms of target group

Limitations One-time project, dependent on a single injection of external funds

Model Investor education programmes

Target clients Retails investors, market participants


Strengths Specializes in investor education and targets an appropriate market

Limitations Assumes a fair level of education and mathematical ability in its audience

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Background:As a leading securities firm in India, Religare Securities Limited (RSL) has over the years imparted financial education to investors to empower them to take informed decisions. Programmes:‘The Making of an Informed Investor’ is an initiative undertaken by RSL in association with BSE. This India-wide investor education programme is aimed at educating and inspiring investors to follow best practices leading to wealth creation in the long run. The aim of this programme is to create a market that is fair, free and better serves the interest of investors. The programme specifically aims to enlighten investors about do’s and don’ts to keep in mind while investing in stock markets, various investment instruments - their merits and risks, overall portfolio construction and diversification principles, trading, clearing and settlement, dematerialization of shares and investor grievance systems available with market regulators etc.9Objectives include: Educating investors about market operations and volatilities Empowering investors by informing them of their rights and responsibilities under various laws Broadening the investor's base by encouraging new investors to participate in securities market Promoting research and investor surveys to create a knowledge base that facilitates informed

policy decisions

43 Reserve Bank of India

Background: The Reserve Bank of India is the apex bank of India and is also the regulator for all public and private sector banks in the country. Programmes: The Reserve Bank of India has undertaken a project titled "Project Financial Literacy". The objective of the project is to disseminate information regarding the central bank and general banking concepts to various bankable groups irrespective of age, gender or income levels. A multi-pronged approach been designed to be implemented in two modules, one module focusing on the economy, Reserve Bank and its activities and the other module on general banking. In 2007, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to set up Financial Literacy and Counselling Centres (FLCCs). The project had two aspects; financial literacy and credit counselling. The convenor banks of the State/Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committees were advised to set up, on a pilot basis, an FLCC in the State/Union Territory, coming under their jurisdiction. Based on the experience gained, the concerned Lead Banks were also advised to set up such centres in other districts. The objectives of FLCCs were envisaged as follows:

9http://www.bseindia.com/downloads/invdesk/file/Guide-Inquisitive-E.pdf

Model Multiple interventions through formal banking sector – Financial Literacy Centres to be set up in all districts by Lead Banks, monitoring done through NABARD’S regional offices

Target clients All citizens of India who are financially excluded or avoid transactions in formal financial sector due to lack of information. These include segments which are not denied financial access per se, but may be less informed or financially capable than desirable. Programs are specifically directed at target segments such as low income groups, women, students and senior citizens. Broad-reaching efforts such as FLCCs aim to reach out to all unbanked citizens.


Strengths Broad based programs with extensive networks and wide outreach

Limitations Very difficult to monitor; disparate implementation leads to lack of ownership in programs, resulting in low effectiveness.

http://www.bseindia.com/downloads/invdesk/file/Guide-Inquisitive-E.pdf

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To provide financial counselling services as per convenience of the interested persons, including education on responsible borrowing, proactive and early savings, and offering debt counselling to individuals who are indebted to formal and/or informal financial sectors;

To educate the people with regard to various financial products and services available from the formal financial sector;

To make the people aware of the advantages of being connected with the formal financial sector;

To formulate debt restructuring plans for borrowers in distress and will advise the customer to submit the same to formal financial institutions, including co-operatives for consideration; and

To take up any such activity that promotes financial literacy, awareness of the banking services, financial planning and amelioration of debt-related distress of an individual.

‘ABHAY’ counselling centre (an initiative of Bank of India); Disha Trust (an initiative of ICICI Bank Ltd.) and GrameenParamarshKendras (an initiative of Bank of Baroda) are some of the examples of banks taking such initiatives. In May 2012, the RBI (after conducting a survey of 30 FLCCs in 16 states) has stipulated that FLCCs have not been particularly efficient in achieving either financial education or financial inclusion as they have been mostly located in urban areas and have not reached their target market. As a result awareness among general public about the existence of these institutions has been very low and they have served only a few walk-in clients instead of proactively reaching out to the masses. Also, the quality of financial literacy material was unsatisfactory and mostly pertained to product details of sponsor banks rather than holistic guidelines for financial education. Even though 53% of the FLCCs were being run by separate Trusts/Societies formed for the purpose, these were actually working as extensions of sponsor banks due to their dependence for funding and administrative support. The RBI has recommended that FLCCs be transformed into more efficient “Financial Literacy Centres” (FLCs), which will be set up by Lead Banks in each district, effectively resulting in 630 FLCs across the country. Banks are encouraged to set up FLCs at block and taluka levels as well, at their discretion. Further, financial literacy activities will now have to be undertaken by all the rural branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks including RRBs.

The FLCs and rural branches of the banks would also conduct outdoor Financial Literacy Camps with focus on severely financially excluded populations at least once a month. Taking the help of experienced NGOs is encouraged for outreach activities to involve the unbanked. As the focus of the FLCs is on simple messages of financial literacy, it will be the responsibility of the officer specifically identified for the purpose in Lead District Manager offices and rural branches of banks to ensure that mis-selling of financial products and services does not take place.

Guidelines have been given to the banks for framing the financial literacy modules – why save, why borrow, why repay in time, why take insurance, why plan for retirement – are a few of the topics suggested. In order to facilitate effective implementation of the above guidelines, RBI is already in the process of preparing Standard financial literacy material to be distributed to banks for providing awareness and knowledge of basic banking to the unbanked audience. Banks are required prepare material in the vernacular on the four basic banking products i.e. (i) savings cum overdraft account, (ii) pure savings product ideally a recurring deposit scheme, (iii) remittance product for electronic benefits transfer and other remittances, and (iv) entrepreneurial credit in the form of General-purpose Credit Card (GCC) or Kisan Credit Card (KCC).

FLCs and rural branches of banks have been instructed to maintain records of name, gender, age, profession, contact details, whether banked or unbanked, and details of services availed for all training participants and walk-ins. The Head/ Controlling Offices of the concerned banks would monitor the financial literacy efforts undertaken by their FLCs/Branches through periodic reporting

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and also by undertaking random on-site visits. They are instructed to periodically undertake impact evaluation of these efforts and suggest improvements. SLBCs are required to review the financial literacy efforts undertaken by banks under their jurisdiction during the SLBC meetings and would submit a Quarterly report on the functioning of FLCs to the respective Regional Offices of RBI on a quarterly basis. Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC): FSDC if the apex body for India’s Financial Inclusion/ Literacy programme, and it focuses on attaining financial inclusion/ literacy goals. It is headed by the Finance Minister of Government of India, and heads of all financial sector regulatory authorities (including RBI) are part of the FSDC, and thus ensures inter-regulatory co-operation for attaining the stated goals. FSDC has constituted a Sub-Committee to focus solely on Financial Inclusion and Literacy. The curriculum setting bodies like National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Education Boards like Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), Central and State Governments have representation in the FSDC sub-Committee. One of the important tasks that the FSDC Sub-committee has undertaken is the formulation of a National Financial Literacy Strategy document, which has been finalized with the following objectives: • Create awareness and educate consumers on access to financial services, availability of various

types of products and their features. • Change attitudes to translate knowledge into behaviour. • Make consumers understand their rights and responsibilities as clients of financial services. Outreach: The objective of the projects is to disseminate information regarding general banking concepts, financially responsible behaviour, and usefulness of various financial sector products to diverse target groups such as, school and college going children, women, rural and urban poor, defence personnel and senior citizens through banks, local government machinery, NGOs, schools, and colleges. Materials: Dissemination of information on financial services, banking terms and aspects of financial planning is done through presentations, pamphlets, brochures, films and RBI’s website. The material is created in English, Hindi, and regional languages. It is disseminated to the target audience with the help of banks, local government, schools and colleges through presentations, pamphlets, brochures, films, as also, through RBI’s website. The Bank has also created a link on its web site to give the common person the ease of access to information, in 13 regional languages. Staff: As counselling centres play a crucial and responsible role in assisting and guiding the distressed individual-borrowers, it is necessary that only well qualified / trained counsellors are selected to man the centre on a full time basis. Credit counsellors are required to have sound knowledge of banking, law, finance, excellent communication and team building skills, etc. At present, knowledge and skill up-gradation is mostly dependant on the initiative of the individual counsellors. Some training at the time of joining is being given by the banks, but this is focused mainly on the services provided by the bank rather than a full course on financial management.

44 Saija Microfinance

Model The customers of Saijaavail financial awareness through trainings and Eko Customer Service Points.

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Target clients Clients of Saija Finance Pvt. Ltd.

Outreach Northern India- Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, U.P. and M.P.

Strengths The delivery channel partnership with Eko has increased the outreach of the financial literacy programme.

Limitations The programme is limited to Saija clients

Background: Saija Finance Private Limited is a NBFC formed in April 2008 with a focus on providing microfinance services for the urban and rural poor, as well as micro and small businessmen in the underserved geographies of Northern India - Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.SFPL has partnered with Accion International, which has a global presence and partnerships with around 30 MFIs. Programme: The objective of the financial literacy programme is to explore the knowledge of financial planningamong the clients who have already taken loan from Saija. The training guides the clients to strategize, plan, prioritise their needs and start saving money to ensure financial stability and better lifestyle. Saija has a partnership with Eko which is an example of the types of collaborative models possible between mBanking-based Business Correspondents and MFIs. Through Eko’smBanking platform, Saija is offering its customers a savings account with SBI in addition to their core micro credit product. Saija also offers a mobile-based repayment option to their client that meanssubstantial reduction in operating cost for the MFI and hassle free transacting for the client. The customers of Saija also avail financial awareness inputs through Eko CSPs.

45 Samhita Community Development Services

Background:SAMHITA Community Development Services is an incubator for specialized development initiatives, exclusively targeting disadvantaged, dispersed sections of society. Established in Rewa district, Madhya Pradesh in 2008 and now working in 18 districts of the state, the network's mission is to deliver economic and primary health services on a fast-track basis and scale through appropriate technology and programme design. Programme:Samhita’s microfinance members are poor women, whose need for financial literacy is critical. Samhita has tried to design an effective, locally relevant financial literacy programme to pull populations into the financial mainstream, allowing them to utilize existing financial resources optimally. Samhita, together with its technology partner eCubeH Research Labslaunched a Financial Literacy training campaign in 2010. The programme focuses on providing training to the women in management of savings, expenditures, debt, investments, risk mitigation tools, and financial

Model Phased, comprehensive financial literacy training, now incorporated into regular enrolment training process

Target clients Members of Samhita Microfinance programme

Outreach 35,000 members of microfinance programmes, 10,000 members in research study

Strengths Financial literacy now an integral part of microfinance operations, at very low incremental cost

Limitations Programme limited to Samhita clients

http://www.sdevnet.org/content/welcome-ecubeh-research-labs

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planning for the present and the future. The programme was designed in 3 phases and was studied as an action research as well10. Phase I - Survey / Analysis: A detailed survey of 10,001 women members of Samhita Microfinance living in the slums of Bhopal began in May 2010. A control group of non-members was simultaneously surveyed. The survey focused on knowledge of essential financial concepts, along with access to essential financial services. On the completion of the survey, the data collected underwent a rigorous statistical analysis to confirm key observations. Phase II – Training: Based on the survey and its formal analysis, Samhita next developed a 4 module training programme to help the women develop the ability to make informed judgements and effective decisions regarding the use and management of money. The training resource material created made effective use of multimedia - a short movie in Hindi highlighting the value of financial knowledge, Hindi animation flip charts, budgeting work sheets and other tools. Each of the 4 modules was structured as a 2 hour session, once a week, so that the entire training can be completed in 4 weeks. All the trainings were conducted in the slums for the members' convenience. Towards the end of Phase I which completed in early 2011, the training was expanded to slums of Gwalior. The training was followed by an impact study on completion. Phase III - Scaling up: Post the training for 10,001 women in Bhopal slums, the training modules were restructured to fit into the Member Enrolment Training of Samhita's microfinance programme. The training now reaches all new and repeat members of Samhita Microfinance. IDBI Federal Life Insurance began partnering with Samhita for providing low cost group coverage to its female members under Group Micro insurance. IDBI Federal Life Insurance further partnered with Samhita to offer financial literacy programmes for the urban and rural poor in MP in 2010-11, in its aim towards increasing financial inclusion through boosting awareness levels. While 3,000 members successfully completed this programme, it has subsequently been scaled up to reach 35,000 members of SAMHITA's microfinance programme across 18 districts of MP. IDBI Federal Life has supported Samhita in creating some of the training modules. IDBI Federal Life Insurance has also structured a low-cost insurance cover called Grameen Suraksha for rural & urban poor families. So far it has covered over 86,721 lives for a sum insured of Rs. 66.7 crores.IDBI representatives feel that financial literacy among the under-banked population will help bring a holistic change in the way people understand financial products, thereby helping people to start planning for their future.

46 Sanchayan Society

10

The action research study has been documented in the paper “Furthering Financial Literacy: Experimental evidence from a financial literacy programme for microfinance clients in Bhopal, India” - Anna Custers, 2011, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Model Financial literacy camps, classroom sessions, creating awareness and facilitating PAN cards, in urban areas.

Target clients Youth and low-income group – Both urban and rural

Outreach ~3,500 young adults, NA for urban and rural poor

Strengths Focused work, attempts to facilitate behavioural change in target audience; methodology is participative, and includes practical guidelines to deal with formal financial institutions.

Limitations Scale, scope and sustainability of projects are highly fund dependent

http://www.sdevnet.org/content/microfinance-methodology

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/pdf/WP113.pdf

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/pdf/WP113.pdf

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Background: Sanchayan Society was established by a group of young professionals who have come together from diverse fields like banking, finance, arts and the civil services. Though initial programmes were focused on school children in NCR, the programmes were later scaled up to include urban and rural poor. Two of the founding members joined the society as full time staff in 2010. Sanchayan partners with LIC for microinsurance and with PFRDA for NPS. The Society also has a Banking Facilitator (BF) license with Indian Overseas Bank. OECD recognizes Sanchayan as an Affiliate Member of International Network on Financial Education (INFE). The society is also recognized by SEBI as an investors’ association. SEBI gives financial support to the NGO to conduct financial education workshops with the general public. The society recently conducted a study for GIZ on social security. Programmes: Youth: Sanchayan has a ‘Fun Financial Literacy’ approach to reach out to teenagers, youth and adults. Sanchayan conducts workshops for the youth on topics ranging from budgeting, savings, banking, credit, macro economy, markets and investing, and in careers in financial services. They work with the privileged segment comprising of school and college students in NCR, and underprivileged boys and girls residing in homes run by Smile Foundation of India, Salaam BalakTrust, Ability Unlimited and other NGOs. Methodology includes familiarizing children with model pay-in slips, demand drafts and cheques, and how to fill them. Urban Poor: Sanchayan initiated financial literacy and inclusion programme with urban poor in 2010. The society has opened centres at Trilokpuri and at Ashokpuri in Delhi, as the concentration of urban poor is high in these areas. Local educated women are identified to work at the centres. Initial focus was on educating the slum dwellers on use and need of PAN cards, and later included need for savings, insurance and pension. Risks associated with different financial schemes like informal remittance mechanisms, matkas, chit funds, loan sharks, etc. which lead to loss of savings are emphasised. The messages are communicated to the slum dwellers through posters, flyers, wall-paintings, public announcements using loudspeakers, and through door to door visits. In order to bring the marginalized and the excluded into the fold of the mainstream financial services and banking industry, the staff at the centres facilitate application for PAN cards, opening no-frills account in formal banks, getting insured and enrolling people to NPS. A nominal amount varying from Rs7 – Rs30 is charged for each service. It has facilitated opening of over 400 accounts, as BF and otherwise, since inception. A baseline survey was conducted in these areas before the intervention, and the phone numbers of participants are recorded in the NGO’s data base and financial education messages are sent to them as text messages every day. Rural Poor: Sanchayan has implemented financial inclusion & literacy programme for youth, women, farmers and SHGs which has the dual objectives of financial inclusion and financial literacy, leading to financial empowerment of individuals, called “FLIPTech”. Role plays, games and stories are used to communicate the messages to the semi-literate and literate population. Sanchayan has worked with 3 farmer groups in Mewar district of Haryana, covering over 60 farmers. This programme was supported by the World Bank as part of the National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP). Sanchayan conducted a 2-day programme called Youth Reach for ~1000 young adults in rural areas. Sanchayan’s telephone number was shared with the participants for post workshop support.

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Outreach: Sanchayan has engaged with over 3,500 young adults through its youth programmes. Urban programmes have covered several hundred individuals each, though exact figures were not made available. Materials: Sanchayan has designed scripted modules for its trainings, accompanied with posters, flyers and wall-paintings. Staff & advisors: Sanchayan society has a team of 8 salaried staff, and an active team of 3-4 volunteers/interns through whom the programmes are implemented. The founder, Mr AvikKedia, is a Charted Accountant with experience working with some of the leading international audit, tax and advisory firms, and Co-founder, Ms Chidambara Sagar, is an art consultant and a professional trainer for outreach programmes. Advisors: Prof Anand Sharma is a researcher and academician in the area of finance and public policy, and Mr SanjeevVasudev has extensive experience in the fields of finance, communications, and internet technologies and has been working in the development sector for over a decade. Impact: The society is yet to conduct a formal impact study of their programmes, though informal feedbacks are collected on a continuous basis. Scale-up & sustainability: RBI has approached Sanchayan to develop Financial Literacy materials, as part of its initiatives. The society is planning to expand its reach, and develop a corridor from Delhi to eastern part of the country till Bengal and Odisha, to implement its programmes. The core team of Sanchayan believes in the social enterprise model wherein Sanchayan charges nominal fees from the privileged segment for its programmes and uses the funds generated to create financial awareness among the disadvantaged section. Sanchayan follows a co-contributory model to ease scaling up and improve involvement of the trainees. The NGO tried a paid model for Financial Education workshops at schools and colleges, but the model has not been successful so far. The NGO is looking out for funders to scale-up their projects to newer areas.

47 Sanghamithra

Background: Sanghamithra is one of the oldest MFIs in India, having started its interventions in SHG formation and bank linkage in 1984-85. It has been a front-runner in the SHG movement and has always placed importance on the capacity building and economic mainstreaming of its women members. Programme: Financial Literacy workshops are conducted at Sanghamithra by trained loan officers who, in turn, train women entrepreneurs in development of strategies to help mitigate lifecycle risks, smooth household income and consumption levels and ultimately improve their household finances. These entrepreneurs are encouraged to increase their savings and optimise their assets to prevent over-indebtedness. Through this training the MFI is able to strengthen the relationship with

Model Financial Literacy workshops are conducted at Sanghamithra where the loan officers receive training who in turn train female entrepreneurs

Target clients Clients of Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services

Outreach Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

Strengths The trainings are interactive and local examples are used

Limitations Programme is limited to its own clients

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its clients and the client is able to have a greater understanding of financial and management practices and thus make more informed decisions. The trainings are interactive and local examples are used such as how to save for a daughter’s wedding or a health contingency. Sanghamithra has accessed government subsidies for providing such training to its members.

48 Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

Background: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), is a statutory regulatory body established by an Act of Parliament, to protect the interests of investors in securities, to promote the development of and to regulate the securities market. NISM, established by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, is an independent public trust with a mandate to contribute to the development of securities markets. NISM has taken up several initiatives in financial literacy, certification of market intermediaries, corporate governance, securities markets data, research and securities markets education. NISM has set up School for Investor Education and Financial Literacy (SIEFL)to enhance the levels of financial literacy in India. It currently conducts programmes that address financial education. Programmes: (by SEBI directly): SEBI has associated with MelJol, an NGO working in interventions for children (extensively covered separately in this chapter), for its interventions in rural areas. This programme covers schools in rural and tribal areas of Maharashtra, having high concentration of children from underprivileged communities. Taking financial education a step further, SEBI is in discussion with the finance ministry and the administrators of the CBSE to include financial education in the school curriculum. While a committee has been formed for the same, SEBI has proposed topics to be included in the curriculum. It has been suggested that relevant topics are clubbed with subjects like accounting or economics. SEBI has also launched its financial education drive through Resource Persons (RPs) who target school and college going students, middle income group, executives, housewives/housing societies, older people and SHGs. RPs are SEBI-trained teachers, having post-graduate qualifications in finance, commerce, or economics and good communication skills. A target of one RP per district in India has been set by SEBI. Empanelled RPs would also supplement the investor education programmes that are conducted through investor associations, stock exchanges and trading bodies. Programmes have been conducted at various places. While SEBI randomly sends its officials for field checks, it has mandated RPs to take attendance and maintain contact details of participants. SEBI has hosted students from schools, colleges and professional institutes who are interested to learn about SEBI and its role as a regulator of securities markets. SEBI has hitherto hosted 10 visits covering 287 students. Material for the aforesaid target groups has been made available on SEBI investor website, http://investor.sebi.gov.in. SEBI distributes free study materials in over six

Model Materials developed for different target groups and made available for free. School programmes are conducted; financial education drive is undertaken through Resource Persons (RPs) ;dedicated website for investor education.

Target clients Students, investors, general public

Outreach 4,300 school children, 1,081 college students, 297 RPs across India

Strengths Broad-based efforts to reach out to varied target segments

Limitations Difficult to monitor and judge outcomes due to disparate nature of programs

http://investor.sebi.gov.in/

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languages aimed at various target groups such as young investors, home-makers, retired persons, executives and middle-income groups. Programmes: (through NISM) School Programmes: SEBI initiated financial literacy programme for school students jointly with National Institute of Securities Market (NISM) in 2008-09. NISM revised and redesigned its financial literacy material for school children, renaming it “Pocket Money” (covered in detail in section 3.2.2 below). This programme has been developed as an eight (90 minute) session course. NISM piloted the programme in 30 schools with 4,000 students and has launched the programme in various parts of the country. The programme aims to make school students understand the value of money and the importance of saving, investing and financial planning, in order to aid their holistic development and financial responsibility at an early age. Teacher training programmes are also conducted so that the schools can continue the programmes within their campuses and involve younger students as well at their discretion. NISM conducted “Train the Trainer” workshops for school teachers at Kolkata and Nagpur. 50 teachers participated in the workshop at Kolkata in September 2010 and more than 60 teachers participated in the workshop held at Nagpur later that year. Investor First is an initiative by NISM-SIEFL. The website provides unbiased information on investing and financial planning.Investorfirst.in aims to empower individuals with right knowledge and tools to help them make wise investment decisions and long term wealth. The content is organized in the form of investment guides, step by step demos to start investing, investor protection material and how to protect oneself from mis-selling and finally various financial tools and calculators to compare products and returns. Useful and topical articles appear on the blog linked to this site. It has over 200 pages of content which is continually being reviewed. Outreach: As of June 2011, SEBI’s programmes have covered more than 4,300 children (8th& 9th standards) from 32 schools across India. More schools are expected to implement it in the coming years. In addition to schools above, 1,081 students from colleges have also been covered. A pilot programme to cover 14,550 students in 281 schools through 196 trained teachers in Akola and Thane districts of Maharashtra has commenced. In rural areas, SEBI has trained 238 teachers across 197 schools in association with MelJol. As per SEBI’s website, there are 297 RPs across India. 171 programmes have been conducted across the country since July 2010. NISM has conducted classes in 256 schools with a total participation of 5,783 students. Funding: SEBI has set up an Investor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF) to aid recognized investor associations, and undertake legal proceedings in the interest of investors. It is also being used for awareness programmes and educational activities. SEBI pays Rs 2,000 along with conveyance expenses to RPs for each workshop they conduct. The regulator also arranges for a venue if needed. SEBI utilizes funds from IPEF for this purpose.

