Salutations:

It is a pleasure to be with you today to participate in this important, “First Conference on Economic and Financial Education in Latin America and the Caribbean” and to address one of the most critical global issues affecting all of us. I congratulate all the sponsoring institutions for their efforts in making this Conference on Economic and Financial Education a reality.

This is indeed an important topic, not only because of the global financial crisis and its impact on our societies, lifestyle and economic opportunities, but because this crisis has accentuated the need to pay attention to economic and financial education, and, in particular, the need to generate responsible citizens and societies.
From our perspective, ensuring financial responsibility and education through a more comprehensive understanding of basic economics is a right and a necessity for every citizen in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is our task to tap the intellectual capital of our respective organizations to develop the best methods and tools for providing this essential knowledge to the citizens of our region.

I am encouraged to see that significant attention has been paid in this conference to regional cooperation and to the unique role regional organizations can play in this endeavor. Regional organizations have the opportunity through their Secretariats and the member states to advocate, exchange information and share experiences, keeping in mind that best practices need to be adapted to local conditions and traditions.

I believe that this crisis can provide an opportunity for us to be more creative, more innovative and more determined to act collectively in making better and more efficient societies. At the same time governments, financial institutions and society at large must ensure that efforts to address this new financial reality do not impact negatively the social gains of the past.

It is our task to look for the most compelling ways to make economics and finances relevant to young people. And we must use the educational tools and the latest technologies to develop relevant learning exercises and to create meaningful learning opportunities, to reach youth and adults in their communities, schools and even on their smart phones.
This initiative, in my view, must give priority attention to developing the next generation of young people who because they understand economics and have the entrepreneurial skills, can find the opportunities that exist in the current crisis.

It is not enough to merely offer economic and financial education content, we must develop and deliver effective economic and financial education programs. Equally important is to teach the skills required on how and when to make the right decisions and help people develop the discipline to stand by their decisions.

We know that today effective development programs must be integral, people-centered and inter-related. It is not sufficient to specialize in one sector-– issues such as financial education, money-management, savings, consumption, entrepreneurship are cross-cutting and affect everyone.

We have witnessed the effects on our economies of the worst financial crisis in history, where access to credit has been severely limited, and trust in the financial institutions is at its lowest level. For some, the worst effects of the crisis seems to be easing; however, we have yet to see the long-term impact of this crisis on the most vulnerable countries in the region, the smaller economies who do not have the resources to stimulate their economies.

The question we should be posing is: how can we help our citizens learn from this crisis ? As international and regional organizations it is our responsibility to support member countries implement policies and actions that will help our societies weather the effects of this crisis and take advantage of opportunities that may open for renewed economic prosperity.

This is not a new area of endeavor for the OAS. Our Department of Education and Social Development has been actively engaged in assisting member states in the formulation of policies for economic and financial education and widening our understanding of the topic as a key element in civic education and democracy.

In a policy paper published by the OAS entitled, “Strengthening Democracy in the Americas through Civic Education, after surveying the students, teachers, and authorities in four counties, the authors concluded:

“There is less information about economy-related curriculum in these countries than there is about politically--related curriculum, and it appears that the opportunity to learn in this area may be relatively modest, at least when compared to the opportunity to learn about political institutions and civil society more generally.”

“There does not seem to be a basic core of information about economics that students in all four countries have acquired. This contrasts with the situation for definitions of democracy and political institutions, where most students by age 14 and almost all students by age 17 appeared to have acquired certain basic knowledge. This suggests that economics is not a central theme of civic-related education in these countries (confirming the perception of many educators).”

For the OAS, we are also pleased to have contributed to the promotion of financial education through the work of the Young Americas Business Trust, an important programmatic area of the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development.

In our view, economic education is linked to many issues across society, one of which is entrepreneurial development. Often entrepreneurship is seen as an independent topic; however from our work in the Americas with YABT, we have seen that in developing countries where resources are more readily available, but access to finances and work opportunities is scarce, entrepreneurship is directly connected to economic and financial education.

Often people need support and technical assistance to develop their own work opportunities to generate income in order to actually have money to administer and to save.

