Radio and video as a means for financial education in rural households in Peru

This chapter analyzes the impact of a financial literacy training of a Peruvian microfinance institution, which is delivered by credit officers in monthly sessions with the support of video and radio materials. The program, conducted by Arariwa, a non-government organization, was implemented as a field experiment working with 49 credit officers across 665 communal Banks in 13 provinces of the departments of Cusco and Puno, Peru. The objective of the study is to rigorously evaluate the effect of an ICT-based financial literacy education program that follows best practices on financial literacy and financial behaviors. We study the impact of a financial literacy education program using a randomized evaluation, which was designed to determine short-term effects and may be extended to determine long-term effects. Furthermore, we determine the effectiveness of using a radio and video supplemented credit with education financial educational program. The literature and experiences worldwide suggest that this methodology is likely to be the most cost-effective and we would like to quantify the benefit of this approach.