49 Sewa Bank

Model Financial literacy trainings and counselling provided by SEWA through workshops and lectures using posters, illustration cards and other interactive material.

Target clients Low income groups, especially women

Outreach All members of SEWA

Strengths The trainings cover most of the financial products, the sessions are participatory and bank brochures/dummy credit cards are used for demonstration to enhance retention

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Background: SEWA Co-operative Bank provides an integrated set of banking services to poor, self-employed women. The bank believes that information is crucial to the empowerment process and that financial counselling is a necessity for wiser and sustainable decision making by their clients. Programme: SEWA Bank was the pioneer of financial literacy training to clients and was instrumental in establishing ISMW and setting up NAFIL to continue this work. SEWA had already designed modules on financial literacy and passed on this expertise and materials to ISMW. Details of the materials and programme design have been covered under a section on ISMW earlier. Sewa Bank trains financial counsellors and financial literacy specialists at the grassroots level in different aspects of financial planning so that they can pass on the training to members of Sewa and other women workers, thereby helping them to maintain sound financial discipline. The objectives of the Financial Literacy programme are to make poor women understand the concept and importance of financial planning and inculcate sound financial planning in their normal decision making process. This programme also aims at motivating the women to plan for their future, change their mind set by encouraging them to plan and eventually lead them towards a feeling of security and economic well-being. The modules covered in trainings are Evolution of Money, Money Management, Importance of Financial Planning, Savings, Consumption, Borrowings, Investments, Insurance and Making a Financial Plan. The training is delivered through lectures with examples, stories, role plays, games and discussions. Materials:The materials used are posters, stories, illustration cards, bank brochures and dummy debit and credit cards. These modules and materials are developed in-house and trainers are also trained by SEWA.

50 Smile Foundation

Background:Smile Foundation was formed by a group of established corporate professionals who wanted to make serious social contributions. Among several other programmes, the Smile Twin E- learning Programme (STeP) is an initiative of Smile Foundation that aims at creating a pool of young and independent people from marginalized sections of society, through skill enhancement in tandem with market requirements. It is an effort towards bridging the gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower in the emerging services and retail sectors in India. Programme:Smile Foundation in association with Sanchayan Society has launched a financial literacy project for trainees under the STeP programme, to facilitate their financial inclusion and teach them the optimum utilization of available financial instruments.Such sessions are conducted regularly at all the STeP centres of Smile Foundation. The programme module includes the basics of banking, investment management, Indian economy, the global financial crisis, features of various financial instruments and the risk associated with each instrument. The module also includes workshops

Limitations Restricted mostly to members of SEWA

Model Overall skill development of which financial literacy is a part

Target clients Youth from underprivileged backgrounds


Strengths Teams up with other financial literacy efforts for funding, volunteering and technical services

Limitations Disparate short term programs, not ongoing

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using innovative games and videos on banking and investment. Topics are conveyed through songs and music, rather than conventional classroom methods. In addition to on-going training by Sanchayan, there are also one-time programmes which are run for STeP participants. Recently, employees of Barclays Bank spent a day to impart financial literacy among the under-privileged youth of Manesar district in Gurgaon. Smile Foundation has been training youth in livelihood skills in Manesar village and imparting them knowledge in computer, English, personality development and health awareness. Till date more than 100 youth in the area have been empowered through such trainings. The sessions have taught participants how to utilise the various products offered by the banks and how to save regularly to secure their future financially. Participants were taken step by step through the process of opening a bank account and transacting at an ATM and bank branch, the procedure for procuring different loans, effective money management etc.

51 South Malabar Gramin Bank - RRB

Background: South Malabar Gramin Bank (SMGB) is the largest Regional Rural Bank in India, and has its headquarters at Malappuram in Kerala. Its area of operation is limited to 8 districts in Kerala, India. It finances farm & non-farm sectors and other employment generation programmes through its 233 branches spread over these 8 districts. SMGB was established in 1976 as a Scheduled Commercial Bank. SMGB is a sponsored bank of Canara Bank. It is involved in financial literacy efforts with different groups, though much of the efforts are not documented. Programme: SMGB has been undertaking financial literacy in its operating area with different target groups. The bank conducted financial literacy classes to tribal students and hamlets to inculcate savings habits. Financial literacy classes were also organized for teachers of Primary School under “reach out” programme in association with Rajagiri College, and for final year students of Kerala Agricultural University. South Malabar Gramin Bank has also undertaken on a pilot basis, setting up of Farmers Service centres/Village Knowledge Centres (VKC) in 8 districts under their 'Gramadeepam' programme. The initiative is part of NABARD’s programme and spreads financial literacy through financial counselling to any interested person, free of cost. The centres are set up by Farmers Clubs, and are sponsored by South Malabar Gramin Bank (SMGB). The centre disseminates information on the availability of inputs, soil and water quality, modern farming techniques, price trends of crops and details about crop insurance schemes.

52 St. Gregorious Society for Financial Literacy

Model Financial literacy classes for different groups, Village knowledge centre in 8 districts.

Target clients Tribal students, teachers of Primary School, landless and small farmers

Outreach Not tracked

Strengths Trying to follow RBI and NABARD mandate through active implementation of Financial Literacy programs

Limitations Efforts are not documented or tracked

Model Focused on building savings and investment strategy for common public

Target clients Across income groups, focus on middle class families

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malappuram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canara_Bank

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Background: St. Gregorious Society was established in 2009 by a group of businessmen and academicians under the guidance of Dr K Sasidharan, a well-known researcher and academicians with several publications to his credit. They felt that though the state of Kerala has a high level of literacy; people lack capability to take prudential financial decisions. Their objective was to create knowledge among common people to manage their money. The Society established School of Asset Management (SAM), at Cochin, in 2009. One of the objectives of this school is to extensively propagate the message of financial literacy to women so as to promote thrift among the households and divert dormant savings to investments. However, the main objective is to mould efficient traders who can be absorbed by the stock broking firms. The school conducts research on equity, commodities trading and management; and has floated online coaching programmes in equity and commodity trading. The Society has a pool of academicians, researchers and businessmen who actively volunteer for teaching roles. Programmes: Kerala being a state with high literacy levels, and reading being a popular hobby, the Society envisaged that a story-based approach to asset management and distribution in local language would reach the intended audience. Many of the publications are through local newspaper and publishing houses. Local newspaper agents are used as a channel to reach out to the target segment. The format of the modules is similar to “info-tainment”, using entertaining stories to deliver key financial literacy messages such as the importance of budgeting and investments. Materials: The Society has facilitated research and many publications to cater to the common man covering aspects of financial literacy in both Malayalam and English, though in a story form rather than textbook format to ensure interest and retention. The cost of books is not subsidized. Around 60-70,000 copies are reported to have been sold. Some of the Society’s books on investment strategy are published by mainstream publishers like Tata McGraw Hill, and are used as textbooks in management schools. Staff: Dean of SAM, Dr. K. Sasidharan, has 27 years of practical and 15 years of teaching experience. The other members in the team also have experience of 15 to 20 years in the financial service sector. The Society has only 2 salaried staff. Scale-up & sustainability: The society is planning to publish a book on micro-insurance in Malayalam. Also, it plans to introduce its publications to administrators of Kudumbashree, (the State level SHG programme) and other SHG circles to increase their visibility and use. Presently, the academicians work on a voluntary basis and the associated Business associates and well-wishers contribute financially to the running of the Society. The society is yet to chart out a detailed strategy.

53 State Bank of India

Outreach The books are in novel format, investment options are explained to the common man in simple language.

Strengths The target audience have to be literate and need to buy these books, thus excluding the poor from this initiative.

Limitations Focused on building savings and investment strategy for common public

Model FLCC, financial literacy camps in clusters of unbanked villages, mobile financial literacy vans in villages in Assam and other North-East states

Target clients Country-wide unbanked population


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Background: The State Bank of India, having the largest network of bank branches in India, has been a pioneer of financial inclusion efforts with its depth of outreach, especially in rural branches. However, people from remote rural areas are often unable to benefit from banking services because of the “last mile” terrain and infrastructure difficulties, or simply from lack of awareness about products and services available. Programme: SBI’s initiatives include setting up of FLCCs in various districts in the country. However, since FLCCs were highly dependent on walk-in clients, SBI decided to go out to the people by holding “financial literacy camps” in clusters of unbanked villages. In order to increase uptake of banking accounts through the BC model and its network of 8,750 rural and semi urban branches, camps have been organized in remote rural areas in the North East and some of the financially backward states in North India – the aim is that participants should be made aware of the system of opening bank accounts, how to fulfil KYC norms etc., so that they are confident to open accounts and take advantage of various schemes of banks and government. SBI has also introduced mobile financial literacy vans to strengthen its financial inclusion programmes, in villages across Assam and other North-East states to encourage people to open accounts.

54 State Level Bankers’ Committees (SLBCs)

Background: State Level Banker’s Committees (SLBCs) comprise a group of bankers and government officials convened by a bank having major presence in the State (called the SLBC convener bank). An SLBC meets quarterly and reviews the banking developments in the State. At the district level it is headed by the District Commissioner and is convened by a designated lead bank for the district. SLBCs have reported achievement of 100 per cent financial inclusion in Puducherry and some districts in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab. These financial inclusion efforts are usually preceded by financial education drives in order to elicit a response from the target audience, i.e. unbanked households. Programme:Mass media has been deployed for creating awareness and publicity. The banks used different approaches to communicate the advantages of having a bank account. Bank staff or their agents who are usually local NGOs or village volunteers would contact the people at their households for enrolment. However, it is unfortunate that many of the SBLCs treat financial inclusion as a target based approach and this has led to 100% coverage, but hardly any usage of the bank accounts as people have not fully understood terms and conditions, transacting costs, etc. This

Strengths Links financial literacy with financial service provision by following up camps with better service provision at FLCCs

Limitations Not tracking or monitoring the outcomes and effectiveness of its programs

Model Multiple approaches including messages on mass media and FLCC. Bank staff or their agents, usually local NGOs or village volunteers, contact people directly at their households for enrolment.



Strengths Following NABARD and RBI brief by combining financial literacy and financial inclusion efforts

Limitations One sided communication, usually focussed on benefits of opening an account – not much detail on how to transact, advantages and benefits of transacting through a bank. Not tracking or monitoring the outcomes and effectiveness of its programs

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indicates that the financial literacy drives are entirely one-sided and aimed at encouraging people to open an account, but not focusing on the advantages of using the account. Financial literacy programmes are being launched in each State with the active involvement of the State government and the SLBC. Credit counselling services in addition to financial literacy and financial education are being perceived as important tools to enable people to overcome the problem of indebtedness and seek re-access to banking system. SLBCs are also involved in setting up FLCCs, thereby fulfilling the mandate of RBI and NABARD.

55 Sir Ratan Tata Trust – Sukhi Baliraja Initiative

Background:The Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) is a philanthropic institution established in 1919 from the estate of Sir Ratan Tata, the son of group founder Jamsetji Tata. It supports a wide range of development interventions, including the Sukhi Baliraja Initiative. Programme:The Sukhi Baliraja Initiative addresses the recurrent issue of farmers’ suicides in six distress districts located in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra through promoting sustainable agricultural practices, microfinance, development of market linkages, financial education, soil and water conservation, and alternative livelihood options. The programme promotes financial literacy and bridge financing for ensuring formal financial inclusion rather than allowing the farmers to go back to exploitative informal sources of finance. The projects aim to improve the socio-economic condition of families through enhancing the access of farmers to various financial services from formal financial Institutions at an affordable rate. Various existing institutions in the project villages provide supportive financial services. These institutions also reduce the existing exploitative system of supply of inputs through agents. Traineesare grouped together to form CBOs, in order to facilitate a better relationship between the farmer and bankers. CBOs facilitate sharing and support between members to change the existing exploitative nature of the financial services in the region while maintaining financial discipline. It is envisaged that these CBOs and village institutions will leverage loan funds of Rs50 million from banks. This will in turn change the income-expenditure ratio of farmers and will result in positive cash flow for the household. The key components of the project include: In depth study of the extent and nature of the problem, so as to design and develop a mitigation

strategy for 17,500 farmers from 175 villages from five districts In the short run, enabling timely credit for agricultural purposes through bridge financing

mechanisms, in order to reduce the agricultural stress of 3,500 distressed households Building and strengthening a conducive banking environment and ensuring financial inclusion of

farmers Educating around 17,500 farmers on the need for financial planning and discipline to sustain

linkages with formal financial institutions through trainings of para-workers on financial literacy and counselling and organizing awareness and finance camps in the project villages.

Funding and sustainability: The project began in November 2010 and is expected to run till the end of 2012. Rs. 75.6 lakhs has been sanctioned for various aspects covered under the project, including

Model Promotes financial literacy and bridge financing for ensuring financial inclusion

Target clients Farmers susceptible to drought and indebtedness problems in Vidharbha region

Outreach 17,500 farmer families

Strengths Holistic approach, with financial literacy being one component

Limitations Much of the success of the financial literacy inputs depends on the implementation by the formal financial service providers

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financial literacy. Sustainability may pose an issue once the project is over. However, it is expected that target families would have sufficiently benefited from their association with banks during the period of the project, to continue their association with the formal sector.

56 Suvision Holdings Pvt Ltd

Background:Suvision Holdings Pvt Ltd, is a venture based in Bangalore, which promotes an online resource centre for investors, professionals and students, called IndianMoney.com,IndianMoney.com team members have rich experience in different financial and technology services industry. The company has a dedicated team of writers and an in-house dedicated research and advisory group which offers intraday, short term and long term stock recommendations to people.The initiative hopes to cater to people across different segment and envisions that at least 1/3 of adult population in India will have access to some formal financial products through the company. Programme: IndianMoney is a platform promoted by Suvision Holdings to provide free advice to general public in managing their money better. The company maintains its website www.indianmoney.com and a helpline number for interacting with clients. A 30-member team at the company is involved in advising clients on the different financial products suitable to their need. The client is linked to the provider based on their preference. The client can chose one product of their liking; elseIndianmoney.com advisors offer a choice from among the three most suitable options. Suvision earns Rs240 per client for the leads. The company networks with over 6,000 agents across the country. Most of the calls are seeking advice in insurance, followed by those for credit. The company has aggressive plans to grow in the coming year and expand its outreach by many times.

57 Swabhiman Campaign

Background: Swabhiman (meaning “pride” in Sanskrit), is the Financial Inclusion Programme that Government of rolled out in 2011. The programme targeted opening of 5 crore no-frills accounts by

Model Free advice on financial products. Earns fixed commission from service providers for leads.


Outreach 17,500 farmer families

Strengths Free professional advice

Limitations Risk of mis-selling

Model Financial inclusion programme of GoI, aimed at reaching all unbanked populations through use of innovative technology to provide various financial services through accessible channels

Target clients All unbanked populations in India, in villages with population of ~ 2,000

Outreach ~ 5 crore unbanked individuals, 73,000 villages

Strengths Broad based country-wide programme, focusing on meeting the “last mile” challenges through technological innovation

Limitations Low motivation at ground level for execution of literacy and inclusion programmes With UID not being implemented, it will be difficult to offer all products through a single channel.

http://www.indianmoney.com/

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March 2012 spanning 73,000 selected villages, each having a population of above 2,000 individuals (1,000 for villages in North Eastern states). Programme: The Swabhiman programme seeks to not only open accounts, but to ensure regular transactions. This would be achieved by imparting financial literacy along with the account opening formalities, to encourage usage. Handheld computers and banking correspondent model have been used to achieve scale and efficiency in the programme. Banks are expected to popularize the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) scheme for efficiency of the programme. EBT is mode through which the government currently makes payments to the workers involved in various public welfare schemes. Thus, Swabhiman will provide a platform for banks to launch their products like small overdraft facility, remittance, small loans and small deposits to the rural poor. Although some Government to Persons (G2P) payments have been made through such banks accounts in the past, the accounts have remained largely inactive as the amount is withdrawn in a one-time transaction and then retained in cash. Through Swabhiman, financial literacy inputs will be delivered to encourage recipients to use their bank accounts for more than just withdrawals. Swabhiman will also focus on tapping the large and predominantly unorganized market for rural remittances. It was hoped that the UID would enable card-holders to avail of several financial services whose details would all be loaded on the smart card chip. Financial education covering all the products on offer would therefore be given in a systematic manner under Swabhiman. However, with the uncertainty surrounding the UID project, this is unlikely to materialize. PFDRA launched "Swavalamban" - a co-contributory pension scheme for workers in unorganized sector in 2010. Despite excellent features including equal contribution from the Central Government, uptake has been lower than expected. Under Swabhiman, PFDRA will undertake extensive financial literacy and awareness campaigns through aggregators and partner institutions.

58 Swadhaar FinAccess

Background: Swadhaar FinAccess (SFA) is a non-profit organization registered as a Section-25 company, founded in the year 2005 with the objective of providing economically disadvantaged persons living in slums, increased access to financial services and to bridge the gap with the formal financial sector, thereby helping them to improve their financial circumstances. From the year 2005 to 2008, SFA provided small loans to these groups. This was the pilot phase of micro-credit operations. In May 2008, the promoters of SFA formed Swadhaar FinServe Pvt Ltd (SFPL) a For-profit Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) and transferred microfinance operations to the new entity. SFPL currently operates across various urban and semi-urban locations in Maharashtra and Gujarat. SFA has its presence in many of SFPL’s areas of operations and SFPL’s clients participate in SFA’s Financial Education Programme. SFA focuses on empowering economically disadvantaged persons, predominantly women living in slum communities by imparting financial education, facilitating opening of no-frills accounts and distributing life insurance policies in its role as an LIC agent.

Model Module-based training to groups of interested women in slums

Target clients Borrowers of Swadhaar as well as their neighbours in slums

Outreach Most clients across 13 branches in Maharashtra and Gujarat; total of 1,250 individuals of 20 NGOs.

Strengths Relatively low cost; customers take training seriously after paying a fee for it; homework and innovative teaching methods keep trainees engage; linkage to relevant products immediately undertaken for interested customers

Limitations No monitoring of outcomes other than product linkage

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Programme: SFA provides financial education to persons living in slum communities, with a view to empowering them to make informed financial decisions, thereby improving upon their current financial circumstances. Furthermore, SFA further links interested customers to formal savings and insurance services. Objectives of the SFA's financial education programme are: • To impart knowledge and skills to community women to be better managers of their own money

and better consumers of financial services. • To instil new behaviours like maintaining budgets, increasing savings, reducing credits from

informal sources so that they integrate financial education in their daily lives. • To acquaint the community women with financial products and services available to them, and

to increase their use of these products and services. The programme currently runs in 9 locations in Maharashtra and 4 locations in Gujarat. Locations were chosen based on the portfolio of SFPL. However, both existing customers of SFPL and general population of the slum are targeted so that there is a good mix in the trainee profile. A door-to-door visit is used to mobilize the community, and information is elicited from them about a good time to conduct the training and an acceptable venue. After this, the SFA team conducts an introductory meeting to give the community details about the programme and assess the initial demand. Usually SFPL loan clients are the first to enrol; other interested persons too can sign up. Five-Session Training Programme SFA has introduced a five day financial literacy programme called "Paise Ki Baat, PaiseKaiseBachae, KaiseBadhae" for women living in slums. The Training programme covers the following concepts, each taught in a separate session:

a) Understanding the different sources of income b) Understanding different heads of expenditure c) Budgeting – importance of budgeting, how to maintain budget diaries d) Saving – how to save and where to save e) Credit Management – responsible credit behaviour

The training module is designed specifically to suit the needs of women living in informal settlements in urban and semi urban areas. The module covers very basic preliminary financial concepts so that women can easily implement these behaviours. The trainings are conducted from Monday to Friday, in sessions of 1-1.5 hours each, in a group of 20-30 members. Women are taught how to maintain a financial diary and are also given homework on a daily basis which they have to submit in the class the following day. Simple songs are taught to them so that they can remember concepts easily. A variety of teaching methodologies like games, stories and cases are used, making learning and teaching interesting and interactive. The training module can be used in all urban and semi urban Indian settings with a few adaptations. Training is done in the local language – easy concepts are taught verbally, difficult concepts such as interest rate calculation are taught using a blackboard or writing space. As clients’ age ranges from 18-55, effort is made to make the training interesting and suitable for their life-cycle needs as well. For older clients, advice is given to them regarding how to divide property among the inheritors, and how not to give everything away and become entirely dependent on their families. One of the key challenges of the programme is enrolment, as most people feel that they have nothing to learn from such training, as they have been running businesses for some years. Sometimes there is resistance from husbands and in some cases people are put off by the fees charged. Another challenge is dropout. If 80 persons attend the introductory meeting, only 50% of

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these come for the subsequent meeting, and just 25-30 complete the trainings. There is a lot of dropout midway because customers also work as domestic maids and run small businesses. In order to motivate them, they are contacted every morning on the day of the trainings, so as to remind them. Certificate is only given to those who have completed a minimum of 4 out of 5 days training. Those who do the homework correctly get small gifts to motivate them. There is a lot of scope for debate and discussion and participation is encouraged. At the end of each module there is a "sharing" and "group discussion" in which people exchange experiences, especially about fraudulent schemes running in the slum. Customer feedback is taken verbally after the completion of all 5 modules. Suggestions from trainees have included incorporation of modules on cash flow management, and business training. SFA is planning to introduce business training modules, but this depends on funding. SFA also conducts its Financial Education Programme for beneficiaries of NGOs. Currently, the programme is only for women. In June SFA will be conducting a pilot with men from a similar profile as women customers. The same modules will be used for training the men. Short Term Trainings Short term trainings are organized on the following topics for those only interested in a particular session and who want to avail a particular type of product. Each of these trainings is delivered in a stand-alone 1.5 hour session. a) Training on savings - covers the concept of savings, practical ways to save and with a purpose,

various types of bank accounts and linking them to life cycle needs. b) Training on insurance - provides information to the participants on the need for life insurance,

the merits of insurance, selecting suitable insurance plan, and rights vs duties of a policy holder. c) Training on credit management - enables participants to evaluate their financial needs, prioritize

them, understand various terms and conditions of available credit and self-assess repaying capacity.

d) Training on currency identification - aims to equip participants with the ability to identify counterfeit currency notes that they may come across during the course of routine cash transactions, and make them aware of their responsibilities and the various ways in which they can safeguard themselves. Also gives details of their rights with regard to exchanges of old, torn, mutilated or burnt currency notes and, regulations and redressal mechanism in such matters.

