Financial Education for Women

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SEWA BANK

• The financial services arm of SEWA
• Established in 1974 at the initiative of 4,000
  self-employed women who contributed share capital
  of Rs. 10 each
• Today a fully regulated cooperative bank with
  more than 250,000 members
• Offers its members a wide range of savings,
  credit and insurance products.
• Now piloting a fourth area of service financial
  education

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Project Tomorrow

• SHREE MAHILA SEWA
• SAHAKARI BANK LTD.

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TOMORROW

• Today,
• Organize your
• Money, be
• Obedient towards savings,
• Regularly be
• Rich and be
• Owner of
• Wealth

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Project Tomorrow

• Financial education for members
• Began June 02 (urban), Dec. 03 (rural)
• 35,250 SEWA Bank members over three years
• Partnership with Microfinance Opportunities
• Technical assistance provided by Freedom from
  Hunger and the Coady International Institute

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Rationale

• SEWA Bank wants to help its members to be
  pro-active and forward-looking, to be able to
  plan and utilize financial services for a more
  secure and comfortable future.

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Project Tomorrow Objectives

• By the end of the project, members will
• Understand the concept and importance of
  financial planning
• Analyze their money management practices
• Recognize their life cycle financial needs and
  future risks
• Analyze the trade-offs between various financial
  options
• Match various financial products and services
  (SEWA Banks and others) to their financial
  situation
• Make a financial plan for their household

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Content of Training Program

• 7 sessions (40 90 minutes each)
• Introduction to Financial Planning
• Money Management
• Planning for Future Events
• Savings and Investment
• Borrowing and Loan Management
• Insurance and Risk Management
• Making a Financial Plan

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Impacts of Financial Education

• Stories of Individuals
• Gauriben Parmar
• Ritaben Thakkar
• Arunaben Trivedi

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Impacts

• Findings of
• Improvement on Financial Management Capacity
• A research study conducted by Denise Nogueira
  (intern) found

• Increased participation of women in household
  financial decisions
• from 54 to 78

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Impacts

• Understanding of interest
• Rates
• From 45 to 65

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Impacts

• Improved awareness of
• income/expenses and
• capacity to save
• From 68 to 90

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Impacts

• Ability to articulate the
• concept of financial planning
• From 24 to 100

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Development of the financial education program

• Market Research
• Assessing the financial education needs and
  interests of SEWA Banks urban members
• Collaboration between SEWA Bank and FFH
• Draft Content Developed
• Draft manual (learning sessions)
• Accompanying trainers guide and ToT session
• Collaboration between FFH and SEWA Bank

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Development of FE program contd

• Field-testing (7-10 days)
• Observation of learning sessions, focus groups
  and individual interviews with members and
  trainers in urban and rural areas
• Collaboration between SEWA Bank, FFH and Coady
  Institute
• Revise Content
• Simplify manual
• Adapt for rural
• Move away from exclusive focus on SEWA Banks
  products and services
• Additional ToT
• Collaboration between SEWA Bank, FFH and Coady
  Institute

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Pedagogy

• Adult Learning Principles and Practices
• Incorporating local folk stories (proverbs)
• Illustrations, popular education techniques to
  demonstrate new or difficult concepts
• Problem-solving scenarios
• Learning sessions focus on having an impact on
  knowledge, skills and attitudes

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Issues/Challenges

• Challenge of designing training materials and
  processes for multiple levels (SEWA Bank training
  unit, field staff, spearhead team leaders,
  members)
• Tension between need to deal with complexity and
  yet make the content simple
• Differences between rural and urban contexts
• Sustainability of financial education program
• There would appear to be opportunities to also
  use FE process for market research in new product
  development (i.e., link with Exposure Development
  Program)