![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/web-Jason-Alderman.jpg\")
<\/a>These are just some of the complex issues raised at the seventh annual Financial Literacy and Education Summit hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Visa Inc. Renowned U.S. and international financial experts and journalists led a lively discussion \u2013 and fielded Twitter questions from roughly 2,000 participants \u2013 around the theme \u201cImproving Women’s Financial Literacy & Capabilities Globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fascinating details revealed include:<\/p>\n
\u2022Richard Cordray, Director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, noted that \u201ca large majority of K-12 teachers say that personal finance should be taught in school, yet less than a third say they\u2019ve taught lessons about money, and more than half feel unqualified to teach their state\u2019s financial literacy standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022Linah Mohohlo, Governor, Bank of Botswana, emphasized that it\u2019s not only important to teach women about money management, but also to teach them activities to avoid \u2013 such as Ponzi schemes or lending money to people without setting repayment and interest terms.<\/p>\n
\u2022Bernie Ripoll, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Australia, added that women should feel empowered to ask questions or say no if they\u2019re asked to invest in something they don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n
According to South African Financial Journalist Maya Fischer-French, among the biggest financial hurdles an overwhelming number of women in her country face is their status as single mothers: around 56 percent. Of those, only about 21 percent can rely on financial help from their children\u2019s fathers.<\/p>\n
On the question of whether financial literacy hinges on access to traditional bank accounts, Egyptian Journalist Amira Salah-Ahmend said roughly 90 percent of the Egyptian population is unbanked, meaning most of their transactions are unregulated and therefore more risky.<\/p>\n
Mexican Journalist Adina Chelminsky added that many third-world people have much easier access to credit through informal lending channels than to bank products. \u201cThe idea is not to formalize all this informal lending, but rather for banks and governments to think outside the box and develop new products that cater to women who have minimal savings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The panelists shared some alternative financing methods that are already in place and thriving:<\/p>\n
\u2022Microfinance, where organizations like Kiva make small loans to people who can\u2019t get credit from traditional banks, is helping women achieve financial stability in many underdeveloped nations. For example, a young woman in Pakistan or Mexico can now take out a microloan to buy a sewing machine, thereby creating her own thriving business.<\/p>\n
\u2022Also in Pakistan, a large telecommunications company has partnered with a microfinancer to provide \u201cbranchless banking\u201d via mobile phone technology to people far removed from banks. \u201cWe\u2019ve got 45,000 agents transacting this kind of business now compared to only 13,000 in the branch network,\u201d explained Yaseen Anwar, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: Women throughout the world face unique economic and financial literacy challenges. The key is for governments, financial institutions, educators and entrepreneurs to work together to devise financial tools and educational materials that can reach the female half of the world\u2019s population, and the younger, the better.<\/p>\n
To watch a webcast of the 2013 Financial Literacy and Education Summit, visit practicalmoneyskills.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jason Alderman, Visa Financial Education Program director Are the 70 percent of the developing world\u2019s adult population with no formal bank account doomed to a life of economic uncertainty and financial illiteracy? If a woman\u2019s culture dictates that she should always put her family\u2019s financial needs ahead of her own, can she learn to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1364,"featured_media":245695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Improving women\u2019s financial literacy worldwide","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11552,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-opinion","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}