On Thursday, October 28th, the project “Financial Education for Parents” was launched during the webinar hosted by The Human Safety Net, Generali and UNICEF Italia. The event introduced the project designed to promote parental financial education and to support vulnerable families. UNICEF has started piloting the programme with local governments in two countries, Italy and Indonesia.
The project was created to address the lack of financial education tailored for families, and it was developed on a study conducted by Aflatoun International “Financial Education for Parents – A Review of Early Childhood Development Parenting Programmes”.
During the webinar, our CEO Roeland Monasch, presented the main components and findings of the study which analysed 25 case studies from 20 countries around the world. The review looked at how the inclusion of Financial Education in Early Childhood Development (ECD) parenting programmes can effectively strengthen parents’ financial decision-making, hence helping them to provide the best care for their children.
The main and most important finding of the study was the confirmation of the effectiveness of Financial Education in ECD parenting programmes. Mr Monasch shared that nearly all the studies had positive results: children were more likely to access learning materials, there was a decrease in the number of children in institutions, and participating households were more likely to report improved child health and emotional well-being. He emphasized the importance of contextualising the programmes, adapting them to local needs and approaches; using active learning methodologies; and linking parenting programmes to financial inclusion programmes.
Moreover, in the future, it will be important to find a balance of Financial Education sessions for the parents, link it to the financial education provided to children and implement different delivery models, including the digital.
Watch the presentation of the study here:
Find the full study here.