Global Social and Financial Skills Conference – Empowering Generations, Sparking Change

Following the coverage of the iLearn partnership between Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions (KBBS) and Aflatoun International in last month’s Currency News™, an important event is coming up on the subject of financial literacy.

Aflatoun is organizing the 6th Global Social and Financial Skills Conference to bring together experts and practitioners from around the world to share knowledge and best practices to socially and economically empower children and young people. The event will take place from 1-3 November in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

‘The conference will build on the 2022 Transforming Education Summit and the United Nations Secretary General Vision Statement on Transforming Education. They articulate the importance of social‐emotional, financial and entrepreneurship skills as key elements of transformed education systems, recognising that these 21st century skills are crucial to prepare children and youth for the challenges of a rapidly changing world,’ says Roeland Monasch, CEO of Aflatoun International.

The conference will be a platform for sharing the latest research and innovations in social, financial and entrepreneurship education, and to promote collaboration and partnerships between organisations working in this field. Almost 400 delegates, including many central banks and education ministries, from 75 countries will participate in the three-day event.

Financial literacy is a global issue and represents the single greatest challenge to sustainable socio-economic development in many nations around the world, says KBBS. More importantly, the absence of basic financial skills precludes large parts of society from enjoying quality of life improvements and limits their potential for personal development and stability.

Mark Stevenson, KBBS Market Development Manager, who recently entered into a partnership agreement with Aflatoun International to jointly develop their iLearn Banknote Financial Literacy platform, explained the importance of this.

‘While financial inclusion levels are improving in most parts of the world (largely due to mobile money networks), financial literacy levels have improved by marginal levels averaging 0.5% per year since 1985’ he notes. ‘A very real systemic risk for financial abuse exists when we move the most fragile and vulnerable sectors of society into a digital banking environment without the requisite skills to understand and manage their financial well-being. We need to shift the conversation away from the financial literacy problem towards solutions and the Global Social & Financial Skills Conference is the ideal forum to begin this new conversation.’ 

Aflatoun International is encouraging central banks from around the globe to participate as a means to explore and discover developments and evolution in the financial literacy space.

The event will also host the official launch of the iLearn Banknote Financial Literacy Platform, the new Social and Financial Education Curricula and Master Trainer and Teachers Certification programme.

For more information, visit https://ic2023.aflatoun.org/ or https://youtu.be/BKHnMhMhyrw.