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http://wideplus.org/2015/08/10/publication-with-tools-on-enhancing-economic-literacy-by-wide-members/

 

ECONOMIC LITERACY ACROSS EUROPE – TOOLS TO EMPOWER WOMEN

 

Tools for Feminist Economy Literacy

August 10, 2015 - Almost two years ago five women’s rights, gender and development organisations in five different countries started the Grundtvig-project “Economic Literacy across Europe: Exchange and Cooperation to Promote a Feminist Approach in Adult Education”. They are all WIDE+ members and involved other member associations and individuals into the project as experts to their meetings. The associations KULU in Denmark, Le Monde selon Les Femmes in Belgium, WIDE Austria, WIDE Switzerland and WIDE-E Spain concluded their common work with a publication that showcases the different tools used to educate people on economy from a feminist perspective.

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Direct Link to Full 44-Page 2015 Publication: http://www.wide-netzwerk.at/images/publikationen/2015/mf-economic%20literacyen.pdf

The publication uses the concept of “Economic Literacy” to strengthen the exchange in this area in order to increase the capacity of women in the field of economics. The partners had four meetings, each hosted by one of the project-partners. These formed the basis for the dissemination of information, the exchange of experiences and the opportunity to work on common approaches to increase the quality of tools within the field of economic literacy. The debates and discussions about the ongoing multiple economic crises and their impact on women were a constant part of the meetings and exchanges. They showed clearly that the concept of “Economic Literacy” is still very important and beneficial for our adult education work with different women’s groups and for the empowerment of women and girls worldwide, which is the main goal of the economic literacy approach we employ.

Economic literacy is about understanding national, regional, EU- specific and global economy, and our place within it. It is therefore a useful approach in times of globalisation and substantial changes that are taking place in relation to social, political and economic paradigms. Economic literacy allows a better understanding of processes in economic spheres and empowers people to create alternative ways of thinking and acting that can improve their standing in their daily lives, on the labour market, and as citizens.

Throughout the project the partners compared their own well-tried tools with the tools of other partners, experimented with some new ones, and tested the tools together. Some of the tools have been exchanged from one partner to another and has resulted in modifications. We also had quite an intensive discussion on our diverse understandings of the “what is a tool?” question, which helped to broaden our views and deepen our insights.

The result is this collection of “good-practice tools” that include a variety of methods, training tools, multimedia tools, and research approaches. The collection of tools reflects the diversity of the organisations and their diverse methodological approaches and access to economic literacy.

The publication is in English and Spanish to be found on the websites of the associations:

http://www.wide-netzwerk.at/

http://www.mondefemmes.be/genre-developpement-nos-actions_reseaux-plateformes_grundtvig-reseaux-partenariat-europeen-genre-alphabetisation-economique.htm