The COVID-19 outbreak shed new light on the limited financial resilience of individuals, households and small businesses. While financial resilience is related to a range of economic and financial factors, including temporary fiscal and regulatory measures to relieve consumers and businesses in financial difficulty, sound money management and planning are also crucial elements to weather financial shocks. Coping with financial shocks means having the skills and resources to devise both short-term and long-term strategies. Facing an unexpected loss of income or unplanned expenditure requires the ability to manage day-to-day finances, to make ends meet on low income, or to draw on immediately-available resources. At the same time, financial resilience requires planning ahead and putting in place preventive strategies, including long-term saving and insurance.

These webinars provided an opportunity for policy makers, researchers, practitioners and other stakeholders to share experiences and discuss how financial literacy and education can support households’ and small businesses’ financial resilience in times of crises and beyond.

More OECD work on financial education

Financial education responses to COVID-19

Contact us: secretariatinfe@oecd.org

Financial resilience and financial literacy: opportunities for the economic empowerment of women

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Watch the webinar | Presentations | Agenda

The global pandemic highlighted the need for a long-term, multi-dimensional focus on gender differences in financial literacy and resilience in order to effectively support equal opportunities and women’s empowerment.

The fourth webinar in this series presented relevant insights from OECD/INFE international and regional financial literacy surveys, including PISA results, and examined the different implications of the pandemic for the financial well-being of men and women. Speakers and participants also looked into gender sensitive solutions across the spectrum of financial education initiatives in order to improve women’s financial resilience and financial literacy, as well as their access to finance and income generating opportunities.

 OECD Gender Initiative

Financial resilience and financial literacy: opportunities and challenges of digital tools

Tuesday, 19 January 2021

Watch the webinar | Presentations | Agenda

The third webinar in this series looked at how digital delivery of financial education interventions can improve financial literacy and sustain financial resilience, focusing on the design of digital financial education and on how to reach the most vulnerable groups.

The OECD Secretariat presented the report "Digital Delivery of Financial Education: Design and Practice", which provides an overview of the digital financial education initiatives developed by members of the OECD International Network on Financial Education, and aims to provide a better understanding of how the smart use of technology can support financial education outcomes.

Download the PDF

Financial resilience and financial literacy: challenges and lessons beyond the COVID-19 crisis

Wednesday, 2 December 2020

Watch the webinar | Presentations | Agenda

The second webinar looked at how improved financial literacy can sustain financial resilience, focusing on challenges and issues that existed before the crisis and that are likely to remain relevant in its aftermath, such as long-term saving and insurance, or the consequences of a lack of financial resilience on health.

Discussions centered around:

• How financial education can support financial resilience in the areas of long-term saving, pensions and insurance
• How financial education can be developed to reduce the negative consequences of limited resilience on mental health, and how it can be designed to help overcome the stigma of talking about money problems.

Financial resilience and financial literacy during the COVID-19 crisis

Thursday, 5 November 2020

Watch the webinar | Presentations | Agenda

This webinar looked at how improved financial literacy can sustain financial resilience for households and small businesses, focusing on immediate challenges in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, including saving, investing and credit issues.

Discussions focused on:

• How financial education can support individuals to manage money effectively, and to save and invest safely in the context of the crisis
• How financial education can help households and small businesses to manage resourses and avoid debt traps in the crisis and its aftermath.