Panelists addressing the participants of the Youth Financial Education and Inclusion Workshop.

Beirut, March 27, 2017: As part of the Global Money Week activities, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized a workshop on youth financial education and inclusion in Lebanon from 27 March to 2 April 2017.

Held under the patronage of the minister of social affairs, the workshop brought together officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Supreme Council for Childhood, and representatives of non-governmental organizations, microfinance institutions, Bank Audi, Fransabank, UN organizations including ILO and UNICEF, media outlets, financial literacy trainers, and other stakeholders. The FAO was represented by Alfredo Impiglia, FAO Delivery Manager of the small scale family farming Regional Initiative in the NENA region; Ariane Genthon, FAO Child labor Expert; and Faten Adada, Social protection and Child labor focal point, FAO Lebanon.

Like in many other countries, youth in Lebanon face major employability challenges when they become ready to enter the labor market after completing their formal education and training. Thus, empowering and enabling youth to secure decent jobs requires developing their financial literacy skills to ensure successful transitions, especially in rural areas.

The workshop focused on FAO’s programme to empower youth between the ages of 15 and 17 to secure decent work and obtain technical agricultural education. It highlighted the importance of acquiring financial literacy education, financial products, training, and improved social skills. The participants discussed the role and importance of public and private partnerships in ensuring the sustainability of youth financial programmes.  

The workshop concluded several recommendations, most importantly the need to enhance rural youth financial literacy programmes in technical agricultural schools of the Ministry of Agriculture in Lebanon. Participants urged a review of existing curricula to create a single financial literacy curriculum for technical schools as well as specialists at the Ministry of Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Childhood.