For a decade, YABT has created a continuum of entrepreneurial and practical economic education programs in Business Labs that teach young people skills, which enable them to transform their unemployment into opportunities for self-employment through small businesses.

With support from the Permanent Mission of Canada to the OAS, YABT included this element into its curriculum of Business Labs and has worked closely with the Council of Economic Education to expand its scope and to benefit from CEE’s expertise. The OAS and YABT were also pleased to host at the OAS, last year, the International Conference on Financial Education in Washington, DC in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the OECD with the participation of high-level officials from all over the world.

In our view, the road to achieving true regional financial literacy is a long-term endeavor that has just begun. We know challenges exist with regard to establishing clear and effective policies, which prioritize innovative and creative financial literacy programs. We are also aware of the need to link these efforts with other initiatives such as entrepreneurial education and development to give this issue the impetus it needs – indeed must have – to drive it forward.

We offer our platform, the foras of the OAS and the work of the Secretariat for Integral Development, the Department of Economic Development, and the Young Americas Business Trust, to make this a reality.

I am especially pleased to see the Director of the OAS Department of Economic Development, Mr. Jorge Saggiante, and the CEO of the YABT, Mr. Roy Thomasson, are included in today’s program. I know that our OAS representatives will continue to follow closely the results from this meeting and will look for opportunities to carry this initiative forward in their respective areas of work. I also know this area is a special interest of the OAS Director of Education, Dr. Lenore Garcia, who unfortunately could not be here today but I am sure she will be most supportive of the results of your work.

To move from concept and vision to action, let me propose the following possible steps that international and regional organizations can take to move this agenda forward:

First – Basic economic education needs to be seen as a cross-cutting endeavor that affects everyone and underlies other development strategies. In this, we recognize that international cooperation is vital to addressing the challenges presented by current and potential economic conditions. Our direct response should be to utilize fora like this conference to define our joint commitments and resolutions.

Second - The OAS cooperation model is built on south-south collaboration that shares best practices, and disseminates lessons learned and expertise among the Member States, with technical and financial support from international donors. While the case studies and ideas presented during this forum are certainly exemplary, the real challenge is to be able to apply and implement these excellent methodologies on a larger scale, across diverse communities and to reach those communities where economic and financial education is much more limited.

We need to continue the technical and policy discussions that emerged during these two days, find ways to amplify these strategies and effective programs, and draw in additional specialized partners, significant donors, and keen collaborators to begin reaching the millions of people, especially young people, who can benefit. We need to explore what is unique and necessary when implementing this type of programming in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Third - Each of the international and regional agencies –starting with those of us present here - along with others we know in the field, can identify their area of specialty and build on their comparative advantages and experience regionally and locally. In addition to broad international cooperation, each one has a specialized and pivotal role to play in this process.

International donors need to step forward to build on the existing programs that work. Resource investment (both monetary and technical) in financial education is essential. I offer to convene in the next six months, at the OAS in Washington, D.C., with the support of YABT, a follow-up working meeting of donors and potential sponsors of expanded financial education programs to continue this dialogue and identify concrete steps we can begin to take together immediately.

For our part, through the work of the YABT working with the young people in the Americas and the Department of Economic Development of the OAS, we will collaborate to implement programs that will not only create awareness about the importance of financial education, but also build capacity in our citizens. Understanding entrepreneurship, global trends, and our economic inter-dependence in many areas is also vitally important.

In the spirit of promoting strategic private-public partnerships, central banks, commercial banks and credit card companies can also contribute to, and lead the policy process for increasing access and effectiveness of economic and financial education.

I view your leadership and earnest commitment as fundamental to building a system that inculcates economic understanding into education, policy, business, and economic activities at all levels.

In conclusion, I thank you for your diligent work in bringing this issue to the forefront. I hope that in the face of the new economic reality that surround us and affects the future of all of us, we can embark on a common journey to find the opportunities in the challenges ahead.

Beyond political will and corporate social responsibility, this will require an entrepreneurial spirit and an extraordinary personal and institutional determination to make this goal a reality, as it is a central issue of democracy and development. This is one issue that affects not just one community, but every community in the Americas; not just the future for a few, indeed the future for all of us.

I thank you very much for your attention.