TANZANIA HEALTH SUMMIT
Kuza Project
Capacity building in financial literacy through trainings of young health professionals and college students
Background
It is widely known that there is a disconnect between financial literacy and sound objective decisions making, especially to graduate youths in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Sarpong-Danquah et al. 2018). Individuals rely on financial literacy to make efficient and effective use of resources, therefore it is a critical component of their development.
Rationale
Far too often, students enter adulthood with insufficient financial knowledge, making moving away from home a difficult task. The uninformed financial decisions in the early stages of their lives as young adults may have damaging consequences on their lives (Lusardi et al. 2010). Nonetheless, youth financial literacy in youth is critical for the national security and prosperity.
Tanzania's current solution to youth's lack of financial literacy
Several initiatives have been established to assist youth overcome financial hardship through economic empowerment. The government budgeted 1.2 trillion shillings for youth mobilization, upbringing, and social-economic empowerment in the 2019/2020 fiscal year. The National Youth Development Fund gave 775 youth groups with loans totaling 4.2 billion dollars in 2019. Despite these initiatives, youth financial literacy has received less attention, resulting to poor progress in development.
In 2021, the Tanzania Health Summit established the healthcare financial club with the goal of providing chances for healthcare professionals to improve their financial literacy and access to financial services in order to optimize their productivity. Two workshops were held in conjunction with NMB Bank on a variety of topics covering fundamental aspects of business. With the club’s support, more than $300 million was able to be disbursed and deposited in the bank.
Objectives
The project’s objective is to provide young healthcare professionals and college students with the knowledge and skills they need to efficiently manage their finance and make wise decisions when investing in a healthcare–related business.
Specific objectives
- To improve the financial literacy of Tanzanian young health professionals and college students. This aim will help them developing and further strengthening their knowledge on setting financial goals, budgeting, understanding credit, debt and credit scores,
investments opportunities, etc. A medium–term training program and specific short courses for young health professionals and college students will be the emphasis of this objective’s work. THS will identify experts and mentors who will design the training curriculum, specific competencies, and coursework - To facilitate linkages between young health professionals and college students with sources of finances. We will leverage the existing network and expertise of THS and its financial partners to assist young health professionals to access financial services from
financial institutions, venture capital firms, grants applications sources, angel investors, economic development programs, crowdfunding and other sources
Expected Objectives
The overarching goal of our program is to increase and develop financial knowledge of the young health professionals through workshops, seminars, and webinars. Specifically, we expect to
- Develop a detailed workshop training manual document that will assist knowledge acquisition in a step–by–step manner
- Run a financial literacy workshop every month conducted one–to–one and virtual in order to reach a wider community of youth
- Increase collaboration with financial sources (Banks, Insurances, Capital firms, Investors, insurance companies, development partners, and development programs.)
Deliverables
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- By December 2022, a financial literacy workshop manual document with a local context will be available.
- By December 2023, there should be at least 100 (one–on–one) and 500 (online/virtually) young health professionals and college students who have attended at least 80% of the annual courses.
- By December 2023, we want to have at least 5 collaborations with various sources of funding.
Methodology
Workshop Manual Development:
The workshop manual/curriculum will be prepared by well-known professionals in finance, economics, investments, and youth development. The workshop manual will be modular, with the first (1) module consisting of a basic financial training for young healthcare workers and the second (2) module consisting of advanced financial knowledge. Each module will run for six months, giving the course a total duration of one year.
Conducting Workshops:
The workshops will be held once every month preferably on Saturdays from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM at a selected conducive seminar room. Depending on the topic of the day from the training manual, field experts will be carefully invited to deliver the session physically using different approaches and methodologies for effective material delivery. All sessions will be video recorded and made available on the website to allow the community to access the materials. Apart from experts, prominent business leaders will be invited for an inspirational talk and offer diverse perspectives on the subject matter.
Applicants will be required to review distance-learning materials before the workshop. Because of our commitment to intensive mentoring, we will be able to accept 50 applicants per a sitting workshop.
Program Evaluation:
A robust and multi-level program evaluation framework will permit this training program to 1) assess the quality of training as perceived by both trainees and trainers; 2) determine the effectiveness of the training in generating skilled and proficient financial literacy in health; 3) monitor program progress to ensure that training objectives are being met; 4) respond iteratively to trainee feedback, permitting an evolution of the training approach to meet the needs of the trainees; and 5) ensure that training is both inclusive of the most recent evidence and methodologies used in the field and tune with the cutting edge of pedagogical practices.
Evaluations of individual trainees will take a trainee-centered approach by highlighting how the achievements outlined as professional objectives by the trainee and their mentor are actively being supported and achieved.
Program evaluation will include process evaluation to permit ongoing strengthening of the program and outcome/impact evaluation to measure the training program’s short- and long-term effects. Expanding on a published framework for program evaluation, various indicators will be used to measure program success.
Participants
Applicants for the program will come from a large pool of young health professionals and college students from the healthcare field. A program announcement will be developed and advertised on the THS website and its associated social media platforms a minimum of two months before starting each cohort.
For physical participation, all interested young health professionals must apply to be registered through online portal describing why they want to be enrolled in the workshop. Registration will be necessary for online participants as well.