Hats, bags or scarves? Adapting our Financial Capability curriculum to be relatable for different cultures.
Hats, bags or scarves? Adapting our Financial Capability curriculum to be relatable for different cultures.
No two Good Return training programs are ever the same. Each time we enter a new country or different community group, we dynamically design or adapt our courses to ensure that the local financial literacy levels and cultural nuances are taken into account, and they are suitable for the specific needs of each community we work with.
Good Return’s flagship Consumer Awareness & Financial Empowerment (CAFE) training supports women and marginalised rural communities to make informed choices about their money and businesses to build resilience and secure sustainable livelihoods. Good Return designs engaging courses, interactive exercises, and take-home challenges that are tailored to local cultural settings and different levels of literacy.
So how does the Good Return team make sure the course material and delivery style will suit the different communities across Asia-Pacific?
A tried and tested process is followed to adapt CAFE. We start with desk-based research to understand more about the potential learners and their culture. This stage includes learning about the demography of the country and building a profile of what financial services are currently available. For example, we seek to understand what challenges or gaps (learning needs) have to be addressed. We also look at the penetration of digital assets, like smartphones and tablets, and the quality of the network coverage in remote communities where we deliver our programs, such as the remote islands in Tonga or mountain villages in Nepal.
The second stage in the contextualisation process where we analyse the specific financial literacy needs and challenges felt by the community members. Do they understand how to separate household and business expenses? How do they remember to save? What kind of savings goals do they have for their family? How do they cope with financial stress? It is at this stage that we also look for research already available in that market, which may come from organisations such as the United Nations, World Bank, and local governments.
The next stage is to speak to our target learners to validate assumptions formed in the research phase. We aim to learn about their money habits and experiences, the triggers that influence their financial decisions, the problems they face in reaching their financial goals, their grasp of risks, and their preparedness for financial shocks. We do this via surveys and focus groups together with the local partner, which could be a financial institution or community group association. In the Solomon Islands, we partner with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands to ensure that financial inclusion is enhanced when financial literacy (or lack thereof) is determined.
This brings us to the point at which the content is developed, using all the inputs and information gathered to date. This is an exciting stage for the team as they adapt the curriculum. This includes visuals and characters used in the training, story lines, examples of situations used in the exercises, and other references, so that they are relevant to the lives of the community. One example is the difference in illustrations used to represent people’s mindsets or behaviours towards managing money, including how they react to money situations. In Cambodia, illustrations of hats are used in the training materials; in Nepal scarves are used; and in the South Pacific countries we use illustrations of bags. The meaning is the same for all markets, however, the learners will better understand the context of the financial skill being taught through the illustration that means something to them.
Another example of adaptation is in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where they use a hypothetical story as part of the training to help participants understand key concepts. In this story, there are four characters: a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter. The parent’s financial goal is to save for their daughter’s education. However, a relative passes away, and all the family’s savings have to be sent to the relative’s family in their time of need. The training then follows what happens to this family, including the ensuing money challenges, financial stress, and the daughter’s education being placed in doubt. As a group, we look at how the family addresses the challenges and unexpected situations they face, and how they find resolution to their financial stresses, including funding their daughter’s education. The learners are asked to identify themselves within the story.
Stories, made relatable to the population's lived experiences, are a powerful way for learners to understand the benefits of financial literacy and to drive enthusiasm to change key behaviours. Stories often encourage learners to share their own example of a time they struggled financially, sometimes leading to tears in their eyes as they recall their lived experiences. An example of this is a scenario where a person experiences a financial shock or emergency. This is adapted for each market to ensure it is relevant to the typical situation that might occur for them, as can be seen in the illustrations used in Solomon Islands and Tonga below.
Additionally, the manner with which these stories are presented also varies between countries. In the Solomon Islands, for example, the story is told through a radio drama. In Tonga, Nauru, and PNG, the story is written using scripts, which can be presented using skits or dramatic reading.
Once the scenarios, characters, and visuals are finalised, the training materials are translated into the local language and piloted with our chosen local partner. Translations and contextualisation are sometimes harder than they sound, as countries like Indonesia have over 300 spoken dialects across the country, and we want our content to be easily understood by even the most remote community groups.
When we are comfortable with our contextualisation, we train our newly chosen CAFE coaches in a comprehensive multi-day session. Each coach will be provided the skills to deliver our seven-week CAFE coaching program to be ready to confidently go out into the community to deliver this powerful curriculum.
Good Return has a number of different CAFE programs, depending on the level of financial literacy of the community members. The 7-week program is designed for those who already have a base level of financial literacy and some experience and knowledge in financial services. The 20-week program is designed for those who are financially illiterate. We also have a 16-week Strengthen Your Business Program in Nepal, which is targeted at existing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that want to grow and expand their businesses. It covers all aspects of running a business: writing a vision, production and operations, people, marketing and sales, accounting, management, regulation and standards, and technology.
As you can see, there is no one-size-fits-all approach at Good Return. We are committed to ensuring our training programs are human-centred, and designed with the specific needs of the country and the people within. We invest the time to understand our learners’ culture, environment, and financial situation to deliver relevant and life-changing financial capability programs.