Culturally sensitive

DELIVERING lessons on financial literacy at the grassroots level in Fiji requires a culturally sensitive and often a ‘whole family’ approach in order to get through to the target audience. This was among the topics discussed at the ‘Better Together: The networked path to financial literacy’ forum hosted by the Consumer Council of Fiji earlier this week.

Head of corporate responsibility, micro finance and rural banking for ANZ Bank, Sitiveni Marovia spoke of his preference for delivering financial literacy education programs with the entire family present rather than just those who control a household’s income, saying he’s found this whole family approach to be more productive.

During further discussion on the need to be culturally aware in order to deliver a successful financial literacy program, National coordinator of the Financial Management Counsellors Association of Fiji Lagi Fisher spoke on taking cultural perspectives on money into account. He further stated that reconciling cultural ideas with the modern take on financial literacy needed to start at a young age.

“We have to come to a common ground, not only in terms of cultural practices but also our modern practices. We noticed that from our childhoods money was always being used. Our parents gave us our ‘spending’ so that’s been registered in every child’s mind in the country; that this is your ‘spending’. So we spent it till there was no more to spend. So the concept of saving was never there in childhood,” Mr Fisher reflected.

University of the South Pacific, head of the school of accounting, finance and economics Dr Nacanieli Rika added that, “We need to find the balance between respecting culture but also respecting the fact that we are living in a modern environment and we need to empower people to participate effectively and also to maintain their sense of dignity and wealth at the same time.”