SFA has also started a financial information centre and clients are given the contacts of this centre so that they can get financial advice via phone.SFA is also planning to conduct "client education" as a separate module for only SFPL clients specifically dealing with dangers of agents, pipelining, and third-party influence. Repayment responsibility will also be covered in this. Outreach: Clients have been covered in 13 urban branch locations – 9 in Maharashtra and 4 in Gujarat. Coverage figures were not provided. 1,250 women from 20 NGOs, Mahila Mandals and slum development organizations have also been trained. Materials: The materials are designed so as to be low cost, easy to use and easy to transport – these include financial diaries, flip charts, posters, and a few calculators used for demonstration within the classes. Staff & advisors: The major initiative for the programme has come from the Founder of Swadhaar, Ms VeenaMankar and the leadership team and Board of SFA as well as SFPL. The team in charge of the Financial Literacy Programme has 40 staff, working full time. Staff use the infrastructure and branches of SFPL to operate. SFA also has 2 branches in Chembur and Malad which are

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independently run. Every team has two people – a Community Mobilizer and a Training Specialist. The former is chosen from persons who have professional field experience. Training staff are usually MSWs or persons with a background in social work. Most of the trainers are female. Trainers are given an induction training and preliminary field exposure, conducted in-house. Follow up is done on basis of performance. Every 3 months, refresher trainings are conducted for staff so that they do not lose motivation. Appraisals are done on the basis of the maximum mobilized people in the community, number of enrolments, number of completed trainings etc. There have been some issues with high staff dropout in the past year, but the reasons are varied.

Peer educators chosen from amongst those who have attended the programme before and performed well. They are dubbed 'champions" for the next batch of trainees. They help the trainees by tracking the filling and maintenance of the financial diaries on a regular basis. They are not incentivised to do this work and take it on as a service to the community.

MIS: SFA tracks branch and area-wise enrolment - clients and non-clients are tracked separately. Outreach parameters include enrolled persons, certified trainees, and those who have opened bank accounts post training. Some of SFA’s partner banks, which open bank accounts for the certified trainees, also share data of the account usage etc. with SFA for tracking. However, most banks refuse to do this citing data privacy issues.

SFA does not maintain a database of all the information recorded in the financial diaries, although this is tracked every three months for a year. Most clients maintain the diaries for a few weeks, but if there is no constant follow up from the SFA team or peer educators, they stop after a while.

Impact: Post training, interested customers are linked to savings accounts through nationalized banks, as SFA also acts as a BC. Initially, SFA focused on no-frills accounts, but as these were always kept at zero balance, they now encourage customers to open regular savings accounts which require minimum balance of Rs. 100-Rs 500. Interested customers are also linked to appropriate insurance products, as SFA is an agent for LIC.

A baseline form had been filled at the time of the programme inception, covering the use of various financial services and level of knowledge of the community about basic financial concepts. Third party research is performed every year for a sample of trained customers, 3-6 months after completion of training. The sample is chosen from various areas of Mumbai, stratified according to the outreach. The outcome is usually qualitative – usually reflects that the trained customers are doing budgeting and have begun regular saving. However, the saving does not often show in the bank account, as customers prefer to resort to chit funds and other doorstep providers for savings services, irrespective of the safety issues involved. Measuring behaviour change is a challenge. SFA has not been able to measure yet what has been the impact or behaviour change because of the complexity and cost of the research involved. Scale-up & sustainability: SFA has received support from MSDF for development of materials and implementation of the programme hitherto. Rs. 30 per head is collected for the 5 day training programme in SFA’s operational area, and Rs. 50 per member is collected from NGOs for which SFA conducts programmes. This hardly covers costs of operations, but builds a member stake in the programme and encourages them to attend.

59 Syndicate Bank

Model FLCC, Financial literacy quiz, mobile van for spreading messages, financial literacy resource centre.

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Background: Syndicate Bank was established in 1925 in Udupi, Karnataka and is one of the oldest and major commercial banks of India. It was nationalized in 1969 by the Government of India. Programmes: a) Swabhiman: Syndicate Bank is participating actively in the joint publicity drive of Public Sector

Banks under the aegis of Indian Banks Association (IBA). Banking Correspondent (BC) outlets have been set up to reach out to the unbanked. Posters have been prepared in vernacular language as per the theme circulated by IBA and these posters have been displayed at prominent places in the branch and in targeted villages.

b) Financial Inclusion Quiz: Quiz Programmes on Financial Inclusion in 97 schools of targeted villages were conducted.

c) FLCCs: The Bank along with Vijaya Bank formed a Trust “Jnana Jyoti Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Trust” (JJFLCCT) for promoting Financial Literacy. Karnataka Bank has also joined the trust as one of the joint trustees. 24 FLCCs are already functioning in various Lead Districts of the Bank and FLCCs will be opened in all the remaining Lead Districts of the bank. The FLCCs have organized Financial Literacy programmes with 16 Farmer’s Clubs in association with District Development Offices of NABARD. The FLCC Centres have organized meetings of 54 SHGs for disseminating information on various banking products.

d) Syndicate Bank has donated Mobile Van to the JJFLCC Trust and financial literacy campaigns are being organized using the mobile van. Financial literacy campaigns conducted (including through the mobile van) numbers 2,044.

e) Financial Inclusion Resource Centres (FIRCs): 21 FIRCs have been established in various Lead Districts by Syndicate Bank.

60 Ultra Poor Programmes

Model Financial literacy messages imparted along with other key information and capacity building to bring ultra-poor families out of chronic poverty.

Target clients Ultra poor families

Outreach The financial literacy messages are embedded in the broader context of general wellbeing and prosperity One-one handholding

Strengths Financial literacy messages imparted along with other key information and capacity building to bring ultra-poor families out of chronic poverty.

Limitations Limited outreach, time and cost consuming, difficult to scale-up

Background: BRAC Model: Founded in Bangladesh in 1972, BRAC is the world’s largest development organization that has pioneered different ways to tackle poverty. It has operations in 10 countries in Asia, East Africa, and Haiti. BRAC’s ‘Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction’ - Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) programme was launched in 2001, for those in the bottom 10% of the population, who are marginalized, and are outside the ambit of traditional development interventions like microfinance. The programme emerged from the realisation that ‘ultra-poor families are in need of prolonged and specialised support in order to reintroduce them to regular economic activities and


Outreach Indeterminate; through 24 FLCCs and outreach programs

Strengths Fulfilling the mandate of RBI and NABARD through active involvement, cooperating and engaging with other banks in lead districts

Limitations More emphasis on the infrastructure surrounding financial literacy initiatives rather than the messages and the content

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reintegrate them with their communities’. The programme combines support for immediate needs with longer term investments in training, financial services, and business development so that within two years ultra-poor people are equipped to help themselves “graduate” out of extreme poverty. Over the past five years, BRAC’s Ultra-Poor programmes have reached 800,000 households. Since 2006, CGAP and Ford Foundation have adapted BRAC’s experience to other countries. Ten graduation pilots are underway, three in India in three institutions (Bandhan, SKS Foundation and Trickle up), and one each in Haiti, Pakistan, Honduras, Peru, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Ghana. Bandhan Konnagar: Bandhan Konnagar is an NGO supported by Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited, a leading MFI in India. A part of the MFI’s profits are allocated to the NGO. Bandhan is one of institutions in India implementing the BRAC model of ultra-poor programme. The programme is called Targeting the Hard core Poor programme (THP), and has an outreach of about 7,000 poor families in the State of West Bengal. Poor, women-headed families in the villages/urban slums are identified through participative rural appraisal, and they are productive assets and know-how. Handholding support includes health education, social education, financial literacy and livelihood on a daily basis. Financial literacy messages include budgeting, savings, credit and appropriate use of credit to enhance income generation, managing business, etc. The NGO conducts classroom trainings in groups and individual handholding through Community Organisers (COs) to impart messages to target audience. The programme is for 2 years, after which they are linked to MFIs or banks. SKS Foundation is implementing a similar programme in Andhra Pradesh (Phase I) and Odisha (Phase II). Trickle Up is another agency which is involved in piloting this model. Trickle Up works in four of the poorest states in India—Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, exclusively with women. In addition to financial education and other components, Trickle Up motivates the trainees to form savings groups. NEEDS, Jharkhand: NEEDS is a Jharkhand-based non-profit organization. It implements a two-year UPnasapna programme, an agricultural livelihood-led ultra-poor support programme. It was launched in SanthalPargana, often cited as one of the poorest regions of India. The UPnasapna programme prioritizes food security and enhanced livelihoods through teaching new agricultural techniques to increase crop production for struggling households. UPnasapna delivers agricultural training at the outset as a way of providing food security and increasing household income. The beneficiaries are also given trainings in financial literacy, along with healthcare, child education and social empowerment activities.

61 Village Welfare Society

Background: Village Welfare Society was formed in 1982 by a group of volunteers, and aimed at fostering economic independence and empowerment of women. VWS subsequently undertook microfinance activities following the Grameen Model, until these were hived off to a separate NBFC, Village Financial Services (VFS), which now provides microfinance operations in West Bengal,

Model Used ISMW’s toolkits to train groups of borrowers; also developed and screened film on how to balance income and expenditure

Target clients Existing borrowers of Village Financial Services

Outreach ~ 62,000 women across 3 districts

Strengths Convenient timings of trainings; husbands also invited to participate, for better behaviour change outcomes

Limitations Weak monitoring of quality of implementation, no measurement of change

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Jharkhand and Tripura. VWS continues to conduct several social activities, mostly related to provision of better health services. Financial literacy programmes form one of its many activities.

Programme: VWS was supported by ISMW during 2009-11 to undertake a financial literacy programme. This was conducted in 3 districts – Howrah, Hooghly and North 24 Parganas. These districts were chosen as they were the hub of microfinance clients of VFS, and since clients gathered in groups on a weekly basis, they could easily be targeted for the trainings. Groups of 25-30 clients were trained at a time, and those in the neighbourhood who were interested in joining were also allowed to participate. Husbands were encouraged to participate as this would make behaviour change easier for the women – around 15-20% of the husbands also attended the trainings.Trainings were conducted in two sessions of 2.5 hours each over two consecutive days during the afternoon hours, as this was convenient for most of the women participants.

Outreach: VWS estimates outreach at around ~ 62,000 women across 3 districts. However, there was no tracking of the number of women who had attended both the sessions, thereby effectively completing the training.

Materials: VWS has developed a few materials in-house, including a film covering importance and varieties of products available under savings, investment and insurance.

Staff: 4 staff were engaged full time to conduct the programme and they travelled from centre to centre in each of the districts, scheduling and conducting trainings in each of these centres and their neighbourhoods. However after funding stopped these staff have been deployed in other programmes. MIS: Monitoring was done as per ISMW’s monitoring formats and quarterly reports were sent to ISMW.

Impact: ISMW conducted a baseline and a post-programme evaluation, but did not share the report with VWS. No testing has been conducted to assess retention levels, which is important especially when the training has been delivered in a very heavy capsule of 5 hours in 2 days. Informal feedback suggests that customers have started family budgeting and have curtailed unnecessary expenditure. Demand for insurance products also rose in the area as many trainees signed up for the government sponsored health insurance scheme, Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana. The programme has had limited results on the savings side because of unwillingness of bank and Post Office staff to open accounts for the low-income segment because of their lack of KYC documentation. (Out of 62,000 recipients of financial education, only 18,000 were successful in opening a bank account).

Sustainability: ISMW extended a total financial support of 20 lakhs during the tenure of the programme. VWS spent 5 lakhs on its own due to delays in receiving the grant funds, resulting in cost escalations which had not been provided for. VWS feels that the toolkit and in-house material development expenses cannot be amortized over just 62,000 clients as the same materials can be used for a much wider population of clients if the incremental costs of conducting trainings can be covered. However, there is no plan for scale up of the programme in the near future.

62 VISA

Model Online materials in English and Hindi



Strengths Combines own initiatives with funding support to ACCION and other entities Engaging formats such as “financial football” convey messages in an entertaining way and make retention easier

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Background: Visa Inc. is a multinational financial services corporation which facilitates electronic funds transfers across the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards and debit cards.

Programme: As part of its social responsibility initiatives, Visa has been developing online financial literacy programmes that teach individuals how to spend, save and budget responsibly. Visa’s aim is “to develop engaging, effective and relevant tools to teach people of all ages the fundamentals of money management”. Visa’s financial literacy work extends to more than 30 countries and is customized in each based on the level of economic development, cultural standards, educational levels, government priorities and target audiences. The programmes, modules and tools are all available free on Visa’s website.

Outreach is dependent on how many people explore the site and read the modules available – the programmes are therefore restricted to persons with access to the internet. Visa’s free financial literacy programmes have reached over 10 million people already and Visa continues to add 1 million more each quarter. Third-party partners including governments, schools, banks and NGOs are engaged to improve reach, awareness and impact. Visa has pledged at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference in 2008 to reach 20 million people worldwide with its financial literacy programme by May 2013.

Materials include write-ups, tips and guidelines on the following topics:

Budgeting and Saving

Managing Debt - debt load and net worth

Financial Planning

Use Your Cards Wisely

Smart Shopping

Electronic payment

Banking Services

Card Security and Identity Theft

There is a variety of financial calculators, games and tools on the website to illustrate the benefits of saving early, prioritizing debt repayment and avoiding over-indebtedness. The website offers online tools for interest calculation, comparison of loan costs, building a budget and assessing one’s debt load. Special attention is given to educating the readers on credit card charges, how to read and understand one’s statement; how to limit spending on one’s card, etc. The site also gives useful information on how to choose between various credit cards, how to keep the cost of borrowing on one’s credit card low, and how to remain secure while making online transactions.

In India, the modules are available in English and Hindi and are drafted in fairly easy language for better understanding across a wide set of readers.

The FIFA World Cup themed "Financial Football," - a fast-paced educational video game - is one of the most popular financial literacy tools available online. This multilingual game entertains while teaching the fundamentals of finance. It was rolled out in advance of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and has been played over 2 million times in 10 languages across 30 countries. Social media channels play a crucial role in Visa’s efforts in financial literacy. Visa runs Facebook pages in different languages, a YouTube channel and Twitter feed focused on financial literacy. Visa also financially sponsors conferences and meetings in various countries to promote the concept of financial literacy and to encourage key financial sector players in those countries to undertake financial literacy programmes and campaigns as well.

Limitations Absorption of messages depends on motivation and interest levels of persons accessing the website

http://www.financialfootball.com/

http://www.youtube.com/pmsfl

http://twitter.com/PracticalMoney/

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63 VKS Creative Expressions

Background: VKS Creative Expression was founded in June 2010 to provide training and development support to organizations to boost productivity. It provides corporate media support and Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) activity planning, mostly for financial literacy and income generation programmes.

Programme: • Trainings have been conducted in association with FINO Fintech Foundation in Uttar Pradesh

(Varanasi, Azamgarh, Mau & Jaunpur districts) for financial literacy projects funded by World Bank, MFO and NABARD

• Financial Literacy projects have also been undertaken in UP, Gujarat, North East India, Maharashtra, Delhi, Jharkhand, Ranchi and West Bengal with various partner institutions.

• Street Plays have been organized to increase the outreach of banking services of ICICI in UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Ranchi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and North-East India.

• Creative Expression also involves itself with the Financial Literacy Counselling Centres set up by RBI to enhance the effectiveness of trainings and workshops organized by them.

VKS Creative Expression designs the project according to the client’s needs, for instance FINO. The clients have involved research agencies such as IFMR and IMRB to conduct a need assessment and to help in area selection. Creative Expression does TOT workshops for an average of 5 days with selected trainers. A pilot training batch is selected who conduct trainings in areas selected randomly. The module is revised based on the feedback of the stakeholders. The final training process is rolled out thereafter. Trainees are mostly BPL who are uneducated so the information is mostly given by the means of street plays in regional languages, comical illustrations, leaflets and audio visual methods which would help the people to decipher the concepts easily.

Materials: The material of the training modules is developed in-house.Print Media includes posters, comics, leaflets and flyers. Audio visuals include films on financial awareness learning for budgeting, different types of savings accounts including no-frills accounts, insurance, money transfer, remittances and government schemes for BPL. Corporate films on financial literacy in regional languages (Hindi, Gujarati, Assamese, Garo, Bengali and Telugu)

Staff: 138 employees spread across 18 states. The training of these employees is conducted in-house.

The next section of this part of the report covers the financial education initiatives in other countries with potential for application to India.

Model Comprehensive training and development support provided to implementation agencies. Also provides corporate media support and CSRassistance for financial literacy programmes

Target clients Low income groups

Outreach ~28,000, across India

Strengths Design the training project according to need of client. The delivery mechanism is interactive and participatory with use of print media, audio visuals, street plays and credit counselling centres.

Limitations Interaction limited to material development and implementation of communication strategies. No post-intervention monitoring or assessment of effectiveness.

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2-3 International initiatives – Indexed In addition to Indian initiatives in the field of financial education, the scoping study covered

a large number of international initiatives undertaken for the same purpose. Those

international initiatives that had some relevance to the Indian situation were identified and

have been presented in this section. These initiatives have been classified by their degree of

relevance to the Indian situation. The tables below present a summary overview of the

initiatives, providing information on the degree of relevance, target segments and methods

used for imparting financial education.

2-3.1 Institutional type

2-3.2 Intent behind Financial Education Programmes

Term Definition

Sector Development Developing a particular product or service in the financial sector – in this context microinsurance and micro-pensions


Entity imparting financial education as its core activity, whether with the profit motive or not


Entity imparting financial education as one of many interventions in its area of operations

Policy/ Government programme

Regulatory, policy initiatives or Government programmes for imparting financial education (may or may not be stand-alone activities)

Consumer / Client Protection

Financial education provided to protect existing customers from undesirable financial decisions, over-indebtedness. Aims at giving customers full and fair information about financial products and services.

Type Definition

Network/ Association Microfinance, insurance and other financial sector networks and industry associations

Formal financial service providers Commercial banks, mortgage companies

Consortium Mix of various sector players (public-private sector funding; international donors and local corporations; industry associations and donors)

MFI / MFI group Microfinance institution or sister company of an MFI formed for various purposes including credit-plus activities

Others Media companies

NGO Non-Government Organization undertaking financial education activities on a not-for-profit basis

Regulator Financial sector regulators and broad policy makers

Government agency Government-funded agency or programme undertaking financial education initiatives exclusively or along with other activities

Specialized agency/ Technical provider

An institution which provides technical services for financial education initiatives (may or may not be fee based)

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2-3.3 Relevance to the Indian context

2-3.4 Target segments addressed

2-3.5 Communication strategies used

2-3.6 Topics covered

2-3.7 Funding sources

2-3.8

Coding used in tables 4 to 7

Applicable

o Data not available

Not applicable

Coding used in Tables 1, 2 and 3

Most relevant to Indian context

Moderately relevant …

Least relevant…

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2-3

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Association/ Network

Formal financial service providers

Consortium MFI / MFI group

Others NGO Regulator Government agency

Specialized agency/ Technical provider

Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda

BANSEFI - Banco del Ahorro Nacional Servicious Financieros SNC

iMali Matters Money Advice

Faulu Advisory Services

Mediae: Makutano Junction

Freedom from Hunger

Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia

National Community Financial Education Workshops

An Opportunity for All: Financial Education in Africa

South African Insurance Association

Freddie Mac

Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment &Devlpt.

FINCA Mexico

Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP)

Austrian National Bank (OeNB)

Bubomi Absa

Opportunity International Bank of Malawi

Insurance Consumer Education - Kenya (ICE-K) Radio Campaign

Opportunity International

Camfed Central Bank of Republic of Argentina

Financial Literacy and Education Commission

U Bank

Postbank/Wizzit Financial Literacy Project

BRAC

PEDN - Private Education Development Network

Free to Grow

Xac Bank

Crédito con Educación Rural

Population Council

Junior Achievement

Pro Mujer

SiyakhaNentsha

Starting a Lifetime of Savings

FinLit- Financial Literacy Foundation

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

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Sector Development


Part of Broader Development Agenda Policy/ Government programme Consumer / Client Protection

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Freedom from Hunger Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia

BANSEFI - Banco del AhorroNacionalServiciousFinancieros SNC



Opportunity International National Community Financial Education Workshops


Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development

Free to Grow The Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP)

Austrian National Bank (OeNB) FINCA Mexico


Junior Achievement BRAC Central Bank of Republic of Argentina

Freddie Mac



Camfed



Population Council


SiyakhaNentsha



Bubomi Absa

Xac Bank Crédito con Educación Rural

Pro Mujer


U Bank

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2-3.3 Listing of Institutions by country and Relevance to the Indian context

Most Relevant Initiatives

Institution Country Relevance to Indian context

1


Uganda

The mass media campaign clearly helped AMFIU reach a vast number of people, to not only to increase their knowledge and improve their attitudes, but also to influence changes in behaviour. Given the good outcomes, it appears that the messages were well received and retained. Radio has proved to be a useful communication method for the first wave of financial literacy messages as it can grab the attention of the target segment without disturbing their schedule. Once they get interested, more intensive follow up such as group and individual training can be offered.

2

BANSEFI - Banco del Ahorro Nacional Servicious Financieros SNC.

Mexico

BANSEFI’s achievements have largely been due to wide visibility and a consolidated strategy 1) Training of trainers in financial service providers, 2) mobile vans to reach actual end customers and 3) college students as volunteers for outreach. Standardized modules are adapted by trainers with their own stories and activities, to build ownership and a sense of fun in running the programme. This keeps the trainers motivated and makes the experience interesting for the audience. Indian initiatives could benefit from conducting ToTs and engaging volunteers, as a multi-pronged strategy would increase visibility and outreach without extra costs to the initiative itself. However, monitoring would have to ensure that quality is not compromised.

3 Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia

Armenia

Games which require existing literacy levels are not relevant for the Indian context. However, videos, electronic and video games and illustrated tests may be useful to adapt to the Indian context, as they are entertaining, can engage the audience quickly and may capture the attention of the recipients more effectively than other methods.

4 Faulu Advisory Services

Kenya

Indian initiatives may be able to adopt FAS's approach of partial sharing of costs by beneficiaries – this has been tried by Swadhaar and similarly resulted in seriousness of customers in attending the classes and implementing learnings. However, enrolment rates have been seen to dip when even a small fee is charged. Reasons for FAS's success in attracting participation despite charging a fee, should be researched as Indian initiatives have experienced low enrolment when they have attempted to charge customers for financial literacy.

5 FINCA Mexico Mexico

Follow up of financial literacy training with the actual service (in this case the card) results in desired behaviour change. However, in the context of Indian financial service providers and banking correspondents, such a strategy may result in mis-selling, especially when a variety of products carrying different commissions and incentives are on offer. Incentive structures could be appropriately designed to promote service quality rather than product-specific sales. However, this would be very difficult to monitor, especially in a large-scale programme.

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6 Freddie Mac USA

A soap-opera styled programme would be able to convey financial literacy messages effectively as the medium is very popular in India and is watched by several women householders, across income levels. Translation into local languages and good scripting and storyline would attract viewers. Even though a mass media approach may not directly impact financial behaviour in the Indian context due to various demand and supply issues, it may grab viewers’ attention and make them more willing to participate in intensive forms of financial education training.

7 Freedom from Hunger

USA

The modules are adapted to take advantage of local opportunities and to address local challenges. Topics are presented in the local-language; and modules use dialogue-based tools that do not require that a woman read or write. Such low-cost delivery models would be easily scalable in an Indian context, especially in group scenarios, for instance with microfinance borrowers. A detailed study of the materials used in this programme would be useful.

8 iMali Matters Money Advice

South Africa

This intervention may be useful in the context of Indian consumers, as a walk-in centre or customer helpline facility may encourage potential customers and unbanked individuals to seek assistance - especially since the service offered is free. The unbiased and completely independent advice given removes the risk of mis-selling. Such initiatives could be housed at places which have a high footfall, for instance municipal offices and bargain stores in urban areas or Panchayat/ tehsil offices and agricultural equipment stores in rural areas for best results.

