Mía! Ladies save for the longer term within the Dominican Republic

In honor of Worldwide Youth Day 2013, Girls’s World Banking is highlighting its youth financial savings work. At present we’re sharing the blogpost we wrote for microlinks again in 2012 concerning the youth financial savings product we developed within the Dominican Republic with community member Banco ADOPEM.

February 1, 2012

Ana Laura opened her first financial savings account at Banco ADOPEM within the Dominican Republic in April 2011. She carefully screens the cash she has in her account, preserving monitor of the quantity and dimension of deposits she makes. Ana Laura acknowledges that the financial institution not solely offers extra safety than preserving her cash at dwelling, however she can also be much less tempted to spend it.

Ana Laura is barely 13.

She lives in Las Enfermeras, a low-income neighborhood in Santo Domingo, alongside together with her mom, three brothers and sisters, grandmother, and uncle. Ana Laura saves slightly bit day-after-day from the cash her mom and grandmother give her for varsity, and her essential financial savings targets are to purchase a brand new laptop and pay for faculty.

In contrast to Ana Laura, many ladies within the creating world would not have entry to monetary companies. The accessibility of financial savings merchandise and monetary teaching programs tailor-made to low-income women has vital implications for women’ financial and social empowerment. By cultivating an understanding of the significance of constructing saving habits and opening financial savings accounts which they management, women develop expertise in asset accumulation, threat administration, and aim setting. With these expertise, women are higher outfitted to plan for the longer term.

Girls’s World Banking believes improvement of those expertise will result in an elevated tendency amongst women to pursue larger training, create companies of their very own, marry at a later age, or develop into property homeowners – all of which have broader implications for lowering poverty. In accordance with market demand analysis carried out by Girls’s World Banking in each the Dominican Republic and in Mongolia in 2009, women as younger as 10 usually accumulate cash, actively handle it, and desire a secure place to put it aside.

Creating the primary youth financial savings account at a Caribbean MFI

Recognizing the potential affect of offering women with entry to monetary companies, Girls’s World Banking created a program to design and ship financial savings merchandise and monetary training to ladies and younger ladies aged 7 to 24, in addition to to introduce a sustainable product line for the financial institution. This system was rolled out in 2008 with community members Banco ADOPEM (Dominican Republic) and XacBank (Mongolia), with help from the Nike Basis as a part of the Woman Effect1, an initiative that goals to advertise women’ empowerment.

Banco ADOPEM, Girls’s World Banking’s community member establishment within the Dominican Republic, is a number one and award-winning microfinance establishment (MFI) with a deal with low-income ladies. The financial institution presents loans, remittances, and insurance coverage and financial savings merchandise. Nevertheless, earlier than this challenge, the financial institution didn’t have a financial savings product particularly geared towards youth.

After conducting in-depth market analysis and designing product prototypes, the joint Girls’s World Banking-Banco ADOPEM challenge crew piloted two financial savings merchandise beneath the identify “Mía” (“Mine” in Spanish) in a number of pilot branches. These merchandise have been segmented by age and provided to each women and boys, with differentiation in advertising however not in product attributes. The financial institution made a enterprise resolution to broaden the provide past simply women with the intention to make the product extra inclusive, thus serving to to make sure the long-term sustainability of the product.

A monetary training program was additionally rolled out by faculties in early 2010. And by the top of 2011, the financial institution had launched the product in all of its branches throughout the nation. The Mía merchandise are the primary financial savings accounts focusing on youth provided by a Caribbean MFI. The Mía accounts have a low preliminary deposit quantity, few necessities to open, and no further fees so long as a transaction is made at the least as soon as each six months.

Mía product design

Mía prospects embrace youth (beneath age 16) who can not legally personal their very own accounts and require at the least one grownup to behave because the “sponsor” for the account.

