Program: Purpose: Amount: Term: Start date: Location:

Youth Microfinance A global study on youth savings $12.5 million Five years May 2010 Global

Why We Partnered

Save the Children’s mission is to protect the rights of children and to ensure immediate and lasting improvements in their lives. It promotes asset building early in life, improving access to education and employment.

YouthSave is a consortium project led by Save the Children in partnership with the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, the New America Foundation, and CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor). The consortium’s objective is to improve access to quality savings services for youth in developing countries.

One third of the global population today is under age 19, but less than ten percent of youth have access to any kind of financial services. Recent research has shown that giving young people the tools to accumulate savings, not only opens up economic opportunities, but can also improve their educational and health-related outcomes. A growing number of initiatives around the world are demonstrating that poor and vulnerable youth can accumulate savings and assets – when the right tools and institutions are available. However, many financial institutions have not developed cost-effective products and delivery systems to serve low-income youth.

Working with local financial institutions and researchers, the YouthSave Consortium will develop and roll out savings products accessible to low-income youth in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal, and study their uptake and usage. This program will be the first and largest documented assessment of the financial and developmental impact of savings among low-income youth in developing countries.

Anticipated Impact

• Create savings services for 170,000 low-income youth
• Advance knowledge about how and why youth in developing countries save, and how institutions can sustainably serve their needs.
• Increase the accessibility and quality of youth savings as well as other assetbuilding strategies in developing countries.