9 Mediae: Makutano Junction

Kenya

The Makutano Junction films follow a very entertaining format - these would be useful to replicate in the Indian context as infotainment serials. As the soap-opera/ serial format is very popular among Indian households, such a programme would be quite engaging if scripted appropriately and translated into a wide set of local languages. The most important part of the programme is the follow up option – to SMS one’s details to a number, thereby eliciting information on a leaflet and follow-up contact by representatives of banks and other financial service providers. The programme therefore not only delivers appropriate messages but gives ample scope for immediate follow up and potential behaviour change.

10


South Africa

Workshops especially for low income groups conducted in villages, hamlets and urban slums may help to deliver important messages to community gatekeepers who can then transfer key messages to the rest of the community, and mobilize others for more intensive programmes.

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11 Opportunity International

Philippines

Short films have been successful in the Indian financial literacy landscape (Janalakshmi and Parinaam). While these films have been more serious in nature, a fun and entertaining set of modules such as the DVDs used in this programme may have better retention results in the Indian context as they engage audiences of all ages, using an edutainment or infotainment format. The mobile-phone based feedback survey application is a useful and cost-friendly tool to quickly assess and record client’s knowledge, behaviour and attitudes after completion of the programme. It would be useful to adapt this to Indian initiatives since there is a severe dearth of feedback and evaluation of outcomes amongst Indian initiatives, mostly due to time and cost constraints.

12 Opportunity International Bank of Malawi

Malawi

Multimedia attracts the attention of the target segment, while one-on-one meetings reinforce key messages and give the detailed inputs which will result in behaviour change. Such concerted efforts would serve to create interest among the larger group and deliver key messages, while attracting those who are genuinely interested for the more intensive programmes such as group or individual training. Indian initiatives from Janalakshmi and Parinaam have effectively undertaken such measures, following up mass screenings with intensive trainings. Costs balance out - multimedia involves high expenditure on design but low incremental costs in delivery; follow up training is just the opposite in terms of cost outlays.

13 South African Insurance Association

South Africa

SAIA's mass market measures may be useful to adopt as incremental cost is low given the massive numbers of commuters who travel by public transport – especially trains and buses in India. Messages would be especially attractive since they are scripted in an infotainment format. Follow-up with call-in sessions handled by experts in financial advisory services not only clear doubts and answer relevant questions but build a personal touch for the audience, reinforce key messages and enhance retention levels.

14


Ghana

Collaboration with a variety of rural financial institutions at the block or district level may increase the chances of success (in the Indian scenario this would mean public sector bank branches and rural banks, microfinance institutions and other financial service providers). For instance if FLCCs, MFIs and BCs in every district make a concerted effort to combine resources and conduct comprehensive financial literacy workshops/ road-shows at village level in the specific operational area, the outcomes may be better than disparate efforts. These efforts can be coordinated under the National Strategy for Financial Education and monitored by the specified authority, while ground-level efforts could be engineered by the partnering institutions themselves.

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Somewhat relevant initiatives


15

The Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP)

Ghana

Farmer suicides regularly take place in India due to indebtedness. Modules which are especially relevant to farmers could be designed on similar lines as part of the overall Financial Literacy strategy. The Peer to peer training delivery method appears to work well in this context as farmers discuss farming methods and strategies with each other and information could be formally passed on in farmers' clubs, credit cooperatives etc.

16 An Opportunity for All: Financial Education in Africa

Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda

Multimedia interventions can attract the attention of the target segment. However, delivery of messages to the target population may have limited effects on behaviour change – in this case there was no significant increase in usage of savings accounts and insurance products. This could have useful implications for India: i.e. mass media communications may help to deliver an idea to a large section of the population, but unless it is followed up by more direct and interactive forms of intervention, behaviour change may not immediately follow.

17 Austrian National Bank (OeNB)

Austria

Workshops and publications may not have much relevance for low income segments. However, tour of a bank, practical walk-through of banking processes and ATM transactions, through demos and hand-holding sessions may result in better retention of messages in the Indian context.

18 BRAC Global

Given the history of gender inequalities in India and social problems such as child marriage and early pregnancies, programmes such as these which empower young girls with income-earning skills and encourage them to save and manage finances may be of relevance. However, as women’s access to financial resources within the household is limited (more so for unmarried women and girls in traditional homes) the programme may have limited results.

19 Bubomi Absa South Africa

Bubomi-Absa’s efforts of reaching out to youth via schools and youth clubs may be useful for replication in an urban Indian context. Relevance for low-income masses may be limited, given low enrolment and attendance rates in schools. However, a similar strategy would be useful to adopt for youth undertaking various forms of vocational training, young entrepreneurs, children of microfinance clients, etc.

20 Camfed Zambia

Cascading method of training may be cost effective for India, but has severe monitoring implications during scale up. Varying results from the impact evaluation study indicate that while peer education may be successful, it needs to be followed by actual financial services delivery so that trainees have the opportunity to convert their learnings into behaviour change.

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21 Crédito con Educación Rural

Bolivia

Delivery of financial education inputs by field staff has merits for cost effectiveness but may place undue pressure on field staff in addition to their regular duties. The cascade approach is adopted by a few Indian MFIs which are undertaking financial literacy activities. However, it requires strict monitoring to ensure quality control at all stages of training.

22 Financial Literacy and Education Commission

USA

Features of FLEC's monitoring mechanisms would be useful for the Indian context – i.e. for the Financial Stability and Development Council as it would be performing a similar function as FLEC in terms of guiding and monitoring financial education initiatives in India as per the RBI’s National Strategy for Financial Education. FLEC’s activities as a repository of financial education material could be studied by National Institute of Financial Education (NIFE) which is being set up by RBI to perform a similar task under the aegis of the National Strategy.

23 Free to Grow Many African countries

This is one of the very few profitable financial literacy programmes in the world, and only so because employers are paying the costs of the training. It would be very useful to adapt these trainings for a large segment of regular wage earners such as factory workers, contracted domestic help and service sector employees such as security guards, waiters, lift operators, etc. However, this may not be scalable as most employers may not see the benefit of investing in staff, given the high rate of turnover in such jobs in the Indian context. Such a programme may not be suitable for interventions focussed on rural and very low income segments.

24


Kenya

While the radio campaign worked successfully in terms of getting attention of a large section of listeners, it did not easily facilitate behaviour change. This is an important lesson for Indian initiatives which may seek to scale up their mass media programmes. In a truly participatory campaign, it should be easy for audience members to provide feedback. All parties recognized that campaign could have been made even more interactive if right systems were developed. As candidates were expected to remember a full length mobile number to SMS or call, the response rates were lower than expected. Monitoring and feedback mechanism needs to be in place to be able to refine the programme in real time. The recording of SMS messages was important to the project because it was intended to be used to monitor the programme and act as a feedback mechanism. However, little substantive feedback was registered via SMS as they were not closely tracked. A better system should have been in place to consolidate and analyse queries, however this was not done.

25 Junior Achievement

Nigeria

Junior Achievement mixes sponsorship with beneficiary contribution - may be a useful lesson for Indian initiatives. Contribution to a pool of funds ensures future sustainability of the programme and would be useful to replicate in India. This programme could be adapted to suit an adult audience instead of a student audience in the Indian context.

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26


Uganda

A similar variety of programmes catering to specific target segments may be replicated in India, especially by those initiatives which target students or youth and adopt a hands-on approach to saving for future goals and managing money. The programmes which focus on entrepreneurship could be adopted by Indian MFIs and other grassroots financial service providers to foster entrepreneurship among their existing clients and their children.

27 Population Council

Various countries

Programmes with adolescent and teenage girls may empower women and in the long term are expected to translate into more responsible financial behaviour at the household level. Educating girls and young women would affect their own household as well as the home which they marry into. However, such trainings may be difficult to conduct in isolation due to several gender issues including low mobility of unmarried, young women. Costs of targeting a narrow segment are higher.

28 Postbank/Wizzit Financial Literacy Project

South Africa

One-off sessions covering a variety of general financial awareness topics may give limited results in terms of behaviour change. A more concerted effort from many different communication strategies may be more effective – mass media to elicit interest and deliver key messages, group/ classroom interactions to give detailed trainings and individual interactions for follow-up and actual behaviour change. This programme is useful to understand in the Indian context as many institutions rely on stand-alone trainings, which are expected to bring about behaviour change. This programme is also relevant in that it unintentionally targeted high numbers of women and unemployed persons – both segments had low liquidity or excess money. The same may be applicable to the rural/ low-income Indian context, where financial literacy delivered to only women may have limited behaviour change outcomes as women control only a small part of the household budget and are unlikely to take any serious financial decision without the cooperation of male members of the family.

29 Pro Mujer Latin America

Simple tests at quarterly intervals would capture the extent of retention and give some idea about satisfaction levels, usefulness and the possibility of behaviour change.

30 SiyakhaNentsha South Africa

Given the history of gender inequalities in India and social problems such as child marriage and early pregnancies, programmes such as these which empower women and encourage them to save and manage finance may be of relevance. However, as women’s access to financial resources within the household is limited (more so for unmarried women and girls in traditional homes) the programme may not have similar success in India.

31 Starting a Lifetime of Savings

Uganda

This programme was largely a research experiment - results indicated that positive behaviour change could be elicited through stand-alone trainings as well as training + product delivery (in this case a club savings account). Deeper study of this programme may indicate to Indian initiatives the level of difference between the outcomes (account opening and account usage levels) for those receiving only training vs those receiving training + a club savings account. This may indicate the merits of offering product linkage in addition to financial literacy training, rather than relying on outcomes of training alone.

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Slightly relevant initiatives


32 Central Bank of Republic of Argentina

Argentina This programme is similar to other classroom-based approaches for reaching out to youth and students. It may have limited relevance in India as lower income segments do not have high enrolment and attendance rates in school.

33 FinLit- Financial Literacy Foundation

Uganda

Events such as “Financial Literacy Week” can draw attention of large audiences to the concept of financial literacy through intensive mass-media campaigns. Booklets present a cheap and viable mode of educating a large number of people in different languages. However, given the low literacy rates in India, this may not be a very popular delivery method.

34 The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Canada

Interactive tools such as mobile applications may be developed to help customers evaluate products in terms of costs and choose the correct ones to suit their needs. Mapping of customers earning and spending patterns vs product terms and conditions would help them choose the product most suited to their needs. A quarterly-updated database of all financial service providers and their offerings could be maintained at block or district level and made available to the public at e-governance kiosks or even at local cyber cafes.

35 U Bank South Africa

Miners and other migrants in South Africa are part of the organized sector and have bank accounts. This makes classroom and on-site financial literacy training easy to administer and understand. However, in India, where most migrants work in the informal sector, more appropriate delivery methods may have to be chosen.

36 Xac Bank Mongolia

Starting early may be the correct way to impart long term benefits of financial literacy. However, as many children do not enrol in school, innovative ways have to be found to reach out to them. Video games and comic books are useful aids, but may be restricted to a more literate and higher-income audience. Cell phone applications would be more useful as they would have better outreach.

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2-3.4 Initiatives by Target segment

Name Rural Urban

School/

Youth Women Low

income

Entre-preneur

s MFI

clients

Miners/ wage-earners/ farmers

Immigrants/ Socially

vulnerable General Count

Assn. of Church-based Devlpt. NGOs (ACDEP) 2 An Opportunity for All: Fin. Education in Africa 3 Association of Microfinance Insts. of Uganda 4 Austrian National Bank (OeNB) 3 BANSEFI 7 BRAC 6 Bubomi Absa 5 Camfed 2 Central Bank of Republic of Argentina 2 Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia 2 Crédito con Educación Rural 3 Faulu Advisory Services 4 Financial Literacy and Education Commission 1 FINCA Mexico 2 FinLit- Financial Literacy Foundation 2 Freddie Mac 3 Free to Grow 2 Freedom from Hunger 2 Insurance Consumer Edu. - Kenya (ICE-K) 1

iMali Matters Money Advice 5

Junior Achievement 2

Mediae: Makutano Junction 1

National Community Fin. Ed. Workshops 2

Opportunity International 3

Opportunity International Bank of Malawi 2

PEDN - Private Education Development Network 4

Population Council 4

Postbank/Wizzit Financial Literacy Project 1

Pro Mujer 3

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Name Rural Urban

School/

Youth Women Low

income Entrepreneurs

MFI clients

Miners/ wage-earners/ farmers

Immigrants/ Socially

vulnerable General Count

SiyakhaNentsha 6

South African Insurance Association 2

Starting a Lifetime of Savings 2

Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development 5

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada 3

U Bank 1

Xac Bank 3

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2-3.5 Initiatives by communication strategy

Name

Booklets/printed material

Audio-visual

Mobile apps, video games, interactive games

Street plays/ Roadshows

Classroom/ Seminar/ Workshop

Mass market - radio, TV shows

Helpline Existing Groups/clubs, Peer to peer teaching

Visits, demos, guided tours

Part of school curriculum

Website Money box/ Prepaid cards

Count

ACDEP 3 An Opportunity for All: Financial Education in Africa 3 Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda

5 Austrian National Bank (OeNB) 7

BANSEFI 4

BRAC 2

Bubomi Absa 6

Camfed 2 Central Bank of Republic of Argentina 3 Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia

3

Crédito con Educación Rural 2 Faulu Advisory Services 3 Financial Literacy and Education Commission

1

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Name


Audio-visual









Count

FINCA Mexico 2 Fin Lit- Financial Literacy Foundation

3

Freddie Mac

1

Free to Grow 2 Freedom from Hunger

4

Insurance Consumer Education - Kenya (ICE-K)

2 iMali Matters Money Advice 1 Junior Achievement

4

Mediae: Makutano Jn.

2

National Community Financial Edu. Workshops 1 Opportunity International 4 OI Bank of Malawi 3 Private EduDevlpt. Network 6 Population Council 3

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Name


Audio-visual









Count


1

Pro Mujer 2 SiyakhaNentsha 2 South African Insu.Assn. 1 Starting a Lifetime of Savings 3 Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development 1 The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

2

U Bank

3

Xac Bank

4

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2-3.6 Initiatives by Topics covered

Name

Savings Credit Insurance

Pension Remittance Budgeting Investments

Debt mgmt.

Banking Processes

Business devlpt. / entrepren-eurship

Govt. programs

Count

The Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP) 1 1

1

1

4


0

Association of MFIs of Uganda 1 1

1 1

1 5


1

1

BANSEFI

0

BRAC 1 1

1

1 1 1

6

Bubomi Absa 1 1

1

1 1

5

Camfed 1 1

1

1

4

Central Bank of Republic of Argentina

0


0

Crédito con Educación Rural 1 1

1

3

Faulu Advisory Services 1 1

1

1 1 1

6 Financial Literacy and Education Commission 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

8

FINCA Mexico

0


0

Freddie Mac

0

Free to Grow

0

Freedom from Hunger 1 1 1

1

4 Insurance Consumer Education - Kenya (ICE-K) Radio Campaign 0


0

Junior Achievement

0

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2-3.6 Initiatives by Topics covered

Name

Savings Credit Insurance

Pension Remittance Budgeting Investments

Debt mgmt.

Banking Processes

Business devlpt. / entrepren-eurship

Govt. programs

Count

Mediae: Makutano Junction 1 1

1

1 1

5 -National Community Financial Education Workshops

1 1 1 1

1 1 6

Opportunity International 1 1

1

1

4

O.I. Bank of Malawi

0

Private Edu. Development Network 1

1

1

3

Population Council 1

1

1

3 Postbank/Wizzit Financial Literacy Project

0

Pro Mujer 1

1

2 SiyakhaNentsha 1

1

2


1

1

Starting a Lifetime of Savings 1

1

Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development 1 1

1

3

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada 1 1

1

3

U Bank 1 1

1

1

4

Xac Bank

0

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2-3.7 Initiatives by funding sources

Name Grant

funding Self-

funding Beneficiary

funding

The Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP)




BANSEFI

BRAC

Bubomi Absa o

Camfed

Central Bank of Republic of Argentina


Crédito con Educación Rural



FINCA Mexico o


Freddie Mac

Free to Grow

Freedom from Hunger Insurance Consumer Education - Kenya (ICE-K) o


Junior Achievement



Opportunity International


PEDN o

Population Council


Pro Mujer SiyakhaNentsha





U Bank

Xac Bank

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2-4 International Initiatives of relevance to India

2-4.1 Initiatives most relevant to the Indian context1

1 Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda

Delivery Methods: The Uganda Microfinance Consumer Education Programme was delivered in 2005-2007 through mass media, MFIs and training institutions. The modules covered awareness about the Bank services and the products, Savings, Debt management, financial negotiation, government programmes and Savings and Credit Cooperatives(SACCOs)and the way to access these programmes. The primary mode of communication used was radio programs and messages. AMFIU also uses other outlets in its financial education programme including dance, music, drama, posters, flyers, picture cards, flip charts, consumer handbooks, Money world(a newspaper specific to the campaign), TV talk shows, publications and workshops. Outcomes: Baseline and mid-term surveys (six months after the beginning of the program implementation) were undertaken in districts where the financial education campaign took place. The mid-term survey reports showed a marked increase in awareness of financial institutions among respondents, from 67.2% aware of the presence of MFIs in their areas before the campaign, to 82.8% midway through the programme. In addition, 93% of respondents reported they had savings accounts, which is 69.6% higher than the 23.4% in the baseline survey. 83.1% of people reported that it was possible to save, a dramatic increase from the initial 16.9%. The research also revealed a shift in attitude in regard to consumers’ rights and obligations, accompanied by an increasing demand for microfinance services in terms of short-term loans. Moreover, the percentage of respondents who belong to SACCOs doubled from pre-exposure to the mid-term study (REEV Consult International, 2007).

Relevance to the Indian Context: The mass media campaign clearly helped AMFIU reach a vast

number of people, to not only to increase their knowledge and improve their attitudes, but also to influence changes in behaviour. Given the good outcomes, it is clear that the messages were well received and retained. Radio has proved to be a useful communication method for the first wave of financial literacy messages, followed by more intensive group and individual efforts.

1 All evaluation studies performed by various academic bodies and independent researchers (quoted verbatim

in the “outcomes” section of each initiative) have been sourced from:Messy, F. and C. Monticone (2012), “The status of financial education in Africa”, OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions, No. 25, OECD Publishing, available for download at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k94cqqx90wl-e

Country Uganda

Institution Type Association/ Network

Intervention Type Implementing

Objective To increase responsible financial behaviour among young adults

Target Segment Economically active poor, over 18 years old, with low literacy and income levels of 35 districts of Uganda

Outreach Information unavailable

Funding & Sustainability The funding of consumer education programme depends on both AMFIU member organisations and external donors. Since 2004, the organisation has spent approximately US$ 500,000 on financial education programmes.

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Delivery Methods: The bank delivers its content on loans, deposit, money transfer, plastic cards and accounts through video clips on financial topics, illustrated tests for electronic learning, cross words, hidden words and tables on its website. Financial consumer guides, economic dictionary, CDs with illustrated tests, computerised games on financial management are also available in addition to organising workshops to educate consumers how to maximize benefits from financial services by using those which best suit their needs.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Games which require existing literacy levels are not relevant for

the Indian context. However, videos, electronic and video games and illustrated tests may be useful to adapt to the Indian context, as they are engaging and may capture the attention of the recipients more effectively than other methods.

3 Faulu Advisory Services

Country Armenia

Institution Type Regulator


Objective Improvement in financial literacy levels amongst general public and especially among school children

Target Segment General public/ School children

Outreach Information unavailable

Funding & Sustainability Supported by government funds

Country Kenya

Institution Type MFI/ MFI Group


Objective Faulu Advisory Services was founded with a mandate of building the capacity of individual entrepreneurs in business or aspiring to start their businesses, entrepreneurial groups and the institutions that serve them.

Target Segment Female and male clients in the age group of 18-35 years

Outreach >70,000

Funding & Sustainability The most interesting aspect of Faulu’s programmes is that customers pay a fee for the trainings, although this is a small proportion of the cost. Business trainings sessions are offered to clients for KES 500 ($6), although the actual cost is almost double. FAS charges participants KES 150 ($2) for two half-day training sessions. In addition to sustaining the training, FAS’s experience also shows that when clients contribute a small amount towards training, they are more likely to commit to and participate in the training.

The costs to develop different options are equally shared between FAS and its donors—about $390,000 in a two-year pilot phase that

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Background: Faulu Advisory Services (FAS), a subsidiary of Faulu Kenya Deposit Taking Microfinance Institution (FKDTM) was started after the realization that most businesses stagnate at a certain point despite the increase in loan amounts put into the business. Upon probing the trend it was realized the leading cause of this situation was the limited capacity of the entrepreneurs, hence this intervention. Delivery Methods: Core financial education curriculum of Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) is delivered by FAS to female and male clients within the age group of 18-35 years. On average, Faulu clients have eight years of primary education. The medium used for this programme is face-to-face training for clients and the general public, DVDs, comic strips, and financial education booklets. Outcomes:Evaluation of Faulu’s programmes conducted in association with Population Council, have been covered under the section on the latter.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Indian initiatives may be able to adopt Faulu's approach of

partial sharing of costs by beneficiaries and resulting seriousness in attending the classes. Reasons for Faulu's success in attracting participation despite charging a fee, should be researched as Indian initiatives have experienced low enrolment when they have attempted to charge customers for financial literacy.

4 FINCA Mexico

Delivery Methods: The lessons are delivered through face to face trainings and have reached 10,500 people with prepaid cards, all of whom received financial education training. Outcomes: The data according to FINCA Mexico’s call centre and client surveys suggest that clients find financial education useful. In particular, they found the simulated demonstrations (99%) and the ATM guide booklet (95%) to be most useful. One indicator of success for this financial education programme is the uptake of cards and their continuous use. This is especially true following the second loan cycle and after the initial excitement with a new product declines. FINCA Mexico

covered five branches and 70,500 customers.

Faulu’s programmes have been funded by FKDTM, Population Council and several other donors.

Country Mexico



Objective FINCA delivers financial education lessons to build confidence and knowledge around prepaid cards of low-income women who have traditionally been excluded from formal financial services in both rural and urban areas.

Target Segment Low income women

Outreach FINCA Mexico currently serves around 100,000 clients, and it hopes to reach 30,000 with its pre-paid card initiative in the short term. 10,500 clients have been covered already

Funding & Sustainability FINCA Mexico used grant funds (from VISA and USAID) to develop training materials as part of the programme pilot tests, it includes the full cost of training in its long-term sustainability projections for the card service.

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surveyed 205 clients within a week of receiving a loan. Of these clients, 93% planned to continue using the card.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Follow up of financial literacy training with the actual service (in

this case the card) results in desired behaviour change. However, in the context of Indian financial service providers and banking correspondents, such a strategy may result in mis-selling, especially when a variety of products carrying different commissions and incentives are on offer. Incentive structures could be appropriately designed to promote service quality rather than product-specific sales. However, this would be very difficult to monitor, especially in a large-scale programme.

5 Freddie Mac

Delivery Methods: A 13-episode soap opera called Nuestro Barrio, targeted at Latino immigrants, was scripted in the form of infotainment. It first aired on the WB network in North Carolina, making it the first Spanish language show to air on an English network in the United States. It has since been broadcast on both non-profit and for-profit channels in major markets nationwide.

Outcomes: Nuestro Barrio’s approach is rooted firmly and intentionally in an ambitious educational model based on the Trans-theoretical Model of Behavioural Change (TTM theory). TTM theory structures the process of behavioural change, asserting that individuals move through five stages as they progress toward permanent behavioural change - pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. An evaluation study has found strong, consistent effects of Nuestro Barrio with respect to viewers’ stages of change and processes of change (i.e. viewers were more likely to show movement into successive stages of changes).2

Relevance to the Indian Context: A soap-opera styled programme would be able to convey financial literacy messages effectively as the medium is very popular in India and is watched by several women householders, especially in lower income households. Translation into local languages and good scripting and storyline would attract viewers.

2Actual results are available in the paper http://www.clarku.edu/departments/idce/docs/NUIC/UNorthCarolina.pdf

Country USA

Institution Type Home Loan Mortgage Company


Objective To spread financial literacy among Latino immigrants

Target Segment Latino immigrants

Outreach ~80,000 viewers

Funding & Sustainability Sponsored by Freddie Mac

http://www.clarku.edu/departments/idce/docs/NUIC/UNorthCarolina.pdf

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6 Freedom from Hunger

Delivery methods:Freedom from Hunger has developed, tested and published a series of financial education modules that cover household finance, savings strategies, consumer protection for microfinance clients and insurance. These manuals serve as technical guides to train local staff as well as the staff of microfinance institutions to impart trainings to microfinance clients. Delivery method depends on the implementing institutions. Modules are designed to be Enjoyable and Easy to Use. Enjoyable: The methods use familiar and safe techniques, such as discussions, stories, skits, games and pictures. Each session can be implemented in 30 minutes to enable women to participate despite work and family responsibilities. The group-based learning builds connections among women and provides a safe place for them to share their ideas, problems and achievements. Illiterate women can participate fully in each session. Their lack of literacy does not affect their ability to engage with the material nor limit their contribution in groups of women of varying levels of literacy. Easy to Use: Materials required to implement the sessions are minimal and available in the immediate environment (for example, leaves and stones) or are easy to reproduce and hand-carry. Each session addresses one issue so that women receive complete information in a single session and the sessions can be delivered days or weeks apart. Each session contains complete instructions on how to organize each step, including questions to ask and what information to provide. For more complex topics, a section on Frequently Asked Questions and Resource Materials is included.

Relevance to the Indian Context: The modules are adapted to take advantage of local opportunities and to address local challenges. Topics are presented in the local-language; and modules use dialogue-based tools that do not require that a woman read or write. Such low-cost delivery models would be easily scalable in an Indian context, especially in group scenarios, for example microfinance borrowers. A detailed study of the materials used in this program would be useful.

Country Funding from USA; Financial education initiatives of Freedom from Hunger cover underprivileged women in several countries including Haiti, Peru, Bolivia, Mali, Ghana, Burkina, Faso, India, Philippines and Madagascar

Institution Type NGO

Intervention Type Apex

Objective To educate women on a variety of different topics which empower them

Target Segment Women, especially from underprivileged backgrounds

Outreach Data not available

Funding & Sustainability Entirely funded through grant funds

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7 iMali Matters Money Advice

Delivery Methods: Each centre is staffed by two expert counsellors who not only deal with individual cases, but also conduct free workshops and lectures on topics most needed in their areas.Each centre is also equipped to provide a phone-in service to complement the walk-in service.Imali Matters offers advice on specific needs, such as savings, signing contracts, taking insurance, inheritance, budgeting, financial products, getting the best deal, understanding account statements (including interest and charges), and understanding credit bureaus and reports.Members of the public can also visit iMali Matters for redress on issues such as defaults, legal action, over-indebtedness, emolument attachment orders, overcharging, defective products, harmful business practices and unlawful contracts.The advice offered, is unbiased, not based on any brand or institution, and does not result in a sale.

Outcomes: The Imali Matters project tested the viability and benefit of face-to-face support to consumers in the three walk-in centres. A comparison of pre- and post-intervention survey results, focus group discussions and credit bureau data indicates an improvement in both financial knowledge and self-reported behaviour along a number of dimensions (e.g. budgeting, making ends meet, planning ahead, loans and borrowing, selecting financial products and finances in general). Overall, evidence of impact seems most pronounced with respect to reducing and managing debt, and increasing client confidence. (Eighty20 Consulting 2011b, 2011c).

Relevance to the Indian Context: This intervention may be useful in the context of Indian consumers, as a walk-in centre or customer helpline facility may encourage potential customers and unbanked individuals to seek assistance - especially since the service offered is free. The unbiased and completely independent advice given removes the risk of mis-selling.

8 Mediae: Makutano Junction

Country South Africa

Institution Type Consortium of various financial sector providers and specialized agencies (Joint venture between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Credit Ombud, FinMark Trust, African Bank, and the Money Advice Association)


Objective To give South African consumers free, informed advice on money matters across the consumer spectrum

Target Segment All financial services consumers in South Africa

Outreach 3 pilot advice centres in Cape Town, Durban and Germiston. Dealing with several callers and walk-in customers per day.

Funding & Sustainability Financial Education Fund and African Bank

Country Kenya

Institution Type Media company, production house


Objective Improving the management of personal finances for Kenyan adults

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Delivery Methods: Mediae, is a development organisation which, over the years, has used radio to deal with various financial education issues, from pyramid schemes to money lending. Makutano Junction is a popular educational drama series in Kenya. Using grants from the Financial Education Fund (FEF), the programme included a financial education strand in Series 9 and 10. The programme covered banking practices, budgeting, savings and investment. At the end of each episode, the audience was encouraged to SMS their name and contact details for a leaflet on the content of the particular episode, which would then be posted to them. The programme also uses poster and comics. Outcomes: Upon completion and broadcast of Makutano Junction Seasons 9 & 10, an estimated 11,280,882 viewers have watched the drama and been exposed to the financial literacy messages. Programme evaluation is presented in the Mediae Financial Education Endline Study Report. (Not available in public domain). Considering financial management skills a low priority for those who have hand-to-mouth existence, limited time available to watch TV, differences in access to banking facilities, financial education information (through media, advertising, etc.) and grassroots-level financial support (both prior to and after airing) across the various communities, districts and regions, gender inequality in Kenyan society regarding financial matters, a natural reluctance in Kenya for people to openly discuss their financial status and concerns are some of the constraints faced by Mediae.

Relevance to the Indian Context: The Makutano Junction films follow a very entertaining format - these would be useful to replicate in the Indian context as infotainment serials. As the soap-opera/ serial format is very popular among Indian households, such a program would be quite engaging if scripted appropriately and translated into a wide set of local languages. The most important part of the programme is the follow up option – to SMS one’s details to a helpline number, thereby eliciting contact by financial advisory services, representatives of banks and other financial service providers. The programme therefore not only delivers appropriate messages but gives ample scope for immediate follow up and potential behaviour change.

9 National Community Financial Education Workshops

Delivery Methods: These were interactive workshops targeted at low income adults in rural areas. The content of the programme included various issues, both at a general and a more advanced level

Target Segment 18-40 year old Kenyans

Outreach 11,280,882 viewers

Funding & Sustainability Grants from Financial Education Fund


Institution Type Regulator/ Government


Objective To improve the quality of financial literacy for low income adults in rural areas

Target Segment Low income groups


Funding & Sustainability Government funding through the Financial Services Board of South Africa

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(i.e., budgeting; credit/debt; saving; insurance; pension, as well as financial management; where to find information; making complaints). Outcomes:The Financial Services Board (FSB) of South Africa carried out an evaluation of its National Community Financial Education Workshops. The evaluation was carried out at the end of the workshops and three months after, and consisted of a feedback questionnaire delivered to participants in person. A helpline was also offered. The evaluation highlighted that participants gained an understanding of the budget process, and that they improved their behaviour regarding budgetary issues.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Workshops especially for low income groups conducted in villages, hamlets and urban slums may help to deliver important messages to community gatekeepers who can then transfer key messages to the rest of the community, and mobilize others for more intensive programs.

10 Opportunity International

Background: Opportunity’s (MFI) partners in the Philippines provide poor families with access to small loans and insurance. However, many people do not know how to effectively use these services and manage their cash flow, so low levels of financial literacy hamper efforts to improve financial inclusion. To address this issue Opportunity, in partnership with AusAID and APPEND, has developed a Financial Literacy Program which aims to empower low income households in the Philippines to make informed financial decisions and plan effectively for the future. Delivery Methods: The project features an integrated visual learning syllabus, implemented in partnership with three MFI partners – ASKI, TPKI and HSPFI. The three major objectives of the pilot project are to increase a client's financial planning capabilities, credit management capabilities and their investment capabilities. A suite of innovative integrated multimedia-based financial education resources and materials were designed and developed in 2011. The content has been developed in game-show format with ‘fun’ host, “Fast Eddie”. The DVD covers nine modules, each module being10-12 minutes long, and includes modules on Financial

Country Programme country - Philippines



Objective To improve financial inclusion levels in the Philippines among low income segments through empowering households in this target segment with adequate information to take informed decisions

Target Segment Low income households/ MFI clients of 3 selected institutions

Outreach Depending on results from evaluation surveys, Opportunity and other stakeholders will determine the feasibility of rolling out the program across the Philippines. With the resources already developed, Opportunity is confident that they will be shared across Opportunity’s network of MFIs—which could result in the increased financial literacy of over one million clients.

Funding & Sustainability AusAid, APPEND and Opportunity are the key stakeholders in the programme

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Management, Savings and Budgeting. Accompanying resources have also been developed including a comic, comprised of the key learnings from the DVD and promotional materials such as posters and stickers. The DVDs are played at client group meetings, and then followed by a group discussion. MFI staff have been trained as facilitators and are equipped with notes, which include relevant module information as well as tips on running workshops. Outcomes: Being a pilot, the main purpose of this project is to assess the effectiveness of the multimedia financial education intervention and to determine the possibility for expansion throughout the Philippines and other regions. To assess its effectiveness two surveys will be conducted – an initial baseline survey and an end point survey. A specialised mobile phone based survey technology will help facilitate the collection of survey data from the field. The phone application has a series of questions which aim to gauge the clients’ knowledge, behaviours and attitudes to financial management. Results from the initial baseline survey will be compared to results from the end-point survey, to be conducted in September 2012, to monitor how the financial literacy levels of participants have changed.

Relevance to the Indian Context:Short films have been successful in the Indian financial literacy landscape (Janalakshmi and Parinaam). While these films have been more serious in nature, a fun and entertaining set of modules such as the DVDs used in this programme may have better retention results in the Indian context as they engage audiences of all ages, using an edutainment or infotainment format.

11 Opportunity International Bank of Malawi

Delivery Methods: Mix of multimedia (DVDs and radio); information delivery and individual training meetings (one-on-one coaching). The mix of various methods is intended to capture the attention of a mass audience, engage interested members for more intensive group sessions and culminate in individual follow ups and intensive coaching for lasting behaviour change. Outcomes: OIBM measures the success of its financial education programme through the improvement of portfolio quality indicators and increases in the use of its products and services. An internal review found that the number of savings accounts had steadily increased since 2005. Relevance to the Indian Context: Multimedia attracts the attention of the target segment, while one-on-one meetings reinforce key messages and give the detailed inputs which will result in behaviour change. Costs balance out - multimedia is cost heavy in design but low cost in delivery; follow up training is vice versa.

Country Malawi

Institution Type Bank


Objective To improve financial capability and behaviour of young adults

Target Segment Young adults of 18-35 years of age

Outreach 337,000 people- 83,000 through direct training activities and 250,000 through DVDs.

Funding & Sustainability The bank has allocated approximately US$130,000 for financial education, 26% of which was donor funded.

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12 South African Insurance Association

Delivery Methods: SAIA has delivered financial awareness through its programme “Financial Freedom”, which is about money management, debt and credit, short-term insurance, and consumer rights and responsibilities. Messages were targeted at peri-urban and urban commuters, including those who travel for work, job searches, and school/studies. The channels used are Media outlets, such as billboard advertisements for ‘Rank’ television, satellite radio, audio programmes, and other entertainment or physical outlets.The outreach of these channels is very wide (estimated at around 5.5 million commuters across 4 radio channels). 4,755 CDs were distributed to taxi drivers to play for their clientele.

A special insurance module was developed by Bright Media for the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) and was funded by the Financial Education Fund (FEF) to deliverinsurance education through a radio drama. The programme was broadcast through four radio stations, addressing audiences in four different languages and using the audience of a fifth station not broadcasting the drama as a comparison group.The programme also involved call-in sessions after each episode managed by experts proficient in the languages of the stations (with no mention of specific companies).

Outcomes: The impact of the project was measured through interviews before and after the broadcast. The findings suggest a positive impact of the radio drama on financial knowledge, confidence and self-reported behaviour (e.g. budgeting, saving regularly and paying bills on time). The identification of the impact of the programme was made more difficult by the fact that another financial literacy programme was broadcast in the same areas in the same period. However, the SAIA programme was mostly focused on insurance topics and the fact that the evaluation highlighted promising results in relation to insurance (e.g. awareness of insurance products at endline was significantly higher, with an increase in the desire to have short term insurance products with respect to baseline) lends support to the programme effectiveness (Pearson and Bruynse, 2011; SAIA and Bright Media, 2011b).

Relevance to the Indian Context: SAIA's mass market measures may be useful to adopt as incremental cost is low given the massive numbers of commuters who travel by public transport – especially trains and buses in India. Messages would be especially attractive since they are scripted in an infotainment format. Follow-up with call-in sessions handled by experts in financial advisory


Institution Type Association/ Network


Objective Generate financial awareness to encourage better financial decision making among general public

Target Segment Peri-urban and urban commuters

Outreach 5,500,000 commuters (it is estimated that 80.44% of commuters watch or hear the chosen TV/ radio channels, and 86% of these commuters remember the financial messages.

Funding & Sustainability SAIA’s consumer education campaigns are dependent on its members’ continuous contributions to ensure sufficient funding is available for future campaigns. Overall project cost for this activity has been approximately US$ 400,000.

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services not only clear doubts and answer relevant questions but build a personal touch for the audience, reinforce key messages and enhance retention levels.

13 Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development (SPEED)

Delivery Methods: The multiple delivery channel includes posters, hand books, and pocket guides and SPEED Ghana ‘road shows’, which use theatre plays and puppets and radio programmes. The theatre/puppet shows played in all regions, directly benefiting 106 rural and urban towns. The shows were done in collaboration with more than 100 rural financial institutions. In the road show, financial behaviours among rural households were dramatized together with cultural dance performances. The core message communicated through the drama was "savings and responsible borrowing". The road show was designed to educate clients about their rights and obligations vis-a-vis financial institutions and enable them to take informed decisions on borrowing, saving and investment based on a sound knowledge of the benefits, costs and risks of financial products. MFI staff were also trained in Training of Trainers sessions, after which they conducted trainings for MFI clients across Ghana. Additionally, loan officers of micro finance institutions are sensitized about how to correctly treat their customers-especially those that have had no prior access to finance. Outcomes: SPEED conducted a qualitative impact assessment in order to gauge the success of the programme. A sample of 15 banks was interviewed for the impact study, all of which reported an increase in the number of clients (from 1.7% to 336% between January and June 2008) and in the level of deposits (from 4% to 3,938%) following the road show.

Country Ghana

Institution Type Consortium of regulator and various financial sector players


Objective To create awareness and educate both the microfinance clients and microfinance institutions on access to financial services

To create an environment for more transparency from microfinance institutions thereby minimizing the exiting mistrust among clients about the MFIs

To promote responsible financial behaviour and practices among micro and small entrepreneurs

Target Segment The target beneficiaries are groups with low levels of education, which are mostly employed in the informal sector: people 18–30 years old; students in tertiary education institutions who are about to start working; and women and women’s groups - in 106 rural and urban towns.

Outreach

Funding & Sustainability SPEED is a donor-funded initiative to institutionalise enterprise development and consumer education in Ghana. It was founded in 2003, in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Bank of Ghana, and the Danish International Development Agency (Danida). SPEED received a block financial education grant of about US$ 450,000 to cover the initial costs of implementing and maintaining campaigns, product design, and dissemination of financial education.

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Relevance to the Indian Context: Collaboration with a variety of rural financial institutions at the block or district level may increase the chances of success (in this case Government, Industry Microfinance associations, technical partners and funders). For instance if FLCCs, MFIs and BCs in the area make a concerted effort to combine resources and conduct comprehensive financial literacy workshops/ road-shows at village level in the specific operational area, the outcomes may be better than disparate efforts. The box on South Africa and India’s myriad financial literacy programmes (page 126) showcases similar learnings – convergence in various programmes may yield the best results as messages are reinforced through different channels using a variety of communication strategies.

2-4.2 Initiatives moderately relevant to the Indian context3

14 The Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP)

Delivery Methods: Group and Peer-to-peer training onfinancial education, capacity building and business skills. Information on suitable credit and savings services according to agricultural cash flows. Trainings included business planning for maximizing returns. Videos were screened on various financial services and good practices in financing farming activities.

Outcomes: The evaluation has been carried out through a longitudinal survey of the same subjects one year and a half after the implementation. The findings suggest that the initiative had a positive impact on the saving behaviour of participants, both in terms of personal and group savings. The percentage of farmers who opened personal savings accounts with banks, and the percentage of farmers who knew how much was in their accounts increased in the endline results with respect to baseline. Moreover, among programme participants who said they knew their groups’ bank balances, the average savings per group was almost three times the baseline survey results; as the result for the comparison group was not significantly different from the baseline results, this

3 All evaluation studies performed by various academic bodies and independent researchers (quoted verbatim in the “outcomes” section of each initiative) have been sourced from:Messy, F. and C. Monticone (2012), “The status of financial education in Africa”, OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions, No. 25, OECD Publishing, available for download at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k94cqqx90wl-e

Country Ghana



Objective Enhance the use of business plans Increase the use of financial services (mainly savings and cash-crop loans) Compare the effectiveness of different training approaches

Target Segment Farmers in Ghana

Outreach 1800 farmers, 45% of these women

Funding & Sustainability Entirely donor funded, hence time bound.

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supports the idea that the increase in savings by the group members is attributable to the financial education training they received (Morna and Anamoh, 2011).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Farmer suicides regularly take place in India due to indebtedness. Modules which are especially relevant to farmers could be designed on similar lines as part of the overall Financial Literacy strategy. The Peer to peer training delivery method appears to work well in this context as farmers discuss farming methods and strategies with each other and information could be formally passed on in farmers' clubs, credit cooperatives etc.

15 An Opportunity for All: Financial Education in Africa

Delivery Methods: The programme tested the delivery of financial education via a multimedia video delivery channel (DVD played in banking hall for clients, and with portable DVD players for rural clients and communities).

Outcomes: The evaluation is based on a longitudinal study of ‘treated’ and ‘control’ groups observed over the course of the study by means of baseline and endline surveys, as well as transaction data collected by the banks. The project aimed at achieving several objectives and the various country branches achieved them to different degrees, in part because some of them chose to focus more on some parts of the contents (e.g., in Uganda four of the nine modules focused on understanding financial products and features, while in Malawi several of the financial education units were targeted around mobile banking and familiarisation with technology). The objective of increasing the awareness of the target audience of the financial services available to them was met to a higher extent in Uganda than in the other countries. No country registered a substantial increase in the

Country Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda

Institution Type Specialized Agency


Objective The project set out to find a high impact, cost effective approach for quality dissemination of financial education to the target segment. It aimed to offer financial education in a way that would build the confidence and capability of the target audience to engage in financial decisions with a sense of informed choice. The project aimed to evaluate impact through four objectives, namely:

Increasing the awareness of the target audience on a wide range of financial services;

Increasing usage of savings accounts and insurance products by low income people;

Promoting better management of credit and increased awareness of the dangers related to multiple borrowing;

Encouraging a diversification of asset storage away from cash, particularly though the use of information and communication based financial services.

Target Segment Individual loan and voluntary savings clients of various financial institutions across these countries.

Outreach 110,000

Funding & Sustainability Grants from Financial Education Fund (FEF) through Opportunity International

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usage of savings accounts and insurance products with respect to the baseline (accounting for changes in the control group). The Malawi branches were more successful than the others at promoting better management of credit and increasing awareness of the dangers relating to multiple borrowing. Moreover, the survey data suggest that in Malawi (results not available for the other countries) the programme successfully encouraged diversification of asset storage away from cash, particularly through the use of ICT-based financial services (e.g., Smart Cards, ATMs and POS devices) (Pennington, Gustafson, and Ngo, 2011).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Multimedia interventions can attract the attention of the target segment. However, delivery of messages to the target populationmay have limited effects on behaviour change– in this case there was no significant increase in usage of savings accounts and insurance products. This could have useful implications for India: i.e. mass media communications may help to deliver an idea to a large section of the population, but unless it is followed up by more direct and interactive forms of intervention, behaviour change may not immediately follow.

16 Austrian National Bank (OeNB)

Delivery Methods: Trainings include presentations and guided tours to the Money Museum in Vienna. The OeNB also organizes workshops, conferences, seminars and special publications and projects on economic and financial literacy. It also awards a special prize for its Consumer Awareness Competition, conducted annually. All resources and materials can be accessed on its website. It has also developed a school information kit tailored to students aged between 14 and 19 with leaflets covering selected financial and economic topics in the context with the crisis, short videos, which shows briefly some duties of a central bank in addition to teaching materials for schools. Tours and demos are organized for school students so that they can be made aware of the functioning of a bank and become familiar with how to transact.

Workshops and publications may not have much relevance for low income segments. However, tour of a bank, practical walk-through of banking processes and ATM transactions, through demos and hand-holding sessions may result in better retention of messages in the Indian context.

Country Austria

Institution Type Regulator/ Governmen


Objective To improve the financial knowledge of general public and school children with a view to encouraging financially responsible behaviour

Target Segment Students, teachers, journalists, school children aged 14-19


Funding & Sustainability Government funded

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17 BRAC

Background: BRAC is a development organisation dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about change in their own lives. BRAC’s intervention in financial literacy forms part of its various programmes such as Ultra Poor in many countries including India, The Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) programme in Uganda and The Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SOFEA) project in Bangladesh. Ultra Poor programmes adopted by MFIs in other countries have been discussed separately in the report.

Delivery Methods: The Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SOFEA) project has six components designed to achieve its objectives through a holistic approach. These include a club that provides a safe place for girls aged 11-21 years to socialize; training on life skills that enable girls to acquire the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions; livelihood training for girls that enable them to learn the skills required for economic opportunities; training to equip girls with financial literacy; savings and credit facilities; and community sensitization to increase the community’s ownership towards the club. Outcomes: Baseline completed. Programme results not evaluated yet.

Relevance to the Indian Context:Given the history of gender inequalities in India and social problems such as child marriage and early pregnancies, programmes such as these which empower young girls with income-earning skills and encourage them to save and manage finances may be of relevance. However, as women’s access to financial resources within the household is limited (more so for unmarried women and girls in the traditional homes) the programme may not have similar success in India.

18 Bubomi programme – run by ABSA

Country Bangladesh

Institution Type MFI/ Group


Objective The Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SOFEA) project is a BRAC initiative aimed at providing adolescent girls with financial and social support to enable them to empower themselves.

Target Segment Poor and ultra-poor adolescent girls

Outreach There are 360 SoFEA clubs established in 5 Upazilas/Thana of Bangladesh covering 5 districts.

