This two-week course will be offered at the Sustainable Microenterprise and Development Program (SMDP)-Ghana in Accra from March 15-26, 2010.
Course Subjects:
- Implementing Sound Practices in Youth-Inclusive Financial Services
- Market Research with Young Clients
- Adapting and Developing Financial Services for Young People
- Partnering for Improved Service Delivery with Young People
The course has been designed and will be presented by Ms. Beth Porter and Ms. Veronica Torres of Making Cents International.
Participants may register for one or two weeks of the Youth-Inclusive Financial Services program. Full two-week attendance is recommended but not required.
No prior experience with youth programming or microfinance is required.
A limited number of scholarships provided by the MasterCard Foundation will be available to eligible applicants (see the Web site in early January for details).
From 2006–2009, Save the Children and Fondation Zakoura Micro-Crédit (Zakoura) partnered to implement a youth financial services and livelihoods promotion project called “Linking Youth with Knowledge and Opportunities in Microfinance,” or LYKOM. The program included financial and business literacy training, savings promotion, and access to credit for youth businesses. This case study examines the challenges Save the Children and Zakoura faced and the ways the institutions sought to address these challenges. This document examines the institutional, local market, and programmatic difficulties encountered, and offers recommendations and lessons learned.
