Toward Financially Capable Youth

As part of the YouthSave project, Save the
Children (SC) carried out financial education
(FE) activities in Colombia, Kenya, and Nepal to
teach adolescent youth how to make the best
use of their savings accounts and about sound
personal financial management generally. To
evaluate the effectiveness of these activities,
SC tested the participating youth before and
after the FE sessions, assessing any changes
in related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. 

We found statistically significant
improvements in participants’ values related
to saving, their attitudes towards banks, and
their knowledge about the more technical
aspects of saving and budgeting. Less change
was observed around more general topics that
could be learned through everyday experience
or reasonably inferred, such as the purpose
of a budget or understanding that budgeting
helps with saving. Our experience also
suggests that longer and deeper engagement
with youth brought greater knowledge and
attitude improvements, and was particularly
important in reaching girls. In terms of
behavior changes, after the FE trainings, a
greater number of youth reported that they
had opened a savings account, were actually
saving, or were saving more. 

While it is not possible to attribute causality
in this analysis, the results are in line with
findings of several randomized controlled
trials that demonstrated similar changes. Our
results therefore add to the body of evidence
indicating the promise of youth FE, and the
need for further investment in rigorous impact
analysis that can guide practitioners towards
effective implementation.