fsd's financial education programme: evaluation and ... - FSD Kenya

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6 • FSD’S FINANCIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME: EVALUATION AND RECOMENDATIONS Table 4: Financial literacy baseline - activities and achievements Outputs Activities Achievements 1. Review approaches to measuring financial literacy, Achieved identifying relevant lessons for Kenya Financial literacy baseline established Under achieved 2. Review questionnaire and data from existing FinAccess 2006 study and propose relevant changes for FinAccess 2008 3. Commission analysis of findings from FinAccess 2008 and publish base-line report on financial literacy in Kenya 4. Review results from FinAccess 2008 and propose relevant changes for FinAccess 2010 while maintaining timeseries comparability Partially achieved – FinAccess 2008 yielded improved data, but still not strong baseline data for FinCap FinAccess 2010 Achieved- but still not strong baseline data Partially achieved – not all recommendations relevant/ appropriate; FinAccess 2012 crowded and unlikely it will yield strong baseline data. In conclusion, the FinEd programme completed the activities of undertaking the various reviews of FinAccess and putting forward recommended changes to be incorporated in FinAccess. However, these recommendations were not all relevant and key issues were missed out. As such, FinAccess still does not reflect the minimum requirements of a financial capability baseline. Furthermore, the delays in implementing FinAccess (outside the control of the FinEd PM), meant that the required data was not available in 2008 and 2010 as input into refining the proposed consumer strategy. This is an opportunity missed. 2.6 Pilot projects 2.6.1 Overview The FinEd programme supported the piloting of four financial education projects as per the design in the PAR. The project design stated that: “the development of this framework needs to be underpinned by actual work on the ground on the nuts and bolts of financial education (curriculum design and delivery, teacher and facilitator training, public campaigns) to inform, motivate and inspire the public/private participants in the partnership. Such pilot projects will ‘feed’ the programme from the bottom while the actors at the top create space for financial education in their respective spheres.” The PAR further stated that” in keeping with the overall project aim of ensuring that the approach is driven by stakeholders, the FEP task-force will take a lead in identifying and selecting pilot projects for support. The FEP-TF will work by consensus to maximise the sense of collective responsibility for the programme developed and activities supported.” At this time, the DFID-funded Financial Education Fund (FEF) was launched, calling for proposals for financial education programmes with a minimum budget of GBP 250,000. The FinEd team agreed to co-fund some pilots with FEF and the FinEd Task Force invited proposals from the market. The intention was that proposals would be screened by the FinEd Task Force and the top proposals would be sent to FEF for consideration. A total of 23 proposals were received and four were selected for submission to FEF. These four were Media-e, Faulu, Equity Bank and Plan. The proposals and their sponsors went through a long screening process including pre-evaluation and mandatory training in M&E in South Africa. Two proposals – Media-e and Faulu – survived the process and obtained FEF funding for design and implementation, supplemented with funding from the FSD for evaluation. Equity Bank and Plan were unsuccessful and subsequently submitted scaled down proposals to the FinEd programme. Both were approved and received funding from FinEd only. The four pilot projects are described briefly below and in greater detail in Annex C. Media-e Media-e is an NGO that focuses on social/development communication. It applied for funding to incorporate financial education in its local TV drama series known as Makutano Junction, aired on Citizen TV. Makutano Junction is a popular soap opera that has been running since 2006. It is funded primarily by donors such as DFID and the UN, and some commercial companies. The financial education content featured in eight episodes and focused on four main themes: Budgeting, Banking Services, Savings, Investment and Debt
FSD’S FINANCIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME: EVALUATION AND RECOMENDATIONS • 7 Management. These were broadcasted from January 2010. Viewers were further engaged through SMS messages and could request leaflets with financial education content through the post office. Media-e also worked with Faulu Kenya by supplying DVDs with clips from the Makutano Junction Series to augment Faulu’s financial education training materials. The target was to reach over 6 million viewers in predominantly rural areas and to change the knowledge/ skills and attitudes of at least 20% of those reached. Faulu The objective of the Faulu programme was to provide financial education to 70,000 beneficiaries: 50,000 Faulu Kenya clients and 20,000 people in communities surrounding the selected Faulu pilot branches. These beneficiaries were to be trained by 500 community-based trainers (CBTs) and trainers from Faulu Advisory Services. The target market for Faulu was largely peri-urban and the pilot was undertaken in the Western and Coastal Regions of Kenya. Training was provided to clients in a classroom setting. It comprised four modules: Debt Management, Savings, Investments and Budgeting. As per the FEF grant conditions, trainers were initially only allowed to educate clients about financial education and services without referring to Faulu products. This requirement was later relaxed. The original grant period was 17 months from 1 August 2009 to 31 December 2010. The revised grant period was 31 months. Equity The objective was to pilot a programme to increase financial knowledge and skills among youths, equip them with knowledge and skills to prepare short and long term financial plans and to expose them to available financial services. The project was implemented by the Equity Group Foundation in association with Kenyatta University (KU) and Microfinance Opportunities (MFO). The activities involved: (i) development of a curriculum by MFO; (ii) training of Master Trainers (MT) by MFO; (iii) the training of student trainers by MT; (iv) the training of KU students; and (v) the training of off-campus youth by KU students. The target was to reach 8,000 youth during the project period, but no impact target was set. The original grant period was 15.5 months from 15 June 2010 to 30th September 2011, but this was revised to 21.5 months. Plan The project was dubbed ‘Laying the foundations of entrepreneurship among children’. The project aimed to reach 148 schools in Kisumu and Budalangi regions of Western Kenya. Its targets were: (i) training 145 teachers from participating schools; (ii) 14 500 pupils; and (iii) opening 145 savings accounts. Five teachers at Bondo Teacher Training College received training-of-trainers (ToT), and in turn were expected to train 145 teachers from participating schools. The project intended to deliver key financial education messages and develop skills for earning, saving and investing money among children aged between 6 and 14 years. The project also supported the creation of Aflatoun clubs and encouraged children to set up micro-enterprises in order to generate cash to save. The main project partner was Childsave Kenya who undertook the bulk of the work on the ground. The project had several objects: • • • Plan intended working in partnership with Post Bank Kenya to ensure that children were able to access banking services specially developed for children. It aimed at entrenching financial education in the teacher training programmes, as well as in primary school co-curriculum activities. It intended working with the Ministry of Education in order to anchor financial education in the national education policy. The original grant period was 13 months from 1 December 2009 to 31 December 2010. The revised grant period was 28 months. 2.6.2 Evaluation The evaluation team’s observations are provided below. It should be noted that the quality of the baselines and end-lines varied considerably and made uniform assessment of the projects impossible. Media-e: The project performance largely met its stated purpose and the targeted reach was achieved. The key implementation challenge noted by Media-e was that the FEF/FinEd contribution came late in the process. Also, greater involvement by FSD on development of content would have been welcome. Other key points are: • • The evidence of impact is mixed. The project showed improvement in knowledge in the areas of budgeting, banking and saving. However, there is insufficient information to conclude that there were real changes in behaviour. The target market segment for Makutano Junction is largely rural (70%) and 75% of the viewership of Citizen TV is in the lower socio-economic classes (C2, D, E). We therefore conclude that the intended target market was reached.
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