Funding & Sustainability Funded entirely by grants




Objective Bubomi intends to teach more than 30,000 consumers about how they could manage their financial affairs better by hosting interactive workshops in both metropolitan and rural areas.

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Delivery Methods: Bubomi-Absa focuses on both classroom-type as well as awareness-type training in financial literacy. Bubomi uses creative story-telling techniques to describe daily financial mishaps and personal triumphs and encourages audience participation to extract practical learning outcomes.Bubomi is presented in the participants own choice of languages and the public understanding, education and training is aligned to the South African Qualification Authority (Saqa) and National Qualifications Framework's (NQF) unit standards.Bubomi takes place at centres throughout South Africa, including youth clubs.

Absa, in collaboration with other banks, also participated in the Teach Children to Save campaign. More than 240 Absa volunteers reached 44 schools and 22,466 children in Grades 4 to 7. Children were educated in the basic concept of savings and received an Absa money box as well as a flyer containing tips on savings to take home. The initiative was spearheaded by the Banking Association South Africa (BASA) in keeping with the country’s Financial Sector Charter.

Absa has trained 140 000 delegates through various consumer education programmes. This training aims to enable consumers to make better choices about their finances, and to improve their financial health and wellbeing.The programme delivered classroom-based interactive workshops to low-income consumers to teach them how to better manage their financial affairs.

Outcomes: An evaluation exercise was conducted to test the impact of the programme in a rural village area, comparing village residents who were trained as opposed to the control group. The assessment was performed over four dimensions: perceived financial knowledge; financial confidence; financial attitudes; and financial management behaviour.According to the evaluation findings, programme participants were, on average, statistically significantly more likely to display better perceived financial knowledge; be more confident when performing basic financial activities; display financial attitudes more oriented towards the long term and towards sound financial behaviour; and report to manage their finances more responsibly (Tustin, 2010).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Bubomi-Absa’s efforts of reaching out to youth via schools and youth clubs may be useful for replication in an urban Indian context. Relevance for low-income masses may be limited, given low enrolment and attendance rates in schools. However, a similar strategy would be useful to adopt for youth undertaking various forms of vocational training, young entrepreneurs and children of microfinance clients.

19 Camfed

Target Segment Youth and general public

Outreach 140,000

Funding & Sustainability Own funds

Country Zambia



Objective The major constraints for financial inclusion in Zambia are lack of accessible, viable credit or savings options, particularly banks willing to lend to women in the absence of collateral; lack of local and national government support towards the empowerment of women and difficulties for young women in raising funds to launch, sustain or grow enterprises. Camfed seeks to change this situation through empowering women with financial education.

Target Segment Young, rural women in Zambia. The target beneficiaries are young women

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Delivery Methods: The project aimed at delivering financial education training to young women in rural communities through a cascade training model (where core trainers trained peer educators, who in turn trained community members). The process evaluation revealed that the cascade model was efficient to reach the target audience in a short period of time. Moreover, quarterly meetings among all Peer Educators within a district turned out to be useful for sharing knowledge, feedback, and training improvement. Training is cascaded initially through the Cama network. Cama is the pan-African, Camfed supported network of young women, with nearly 3500 members in Zambia. Twenty-four Core Trainers are responsible for training 800 women, and from them identifying 160 Peer Educators (20 in each of 8 districts) who will in turn train a total of 8,000 other young women in one day financial education workshops. Outcomes: Impact evaluation was carried out through a baseline and an endline survey administered to samples of ‘treated’ and ‘control’ women. The results show that trainees improved their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in a number of aspects (i.e., saving, credit/borrowing, and banking), while in many cases comparison women did not report any significant change. However, the percentage of respondents who have opened a new savings account did not change significantly among either treatment or control groups. Anecdotal evidence indicates that in some of the districts where financial institutions are not available, the training made some women confident enough to start informal saving groups and to advocate the introduction of banking services in the area (Kasonka and Mutelo 2011).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Cascading method of training may be cost effective for India, but has severe monitoring implications during scale up. Varying results from the impact evaluation study indicate that while peer education may be successful, it needs to be followed by actual financial services delivery so that trainees have the opportunity to convert their learning into behaviour change.

20 Crédito con Educación Rural

Delivery Methods: CRECER offers integrated financial and non-financial services to all its clients. Prior to implementation, CRECER carefully analysed and studied each module related to financial education. The financial education sessions were adapted to respond to the reality of each of the operational regions. When adapting the curriculum, CRECER took into account factors such as the

school-leavers (aged 16-35) in eight districts in rural Zambia.

Outreach 10000 women in rural Zambia

Funding The programme is funded through the Financial Education Fund.

Country Bolivia



Objective Part of institutional mandate to provide financial services and financial education to clients

Target Segment Own microfinance clients

Outreach 98,000

Funding Funded through a mix of own and donor funds from Freedom From Hunger and other donors

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education level of the clients, their length of time in the programme and relevant cultural aspects. In addition to using the materials that are a part of the Global Financial Education Programme curriculum, CRECER has also created their own learning aids based on the modules. Some of these tools include cloth flipcharts with colourful pictures and diagrams that can be used during the learning sessions and workbooks for each client with key financial education messages. CRECER has also developed a set of educational videos that feature different learning sessions. The entire training process has followed a “cascade” approach, in which the CRECER national training staff trains the regional trainers, who then train loan officers. The loan officers train the clients directly. The modules on budgeting, debt management and savings were delivered to the MFI clients in all seven regions that CRECER serves in Bolivia. The field officer who provides the financial services also delivers the education sessions during weekly and/ or monthly group meetings, during two 6-month loan cycles. Outcomes: CRECER conducted a pre-test quantitative survey with 665 randomly selected clients who had not yet received financial education. With this “baseline” group of clients, it also conducted FGDs to understand initial knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. Results indicated improvement in awareness levels for majority of clients.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Delivery of financial education inputs by field staff has merits for cost effectiveness but may place undue pressure on field staff in addition to their regular duties. The cascade approach is adopted by a few Indian MFIs which are undertaking financial literacy activities. However, it requires strict monitoring to ensure quality control at all stages of training.


Delivery Methods: The Commission coordinates the financial education efforts throughout the federal government, supports the promotion of financial literacy by the private sector while also encouraging the synchronization of efforts between the public and private sectors. It also maintains a website called MyMoney.gov which is a repository of financial education resources tailor-made to suit individual target groups - youth, old people, women, working people, financial literacy trainers, defence personnel, government servants, private sector employees, etc. Outcomes: The FLEC is able to successfully monitor the financial literacy initiatives across the country, while acting as a repository for a massive range of resources.

Country USA



Objective To improve financial literacy and education of persons across different groups in the United States

Target Segment General public


Funding Government funded

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Relevance to the Indian Context: Features of FLEC's monitoring mechanisms would be useful for the Indian context – such as for the Financial Stability and Development Council as it would be performing a similar function as FLEC in terms of guiding and monitoring financial education initiatives in India as per the RBI’s National Strategy for Financial Education. FLEC’s activities as a repository of financial education material could be studied by National Institute of Financial Education (NIFE) which is being set up by RBI to perform a similar task under the aegis of the National Strategy.

22 Free to Grow

Delivery Methods: Free to Grow covers five modules in two-day workshops. MoneySense presents its information via attractive slide shows and graphics, and through various group and individual exercises led by Free to Grow trainers. During the two-day programme, learners have the opportunity to practise real-world applications of the financial education trainings they receive. Outcomes: MoneySense issues a mandatory questionnaire to participants at the completion of each workshop to measure how well its trainers taught the modules. The number of respondents who reported saving increased from 29% in the pre-training survey to a significant 83% who save regularly after training. While 60% claimed not to have used a budget before attending the course, 89% reported budgeting more effectively following the training. 96% of respondents say that they manage money more effectively since the training, and 98% cut out unnecessary buying on credit.

Relevance to the Indian Context: This is one of the very few profitable financial literacy programmes in the world, and only so because employers are paying the costs of the training. It would be very useful to adapt these trainings for a large segment of regular wage earners such as factory workers, contracted domestic help and service sector employees such as security guards, waiters, lift operators, etc. However, this may not be scalable as most employers may not see the benefit of investing in staff, given the high rate of turnover in such jobs in the Indian context. Such a programme may not be suitable for interventions focussed on rural and very low income segments.

Country Several African countries



Objective Free to Grow developed MoneySense, with the objective of empowering individuals to take ownership of their personal finances.

Target Segment This programme is for low-income employees of large companies (e.g., ESKOM, McCain Foods, Foschini Group) with low levels of literacy. Participants range from illiterate individuals to those with university degrees.

Outreach Money Sense has successfully reached approximately 10,000 individuals in nearly 600 organisations since its inception in 2005.

Funding Free to Grow is a profit-based model. Fees for a workshop are US$500–US$1,400 per day per participant. These fees are charged to the employer. Free to Grow is already profitable. It reinvests profits to expand the programme across Africa.

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23 Junior Achievement

Delivery Methods: Junior Achievement has conceptualised a programme for students of primary school and high school, broadening some programme components for college students. Junior Achievement Nigeria staff train teachers and volunteers to teach the financial education curriculum during regular school hours, in most instances. The modules are designed for primary, middle and high school level, with a few modules catering to job seekers and employed youth as well. The programmes are delivered in a mix of classroom training, and hands-on games and activities which teach concepts around financial management and wealth creation. The modules vary in difficulty depending on the target audience and are standardized so that any volunteer can easily deliver them. In this way, Junior Achievement’s unique approach allows volunteers from the community to deliver its curriculum while sharing their individual and unique experiences with students. Outcomes: Social impact assessment report conducted in 2009 by Khulisa Management Services found that Junior Achievement Nigeria’s activities have increased social capacity, a direct result of the enhanced knowledge and practical skills gained through the programme. Additionally, students experienced a change in attitude towards their communities, as well as a sense of citizenship. The major constraint in this programme is particularly for female children in Northern Nigeria where female education is often discouraged or prevented due to early marriage or religious beliefs.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Junior Achievement mixes sponsorship with beneficiary contribution - may be a useful lesson for Indian initiatives. Contribution to a pool of funds ensures future sustainability of the programme and would be useful to replicate in India. This programme could be adapted to suit an adult audience instead of a student audience in the Indian context.

Country Based in USA, operating in several African countries including Nigeria



Objective Building a bridge between the classroom and the workplace and to encouraging young people to participate in a range of educational programmes designed to help them understand the world of work.

Target Segment Male and female students of primary school and high school

Outreach 350,000

Funding JA Nigeria has managed to secure significant funding from a number of corporate sponsors, namely Chevron, Citi, Dangote Companies, the MTN Foundation, and The Coca Cola Africa foundation. Junior Achievement Worldwide subscribes to the mandate that 75% of all funds raised must reach the programme’s beneficiaries through programme development and delivery. Of the remaining 25%, JA Nigeria uses about 15% to fund operational costs (such as transportation, office space, administration costs, etc.) and directs about 10% into a pool, which will become an endowment fund for JA Nigeria’s sustainability.

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24 PEDN

Delivery Methods: PEDN offers a variety of youth programmes which are designed to teach children and youth business, financial, personal development, and entrepreneurial skills in an open and collaborative environment: 1) Smart Start Programme:A financial education programme targeting 12 – 24 year old youth in and out of school that gives them access to financial, business and support services to help them develop lifelong solutions and starting and sustaining financial enterprises. 2) Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Education: Aflatoun, an internationally recognized programme, utilizes an activity based curriculum to teach children their value as humans, and to emphasize the importance of financial education. The programme targets 6-14 year old children giving them an opportunity to save money for a personal financial goal, and to create micro enterprises. The Aflatoun programme focuses on five core areas including personal understanding and exploration, personal rights, saving and spending, planning and budgeting, and participating in social enterprises. In addition to presenting a theoretical context for financial management, children are encouraged to actively manage their money by saving weekly with a specific goal in mind. 3) Aflateen Youth Social and Financial Education: A programme targeting 15-19 year old youth giving them an opportunity to save money for a personal financial goal, and to create micro enterprises after understanding their rights and responsibilities, financial knowledge and skills. 4) Young Entrepreneurs Programme: The Young Entrepreneurs Programme (YEP!) targets 15-24 year old youth in which they are taught an entrepreneurial curriculum in an after-school-club setting to learn professional development, entrepreneurial, business and financial skills.This club is designed to be hands-on and to encourage children to explore new ideas. These skills are taught through games, community member interaction, hands-on activities, and small group discussions. As a culminating club project, students have the opportunity to start and run their own enterprise. 5) Super Savers: The Super Savers programme targets 8-14 year old students and their parents that teaches them to regularly save money for school fees and supplies at school in an attempt to curb school dropout rates. The programme accomplishes this goal through providing children a basic financial education and the opportunity to regularly save money during each four-month school term. Saved money is then used for educational fees and supplies. 6) Girls Empowered to Empower: Girls Empowered to Empower (GEE) programme provides less privileged community girls the opportunity to gain entrepreneurial skills to create their own business ventures to save for a university and tertiary education and share their knowledge and experience

Country Uganda



Objective To facilitate the development of young people’s creative and innovative potential by equipping them with basic entrepreneurial, financial, business, and personal development skills in an open and collaborative environment.

Target Segment Youth and entrepreneurs


Funding Various grant funds

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with other girls. GEE utilizes a unique, hands-on curriculum which focuses on empowerment by emphasizing personal development, financial saving, and entrepreneurship. Outcomes: The evaluation included two school-based financial education programmes to which participating schools were randomly assigned. One treatment group consisted of schools enrolled in the Aflatoun programme, teaching personal exploration, rights and responsibilities, saving and spending, planning and budgeting, and social and financial enterprise. The other treatment group consisted of schools receiving the Honest Money Box (HMB) programme, which focused on the core financial education components of the Aflatoun programme. Both treatment groups received saving boxes. A third group of schools constituted the control group. The evaluation was carried out through a baseline and an endline survey. Students in HMB-assigned schools showed positive and significant increases in their overall attitudes toward savings, compared to students in Aflatoun and control schools. However, students in both Aflatoun and HMB schools showed positive impacts on (self-reported) savings behaviour compared to students in control schools: those students were more likely to save money at all, and to save money at school (IPA, 2012a).

Relevance to the Indian Context: A similar variety of programmes catering to specific target segments may be replicated in India, especially by those initiatives which target students or youth and adopt a hands-on approach to saving for future goals and managing money. The programmes which focus on entrepreneurship could be adopted by Indian MFIs and other grassroots financial service providers to foster entrepreneurship among their existing clients and their children.

25 Population Council

Delivery methods: Programmes integrating financial skills, savings, and social support have been piloted and evaluated in Bangladesh, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Kenya, South Africa, and Vietnam. The programme targets young females living in urban slums and provides them with (i) weekly group meetings with their savings group and a female mentor in ‘safe spaces’; (ii) training on financial education; and (iii) access to an individual savings account at local financial institutions (Faulu and K-Rep Bank in Kenya; FINCA and Finance Trust Bank in Uganda). Outcomes:

In South Africa, a financial education curriculum was tested with out-of-school youth; participants attained and put into practice new financial knowledge and skills. In addition, positive spill-over effects were observed among family members of participants.

Country Several countries



Objective As part of their portfolio on transitions to adulthood, Population Council researchers give special attention to access to livelihoods, particularly for girls, during the adolescent years and prior to marriage as an important means to greater autonomy and empowerment. Financial literacy is an important factor which enables access to livelihoods.

Target Segment Adolescent and teenage girls


Funding Grants and donations

http://www.popcouncil.org/topics/youth.asp




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In Bangladesh, research has demonstrated that participation in the local programme ("Kishori Abhijan") increased the number of girls working for cash and supplemented the amount of income they earned.

In Kenya the pilots were conducted through 2 major MFIs in the country – Faulu and K-REP. Major findings from the pilot evaluation were positive, showing positive change in social networks and mobility, gender norms, financial literacy, use of bank services, saving behaviour, and communication with parents/guardians on financial issues. For instance, girls in ‘treatment’ groups were significantly more likely to have a long term financial goal compared to girls in the comparison group. Faulu girls were significantly more likely to have been to a bank, and K-Rep girls were significantly more likely to have used a bank’s services than the comparison group. Girls in Faulu and K-Rep groups were at least three times more likely to be saving on a weekly basis and at least three times more likely to have saved any money in the previous six months than girls in the comparison group. Treated girls were at least twice as likely to have discussed money management issues with their parents, and Faulu girls were significantly more likely to correctly answer financial knowledge questions than girls in the comparison group (Population Council, 2011a).

A pilot programme has been carried out also in Uganda in 2009-March, with endline interviews taking place one year after baseline. Overall, the findings of the pilot evaluation are promising. In terms of financial behaviour, FINCA and Finance Trust girls were more likely to report that they had saved in the last six months with respect to baseline, with non-significant changes in the control group. Moreover, both FINCA and Finance Trust girls were more likely than the comparison group to have a savings plan and to have a budget, adjusting for age, religion, and baseline measures (Hallman, 2011; Population Council, 2011b).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Programmes with adolescent and teenage girls may empower women and in the long term are expected to translate into more responsible financial behaviour at the household level. Educating girls and young women would affect their own household as well as the home which they marry into. However, such trainings may be difficult to conduct in isolation due to several gender issues including low mobility of unmarried, young women. Costs of targeting a narrow segment are higher.

26 Postbank/WizzitBank Financial Literacy Project

Delivery Methods: The project was conducted in 2009-2010 by a consortium led by Postbank, a division of the South African Post Office, and Wizzit Bank. The programme delivered one-day in-classroom financial literacy training to over 10,000 trainees in four regions of South Africa. The measurement of training impact focused only on banking (e.g. opening of bank accounts, number and value of withdrawals, use of more or less costly channels for purchases and withdrawals, etc.).


Institution Type Consortium of Postal Network + Commercial Bank


Objective Financial education as a precursor to financial education

Target Segment General public

Outreach 10,000

Funding Government funding

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Outcomes: The available evidence indicates no banking behavioural change, as the training programme did not induce either more bank accounts being opened or improved use of existing financial services. The evaluation report mentions several reasons why this might have been the case. First, a one-off training covering a wide range of financial services and general matters is more likely to provide background understanding rather than bringing about behavioural change in one specific financial domain. Second, trainees were not consistent with the profile defined ex-ante. Training groups included many more unemployed and women than originally planned for, with trainees being too poor to engage with banking.

Relevance to the Indian Context: One-off sessions covering a variety of general financial awareness topics may give limited results in terms of behaviour change. A more concerted effort from many different communication strategies may be more effective – mass media to elicit interest and deliver key messages, group/ classroom interactions to give detailed trainings and individual interactions for follow-up and actual behaviour change. This programme is useful to understand in the Indian context as many institutions rely on stand-alone trainings, which are expected to bring about behaviour change. This programme is also relevant in that it unintentionally targeted high numbers of women and unemployed persons – both segments had low liquidity or excess money. The same may be applicable to the rural/ low-income Indian context, where financial literacy delivered to only women may have limited behaviour change outcomes as women control only a small part of the household budget and are unlikely to take any serious financial decision without the cooperation of male members of the family.

27 Pro Mujer

Delivery Methods: The financial education programme of the MFI contains modules on debt management and savings and delivered to its clients in three regions in a workshop format for 2-3 hours per day over 3 consecutive days. McGraw Hill and ProMujer have together designed curriculum manuals, which are standardized to reduce costs and improve client services, and accommodate for unique cultural differences among the several countries in teaching clients how to make sound financial decisions for current business operations, plan for future life-sequence events and be prepared for emergencies. Outcomes: Pro Mujer conducted a pre-test quantitative survey before the workshops with all participants as well as a post-test immediately following completion of the workshop. Quantitative and qualitative follow-ups were conducted after the first and second quarters, with a subset of available clients who completed the workshops. Analysis on the quantitative data consisted of

Country Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru Institution Type MFI/ MFI Group Intervention Type Apex/ Implementing Objective To ensure that clients are able to manage their debt and personal finances in

an optimal manner from an informed perspective. Target Segment Own microfinance clients Outreach 250,000

Funding Own and grant funding

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simple comparison of averages from pre- to post-test results and indicated improvement in awareness levels and self-reported behaviour change.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Simple tests at quarterly intervals would capture the extent of retention and give some idea about satisfaction levels, usefulness and the possibility of behaviour change.

28 Insurance Consumer Education – Kenya (ICE-K) Radio campaign

Delivery Methods: The overall purpose of the Insurance Consumer Education –Kenya (ICE-K) radio campaign was to increase awareness and knowledge of insurance and risk management among Kenyans, with the ultimate goal of increasing individual insurance use and closing existing knowledge gaps in insurance literacy among low-income household members. The training of trainers was organized to disseminate the content and delivery of MFO’s innovative “Risk Management and Insurance” curriculum to insurance companies and delivery channels. It taught participants from Kenyan insurance companies to better tailor insurance product information to the needs of the low-income market, and prepared staff from Association of Kenyan Insurers (AKI) and the radio production partner, Advertising Matters, to tailor the campaign to the same low-income consumers. The project has galvanized insurance education efforts in Kenya by building local capacity to disseminate insurance education as a public good. MFO and AKI have been collaborating on an industry-wide education strategy to facilitate uptake and usage of insurance in Kenya. This was done through a participatory radio campaign that provided consumers with the knowledge and skills necessary to move them from reactive to proactive risk management strategies such as insurance. Technical assistance was offered to select insurance companies and microfinance institutions with an interest in marketing to low-income consumers after the end of the radio campaign. The radio campaign also encouraged listeners to call up or SMS a mobile number with their queries and concerns regarding insurance – answers were given during subsequent episodes of the campaign. However, this had limited success because it was not user-friendly. Outcomes: The evaluation team developed methods to measure uptake and understanding of the radio messages, as well as changes in behaviour. Report findings reveal that the campaign had a measurable impact in changing listener awareness and knowledge towards insurance.

Country Kenya Institution Type NGO Intervention Type Implementing Objective Increasing awareness and improving attitudes towards risk management and

insurance Target Segment Low income Kenyans


Funding Funded by Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) and ILO, Microinsurance Innovation Facility, Association of Kenyan Insurers, and radio producer

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Relevance to the Indian Context: While the radio campaign worked successfully in terms of getting attention of a large section of listeners, it did not easily facilitate behaviour change. This is an important lesson for Indian initiatives which may seek to scale up their mass media programmes. In a truly participatory campaign, it should be easy for audience members to provide feedback. All parties recognized that campaign could have been made even more interactive if right systems were developed. As candidates were expected to remember a full length mobile number to SMS or call, the response rates were lower than expected. Monitoring and feedback mechanism needs to be in place to be able to refine the programme in real time. The recording of SMS messages was important to the project because it was intended to be used to monitor the programme and act as a feedback mechanism. However, little substantive feedback was registered via SMS as they were not closely tracked. A better system should have been in place to consolidate and analyse queries, however this was not done.4

29 Siyakha Nentsha: Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Youth HIV Risk - Enhancing the Economic, Health, and Social Capabilities of Highly Vulnerable Youth

Delivery Methods: In collaboration with local partners and the Isihlangu Health and Development Agency, the Population Council carried out a programme, "Siyakha Nentsha" (is Zulu for "building with young people"), to respond to the unmet needs of young people in KZN for strategies to manage their daily economic, social, and health challenges. This capabilities-enhancing programme for adolescents integrated financial capabilities, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health education, and components aimed at strengthening social networks to help young people navigate the social and economic milieu that facilitates conditions for high-risk sexual behaviours.

