2012

Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) is a global network of financial service providers, government representatives, youth serving organizations, and academics working together to improve financial access and financial, social and livelihoods education for children and youth throughout the world. Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the CYFI Secretariat coordinates efforts to advance the Child and Youth Finance Movement worldwide.

Child and Youth Finance Week

Our first Child and Youth Finance week was a resounding success, and we could not be happier! Youth from all over the world were given the opportunity to connect and share about the financial issues that matter most to them. Young people from 26 countries participated in events ranging from central bank tours, visits from financial luminaries, Skype calls with youth in different countries, and talks from financial planners and experts. Kids spoke about savings, starting their own business, earning interest, working, and sharing with their friends and family members.

Young people Namibia showed us their Ant Banks (click for video), which are used to encourage savings at home and at the bank; Junior Achievers in Argentina told us about making and selling auto safety kits and brownies to put money towards their future; and young people in Turkey shared their experiences saving for motorcycles to get them to and from work. It is exciting to see kids from all over the world enthusiastic about saving and enterprise. You can watch a short video on the hi-lights from Child and Youth Finance Week here.

Photos and videos from all of our partners, collaborators and new friends are being posted at www.WOFCHA.org. The site, set up by CYFI, allows young people from all over the world to connect virtually on issues related to money, enterprise, and relations with financial institutions. We encourage you to visit the site and share it with young people who you think would be interested in joining our online community and helping to change the future of finance for youth around the world.

Ringing of the NASDAQ Opening Bell

CYFI also had the honour of ringing in the opening bell at the NASDAQ on Wednesday, March 21, alongside Making Cents International and other industry partners. This was an excellent way to bring a close to Child and Youth Finance Week, and we were thrilled to be able to share our core beliefs with the financial community.  You can watch the video of the opening bell ceremony below.

CYFI Summit, April 2-4, 2012

We hope that the success of our first annual Child and Youth Finance Week and our upcoming CYFI Summit in Amsterdam (April 2-4, 2012) will bring us that much closer to our goal of financial inclusion for 100 million youth in 100 countries by 2015.

Growing up in Himalayan City, Philippines, Stephen Lumanog helped his mother sell food around their neighborhood to earn extra money. At 22, Stephen was earning about US$160 per month as a junior welder at a local sugar company. A promotion to certified welder would help him earn a raise and provide a more comfortable life for his family, but the required training was too expensive. Fortunately, Stephen’s mother is a client of the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF).  After NWTF partnered with Vittana to develop a student loan product for post-secondary education, Stephen borrowed US$160 to attend a three-month welding course. He is now employed as a certified welder, earning US$210 per month, a 130% income change just six months after graduating from his training program.

Stephen is not unique. Millions of young people around the world cannot complete post-secondary education, leaving valuable, income-generating skills unlearned, and years of higher wages permanently out of reach. As financial service providers to hundreds of millions of poor and low-income[1] families, microfinance institutions (MFIs) are uniquely positioned to reach the 100 million youth worldwide who lack the resources to complete higher education. But until recently, MFIs had done little to tap into this market, discouraged by a set of common misunderstandings: we like to call them the Five Myths of Student Lending.

Check out Vittana's presentation to see how the organization has debunked those myths by creating high-performing student loan products at 20 MFIs in 12 countries.

Now that Vittana and its partner MFIs have shown that student loan products are viable, we believe that as the products evolve to reach more and more students, a hyper-data-driven approach will allow MFIs to simultaneously reduce risk and amplify impact. Vittana is already noticing some interesting trends: for example, women studying accounting in Nicaragua repay at a better rate than their counterparts in Mongolia. The average projected change in income for Filipina women between the ages of 20 and 24 is 900%, more than three times the Vittana average. The sample sizes are far too small to draw conclusions, but we’re excited to continue to explore these trends as our portfolio grows.

As the next generation of borrowers comes of age, they will look for more than an opportunity to run a small business. Education will give them the skills they need to compete, to create jobs, and to find work that will support their families. But without financial assistance, even low-cost vocational training will remain out of reach for many poor students and their families. In most markets, very few financial service providers, if any, have stepped in to fill this need; the institutions that make up the microfinance industry can and should be the ones to do it.

If you’d like more information on Vittana, please visit their website at http://www.vittana.org.