Savings Specialist Ryan Newton blogs about the five key lessons about designing sustainable youth savings programs, based on an evaluation of Banco ADOPEM’s (Dominican Republic) youth savings program, developed together with Women’s World Banking.
A piggy bank can be a fun and effective way to teach kids about saving money, but those little containers only go so far. They eventually run out of space, and they’re too easy to access for impulse spending. Working with Women’s World Banking, the Dominican Republic’s Banco ADOPEM introduced a more promising strategy in 2010 for teaching kids how to save money: opening a savings account in their name.
With support from Barclays, Women’s World Banking was able to return to Banco ADOPEM four years later and analyze the impact of this youth savings and financial education program called Mía (‘mine’ in Spanish) on the financial institution. Emerging principles from the Mía youth savings program demonstrate how to build a sustainable youth proposition with a positive, lasting impact on kids and their families.
