Project term: 01.10.2014-31.12.2020

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan remain among the economically weakest countries of the former Soviet Union. Many places lack secure income perspectives and financial literacy is often weak. A responsible approach to money is key to prosperity and a self-determined life.

The overall aim of the project is to strengthen the financial sector and to introduce international standards meanwhile support financial literacy of the population. The activities focused on three aspects:

• Introduction of dual vocational training in the financial sector
• Financial education for youth
• Promoting the idea of saving and introduction of World Savings Day

More than 1,900 young bankers in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan completed their dual vocational training. During the training they were able to improve their theoretical knowledge of bank management in practice. The focus laid on providing needs-oriented customer consultation. With training locations in the urban centres and in rural areas, young professionals were given new career prospects. 80 % of the graduates are still employed in the financial sector two years after completing the dual training. 85 % of the participants confirm that their professional development was promoted. 65 % say that their income situation has improved.

The financial literacy programme contributes to learning how to responsibly handle money from an early age. The activities are firmly integrated in the school curriculum. Interested pupils can extend their knowledge in after-school circles. 33 trained multipliers passed on their knowledge to 1,095 teachers. They taught 74,800 pupils. Interactive teaching materials and field visits were used to increase the fun of learning. Learning progress monitoring, which takes into account the findings of the PISA study, shows the success of the project. In Kyrgyzstan, the financial literacy programme is in line with the government's financial literacy strategy 2016-2020.

World Savings Day, which was introduced as part of the project, has become a good tradition. More and more banks are inviting people to special activities related to how to save. These include Open Days, lectures, and competitions. Many banks took on school partnerships. The savings idea is also promoted by newly designed savings symbols, such as the yurt and the Marco Polo sheep. The activities related to World Savings Day promote the dialogue between the banks and the population. They have led to an increase in long-term savings deposits of over 10 %.

2020 was a special year. For many people, sources of income broke away, forcing them to use their savings deposits. In cooperation with our project partners, we shifted all activities to online formats. The new digital alternatives complement the analogue offer. The project partners can now link both formats in a meaningful way.