The Past and Future of YouthSavers in Nepal

It was with mixed emotions that I travelled to Nepal last month to attend YouthSave’s capstone event there, a Multi-Stakeholder Meeting (MSM) that brought together project partners with government officials, financial inclusion and education practitioners, and donor representatives to review the project’s outcomes. The collaboration that has grown and deepened throughout YouthSave’s years in Nepal between our Nepali partners – Bank of Kathmandu, New ERA, and Save the Children – set an example in the field for what could be accomplished when strong working relationships were forged across organizations in different sectors. For instance, Nepal has had a research participation rate over 90% ever since the pilot stage, meaning that 90% of all youth who have opened savings accounts through YouthSave are also participating in the research component of the project; this could not have happened without the combined and energetic efforts of staff from all three partner organizations. Explaining the rationale for and importance of the research piece of the project, facilitating participation and carrying out data collection have been intertwined since the beginning and partnerships have been a key to making such high participation happen.

The strength of these partnerships was very much in evidence at the MSM, which featured staff from all three organizations speaking about the project’s accomplishments. Raju Shrestha of BoK spoke about the numerous marketing strategies that have allowed it to open over 6500 accounts in 2 years, placing the CYBY account among the bank’s top 5 fastest-growing products. Dr. Sharad Sharma of New ERA reviewed the latest SDA results, which revealed an interesting split between the majority of account holders, who had not made any withdrawals at all since opening the account, and a smaller number of high-transaction customers making regular withdrawals. And Sanulal Maharjan of Save the Children previewed early results from our analysis of financial education workshop participant data, which showed statistically significant increases in knowledge about ways to save up to 18 months after the workshops. The results of both these studies will be included in YouthSave publications in late 2014 and early 2015 respectively.

Perhaps the most compelling portion of the program, however, was a panel featuring four young people – two of whom had participated in Save the Children’s financial education workshops and two of whom had served as financial education trainers; all four have savings accounts. Though these panelists ranged in age from only 14 to about 22, the idea of risk came up frequently when they were asked why they were saving. “I save because anything can come up in the future,” said one young man. “With that in mind, I’ve made a habit of saving.” Not having to depend on parents also surfaced frequently as a reason for keeping money aside. According to another participant, “Sometimes, our parents are not around. In such situations, if we have money saved, we can utilize it to properly meet our needs.”

While these young people talked about immediate savings goals, many YouthSave participants in Nepal are also saving for the longer term. In fact, according to SDA results, by far the largest proportion of CYBY account holders are saving for their education. But we’ve seen also that youth savings can channel a young person’s intention and effort– resources perhaps even more precious than money –towards staying in school. In fact, the MSM opened with a video about one such YouthSave participant, 13-year-old Pramod Tamang. In this video, he talks about how saving has helped him focus on what is important – getting out of the cybercafé and back into the classroom. The research has been hinting at this for a while, but hearing it from Pramod and other youth makes concrete. Even though YouthSave is now officially over in Nepal, we are gratified that the project will leave in its wake new habits and new assets for thousands of young Nepalis like Pramod.