Aflatoun Wins the MAIA Awards!

Aflatoun receives MAIA Award for Best School Age Financial Education Project

The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards – the MAIAs – are awarded annually among organizations active in the field of financial education. Aflatoun submitted one of its flagship initiatives for adolescents, ‘Aflateen+: Life Skills and Financial Education through a Gender Lens’, for consideration by the MAIA jury.

We won the MAIA Award for the Best School Age Financial Education Project!

This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the Aflatoun Partner Network, which is at the forefront of rolling out social and financial education programs across the globe. Today, we have 80 Aflatoun partners in 50 countries implementing Aflateen programs worldwide.

We would like to thank everyone who has believed in Aflatoun and its mission to empower girls and boys, especially the most vulnerable, with essential social and financial skills. Advocating for and implementing economic empowerment programs for children and youth has been a steep uphill battle.

Photo Of the Month

Regional Highlights

Anglophone Africa - The Centre for Financial Inclusion and Aflatoun Advance Social and Financial Education in Eswatini

Aflatoun International together with the Centre for Financial Inclusion (CFI) in Eswatini hosted a National Curriculum Integration Workshop. The three-day meeting aimed at guiding and supporting the National Curriculum Centre (NCC) and the Ministry of Education on their current journey of curriculum revision to incorporate relevant 21st-century Life Skills and Financial Education into the national curriculum. This is a relevant step to address the challenge of financial management and literacy amongst the children and young people in the country.

The meeting was attended by 50 participants, including from the Central Bank of Eswatini, leads from colleges and universities in the country, representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Centre for Financial Inclusion, and other relevant stakeholders.

Europe and Central Asia - New Partnerships in Europe and Central Asia

Aflatoun International signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central Bank of Kosovo. Kosovo plans to integrate social and financial education into its national curricula, carving the way for short-term as well as long-term impact on children and youth personal development and empowerment> Aflatoun will support the local contextualization of its life skills curriculum with a focus to nurture agents of change among Kosovo's younger generations.

The ECA region has also signed Memoranda of Understanding with partners in two new countries for Aflatoun. The exciting new partnership with Reliable Future, Azerbaijan and Knowledge Association, Bulgaria, promises to disseminate social financial literacy curricula to these local communities and expand our curricula to more children and youth in the region.

Middle East and North Africa - Aflatot in the Middle East and North Africa: A Training of Trainers on Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development

In May, Aflatoun International completed a training of trainers on Aflatot, our flagship programme for children aged 3-6. The event saw the participation of 22 partner organisations from 10 countries in the MENA region: Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq and Bahrain. The training took place over 4 days and included learner-centred education methodologies, active facilitating methods and key concepts of Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development. The participants showed exceptional enthusiasm and active participation and shared their views on the programme bringing experiences from the field.

Americas - Developing a National Financial Education Strategy in Ecuador

An Aflatoun team visited Quito, Ecuador, to work with the Ministry of Education, Aflatoun local partners, the Financial Inclusion Cluster, and other public, private, multilateral, and non-governmental actors on the development of a Curricular Integration Plan. The overall objective of the collaboration is to integrate Social and Financial Education into the Ecuadorian National Curriculum, allowing all students in Ecuador to develop financial skills that are essential for success in their professional careers, as well as in their personal lives. Good progress was made. During the 'National Integration' workshop, an assessment of needs was carried out and the steps to follow were agreed upon.

Francophone Africa - “National Integration Workshops”: Reviewing National Education Curriula in Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

At the end of May, Aflatoun International conducted National Integration Workshops in Benin and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Benin, the workshop was convened in collaboration with Aflatoun’s local partner Société d'Inclusion Financière - SIF GROUPE and the Ministry of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education. In DRC, the event was hosted together with Aflatoun partner, Association Professionnelle des Coopératives d'Epargne et de Crédit de la République Démocratique du Congo (APROCEC asbl) in collaboration with the Ministry for Primary, Secondary and Technical Education, and the Central Bank.

The objectives of the workshops were to consolidate the learning frameworks of Social and Financial Education (SFE) for secondary schools; identify the financial literacy themes and learning objectives per grade; determine the learning materials and tools to support the teaching of SFE at the school level; identify the next steps towards national integration. At the end of the workshops, a consolidated learning framework consisting of 9 modules split over the different school grades was proposed.

Asia - Teachers in West Java, Indonesia are trained on Life Skills, Financial Education and Project Management Skills

This week, 23 teacher trainers from Cianjur, West Java were trained in Aflatoun’s Social and Financial Education for adolescent girls and boys, including project management, using fun-based active learning methods.

The Aflateen+ Social, Finance and Management Education Training of Trainers is a collaboration between the Yayasan Amal Khair Yasmin Foundation, Aflatoun International and the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation (PMIEF). The programme has already reached more than 500 schools in different regions in Indonesia and will continue to expand. Last year, the programme reached 20,000 students in Bali, South Tangerang, Depok, Bogor and Pandeglang. In 2023, the Aflateen+ program is focusing on 5 regions: Pandeglang, Cianjur, Magelang, Purwakarta and Lampung. Just this year, the program will train 100 teachers and is expected to have a positive impact on 18,000 students in the 5 regions.

"Social and financial literacy is very important for our lives, with the Aflateen program it is hoped that teachers and students will be able to develop financial skills, manage a business in the end have a high social spirit to share with others in need” - An enthusiastic teacher participating in the training.

Join the Global Social and Financial Skills Conference 2023

Aflatoun will host its 6th bi-annual Global Social and Financial Skills Conference from 1-3 November 2023 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The event will bring together experts and practitioners from around the world to share knowledge and best practices to socially and economically empower children and young people. It will build on the 2022 Transforming Education Summit and the United Nations Secretary General Vision Statement on Transforming Education, which articulates the importance of social?emotional, financial and entrepreneurship skills as key elements of transformed education systems.

The conference will be a platform for sharing the latest research and innovations in social, financial and entrepreneurship education, and to promote collaboration and partnerships between organisations working in this field.

It's never too early to register for our International Conference 2023! Read all the information and details and register here: https://www.aflatounic2023.org/subscribe

Story of the Month

Planting the Seeds to Nurture Gender-Inclusive, Financial Entrepreneurs

Simba is a 17 years old boy from Zimbabwe who first joined the Mabvuku-Eastview Youth Club with a few of his peers. Throughout the club activities, coordinated by our local partner Faith Foundation, he started enjoying learning the topics included in the ‘My body, my choice’ session of the Aflateen+ curriculum, especially the part on Healthy Relationships and Deal Breakers, two very relevant topics among his peers.

“Mjolo hausikuendeka / (relationships are hard)”

Moreover, while learning about Life Skills, his club also started learning about financial literacy, responsible resource management and personal finances, including savings, budgeting and planning. After understanding different sources of income, Simba was eager to set up his own small social enterprise. He started selling sweets in his neighbourhood. With the money earned, he decided to save and aims to buy a laptop one day. Not much later Simba and his friends formed a financial enterprise called ‘Sunshine Kings” selling sweets and crackers. Simba is the group chairperson and works well with the secretary, treasurer, and other group members. After completing the club sessions and receiving his certificate Simba has gone on to encourage other adolescents in his community to participate in the Aflateen+ classes at the club.