Advertising and marketing to youth

ADOPEM created varied colourful, age- and gender-appropriate passbooks; incentive constructions; and focused advertising supplies with the tagline, “Ahorrar te hace grande” (“Financial savings makes you grown up”). Upon opening an account, every account holder is introduced with a passbook, a financial savings can (or “alcancía,” much like a piggybank), and a mini saving plan template.

Monetary training

Girls’s World Banking and Banco ADOPEM partnered with Microfinance Alternatives to design a stand-alone monetary training curriculum, and the monetary training program has been applied and managed by ADOPEM NGO. At the beginning of this system, Banco ADOPEM and the ADOPEM NGO approached a number of faculties in Santo Domingo and agreed that sure college lecturers would ship the 2-session curriculum, which covers financial savings, targets, banking, and cash administration, to teams of roughly 25 women as an after-school exercise. ADOPEM NGO has strengthened the ideas taught in these classes by follow-up, interactive Jeopardy-like video games, that are facilitated by the women themselves beneath supervision from the lecturers.

Throughout account opening, Banco ADOPEM can also be presently piloting the introduction of financial savings plans which account holders are supposed to observe and full over time. This method to monetary training throughout transaction contact factors motivates account holders to achieve their financial savings targets.

Outcomes and classes discovered

As of December 2011, greater than 10,000 women and boys have opened Mía accounts. Roughly 30 p.c, on common, have had account exercise within the final 3 months, and greater than 5,000 college students have obtained monetary training. As proven by these constructive outcomes, the Mía product has develop into an integral a part of Banco ADOPEM’s product providing, and youth have develop into a reputable consumer section for the financial institution.

Mía’s success, nonetheless, was preceded by totally different challenges, together with: making certain monetary funding and dedication to a product with a longer-term profitability horizon than different deposit merchandise; aligning mother and father and different cohorts round the advantages of this system for youth; sustaining consumer momentum across the product past account opening, in order that youth incessantly use the account and construct financial savings over time; and, discovering cost-effective supply fashions for monetary training.

Because of this, in the course of the pilot and roll out of Mía, Girls’s World Banking and Banco ADOPEM discovered the next invaluable classes, which ought to be thought of when launching youth merchandise at different monetary establishments:

• Acquire the dedication of the monetary establishment’s management to make sure that youth financial savings is prioritized as a part of the monetary establishment’s core product providing.
• Combine youth financial savings into the monetary establishment’s operations and employees coaching procedures to additional promote its long-term sustainability.
• Supply the product to each women and boys to raised institutionalize the general consumer section.
• Encourage ongoing account exercise in order that youth develop financial savings habits and construct belongings, contributing to higher empowerment and monetary safety in the long run. Encourage this habits by ongoing advertising, incentive schemes, monetary training, and elevated entry to financial institution branches.
• Promote youth possession and management of accounts even when mother and father legally personal them.
• Develop youth-friendly advertising supplies that differentiate these merchandise.
• Ship monetary training content material by quite a lot of built-in channels to strengthen messages over time and promote long-term behavioral change.

Financial savings for the longer term

Much like adults, women desire a alternative of merchandise, accounts which can be straightforward to open and use, and a department that’s accessible. Girls’s World Banking has been capable of show the lifetime worth for MFIs and banks to focus on the youth section. Along with Banco ADOPEM, a number of different community members have already launched youth financial savings merchandise, akin to PEACE MFI S.COin Ethiopia. Further community members have additionally expressed an curiosity in increasing their product portfolio to incorporate financial savings for women.

Ana Laura has already made two deposits to her account and continues to be fascinated about her desires of going to college. And as Esperanza, a 14-year-old Mía account holder places it, “having a dream is essential for saving – you possibly can’t attain your desires with out cash, and to have cash it is advisable save.”

This submit is a part of a Youth Financial savings collection Girls’s World Banking is publishing in honor of Worldwide Youth Day 2013.

Different posts on this collection:
Celebrating Worldwide Youth Day with a have a look at Youth Financial savings Applications, August 12, 2013
What do women need?, August 13, 2013