A high-level Conference and Technical Workshops took place in Minsk on 19 and 20 September, in the context of the OECD/INFE Technical Assistance Project on Financial Education in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The project aims to provide policy guidance and technical assistance in six countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan) to support the design, implementation and evaluation of effective national strategies for financial education, as a complement to national policies to foster financial consumer protection and financial inclusion. The project is implemented with the financial support from the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, and benefits from its technical expertise and participation in project activities.
The OECD International Network on Financial Education (INFE) is leading the work, building on its internationally-recognised expertise and longstanding commitment to advancing financial literacy around the world. Project activities directly draw on OECD/INFE outputs, as well as on the experience of its wide membership from over 240 public institutions in over 115 countries – including central banks, financial regulators and supervisors, ministries of finance and ministries of education.
This week's events were an important milestone and marked the first step of the project implementation phase. The Conference participants included high-level representatives from the National Bank of Belarus, the Russian Ministry of Finance and the OECD. Senior practitioners from CIS countries shared insights on the current status of their national strategies for financial education, while international experts from academia and the OECD/INFE enriched the sessions with the latest research on the impact of financial education initiatives and state-of-the-art examples of effective financial education policies. Additional thematic sessions provided an opportunity to exchange international good practice on the role of schools in delivering financial education, how to improve financial literacy for migrants and their families, as well as the best channels to communicate and deliver financial education initiatives.
Technical Workshops focused on important aspects of good financial education policies: the measurement of financial literacy in the population based on OECD/INFE methodology, the different approaches to evaluate the impact of financial education initiatives, and the design of effective coordination mechanisms for the implementation of national strategies for financial education.
Through practical exercises and direct interaction with peers and international experts, senior practitioners from the CIS region discovered common challenges and learn about the most effective tools to design and implement financial education policies that can deliver positive change and foster a healthy financial behaviour in their home countries.