Alarming financial literacy gaps spur workshops for community, civil society groups
Published:Monday | April 28, 2025 | 12:08 AMMickalia Kington/Gleaner Writer
With just over four years left to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says urgent action is needed, following a 2022 Financial Literacy Baseline Survey by the Bank of Jamaica that has revealed that only 33 per cent of Jamaicans understand basic financial concepts.
Citing alarming gaps in civil society organisations’ (CSO) capacity, found in surveys across the region, including unregistered organisations and poor record-keeping, Dr Darran Newman, chief of the Technical Cooperation Division at the CDB, stressed that training would fill critical voids, especially in proposal writing and financial management.
“Leaving no one behind requires the involvement of those targeted in designing and implementing interventions,” Newman said. “Local actors should be first to execute this mandate, moving beyond the role of mere project beneficiaries.”
Therefore, in an effort to strengthen Jamaica’s community groups and CSOs, the CDB, through its Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF), has partnered with the JN Foundation and Canada’s Local Engagement and Action Fund (LEAF) to roll out financial literacy workshops across four parishes.
The sessions, which will take place from April 28 to May 2 in Kingston, Manchester, St Ann, and St James, are part of a wider mission to address the country’s low financial literacy rates.
At the workshop launch on Friday, Stephanie Coy, programme manager at LEAF, emphasised the importance of sustained support for community groups.
At the core of LEAF’s mission is strengthening the capacity of community-based organisations.
The programme, funded by Global Affairs Canada, not only provides financial support for local development initiatives, but also allocates funding specifically to help grantees identify and address internal capacity challenges.
“We include CAN$2,000 and we say to them, ‘Identify a capacity issue that you have and put this money to helping to resolve that issue’, and the feedback that we got from the grantees was that this was the first time anybody had been doing that for them and that they were very appreciative of it,” Coy explained.
She stressed that LEAF’s work is about more than just workshops.
“Under the Local Engagement and Action Fund, which continues into 2027, we are also looking at how we can leave behind something that is sustainable ... not a one-off training.”
She also announced an online proposal writing module set to launch later this year to ensure continuous access to training materials.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Meanwhile, Richardo Aiken, community development specialist at the CDB, outlined the serious challenges many community groups face.
“Overall, there seems to be a low level of awareness of using financial documentation in their groups … another 35 per cent of those groups are not having bank accounts, and the main reason for that is because they’re not registered,” he said.
Aiken described how the workshops will tackle these issues head on.
“We’re talking to them through the financial literacy programme … looking at registration through the Department of Corporate and Social Societies … and providing tips for writing a winning proposal.”
He explained that financial mismanagement often fuels distrust and conflicts within community organisations, hampering their growth.
“If you don’t have these things, you’re not registered, you don’t have a constitution, you don’t have proper financial management systems, then it’s almost impossible for you to move your community the way you should,” he said.
Aiken also confirmed that, if successful, the initiative could be replicated across other Caribbean countries.
Additionally, while speaking with The Gleaner on Friday, Claudine Allen, general manager at the JN Foundation, discussed how they plan to make the impact of the workshops last beyond this week.
“We will have a tool kit that beneficiaries at the workshop will get to take home … resources that they can use to design their financial management system,” she said.
CAPACITY-BUILDING
Additionally, Allen revealed that the JN Financial Academy platform will play a key role.
“For individuals, just you on your own, you want to improve your understanding of credit and your own levels of financial literacy you can log in and enrol in the course. You access videos and quizzes that teach you about financial literacy matters.”
She shared that the academy already offers individual financial literacy tools, but JN Foundation now plans to develop specific online courses tailored for CSOs.
“We are going to develop videos, quizzes, webinars … so that if you have a club, you can just go to jnfinancialacademy.com, enrol in a course, and you do the course for your club,” Allen said.
She highlighted that financial management is part of broader governance goals and that the workshops will ensure groups know the “must-do things” like budgeting, assigning financial roles, and generating regular reports.
From the perspective of the Social Development Commission (SDC) as a participating institution, Sherine Walker, director of governance, said the training would build on the SDC’s own capacity-building programmes.
“Proper financial record-keeping and stewardship is very important for us,” she said. Walker believes the partnership could lead to more than just improved knowledge. “I’m seeing this as a springboard into learning and then learning into implementation, leading into development in our spaces,” she shared.
Walker also clarified the differences between financial literacy, financial issues, and financial management. Financial literacy, she said, is about knowing the terms and components needed for proper financial records, while financial management is about applying that knowledge to handle funds responsibly. And, financial issues refer to the problems that arise when those first two are missing.
“They are not mutually exclusiven… they feed into each other. But I raise them as distinct because one group might have one and not the other, or some groups have all three,” she said.
As the workshops begin this week, stakeholders are confident that this initiative will strengthen community organisations across Jamaica and eventually the Caribbean, leaving them better equipped to manage funds, grow sustainably, and attract new investment.
“We have a powerhouse of stakeholders here,” Coy said, “and with what we’re going to do, it will definitely make an impact.”