BLOGS

The main objective of the Academy on Youth Development is to support the on-going development and implementation of policies and programmes that respond to youth needs in four core areas: (i) youth employment and entrepreneurship; (ii) education and training; (iii) health, including sexual and reproductive health; and (iv) participation and civic engagement.

In a mid-March Youth Financial Inclusion Workshop for the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, organized by Silatech and CGAP, participants debated how to respond to staggeringly low financial inclusion among youth ages 15-24, a population that hold financial accounts at less than half the rate of the developing economy average. Discussion centered on the value of efforts to expand and target youth access. Tim Nourse, of Making Cents International, shared the emerging recommendations that respond to the debate.

This year, between March 15^th – 21^st, there will be a child who will walk into a bank for the very first time. Across the world, there will be another child who will be having a conversation about finance with the governor of the central bank. In a neighbouring country, a teenager will be preparing to talk to her peers about the enterprise she and her classmates had set up. Later during the week, all of these children will share their stories with one another through a web chat. Such is the power of the Global Money Week.

Content for the following blog came from learning events DAI, Walmart, and Making Cents International organized in November, 2012 to address questions surrounding how to achieve scale with quality, affordable life skills programming. Similar discussions have taken place at Making Cents' 2012 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference and the 2012 WISE Conference in Doha.