MEDA YouthInvest project Morroco – Egypt Luxembourg 2010

MEDA MEDA was created in MEDA believes that all people may experience God’s love and unleash their potential to earn a livelihood, provide for families and enrich their communities; Our main activities are market linkages, financial services and investment funds development

YouthInvest YouthInvest is a 5 years project funded by MasterCard Foundation; The main objective is to facilitate access to financial and non financial services to youth in Morocco and Egypt;

Youth Invest Goals To support education and training opportunities for youth to ensure improved long-term prospects and to contribute to a higher-quality workforce To increase youth access to appropriate financial services, such as loans and savings To support financial service providers – including MFIs and banks – to develop financial products appropriate to economically active youth To provide on-the-job experience through short placements in safe, appropriate and active businesses

Savings 96% of youth save among whom 40% saves regularly. Only 4% of youth don’t save because of :  lack of money (67%)  lack of work and regular income (17%)  excessive expenses (17%) « I am still studying and the little allowance that my parents give me is just enough to cover my education’s expenses »

Opening of a saving account 82% have a saving accounts among whom 72% had opened it thanks to the program. This account is generally opened in « la poste » because of the little minimum deposit that it requires. 19% didn’t open a saving account because of :  lack of money or lack of a regular income (45%). So they save a little amount of money in their house.  tutor is busy or refuses to open a saving account for his child (a lot of work, live far in the suroundings regions )(10%)  fact that youth were busy by the revisions and exams and they didn’t find a time to go to the bank/« la poste »(10%)  fact that by saving at home, youth access easily to their money (7%)

Savings objectives 96% of youth have a saving objective among which 90% defined it thanks to the program The youth save in order to:  create their own business (25%). They affirmed that savings would not be enough but it’s necessary to show their will and their committment to the business;  buy their clothes, their shoes, finance their travel…. (21%)  buy an asset like a bike or a mobile phone (17%)  face the emergency cases like illness (14%)

Increase in savings For 65% of youth, the amount saved increased. This amount is less or equal to 200 dh for 55% of youth. For 35% of youth, the savings remined the same or decreased a little because of:  lack of money due to the fact that they don’t work or don’t have a regular income (44%);  higher expenses that youth faced (24%) as participating to the household expenses or education fees;  fact that they just opened their account and don’t have enough time to increase their savings(11%).

Impact of training on youth behavior All the young interviewees (100 %) declared that their behavior has positively changed thanks to the program. 95 % of youth assert that this change of behavior was noticed by one third person. The majority of youth qualify the program as a good experience and encourage others to attend it. Youth assert unanimously that the program helped them by allowing them mainly to:  Have a better relation with their acquaintances (friends, family, professors…) (17,5 %)  Save (16,5 %)  Manage better their expenses (14,4 %)  Fix a purpose and plan to realize it(12,5 %)  Strengthen their personal skills (10,8 %)

The most appreciated aspects in the program 22 % of youth declare that it is the training’s contents which they have most appreciated followed by the training’s method Training (19 %) and the Trainer (18,6 %). These 3 aspects are, according to youth, the success keys of the program " 100 hours to success ".