Our Research

Aflatoun International offers social and financial education to millions of children and young people worldwide, empowering them to make a positive change for a sustainable future. We create high-quality curricula, for different age groups, which can be contextualised to local needs and specific circumstances.

Since its inception, Aflatoun has prioritized evaluations and research to assess the impact of our programs on children, youth, families, and communities. To date, we have conducted over 100 evaluations in 52 countries, covering a range of topics including Social Emotional Learning, Financial Literacy, Child Protection, Climate Action, and more.

Aflatoun-led Research

HIV/AIDS Programming with Social and Economic Empowerment

Studies have concluded that plural education interventions, combining financial education and SRHR with social education, have positive effects on HIV‐related outcomes. Aflatoun International helps girls and young women take greater social and economic control of their lives by empowering them with Aflateen+.

Agribusiness: Youth Economic Empowerment

Due to the limited access to education, training, and the means to scale up small enterprises, the younger generation of rural workers risks being left behind. To prevent this, social, financial, and entrepreneurship education (SFE) can assist by offering the necessary skills and knowledge to transition into the labour market and effectively engage in the agribusiness value chain.

Enhancing Youth Livelihoods Programmes

A major challenge for youth today is unemployment and under-employment. At Aflatoun we believe that this issue is caused by a gap in traditional education systems that fails to address the mismatch between supply and demand of skills.

A Global Desk Review of Financial Education’s Contribution to Girls’ Economic Empowerment

The purpose of this work is to provide recommendations regarding the design, implementation and research on programs for adolescent girls aged 10 to 18 that aim to contribute to their economic empowerment by containing a financial education component.

Peer-led Financial Education for Adolescent Girls in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Review

A review of 20 peer-led youth financial education initiatives from 17 different countries found that, with the right design, peer-led financial education can be an effective delivery method for improving financial literacy among adolescent girls, and trigger behaviour change as they transition from childhood to adulthood, and from school to work life.

Financial Education's Contribution to Girls' Economic Empowerment: A Global Review

A systematic review of girls’ economic empowerment programmes to determine which interventions are most effective has not been undertaken before. With this lack of global mapping, it has not been possible to reach a consensus as to which models and Theory of Change can be most effective, and under what circumstances such programmes might best empower adolescent girls. The findings and outputs of our global review are summarized in this policy brief.

Impact of the Aflateen+ Life Skills and Financial Education Programme on Adolescent GIrls and Boys in Burkina Faso

This factsheet provides a summarised overview of the impact evaluation report of Aflatoun’s Life Skills and Financial Education programme ‘Aflateen+’ on adolescent girls and boys in Burkina Faso. Answering the main question: Has the Aflateen+ programme been effective in enhancing social, financial and entrepreneurial life skills, knowledge and attitudes of adolescent girls and boys in Burkina Faso?

Empowering Adolescent Girls - Combining Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights with Social and Economic Skills Building

At Aflatoun, we believe that Including social and financial education into SRHR programmes allow youths to gain the knowledge, attitudes and skills that will ultimately lead to economically empowered girls that are less likely to engage in risky behaviour and be exposed to forced sex and are more likely to access health services.

Impact of the Aflateen+ Life Skills and Financial Education Programme on Adolescent Girls and Boys in Cameroon (RCT Fact Sheet)

This factsheet provides a summarised overview of the impact evaluation report of Aflatoun’s Life Skills and Financial Education programme Aflateen+ on adolescents in Cameroon. Answering the main question: Has the Aflateen+ programme been effective in enhancing social, financial and entrepreneurial life skills, knowledge and attitudes of adolescent girls and boys in Cameroon?

Financial Education for Parents - A review of Early Childhood Development Parenting Programmes

This study provides the evidence and rationale for the importance of financial education in early childhood parenting programmes and a review of 25 programmes and their approaches.

Impact of the Aflatoun Life Skills anf Financial Education Programme on Upper Primary School Children in Himachal Pradesh, India

This factsheet provides a summarised overview of the impact evaluation report of Aflatoun’s Life Skills and Financial Education programme on children in Himachal Pradesh, India. Answering the main question: Has the Aflatoun programme been effective in enhancing life

skills and financial education among students aged 6-14 years in India?

COVID-19 Impact & Response Survey Summary of Findings

The COVID-19 outbreak has an immensely negative impact on children and young people around the world. It also has major consequences for organisations that normally support vulnerable children. In order to assess how Aflatoun partner organisations were affected, how they continued to reach children and youth – we opened an online survey in April 2020. 114 organisations from 67 countries responded within the short timeframe.

Exploring the Social and Economic Empowerment of Children and Youth

This report is about helping young people take control, to self-determine, and to achieve their goals. A pathway to social and economic empowerment is presented below. The application of social, financial and livelihoods capabilities, when combined with access to appropriate financial services, provide the foundational skills which contribute to a young person’s social agency and financial health. When young people fully develop these two elements, they enhance their social and economic empowerment.

Financial Education and Life Skills for Girls in India: Community Perceptions As Obstacles to Girls' Economic Empowerment

This report presents the findings of qualitative research into the Credit Suisse Financial Education and Life Skills (FELS) programme for adolescent girls in India. The programme has been implemented since 2014, in Rajasthan, North West India. The results of this research will be used to make recommendations to improve the quality of financial and life skills programming for adolescent girls, as well as to contribute to the broader debate around girls’ financial education and empowerment.