Outcomes: The project was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design, where young men and women in the 16-24 age group were interviewed at baseline in 2005 and again two years later. Preliminary findings are encouraging in showing attitudinal and behavioural changes in financial matters (among others) among programme participants. For instance, among young women 75 % of participants had discussed financial decision-making two years after the training, while only 21 % of

4http://www.microinsurancefacility.org/es/learning-journey/insurance-consumer-education-%E2%80%93-kenya-ice-

kenya/project-lessons/developing-radio-cam

Country South Africa Institution Type NGO, Coordinated by the Population Council Intervention Type Implementing Objective The projects addressed youth vulnerabilities with training on life skills,

financial literacy (budgeting, saving, planning, etc.) and HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care.

Target Segment Targeted female and male youth living in poor, HIV-affected communities in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.

Outreach 1,400

Funding Entirely grant funded

http://www.microinsurancefacility.org/es/learning-journey/insurance-consumer-education-%E2%80%93-kenya-ice-kenya/project-lessons/developing-radio-cam

http://www.microinsurancefacility.org/es/learning-journey/insurance-consumer-education-%E2%80%93-kenya-ice-kenya/project-lessons/developing-radio-cam

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non-participants had (up from 27 % and 6 %, respectively, at baseline). Overall, the effect of the training on the share of young people having discussed financial decision-making and on the share of young people using financial services from a bank was larger for the group of treated than for the control group – for both men and women. (Hallman et al, 2007). The evaluation of the SiyakhaNentsha project was conducted through surveys before and after programme implementation in schools receiving the training versus a comparison school. The survey asked questions about families, schooling, work experience, attitudes and values, as well as health knowledge and behaviours. The financial education and career guidance offered by the programme appears to have had promising results. Compared to the control group, SiyakhaNentsha participants were more likely than those in the control group to have improved budgeting and planning skills, and were more likely to have attempted to open a bank account. Moreover, among SiyakhaNentsha boys, those who received financial education were more likely to have reported undertaking an incomegenerating activity between survey rounds (Hallman and Roca, 2011).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Given the history of gender inequalities in India and social problems such as child marriage and early pregnancies, programmes such as these which empower women and encourage them to save and manage finance may be of relevance. However, as women’s access to financial resources within the household is limited (more so for unmarried women and girls in traditional homes) the programme may not have similar success in India.

30 Starting a Lifetime of Savings

Delivery methods: Evaluation was carried out through a baseline survey. Upon completion of the baseline survey, 240 youth clubs were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: 1) financial literacy training; 2) club savings accounts; 3) financial literacy training and club savings accounts; 4) no treatment (control). Outcomes: The endline survey included a series of questions assessing respondents’ knowledge of financial concepts and regulated banks, as well as saving and borrowing behaviour. Both the ‘Financial Education and Account’, and the ‘Financial Education’ groups experienced significant increases in their financial knowledge and bank knowledge with respect to the comparison group, while the account-only group did not experience any change in knowledge with respect to the control. In terms of saving behaviour, the endline report shows an increase in the total amount saved among the ‘Financial Education and Account’ and ‘Financial Education’ groups with respect to the comparison group. All three treatment groups improved over the comparison group in the number of formal savings locations, and in the total number of savings locations reported. Finally, there was no detectable impact of the different treatments on borrowing behaviour, as measured by the number of borrowers, number of borrowing instances, or total amount borrowed (IPA, 2011c).

Country Uganda

Institution Type Research agency/ Specialized Agency


Objective Ugandan youth

Target Segment The project involved the delivery of two programmes through pre-existing youth clubs.

Outreach 240 groups of youth

Funding Donor funded, through Innovations for Poverty Action

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Relevance to the Indian Context: This programme was largely a research experiment - results indicated that positive behaviour change could be elicited through stand-alone trainings as well as training + product delivery (in this case a club savings account). Deeper study of this programme may indicate to Indian initiatives the level of difference between the outcomes (account opening and account usage levels) for those receiving only training vs those receiving training + a club savings account. This may indicate the merits of offering product linkage in addition to financial literacy training, rather than relying on outcomes of training alone.

2-4.3 Initiatives slightly relevant to the Indian context5

31 Central Bank of Republic of Argentina

Delivery Methods: Delivery method includes programme for adults and competitions for children and games and covers economics and finance applicable to everyday life in addition to disseminating information on programmes of the Central Bank and its partners.

Relevance to the Indian Context: This programme is similar to other classroom-based approaches for reaching out to youth and students. It may have limited relevance in India as lower income segments do not have high enrolment and attendance rates in school.

32 FinLit – Financial Literacy Foundation

5All evaluation studies performed by various academic bodies and independent researchers (quoted verbatim in the “outcomes” section of each initiative) have been sourced from:Messy, F. and C. Monticone (2012), “The status of financial education in Africa”, OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions, No. 25, OECD Publishing, available for download at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k94cqqx90wl-e

Country Argentina Institution Type Regulator/ Government Intervention Type Implementing Objective To provide tools and knowledge of economics and finance applicable to

everyday life, thereby promoting the formation of economically responsible citizens.

Target Segment Youth and Students Outreach 83,000

Funding Self-funded, from Central Bank resources

Country Uganda Institution Type Specialized Agency Intervention Type Implementing

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Delivery Methods: To mitigate the effects of financial illiteracy and a poor savings culture, key financial players have established a foundation to encourage savings and enhance financial literacy among Ugandans. FinLit Foundation Uganda aims at educating the Ugandan population about the importance of savings towards one's financial freedom and to the development of the economy. FinLit’s primary mechanism and flagship programme is the annual Financial Literacy Week. Expert speakers and consultants from the financial sector, contracted by FinLit, deliver workshops and presentations to large audiences. The four-day event includes a wide choice of financial training sessions and workshops, as well as presentations. The foundation has also begun developing a series of financial literacy booklets, the ‘ABCs’ series (e.g., The ABCs of Saving). These booklets contain common-sense, basic, practical “how-to” information on financial a topics, to provide everyday solutions to common concerns. FinLit has reached over 4,500 people. It hopes to extend its reach beyond the literacy week participants by directly targeting 8,000 people through the public regional clinics, 12,000 through radio talk shows, and 20,000 through publications. Indirectly, however, it believes it will reach about 3,000,000 people in the longer run.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Events such as “Financial Literacy Week” can draw attention of large audiences to the concept of financial literacy through intensive mass-media campaigns. Booklets present a cheap and viable mode of educating a large number of people in different languages. However, given the low literacy rates in India, this may not be a very popular delivery method.

33 The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Objective To encourage savings and enhance financial literacy among Ugandans.

Target Segment The target beneficiaries are income earners and economically active, those who show a poor grasp of financial concepts, products, and services.

Outreach 4,500

Funding Initial implementation costs for FinLit’s projects were about US$ 300,000, with additional costs to increase scale - $150,000. FinLit also spends about $30,000 on publicity (the awareness campaign), and $240,000 on printing and dissemination of teaching materials across its various programmes (Financial Literacy Week, regional clinics, ‘ABCs’ booklets, radio shows, and others). FinLit currently receives funding for operational costs from annual subscriptions from foundation members, although this is not enough to support each year’s events. FinLit also is supported by $202,000 from the Uganda Financial Markets Development Committee.

Country Canada Institution Type Specialized Agency Intervention Type Implementing Objective FCAC is an independent body involved in informing consumers about their

rights and responsibilities when dealing with financial entities and about the obligations of payment card network operators to consumers and merchants. It aims to provide timely and objective information and tools to help consumers understand, and shop for, a variety of financial products and

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Delivery methods: FCAC publishes a number of guides and resources on various personal finances issues or financial products and services through its website, along with interactive tools that help consumers find the financial products and services that best suit their needs. The website, moneytools.ca, provides consumers with unbiased information about financial products and services. It includes a comprehensive comparison of the fees, features, interest rates and reward programmes of nearly 200 credit cards available in Canada. This database is updated on a quarterly basis with information supplied by the credit card issuing companies. The database feeds an interactive tool on the FCAC website that uses interview-type questions to build a profile of the user's credit card usage habits and needs. The tool eliminate unsuitable choices based on the profile and presents the user with a small number of credit cards and the ability to carry out detailed comparisons of features, reward programmes, and interest rates. Consumer information is also provided on mortgages and bank accounts. FCAC also launched a financial education portal for Canadian youth called "The Money Belt". The portal is designed to make the basics of money management and the financial world more accessible to a youth audience by providing financial education resources for teachers, young people and the public. It also contains links to other financial education programmes available in Canada. It allows young consumers to get practical tips and to test their knowledge of money management without the risks and consequences they would otherwise encounter in real-life situations. "The City" is an educational resource for high school students to better prepare them to handle the financial realities of adulthood by learning financial life skills through in-class lessons or self-guided online modules. This educational resource is freely available on the web.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Interactive tools such as mobile applications may be developed to help customers evaluate products in terms of costs and choose the correct ones to suit their needs. Mapping of customers earning and spending patterns vs product terms and conditions would help them choose the product most suited to their needs. A quarterly-updated database of all financial service providers and their offerings could be maintained at block or district level and made available to the public at e-governance kiosks or even at local cyber cafes.

34 UBank

services. Target Segment Consumers of financial services Outreach Data not available

Funding Canadian Government


Institution Type Bank Intervention Type Implementing Objective UBank has offered financial literacy modules to address the root causes of

over-indebtedness by giving miners the skills to handle their financial affairs.

Target Segment Migrant miners. The target beneficiaries are mineworkers of two South African mining houses- Goldfields and AngloGold Ashanti.

Outreach 5,013

Funding Funded by Financial Education Fund (FEF)

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Delivery methods: Research preceding the intervention according to UBank showed that increasing numbers of mineworkers were having their wages garnished because of over-indebtedness. Excessive debt was leading to social and emotional problems, including absenteeism and substance abuse. UBank responded with the financial literacy modules, which are offered in the form of an on-site training for two days for mine workers, as well as take-home training material for their families. Outcomes: Post programme evaluation tested the extent to which a two-day financial education workshop provided to mineworkers impacted their financial knowledge and behaviour. Miners were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups taking into account their living arrangements, so as to allow the measurement of potential spill-over effects (i.e., miners shared apartments in the mines or in off-site accommodations). Self-reported data from baseline and endline surveys have been complemented by administrative data on absenteeism (collected by the mining houses) and on payments, savings and borrowing transactions (collected by the partner bank UBank on programme participants who are active clients). Post-workshop feedback shows that participants value the content of the training and believe it will positively impact their financial decision-making. Preliminary findings from the endline survey data indicate that miners assigned to the workshops were more likely to have formulated a financial plan, created a household budget, and “invested” in their homes (i.e., via improvements and repairs). There is somewhat weaker evidence that ‘treated’ individuals had fewer impulse purchases that they regretted later on. Finally, the preliminary survey data analysis does not allow conclusions to be drawn about spill-overs or about the impact on key financial behaviours, such as saving and borrowing (IPA, 2012b).

Relevance to the Indian Context: Miners and other migrants in South Africa are part of the organized sector and have bank accounts. This makes classroom and on-site financial literacy training easy to administer and understand. However, in India, where most migrants work in the informal sector, more appropriate delivery methods may have to be chosen.

35 Xac Bank

Delivery Methods: The medium used is direct classroom training. The financial education programme is delivered through two delivery channels- The Mongolian Education Alliance (MEA), which works in public secondary schools and an NGO, the Equal Step Centre, which serves

Country Mongolia

Institution Type Bank


Objective Delivery of financial education to young girls to improve financially responsible behaviour among them and their households in the future

Target Segment Young girls of secondary school age: 14-18 years

Outreach Aims to benefit 28,500 girls by 2013 (coverage at current time could not be ascertained)

Funding An initial US$50,000 investment by the Nike Foundation was accompanied by extensive technical assistance from WWB, plus XacBank invested an additional US$20,000. XacBank continues to seek and attract further funding. After completing the pilot phase and roll out, XacBank received US$100,000 from the SEEP Network to continue the programme for two more years and to open the programme up to adolescent boys.

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vulnerable and working children outside schools. In addition to direct classroom training, XacBank has been exploring new ways to continue its outreach and introduce financial literacy lessons, such as cell phone applications, video games, and comic books. Outcomes: As per the last evaluation, 98% of the students the training reported that their skills and knowledge about bank services have improved.

Relevance to the Indian Context: Starting early may be the correct way to impart long term benefits of financial literacy. However, as many children do not enrol in school, innovative ways have to be found to reach out to them. Video games and comic books are useful aids, but may be restricted to a more literate and higher-income audience. Cell phone applications would be more useful as they would have better outreach.

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Annex 1

South Africa and India: Diversity to convergence

South Africa and India: Diversity to convergence

South Africa and India draw many parallels in the nature and objectives of their financial education

interventions. As financial education is still at a nascent stage in India, South Africa’s strategy for financial education could be a useful example for India to learn from. There are several similarities between the two countries’ approaches to financial literacy, especially with both the Financial Services Board (FSB) of South Africa and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) commencing their strategy-building with an extensive sector survey to map 1) financial education needs across the country and 2) efforts from various financial sector stakeholders to meet these needs.

South Africa’s vibrant financial education sector has successfully catered to a wide variety of target

segments – school students, youth, entrepreneurs, low income households, women, pensioners, miners, vulnerable groups and general public – with a range of interventions, supported by government or donor funding and sometimes a mix of both. These interventions have adopted a vast array of communication strategies. This is similar to India where, however, the lack of a common umbrella to ensure cohesion between initiatives remains a challenge. As a result, the overall impact of the disparate initiatives is difficult to evaluate.

The RBI’s document “National Strategy for Financial Education” covers the stakeholders in the sector

and their roles and responsibilities in the landscape of India’s financial education initiatives and tries to bring about convergence by defining the roles of each player under the overall guidance and monitoring of the technical group of the Financial Stability and Development Council Sub-Committee on Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy. The RBI has also recommended the creation of a specialized institute – National Institute of Financial Education (NIFE) under the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) for the development of financial education materials for the respective financial sectors. NIFE will also act as a one-stop repository for all financial education activities and materials in the sector.

South Africa has taken an important step in promoting financial literacy efforts by garnering

statutory funding support from financial institutions. The government feels that financial service providers should take an interest and active responsibility in promoting financial literacy as this will boost their own market in terms of outreach (quantity) as well as responsible financial behaviour (quality). This commitment from the South African government and regulatory bodies to financial education is clearly encapsulated in this citation from the 2003 Financial Sector Charter - FSC (BASA, 2010): “Each financial institution commits to annually invest a minimum of 0.2% of annual post tax operating profits in consumer education. Consumer education will include programmes that are aimed at empowering consumers with knowledge to enable them to make more informed decisions about their finances and lifestyles.”6

6 Deon Harold Tustin: An impact assessment of a prototype financial literacy flagship programme in a rural South African

setting, Published by African Journal of Business Management, August 2010. http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM/PDF/pdf2010/4Aug/Tustin.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Stability_and_Development_Council

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As the “Bridging the Gap” report published by Citi Foundation7 suggests, “The field of financial

education and financial capability is still in its early days, and much research and experimentation remain to be done to figure out which kinds of financial education programmes and interventions work and which do not in terms of both cost and effectiveness. Given the sheer magnitude of the task of addressing the financial capability gap, it seems unreasonable to expect – or to encourage – the various and numerous actors in this field to continue working in isolation toward this goal. Rather, going forward, we strongly suggest that the field’s many stakeholders develop and subscribe to a shared agenda – a set of priorities for action that can serve as a road map guiding the field forward to deliver real capability and empowerment to low-income consumers.”

As can be seen from the Indian and international interventions studied, there are many different

successful programme designs and delivery methods, each of which is applicable to a specific context and target segment. While some are cost and time intensive and cannot be taken to scale easily, others deliver messages through low-cost, mass-media strategies. Success parameters in terms of behaviour change vary vastly across methods. However, intensive methods such as classroom training or financial diaries may lack attractiveness and mass appeal, so it is difficult to begin an initiative with such methods.

It would be useful for India to learn from the South African experience about the possibilities for

implementing and enabling the type of convergence described in the Bridging the Gap report, with a view to increasing the effectiveness of its own myriad public and private sector programmes through cooperation, exchange of ideas, sharing of expertise and pooling of resources.

7http://www.citifoundation.com/citi/foundation/pdf/bridging_the_gap.pdf

http://www.citifoundation.com/citi/foundation/pdf/bridging_the_gap.pdf

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Annex 2: List of People Interviewed

Institution Person interviewed Designation

1 Aga Khan Foundation Mr George Nokrek Programme Coordinator


Mr P K Sahu Chairman Ms Amita Bose Head of Financial Literacy and Social

Services projects

3 Cocoon/ Phicus Ms Vandana Partner

4 Creative Expression Ms Veena Prakash Founder

5 CRISIL-RGVN (North East initiative)

Dr Amiya Kumar Sharma Executive Director

6 EKO Mr Sandeep Dhodi Area Manager

7 Financial Literacy for Clients - ACCION Ms Usha Gopinath

Director, Client Education Programme

8 FINO Mr Mujahid Ahsan Vice President Mr Prakash Lal Manager

9 Grameen Financial Services Mr Suresh Krishna Managing Director

10 Grameen Foundation, India Mr Santosh Project Manager, Microsavings Initiative in India

12 IDF Mr VivekanandSalimath Chairman

14 India Info Line (FLAME) Mr Anil Mascarenhas Editor, India Infoline

15 Indian Institute of Banking and Finance Mr R.Bhaskaran

CEO

17 Invest India Micro Pensions Mr Ashish Aggarwal Executive Director

18 Janalakshmi Ms Jaya Head of Products Team Ms Roxanne Daruwalla Manager, Financial Advisory Services

19 Kudumbashree, Kerala Ms Anupama James Team leader, Microfinance

20 Madura Microfinance Limited

Ms Tara Thiagarajan Chairman

21 Microinsurance Academy Mr Denny John Deputy Director Mr Raj Kamal Mukherjee Deputy Director Training

22 NABARD initiatives Mr R K Garg Deputy General Manager

23 National Financial Literacy Drive Mr Shubhankar Jha

National Coordinator, Citi Center for Financial Literacy

24 Sanchayan Ms Chidambara Founder member

26 Sanghamithra Mr Gadiyapannavar CEO

27 St Gregorious Kottayam Mr Biju John Promoter

28 Swadhaar Finaccess Ms KavitaMohite Manager, Financial Education Training Program

29 Ujjivan Ms Elaine Ghosh Executive Director

30 Village Welfare Society Mr AjitMaity Chairman

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Bibliography

Burgess, R & Pande, R, 2003. Do Rural Banks Matter? Evidence from the Indian Social banking Experiment. Princeton University: http://www.princeton.edu/~rpds/downloads/seminar_papers/burgess_rural_banks.pdf

Deb, A and Kubzansky, M, 2012. Bridging the Gap: The Business Case for Financial Capability. Monitor Group. DESA and the UNCDF, 2008. Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development. New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs & UN Capital

Development Fund. OECD, 2006. Policy Brief: The importance of financial education. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development. Rutherford, S, 2000. The Poor and their Money. Delhi: Oxford India Paperbacks Srinivasan N, 2010. State of the Sector Report. New Delhi: Sage Publications. Subbarao, D, March 2010, speech on “Financial Education: Worthy and Worthwhile” delivered at the Reserve Bank of India‐OECD Workshop in Bangalore. World Bank , 2012. The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion. Washington: The World Bank.

Web link references:

Indian Initiatives

Institutions Website of inst. Other online resources consulted

Bank/Regulator

1 Reserve Bank of India http://www.rbi.org.in

http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_CircularIndexDisplay.aspx?Id=7259 http://in.news.yahoo.com/rbi-launches-financial-literacy-camps-northeast-120527478.html http://www.rbi.org.in/rbioecd/docs/FL_brochure_The_Final_.pdf http://www.rbi.org.in/financialeducation/home.aspx http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rbiadmin/scripts/PublicationDraftReports.aspx?ID=526

http://www.princeton.edu/~rpds/downloads/seminar_papers/burgess_rural_banks.pdf

http://www.rbi.org.in/

http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_CircularIndexDisplay.aspx?Id=7259

http://in.news.yahoo.com/rbi-launches-financial-literacy-camps-northeast-120527478.html

http://in.news.yahoo.com/rbi-launches-financial-literacy-camps-northeast-120527478.html

http://www.rbi.org.in/rbioecd/docs/FL_brochure_The_Final_.pdf

http://www.rbi.org.in/financialeducation/home.aspx

http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rbiadmin/scripts/PublicationDraftReports.aspx?ID=526

148 | P a g e


2 National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

http://www.nabard.org http://www.nabard.org/pdf/3.%20Financial%20Literacy%20Strategy%20Summary%20Report-Compiled%20by%20Gopal%20Krishna%20Ayitam(March%202011).pdf http://www.nabard.org/departments/undp_nabard.asp

3 State Level Bankers' Committee http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rbi-asks-statelevel-bank-committees-to-spread-financial-literacy/470780/

4 Syndicate Bank http://www.syndicatebank.in http://www.syndicatebank.in/downloads/Performance.pdf http://www.syndicatebank.in/scripts/financialinclusion.aspx

5 State Bank India http://www.sbi.co.in/ http://www.cab.org.in/FILCPortal/Lists/Implementations/Attachments/8/financial_inclusion.pdf http://www.echoofarunachal.com/?p=9917

6 South Malabar Gramin Bank http://www.smgbank.com/ http://www.nabard.org/departments/pdf/seminar/SMGB.pdf

7 Securities and Exchange Board of India

http://www.sebi.gov.in/sebiweb/

http://www.sebi.gov.in/sebiweb/investors/financial_literacy.jsp http://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/investors/financial_literacy/Financial%20Education%20for%20School%20Children.pdf http://investor.sebi.gov.in/Reference%20Material/middleincome.pdf http://www.nism.ac.in/

8 Citibank India http://www.online.citibank.co.in/ http://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/citizenship-at-citi.pdf http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=28656 http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/20/26/44919907.pdf

9 ICICI (Young star programme with IL&FS)

http://www.icicibank.com

http://www.theyoung-stars.com/ys_pro.php

10 HSBC http://www.hsbc.co.in http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/miscellaneous/about-hsbc/corporate-sustainability/financial-education http://www.sife.org/aboutsife/News/Documents/FINALGlobalImpactReport.pdf

Technical Service Providers

11 ACCION International http://www.accion.org/ http://www.accion.org/page.aspx?pid=1637 http://www.accion.org/document.doc?id=786

12

Indian School of Microfinance for Women/Citi Centre for Financial Literacy& National Financial Literacy Drive

http://www.ismw.org.in/

http://www.ismw.org.in/ccfl.php http://www.ismw.org.in/downloads.php?cid=A20175060F5811E1BDBE002219D56ADD http://www.ismw.org.in/ccfl.php http://www.ismw.org.in/nafil.php

13 Indian Institute of Banking and Finance

www.iibf.org.in

iibf.org.in/portal/documents/fininclusion_perspectiveofrbi.ppt

14 Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society

www.apmas.org

http://www.aptsource.in/admin/resources/1273818040_SHGs-keystone-paper.pdf

http://www.nabard.org/

http://www.nabard.org/pdf/3.%20Financial%20Literacy%20Strategy%20Summary%20Report-Compiled%20by%20Gopal%20Krishna%20Ayitam(March%202011).pdf

http://www.nabard.org/pdf/3.%20Financial%20Literacy%20Strategy%20Summary%20Report-Compiled%20by%20Gopal%20Krishna%20Ayitam(March%202011).pdf

http://www.nabard.org/departments/undp_nabard.asp

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rbi-asks-statelevel-bank-committees-to-spread-financial-literacy/470780/

