Participants at the Conference. Image credit: Aflatoun International

The Aflatoun Global Social & Financial Skills Conference 2019  (AGSC19) took place at the Postillion Convention Center in Amsterdam on October 30 and November 1. The three-day conference brought together 250 plus government officials, CSOs, private sector organizations, international agencies, foundations and thought leaders from 170 organizations across more than 80 countries in the field of social, financial and entrepreneurship education. The conference had two key themes: Girls empowerment and Employment & Entrepreneurship.

Ms. Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Government of the Netherlands and Mr. Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank, opened the conference and spoke of the importance of savings for children and young people. The conference was diverse and comprehensive covering informative speaking sessions, panel discussions and workshops focusing on – developing life skills at early age, integrating financial and entrepreneurship education in national curricula, school-to-work transition, importance of investing in a professionalized teaching workforce, ensuring inclusivity (of children) in decision making processes; exploring partnerships for sustainability, quality and scale, and investing in initiatives to ensure peace and security, among others.

The conference had a dedicated break-out session on ‘Partnering with Cooperatives’ which was facilitated by Ms. Anam Mittra from ICA-AP and Ms. Daisybelle Cabal from NATCCO, the Philippines. Aflatoun has a successful partnership with NATCCO for more than a decade. NATCCO has been implementing the Aflatoun program, making the Philippines one of the pioneering countries in the network. The break-out session was an opportunity to share about cooperatives and the history and work of ICA-AP. The participants were divided into groups and each group was asked to conduct a SWOT analysis of cooperatives implementing the Aflatoun curriculum, and a possible action plan of how this partnership could be taken forward. The response was quite positive with some of the participants already familiar with the cooperative model, and the rest who understood the democratic nature of cooperatives, and saw an organic linkage with Aflatoun’s goal of empowering young people. ICA-AP and Aflatoun International have signed an MoU to take forward these conversations to a fruitful partnership.

The broad takeaways from the conference were:

• Social and financial education should be a part of all programs. Including socail and financial education as part of programs that focus on health & reproductive rights, labor migration, environment, etc. It helps to achieve program goals and has a greater impact on those participating in the programs.
• Ensuring programs are saclable is important. It ensures that the programs reach as many children / young people as possible and does not create a divide between those that have had the program and those that have not.
• Building partnerships is key to ensuring that most number of young people benefit from various interventions.