Financial Education and Life Skills for Girls in Rwanda: Work on Gender Norms and Girls' Economic Empowerment

This report presents the findings of qualitative research into the Credit Suisse Financial Education and Life Skills (FELS) programme for adolescent girls in Rwanda. The findings lead to recommendations for financial and life skills programming for adolescent girls and contribute to the broader debate around girls’ financial education and empowerment.

Financial Education and Life Skills for Girls in China: Overcoming Marginalisation and Barriers to Education and Empowerment

This report presents the findings of qualitative research into the Credit Suisse Financial Education and Life Skills (FELS) programme, implemented in 26 middle schools and one vocational school across 18 townships in Guangnan County, China.

Financial Education and Life Skills for Girls in Brazil: Community Buy-In as an Enabling Factor for Girls' Economic Empowerment

This report presents the findings of qualitative research into a Financial Education and Life Skills (FELS) programme for adolescent girls in Brazil. The results of this research can be used to make recommendations to improve the quality of financial and life skills programming for adolescent girls, as well as to contribute to the broader debate around girls’ financial education and empowerment.

Research Related to Aflatoun

Contribution of the Social and Financial Leadership Education Program to Students and Teachers

The social and financial leadership training program started to be implemented in Turkey in 2015 with the training of trainers, and a wide-ranging application covering the whole of Turkey was carried out in the 2020–2021 academic year. The findings obtained in this research reveal that the social and financial leadership training program is effective in gaining knowledge and attitudes in the subject area in students and teachers.

The Impact of Financial Education for Children: Evidence from an Experiment in China

This study carries out a paired-design experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the Aflatoun Child Social & Financial Education program, which is initiated by the International Children’s Savings Foundation and covers more than 100 countries and millions of children and adolescents.

Gender-based participation in income generating activities in cocoa growing communities. The role of youth training programmes

This study examines the determinants of gender-based participation of the youth in income generating enterprises in cocoa growing areas in Ghana, using a sample of 4,702 participants of the Next Generation Cocoa Youth Program (MASO) initiative, which Aflatoun was part of.

Localising Global Financial Key Terms: Case Studies from East Africa

Global concepts travel from international institutions, through development agencies, to people of different cultural backgrounds. This chapter examines four concepts—‘saving’, ‘budgeting’, ‘entrepreneurship’, and ‘bank’—from the Universal Financial Inclusion programme, travelling from the World Bank, to places in Tanzania and Kenya through a contextualisation process in Aflatoun’s teaching materials.

Savings and economic diversification among youth in Ghana - Implications for policy and practice

Savings remain a critical mechanism for capital accumulation for the purpose of investment in developing countries like Ghana. Using data from the Next Generation Cocoa Youth Programme (MASO) implemented by Solidaridad, Aflatoun and partners, a bias correcting count data model was applied to determine the drivers of savings, and the impact of savings on youth economic diversification.

Financial education for HIV‐vulnerable youth, orphans, andvulnerable children: A systematic review of outcome evidence

This systematic review assessed the scope and strength of evidence forfinancial education and plural interventions aimed at reducing HIV vulnerability foryouth, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in LMICs.

Effect of Non-formal Experimental Education on Personal Agency of Adolescent Girls in Tajikistan: Findings from a Randomized Experimental Study

Despite the claim of non-formal experiential education enhancing agency among youth, few studies offer robust evidence. Drawing from the capability approach, social cognitive theory, and experiential learning theory, we present the first experimental study in Central Asia testing the effect of experiential educational programme on adolescent girls’ personal agency, including self-efficacy, future orientation, and locus of control.

The Impact of Financial Education for Youth in Ghana (World Development publication)

Governments and non-governmental organisations promote school-based financial literacy programmes as means to instill financial behaviors that can persist through adulthood. A a randomized trial of two financial literacy education programmes was conducted in government-run Ghanaian primary and junior high schools.

The impact of social and financial education on savings attitudes and behaviour among primary school children in Uganda

This study is one of the first that examines the effects of social and financial education training and a children’s club developed by Aflatoun on savings attitudes and behavior among primary school children in Uganda, besides Berry, Karlan, and Pradhan.

Beyond Financial Literacy: The Psychological Dimensions of Financially Capable Behaviour

Making good decisions about money isn’t just about knowing financial facts. Psychology plays a significant part too. This research finds that a higher level of financially capable behaviour is not just down to how much knowledge a person has acquired or the attitude towards money they hold, but also is strongly linked to certain psychological factors.

What curriculum? Which methods? A cluster randomized controlled trial of social and financial education in Rwanda

Life-skills based financial education (LSFE) for young people is one potential intervention for improving the financial capabilities of a population. However, the pedagogical methods for LSFE have rarely been studied. This study represents the first cluster randomized controlled trial to analyze both student outcomes and the observed use of active learning methods (ALMs) by teachers.

About Us

Latest Annual Report

ANNUAL REPORT 2022

Mission

Vision

Why SFE

Our Core Programmes

AFLATOT

Impact stories

A Second Chance to Education

Our movement

Our partners

Global and Local Implementing Partners

Advocacy Partners

Governmental Partners

Our Donors and Supporters

SFE Advocacy

Our Events

AFLATOUN REGIONAL MEETINGS 2024

GLOBAL MONEY WEEK 2024

Join the movement