At the end of October, Aflatoun International hosted the Global Social and Financial Skills Conference. 250+ people from 80 different countries came together to learn more about the importance of social and financial education and connected with each other. The conference had two key themes: Girls empowerment and Employment & Entrepreneurship, these themes were present in sessions and conversations through the conference.
We heard from Minister Kaag and Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank – who talked about the importance of saving for children and young people. We had a panel discussion on girls economic empowerment with Monika Froehler, CEO, Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens and others focused on the topic. And we had interactive breakouts focusing on interactive learning, the School to Work transition and scaling up.
What we learned
Social and financial education should be a part of all programs. Including social and financial education as part of programs that focus on health & reproductive rights, labour migration, environment, etc., helps to achieve program goals and has a greater impact on those participating in the programs.
You can do it with quality at scale. Ensuring that programs are scalable is incredibly important tool. It ensures that we reach as many children/ young people as possible and does not create a divide between those that have had the program and those that have not.
Working together is key.
Partnering together is key to ensuring that we reach more children/ young people, that we learn from one another and that we maximse our efforts.
A big thank you to all that participated, shared and came together to focus on this incredibly important topic.
