Aflatoun International brought a youth perspective to the International Symposium on Cooperative Financial Institutions at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
How can cooperative finance better serve the next generation?
This was at the heart of Aflatoun International’s contribution during day one of the International Symposium on Cooperative Financial Institutions at the United Nations Headquarters in NewYork.
Convened by the International Cooperative Banking Association and the International Cooperative Alliance, the symposium brought together leaders to discuss how cooperative banks, credit unions, and community-based finance systems can support inclusive and equitable growth.
Our CEO Roeland Monasch joined the roundtable on policies that advance investment for a stronger future, bringing in a children and young people’s perspective from our global experience in Social and Financial Education.
One message was clear: inclusive finance cannot only be about institutions, products, and regulation. It must also be about the next generation.
Young people are already making financial decisions. They save, spend, use mobile money, watch families manage debt, and face growing digital financial risks. To build trusted and resilient financial systems, we must invest early in their financial capability, agency, and confidence.
Cooperatives are well placed to do this. They are rooted in communities, built on trust, and connected to people’s daily lives. They can help young people move from learning about saving to actually saving, from learning about enterprise to testing ideas, and from seeing cooperatives as something for older generations to seeing themselves as future members and leaders.
We were pleased to see strong voices for Social and Financial Education, including Jeroo Billimoria, Sylvia Paraguya from the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO Network), and Harsh Sanghani, President of the International Cooperative Alliance Youth Committee.
Thank you to the organisers and fellow participants for an important conversation on inclusive finance, youth empowerment, and the future of cooperative financial institutions.