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rbi-asks-statelevel-bank-committees-to-spread-financial-literacy/470780/

http://www.syndicatebank.in/

http://www.syndicatebank.in/downloads/Performance.pdf

http://www.syndicatebank.in/scripts/financialinclusion.aspx

http://www.sbi.co.in/

http://www.cab.org.in/FILCPortal/Lists/Implementations/Attachments/8/financial_inclusion.pdf

http://www.cab.org.in/FILCPortal/Lists/Implementations/Attachments/8/financial_inclusion.pdf

http://www.echoofarunachal.com/?p=9917

http://www.smgbank.com/

http://www.nabard.org/departments/pdf/seminar/SMGB.pdf

http://www.sebi.gov.in/sebiweb/

http://www.sebi.gov.in/sebiweb/investors/financial_literacy.jsp

http://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/investors/financial_literacy/Financial%20Education%20for%20School%20Children.pdf

http://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/investors/financial_literacy/Financial%20Education%20for%20School%20Children.pdf

http://investor.sebi.gov.in/Reference%20Material/middleincome.pdf

http://www.nism.ac.in/

http://www.online.citibank.co.in/

http://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/citizenship-at-citi.pdf

http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=28656

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/20/26/44919907.pdf

http://www.icicibank.com/

http://www.theyoung-stars.com/ys_pro.php

http://www.hsbc.co.in/

http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/miscellaneous/about-hsbc/corporate-sustainability/financial-education

http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/miscellaneous/about-hsbc/corporate-sustainability/financial-education

http://www.sife.org/aboutsife/News/Documents/FINALGlobalImpactReport.pdf

http://www.accion.org/

http://www.accion.org/page.aspx?pid=1637

http://www.accion.org/document.doc?id=786

http://www.ismw.org.in/

http://www.ismw.org.in/ccfl.php

http://www.ismw.org.in/downloads.php?cid=A20175060F5811E1BDBE002219D56ADD

http://www.ismw.org.in/ccfl.php

http://www.ismw.org.in/nafil.php

http://www.iibf.org.in/

http://www.apmas.org/

http://www.aptsource.in/admin/resources/1273818040_SHGs-keystone-paper.pdf

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15 MicroInsurance Academy http://www.microinsuranceacademy.org

http://www.microinsuranceacademy.org/sites/default/files/Landscape%20Study%20of%20Micro%20Insurance%20Education_1Jul2011.pdf

16 VKS Creative Expressions None https://www.facebook.com/pages/VKS-Creative-Expression/194719653922631

17 IL&FS Skills http://www.ilfsets.com http://www.ilfsets.com/skilldevelopment/isdc/

18 Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd

http://www.afcindia.org.in

http://www.afcindia.org.in/New%20Assignments%20in.html

MFI/group

19 Invest India Micro Pension Services

http://www.micropensions.com/

http://www.micropensions.com/financial-literacy

20 Parinaam Foundation http://www.parinaam.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKflRIcSaY http://www.parinaam.org/financial_literacy.html http://unituslabs.org/projects/india-microfinance-innovations/financial-literacy-on-debt-management/ http://unituslabs.org/wp-content/uploads/mf-innovations/Ujjivan-Parinaam-Financial-Literacy-Project-Report.pdf

21 Janalakshmi Financial Services http://www.janalakshmi.com/index.htm

http://www.janalakshmi.com/products/other_services.htm

22 Village Welfare Society http://vwsindia.org/ http://vwsindia.org/present_activities.html


http://www.cysd.org

24 Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd

http://www.gfspl.in/ http://www.phicus.org/index.html http://www.cocoonconsulting.com/ http://vimeo.com/38836571

25 SwadhaarFinAccess http://www.swadhaar.org/

http://www.swadhaar.com/ http://swadhaar.org/fep.html http://www.spblog.org/2010/02/innovation-meets-financial-education-swadhaar-in-india.html

26 Madura Microfinance Limited www.maduramicrofinance.com http://www.maduramicroeducation.com/

27 Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN)

http://www.rgvnindia.org/ http://www.crisil.com/Ratings/Brochureware/News/CRISIL-rgvn-pr_200312.pdf

28 Ultra Poor programmes – Bandhan, SKS Foundation, Trickle Up, NEEDS

www.bandhan.org www.sksngo.org

http://www.bandhan.org/report/brochure_thp.pdf http://www.bandhan.org/report/abha_bandhan.pdf http://www.sksngo.org/financialeducation.aspx

29 Sewa Bank http://www.sewabank.org http://www.sewabank.com/financial-counseling-campaign.htm http://www.sewabank.org/activities/financial.htm

http://www.microinsuranceacademy.org/

http://www.microinsuranceacademy.org/



https://www.facebook.com/pages/VKS-Creative-Expression/194719653922631

http://www.ilfsets.com/

http://www.ilfsets.com/skilldevelopment/isdc/

http://www.afcindia.org.in/

http://www.afcindia.org.in/New%20Assignments%20in.html

http://www.micropensions.com/

http://www.micropensions.com/financial-literacy

http://www.parinaam.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKflRIcSaY

http://www.parinaam.org/financial_literacy.html

http://unituslabs.org/projects/india-microfinance-innovations/financial-literacy-on-debt-management/

http://unituslabs.org/projects/india-microfinance-innovations/financial-literacy-on-debt-management/

http://unituslabs.org/wp-content/uploads/mf-innovations/Ujjivan-Parinaam-Financial-Literacy-Project-Report.pdf

http://unituslabs.org/wp-content/uploads/mf-innovations/Ujjivan-Parinaam-Financial-Literacy-Project-Report.pdf

http://www.janalakshmi.com/index.htm

http://www.janalakshmi.com/index.htm

http://www.janalakshmi.com/products/other_services.htm

http://vwsindia.org/

http://vwsindia.org/present_activities.html

http://www.cysd.org/

http://www.gfspl.in/

http://www.phicus.org/index.html

http://www.cocoonconsulting.com/

http://vimeo.com/38836571

http://www.swadhaar.org/

http://www.swadhaar.com/

http://swadhaar.org/fep.html

http://www.spblog.org/2010/02/innovation-meets-financial-education-swadhaar-in-india.html

http://www.spblog.org/2010/02/innovation-meets-financial-education-swadhaar-in-india.html

http://www.maduramicrofinance.com/

http://www.maduramicroeducation.com/

http://www.rgvnindia.org/

http://www.crisil.com/Ratings/Brochureware/News/CRISIL-rgvn-pr_200312.pdf

http://www.bandhan.org/

http://www.sksngo.org/

http://www.bandhan.org/report/brochure_thp.pdf

http://www.bandhan.org/report/abha_bandhan.pdf

http://www.sksngo.org/financialeducation.aspx

http://www.sewabank.org/activities/financial.htm

http://www.sewabank.com/financial-counseling-campaign.htm

http://www.sewabank.org/activities/financial.htm

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http://www.coady.stfx.ca/tinroom/assets/file/SEWA%20Financial%20Literacy%20Manual.pdf

30 Sanghamithra http://myrada.org/myrada/rms54 http://accionambassadors.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/empowering-indian-women-entrepreneurs-with-financial-literacy-skills/

31 Initiatives for Development Foundation

www.idfdevelopment.org

http://www.idfdevelopment.org/financial_inclusion_for_livelihood_security_sujeevan.html http://www.idfdevelopment.org/events.html

32 Saija Microfinance www.saija.in http://saija.in/saija1.pdf

33 Cashpor Micro Credit http://www.cashpor.in/

34 Mann Deshi Foundation http://www.manndeshi.org http://www.manndeshi.org/foundation/financialeducation.html

35 Samhita Microfinance http://samhita.co.in/

http://www.sdevnet.org/content/welcome-samhita-financial-literacy http://www.dare.co.in/news/companies/idbi-federal-joins-samhita-in-financial-literacy.htm http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/insurance/2011011074429.pdf

Government agency/programme

36 Kudumbashree, Kerala http://www.kudumbashree.org/ http://www.kudumbashree.org/?q=financial

37 Swabhiman campaign http://www.kudumbashree.org/

http://www.bankofmaharashtra.in/downdocs/SLBC/State%20FIP-%20Swabhiman-2010-12.pdf http://www.commodityonline.com/news/swabhimaan-indias-unique-financial-inclusion-initiative-37812-3-37813.html http://www.inclusion.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=638

38 Doordarshan www.ddindia.gov.in http://www.nabard.org/departments/pdf/Web%20updation%20status.pdf

39 Govt of Karnataka http://www.karnataka.gov.in http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/rbis-several-policies-to-improve-financial-literacy-and-financial-inclusion/

NGOs

40 Aga Khan Development Network

www.akdn.org

http://www.akdn.org/publications/2012_india_cbsg.pdf http://www.akdn.org/rural_development/india.asp

41 Sanchayan http://www.slideshare.net/avikkedia/sanchayan-profile-221110 http://ngopost.org/story/sanchayan-indias-1st-ngo-dedicated-financial-literacy

42 St GregoriousSociety for Financial Literacy

http://www.schoolofassetmanagement.com/aboutsam.html

43 Smile Foundation http://smilefoundationindia.org http://smilefoundationindia.org/literacy_programme_step.htm http://smilefoundationindia.org/barclays_bank_manesar.htm http://smilefoundationindia.org/e_learning.htm



http://myrada.org/myrada/rms54

http://accionambassadors.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/empowering-indian-women-entrepreneurs-with-financial-literacy-skills/

http://accionambassadors.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/empowering-indian-women-entrepreneurs-with-financial-literacy-skills/

http://www.idfdevelopment.org/

http://www.idfdevelopment.org/financial_inclusion_for_livelihood_security_sujeevan.html

http://www.idfdevelopment.org/financial_inclusion_for_livelihood_security_sujeevan.html

http://www.idfdevelopment.org/events.html

http://www.saija.in/

http://saija.in/saija1.pdf

http://www.cashpor.in/

http://www.manndeshi.org/

http://www.manndeshi.org/foundation/financialeducation.html

http://samhita.co.in/

http://www.sdevnet.org/content/welcome-samhita-financial-literacy

http://www.dare.co.in/news/companies/idbi-federal-joins-samhita-in-financial-literacy.htm

http://www.dare.co.in/news/companies/idbi-federal-joins-samhita-in-financial-literacy.htm

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/insurance/2011011074429.pdf

http://www.kudumbashree.org/

http://www.kudumbashree.org/?q=financial

http://www.kudumbashree.org/

http://www.bankofmaharashtra.in/downdocs/SLBC/State%20FIP-%20Swabhiman-2010-12.pdf

http://www.bankofmaharashtra.in/downdocs/SLBC/State%20FIP-%20Swabhiman-2010-12.pdf

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/swabhimaan-indias-unique-financial-inclusion-initiative-37812-3-37813.html

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/swabhimaan-indias-unique-financial-inclusion-initiative-37812-3-37813.html

http://www.inclusion.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=638

http://www.ddindia.gov.in/

http://www.nabard.org/departments/pdf/Web%20updation%20status.pdf

http://www.karnataka.gov.in/

http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/rbis-several-policies-to-improve-financial-literacy-and-financial-inclusion/

http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/rbis-several-policies-to-improve-financial-literacy-and-financial-inclusion/

http://www.akdn.org/

http://www.akdn.org/publications/2012_india_cbsg.pdf

http://www.akdn.org/rural_development/india.asp

http://www.slideshare.net/avikkedia/sanchayan-profile-221110

http://ngopost.org/story/sanchayan-indias-1st-ngo-dedicated-financial-literacy



http://smilefoundationindia.org/

http://smilefoundationindia.org/literacy_programme_step.htm

http://smilefoundationindia.org/barclays_bank_manesar.htm

http://smilefoundationindia.org/e_learning.htm

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44 Meljol http://meljol.net http://meljol.net/india/images/stories/governor/fin_edu.pdf http://meljol.net/india/images/stories/annoual_data/letest/annualreport09-10.pdf http://blog.samhita.org/2010/06/meljol-catching-them-young.html

45 Dynamic Tarang http://www.dynamictarang.co.in/absdtpl.html

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120316/jsp/jharkhand/story_15256414.jsp#.T-Q8ZRcnwfU

46 Sukhi Baliraja Initiative (SRTT) http://www.srtt.org http://www.srtt.org/institutional_grants/rural_livelihoods_communities/sbi_five_projects.htm http://www.srtt.org/institutional_grants/rural_livelihoods_communities/sbi.htm

47 America India Foundation (AIF) http://www.aif.org/ http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/pdf/Citi_Foundation_YouthEd.pdf

Business Correspondents

48 Financial Information Network & Operations

www.fino.co.in

http://fino.co.in/Financial-Literacy-Program http://paalavi.com/FINO/mod/resource/view.php?id=61 http://www.nabard.org/departments/undp_nabard.asp

49 Eko India Financial Services Private Limited

http://eko.co.in/index.php

http://eko.co.in/images/File/EKo%20Comic.pdf

50 BASIX - SubK http://subk.co.in/about-sub-k/basix-group


Stock Exchanges

51 NSE http://www.nseindia.com/

http://www.nseindia.com/education/content/mkcl_fin_prg.htm http://www.nism.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=11

52 BSE (+BSE Institute) http://www.bseindia.com/

http://www.bsebti.com/

Financial Service Providers

53 GE Money www.gemoney.in/ http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/ge-money-launches-financial-literacy-program_329685.html

54 Barclays www.barclays.in/ www.barclays.in/about/corp_sustain.htm

55 VISA http://corporate.visa.com/index.shtml http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/ http://corporate.visa.com/corporate-responsibility/financial-inclusion/financial-literacy.shtml

56 Geojit http://www.geojitbnpparibas.com/ http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2008/02/13/stories/2008021352351700.htm http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2002/09/19/stories/2002091901671700.htm

Financial Advisory Service Providers

57 India Info Line http://flame.org.in/ http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Flame-News

58 Debt Doctor http://www.debtdoctorindia.com/

59 Suvision Holdings http://www.indianmoney.com/about- http://www.indianmoney.com/

http://meljol.net/

http://meljol.net/india/images/stories/governor/fin_edu.pdf

http://meljol.net/india/images/stories/annoual_data/letest/annualreport09-10.pdf

http://blog.samhita.org/2010/06/meljol-catching-them-young.html

http://www.dynamictarang.co.in/absdtpl.html

http://www.dynamictarang.co.in/absdtpl.html



http://www.srtt.org/

http://www.srtt.org/institutional_grants/rural_livelihoods_communities/sbi_five_projects.htm

http://www.srtt.org/institutional_grants/rural_livelihoods_communities/sbi_five_projects.htm

http://www.srtt.org/institutional_grants/rural_livelihoods_communities/sbi.htm

http://www.aif.org/

http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/pdf/Citi_Foundation_YouthEd.pdf

http://www.fino.co.in/

http://fino.co.in/Financial-Literacy-Program

http://paalavi.com/FINO/mod/resource/view.php?id=61

http://www.nabard.org/departments/undp_nabard.asp

http://eko.co.in/index.php

http://eko.co.in/images/File/EKo%20Comic.pdf

http://subk.co.in/about-sub-k/basix-group

http://subk.co.in/about-sub-k/basix-group


http://www.nseindia.com/

http://www.nseindia.com/education/content/mkcl_fin_prg.htm

http://www.nism.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=11

http://www.bseindia.com/

http://www.bsebti.com/

http://www.gemoney.in/

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/ge-money-launches-financial-literacy-program_329685.html

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/ge-money-launches-financial-literacy-program_329685.html

http://www.barclays.in/

http://www.barclays.in/about/corp_sustain.htm

http://corporate.visa.com/index.shtml

http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/

http://corporate.visa.com/corporate-responsibility/financial-inclusion/financial-literacy.shtml

http://corporate.visa.com/corporate-responsibility/financial-inclusion/financial-literacy.shtml

http://www.geojitbnpparibas.com/

http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2008/02/13/stories/2008021352351700.htm

http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2002/09/19/stories/2002091901671700.htm

http://flame.org.in/

http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Flame-News

http://www.debtdoctorindia.com/

http://www.indianmoney.com/about-indianmoney.html

http://www.indianmoney.com/

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indianmoney.html

60 Disha Financial Counseling Centre

http://dishafc.org/ http://www.prlog.org/10073003-icici-bank-established-its-financial-counseling-centre-disha.html

61 Moneylife Foundation http://www.moneylife.in/ http://foundation.moneylife.in/section/86/44671.html http://www.moneylife.in/events/Goa/indexnew1.html

62 ICICI Direct http://icicidirect.com/newsitecontent/Home/Home.asp

http://content.icicidirect.com/NewSiteContent/FinancialEducation/ClassroomOfProfit.asp

63 Religare http://www.religare.com/ http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/religare-securities%5C-investor-education-programme/428966/

Initiatives outside India:

Institution Website of inst. Other online resources consulted

Banks

1 Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM)

http://www.oibm.mw/ http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

2 Xac Bank http://www.xacbank.mn/en/90/about-xacbank/introduction

http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

3 UBank http://www.ubank.co.za/index.php http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

4 Es el Programa de AlfabetizaciónEconómica y Financiera del Banco Central de la República (EIPAEF)

http://www.bcra.gov.ar/index.asp


www.cba.am http://www.financial-education.org/document/34/0,3343,en_39665975_39667065_41710370_1_1_1_1,00.html

6 Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB)

http://www.oenb.at/en/welcome_to_the_oenb.jsp

Specialized Agencies

7 FinLit- Financial Literacy Foundation

Uganda http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

8 The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC)

http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/

http://www.indianmoney.com/about-indianmoney.html

http://dishafc.org/

http://www.prlog.org/10073003-icici-bank-established-its-financial-counseling-centre-disha.html

http://www.prlog.org/10073003-icici-bank-established-its-financial-counseling-centre-disha.html

http://www.moneylife.in/

http://foundation.moneylife.in/section/86/44671.html

http://www.moneylife.in/events/Goa/indexnew1.html

http://icicidirect.com/newsitecontent/Home/Home.asp

http://icicidirect.com/newsitecontent/Home/Home.asp



http://www.religare.com/

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/religare-securities%5C-investor-education-programme/428966/

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/religare-securities%5C-investor-education-programme/428966/

http://www.oibm.mw/


http://www.xacbank.mn/en/90/about-xacbank/introduction

http://www.xacbank.mn/en/90/about-xacbank/introduction


http://www.ubank.co.za/index.php


http://www.bcra.gov.ar/index.asp

http://www.cba.am/

http://www.financial-education.org/document/34/0,3343,en_39665975_39667065_41710370_1_1_1_1,00.html






http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/

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http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/financial-education/Pages/commission-index.aspx

10 German International Cooperation Micro-insurance Innovations Program for Social Security (GIZ-MIPSS)

http://www.microinsurance.ph/index.php

http://www.microinsurancenetwork.org/challenge26.php

11 The Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB)

http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/Members/home.htm

http://www.oecd.org/document/45/0,3746,en_39665975_39667065_40514797_1_1_1_1,00.html

12 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

http://www.oecd.org/home/0,2987,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

http://www.financial-education.org/pages/0,2987,en_39665975_39666038_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

13 Microfinance Opportunities http://microfinanceopportunities.org/

Association/Network of MFIs

14 Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU)

http://www.amfiu.org.ug/ http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

15 South African Insurance Association (SAIA)

http://www.sainsurance.co.za/ http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

16 Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf http://www.financialliteracy.gov.au/media/218312/national-financial-literacy-strategy.pdf

17 Financial Literacy Initiative (FLIP) of SAFE-Asia

http://www.safe-asia.com/flip.php

Microfinance Institutions and NGOs linked to MFIs

18 Faulu Advisory Services http://www.faulu-advisory.com/newsite/


19 FINCA http://www.finca.org/site/c.6fIGIXMFJnJ0H/b.6088193/k.BE5D/Home.htm

20 Crédito con Educación Rural (CRECER) Financial Education Programme

http://www.crecer.org.bo/ http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.53346/Can%20Financial%20Education.pdf

21 Pro Mujer (Programs for Women) Financial Education Programme

https://promujer.org/ http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.53346/Can%20Financial%20Education.pdf

22 Freedom from Hunger http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/ http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/programs/where.php







http://www.microinsurancenetwork.org/challenge26.php









http://microfinanceopportunities.org/

http://www.amfiu.org.ug/


http://www.sainsurance.co.za/


http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf

http://www.financialliteracy.gov.au/media/218312/national-financial-literacy-strategy.pdf

http://www.financialliteracy.gov.au/media/218312/national-financial-literacy-strategy.pdf

http://www.safe-asia.com/flip.php

http://www.faulu-advisory.com/newsite/

http://www.faulu-advisory.com/newsite/


http://www.finca.org/site/c.6fIGIXMFJnJ0H/b.6088193/k.BE5D/Home.htm

http://www.finca.org/site/c.6fIGIXMFJnJ0H/b.6088193/k.BE5D/Home.htm

http://www.crecer.org.bo/

http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.53346/Can%20Financial%20Education.pdf


https://promujer.org/



http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/

http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/programs/where.php

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23 Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Services (SEEDS)

http://www.seeds.lk/ http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.53346/Can%20Financial%20Education.pdf

24 Citigroup Foundation http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/

25 BRAC http://www.brac.net/ http://www.brac.net/content/where-we-work-uganda-empowerment-and-livelihoods-adolescents http://blog.bracusa.org/2011/06/tough-graduation-graduating-out-of_17.html http://www.brac.net/content/where-we-work-tanzania-empowerment-and-livelihood-adolescents

Organisations without Microfinance operations

26 Junior Achievement http://www.janigeria.org/ http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

27 Mediae, Makutano Junction TV series

Kenya http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

28 Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development (SPEED)

http://www.speedghana.org/

29 Moneysense http://www.freetogrow.com/

30 NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency - Liechtenstein Foundation

African countries http://www.nepad.org/governance-and-social-development/news/1124/lorem-ipsum-dummy

31 Camfed Zambia http://www.financialeducationfund.org/index.php?nav=projects&view=4

32 Neustro Barrio http://www.nuestrobarrio.tv/ http://www.reinvestmentpartners.org/info/nuestro-barrio

http://www.seeds.lk/



http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/

http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/

http://www.brac.net/

http://www.brac.net/content/where-we-work-uganda-empowerment-and-livelihoods-adolescents

http://www.brac.net/content/where-we-work-uganda-empowerment-and-livelihoods-adolescents

http://blog.bracusa.org/2011/06/tough-graduation-graduating-out-of_17.html

http://www.brac.net/content/where-we-work-tanzania-empowerment-and-livelihood-adolescents

http://www.brac.net/content/where-we-work-tanzania-empowerment-and-livelihood-adolescents

http://www.janigeria.org/



http://www.speedghana.org/

http://www.freetogrow.com/

http://www.nepad.org/governance-and-social-development/news/1124/lorem-ipsum-dummy

http://www.nepad.org/governance-and-social-development/news/1124/lorem-ipsum-dummy


http://www.nuestrobarrio.tv/

http://www.reinvestmentpartners.org/info/nuestro-barrio