EUFin multiplier event
Text, photo: Kristof De Witte, KU Leuven
The EUFin multiplier event took place on September 14-15, 2020 as a specialized conference on financial literacy.
The conference was organized by the Belgium EUfin team in a blended way: both online and onsite in Brussels. A large international audience was attracted by this. In addition to the participants from Belgium, the conference was also attended by speakers and participants from the Netherlands, the UK, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Curaçao, Brazil, Indonesia, Denmark, ...
Several actors working on financial education were represented. First, the universities, secondary schools and intermediary parties that are part of the EUFIN project. Furthermore, there was participation from government agencies that have financial education in their objectives, representatives of the social sector, the financial sector, the department education and non-profit organizations to promote citizenship, entrepreneurship and debt mediation of the party.
Adele Atkinson (former OECD), Bettina Fuhrmann (University of Vienna) and Tabea Bucher-Koenen (ZEW) delivered exciting keynote speeches. The academic presentations covered a wide variety of topics such as the determinants of financial literacy, the discrepancy between financial knowledge, skills and attitudes on the one hand and financial behavior on the other hand, developing material for financial education and the effects of financial education on financial decisions and financial well-being.
In the sessions for practitioners, concrete examples of financial initiatives in the partner countries were presented literacy. Innovative teaching materials and best practices were exchanged. Participants visited a brand new financial lab by Wikifin. Moreover, they could experience financial literacy in different programs organized by Vlaio, CEBUD, Junior Achievement, WIKIFIN lab, BELvue, Gonna.be, …
In sum, the participants "returned home" with:
• new insights from the studies on financial literacy and financial education;
• A lot of inspiration for policy makers and teachers;
• a collection of tools that they can be used or adapted so that everyone is able to make sound financial decisions take and achieve financial well-being.