Effectiveness and Sustainability of Social and Financial Education for Youth

Aflateen is a youth education program, combining training in social and financial skills, that has been developed jointly by Aflatoun International and its international network of partners, and in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation. The program was developed in 2011 and has since been piloted, revised, and scaled globally. Through these partnerships, over two million youth in 77 countries have accessed social and financial education.

This report takes stock of the lessons learned regarding the program’s effects and strategies for its continued sustainability and growth. The main objective of the report is to share those lessons learned and to make recommendations to Aflatoun International, implementing organizations, other practitioners and researchers.

Using cross program comparison, the study found strong, statistically significant evidence in the quantitative data on key outcomes for young people:

• Future orientation: There were improvements in the extent to which participants think about the future, anticipate future consequences, and plan before acting;
• Resource management behavior (especially savings): More participants save money, and in more formalized ways such as at school or in the bank;
• Entrepreneurship attitudes and behaviors: Aflateen had a positive impact on participants' desire to start an enterprise, and on their belief that they could do so.