By Payal Pathak, New America Foundation

On February 14^th, the YouthSave Project hosted its first multi-stakeholder meeting in Bogota, Colombia to discuss project progress and engage our stakeholders on topics that can improve YouthSave’s efforts in developing, delivering and testing youth savings products targeted at low-income youth. This vodcast features key insights that our expert advisory board members shared when asked about the challenges and opportunities in savings product development and delivery for youth, a topic that was discussed at length during the event.

By Cerrone Lundy, Seam*

I am always amazed by the creativity and the energy that is generated when a group of people with different perspectives comes together to solve a problem. One of the leading questions facing the YouthSave Project is how to use the market research they have conducted to create compelling communications directed at the youth of Project countries, Kenya, Colombia, Ghana, and Nepal. During the EAB/FI Learning  Exchange in Bogotá, I was fortunate enough to moderate a day-long workshop with the goal of starting to figure out the answer to just that question.

Image of Shabana Azmi taken from wikimedia commons

By Payal Pathak, New America Foundation

Last week, YouthSave members from CGAP, Margaret Miller and Tanaya Kilara organized a panel event at the World Bank called “Entertainment as a Catalyst for Social Change in India,” which focused on how to integrate social messaging into mainstream Indian entertainment, namely film and television, towards achieving behavior change. Panelists elaborated on past, failed experiences with social messaging efforts and identified challenges in 1) attracting viewership towards entertainment that addresses controversial issues such as HIV/AIDS and women’s abuse 2) financing social messaging for films and television given its low demand and 3) measuring the linkages between social messaging and behavior change. As a member of the YouthSave team, I thought about these challenges in the context of a non-controversial topic: financial education.

Picture of YouthSave's EAB Members

By Payal Pathak, New America Foundation

This month, the YouthSave Consortium, Expert Advisory Board (EAB) and partnering Financial Institution (FI) representatives from Project countries came together in Bogota, Colombia for a two-day learning exchange. The objectives of this meeting were two-fold: 1) to share YouthSave project progress and updates with our partners and EAB members and 2) to exchange lessons and engage our stakeholders on topics that can improve YouthSave’s efforts in developing, delivering and testing youth savings products targeted at low-income youth.