The project started with a protocol signed between Soroptimist International of Italy and the Committee for financial education programmes of the Italian Central Bank.
On the basis of the agreement, our Union and Banca d’Italia have jointly developed a project of financial education especially thought and tailored to women, because statistics have shown how women are not familiar with financial instruments and principles.
We are now completing the first phase, which consists in the online education of Soroptimist sisters who have a financial background and wish to be formed to become themselves educators and teach financial literacy to women who are in need of developing such skills or to become aware of the best way to manage their finances. The next phase will be the actual lecturing (most probably via webinars) addressed to women and in particular fragile women, suffering violence of all kinds. We shall reach out to them through Local NGOs engaged in combating violence against women and acting in the territories where our 157 clubs operate.
The challenge will be reaching out to women and develop their financial literacy skills allowing them to be most resilient to any adverse change in their own lives and especially in these particularly emergency times.
The lack in financial literacy shows one more gender gap, women have been considered less skilled or worse several stereotypes consider women incapable in the field of finance.
All the educational videos are available on both websites. To know more about this project, click on the following links:
- SI Italy website: https://www.soroptimist.it/it/progetti-nazionali/educazione-finanziaria-78/
- Banca d’Italia: https://economiapertutti.bancaditalia.it/progetti-educativi/donne-finanza/index.html
Testimonial of Magda Bianco, Head of Consumer Protection and Financial Education Department, Banca d’Italia: