After these first two years of activity of the Global Thinking Foundation the time has come to take stock, beyond the contributions to support the scholarships and university scholastic courses that have seen the Foundation active on several fronts, with the aim of supporting the quality of education for girls and children who are not well-off but deserving, thus making one of the main objectives of the 2030 Agenda on economic sustainability their own. A careful reflection on the experience of over 15 years of the USA and other Anglo-Saxon countries, from England to Canada and Australia, sees the percentage of adults with a basic education in financial matters close to 60%, while the 'Italy slips to the last places, well below 40%, in line with some emerging countries, according to the S&P Global Finlit research. And it is precisely the establishment by law of a national financial education strategy that has made Financial Education Month next October (which in the US is in April and in Canada and in England in November) a unique opportunity to track actions and long-term programs that Italy completely lacks.
For this reason, the opening of an office of the Global Thinking Foundation in Paris, after France joined the Anglo-Saxon countries in 2017, and the office in New York engaged in digital projects for universities and retired and unemployed women insurance coverage, follows an active dedication and experience accumulated on the tables of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and as an Affiliate Member of Infe, the International Network on Financial Education of the OECD.
From the comparison with international evidence and drawing inspiration from the behavioral finance studies of the Nobel Prize Thaler, it emerges that bridging the lack of financial and economic skills is an opportunity that public authorities should exploit to guide choices (not to limit them by tightening regulations) , expanding conscious participation in the use of money and cooperation with CSOs (civil society organizations), as is the case in all G20 countries. Only the public-private union can help to overcome the national gap and the strenuous defense of the small saver with regulations can be a boomerang for the saver himself.
What underlies the development of the Global Thinking Foundation is the commitment to the formation of women and families. The courses are held with the help of paper and digital materials, developed by collecting the results of the activities in the area and meeting the citizens. The desire to bring the best of international experiences to this initiative made me aware of the abysmal distance between Italy and other European countries (but not only) on how to deal with this lack of basic economic skills. Thanks to the observation of the link between this lack of basic knowledge in finance and the domino effect on households of the recent banking crisis, I believe that we cannot assist unarmed at the emergence of widespread situations of over-indebtedness and difficulty in managing savings against of complex scenarios.
10 years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers it is true that the international banking system is more solid and protected, but the global crisis has left its aftermath on the political and economic situations of many countries, which are now seeing the emergence of new nationalisms and a surge in protectionism. All this distracts the authorities that monitor the markets from new and difficult to contain phenomena, such as shadow banking. And in the meantime we are seeing the shift of digital financing and payment activities towards new non-bank (and unsupervised) players.
If we then add a pronounced gender gap compared to other countries, i.e. a strong disparity between men and women, and the relative social cost not amortized by correct policies to help families, the picture is complete. From Istat results, more than one million families are maintained by working women with an inactive husband/partner and these situations affect the children and the future of the country. This type of situation represents a missed opportunity for women's social and economic inclusion and depends not only on a problem of cultural heritage, but also on a difficulty in accessing economic-financial skills, which are not usable either at school or in a complete way for adults. This leads to a sad outcome, particularly alarming in times of digital revolution and lack of technical-scientific skills widespread among Italian workers. The result is that even in the gender gap in access to work, Italy remains far from the prospective objectives of the Istanbul Convention. With women's participation in work remaining below 50%, our country remains well below the European average of 60% (target set for 2010).
The statistics are discouraging also as regards the level of general education: in Italy graduates between 25 and 64 years of age are 4% of the population, against 17% in the OECD area. Even restricting the age range between 25 and 34 years, the comparison is merciless: 27% against 44%. In fact, the OECD underlines that the Italian school system offers substantial social equity in accessing university studies, but in fact the Italian expenditure on education remains low, almost 30% lower per student than the OECD average.
The investment in education is all managed and self-financed by families: for this reason I firmly believe that providing specialized skills also helps in future choices and study orientation. It is necessary to be able to look at the world as it is today, knowing that future generations deserve to be able to contribute to the development of society, fully realizing their potential. It is with this objective that the State and individuals must work alongside families.
