In 2007 Halil Ünsal enrolled as a finance student at Bahçeşehir University driven by the belief that sound financial management is key to sustaining Turkey’s growth. After two years of business and maths courses Ünsal realised he still had not learned to manage his own personal finances.
Ünsal was not alone. Among the 37.5 million people under 30 in Turkey four out of five still do not save for major purchases, according to The life style, social preferences and financial behaviour of young people aged 15-30 study, conducted in 2009 by Era Research for Visa Europe Turkey. Many avoid contact with financial institutions because they don’t know how to open a checking account or because of a negative experience like seeing a parent default on a loan.
The global financial crisis demonstrated the impact of excessive spending and poor financial literacy. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis Visa Europe Turkey, the Turkish ministry of development, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and Habitat Center for Development teamed up to help youth take control of their financial future, one decision at a time.
Berna Ülman, Visa Europe’s regional managing director south eastern Europe, sought a partner who could help Turkey’s youth learn to save. In the winter of 2008 she met with Hansın Doğan, the head of the UNDP Istanbul office for public-private partnerships. Visa’s idea for a peer-to-peer mentoring programme called I can manage my money was born. The initiative has now offered face-to-face training to over 49,000 young people in financial literacy concepts and trained an additional 26,000 online.
“The financial context in Turkey indicates low saving rates and high consumerism,” says Sezai Hazır from Habitat Center for Development and Governance which implements the project working with municipalities, NGOs, and universities at local level. “This project is unique with its message to prioritise savings over consumption. What we aim for here is to promote spending logically according to your needs and wants.”
Back at Bahçeşehir University Ünsal volunteered to be a trainer in the programme as soon as it was announced. He knew he could learn the concepts and then help others. He is now one of 500 volunteer trainers that delivers the curriculum in 72 cities throughout the country.
Through the project young people aged 15-30 learn a range of topics including: savings and investment, balancing a budget, borrowing with a plan, debt repayment, pension contributions, and consumer rights. Ünsal remembers that after the module on distinguishing needs from wants he stopped eating out so he could save.
Because I can manage my money aims to improve Turkey’s economic sustainability, far-reaching partnerships are key. Visa Europe brought together a network of 23 member banks to fund and support the project. Contrary to the usual model of ‘one company supports one social cause,’ Visa’s Ülman says that combining forces at a high level allowed the program to achieve economies of scale and to become “a force of sector mobilisation.”
Thanks to project partners who attended working groups and committees to communicate learning and progress during the preparation of the development programme, the ministry of development, who Visa also brought in as a partner, officially recognised the importance of financial education in its 10th national development plan for 2014-2018. “We wanted to trigger a policy change to include financial education in the national curriculum,” says Ülman.
The national strategy and action plan on financial inclusion, education and consumer protection, which was prepared by Turkey’s financial stability committee, also includes financial education as a key component and call for financial literacy to be added to the national curriculum. Now it’s up to the ministry of national education to bring financial literacy into the education system. Doğan is convinced that the programme can help Turkey resist future financial shocks but he says, “the government should take responsibility for training at national scale”.
Making sure the programme best fits young people’s needs is something the team has kept coming back to though, and over the years I can manage my money has been adapted to better target more disadvantaged youth. The course was first piloted for university students but was then diversified, with separate curricula for high school students, university students and young adults, to meet people’s different needs.
There are still challenges though as economically disadvantaged young people can be particularly hard to reach. International research shows socio-economically disadvantaged students have lower levels of financial literacy. Hazır says “training people in the rural areas, in rural coffee shops or in prison” as well as working with local partners were important strategies for taking the programme to local youth.
To reach more people, the classes are now also offered online as well as face-to-face making it more convenient for young people wanting to educate themselves about budgeting and saving. The teaching style of the classes has become more flexible too, after the young volunteers fed back that lectures alone were not the most effective teaching style for young people. The website has also become more interactive. In 2005, it just offered one-way advice, whereas today it offers interactive lessons, a budget calendar and financial games.
Flore-Anne Messy, executive secretary of the International Network on Financial Education, concludes that worldwide people need financial literacy so they have “the confidence or the capacity to choose products adequately”. Visa Europe has recognised this, making financial literacy a priority and social investment area.
Content managed and produced by Visa
