The importance of financial education, its role as a complement to financial inclusion and consumer protection policies, and its contribution to financial stability has led many AFI members to develop a national financial education strategy (NFES).

Financial education is seen as a tool to increase financial literacy and AFI defines financial education as “a process of providing people with the knowledge, skills, attitude, and exposure through access to relevant objective information, and training to enable them to make informed financial decisions and take actions appropriate to their circumstances.” It provides a pathway for improving skills through information, instruction, and unbiased information, a recommendation that merits further discussion in the toolkit.

This toolkit, complementary to the guideline note, provides practical steps, tips, examples, and checklists to guide key stakeholders through the four stages of creating an NFES: pre-formulation, formulation, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Members from the CEMCWG also developed a Repository of Virtual Tools for Financial Literacy to share practical tools available in the AFI network.