Grounding participatory action research in rural Colombia: a demonstration study on youth financial inclusion

ABSTRACT

Since the new millennium, the issue of financial inclusion of young people has increasingly gained recognition, especially in relation to those living in deprived circumstances. Financial inclusion can be promoted through education that specifically aims for the strengthening of young persons’ financial capabilities. In 2013, a participatory action research project was started in a rural region of Colombia to improve the research capacity of a local university through the development and implementation of a demonstration project on the financial inclusion of young people. University teachers, students and employees of a financial cooperative were trained in conducting qualitative methods with a specific aim of being responsive to the life stories of their interviewees. This paper shares the experiences from an international team of educational scholars who aim for the democratisation of research capacity and the dissemination of localised knowledge. This is done by working closely together with stakeholders and ultimately giving a voice to youth employed in the informal economy as they are usually the ones being most deprived from access to financial services.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial inclusion
• financial education
• youth
• capacity building
• Colombia
• participatory action research
• North-South collaboration

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Michelle Pedlow, Senior Learning and Teaching Consultant in the School of Nursing and Midwifery of the Edith Cowan University, for correcting the language of our paper

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gideon de Jong

Gideon de Jong defended in November 2014 his PhD thesis entitled ‘Family Group Conferencing in public mental health care: A responsive evaluation’ at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing (Hanze University of Applied Sciences) and a Master’s in Educational Sciences (University of Groningen). Over the past decade he has worked as a nurse in different psychiatric settings and combined this job with a position as a university lecturer and researcher. Since November 2013 he is a research fellow of the University of San Gil, Colombia. From 2008 until 2011 he was employed at the University of Groningen. Since early 2016 he is appointed as a senior lecturer in mental health nursing to the Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

Miguel Arturo Fajardo Rojas

Miguel Arturo Fajardo Rojas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and postgraduate in Sociology of Development, Research Theories and Methods and Education. He has recently published articles related to the solidarity economy. He is a cofounder of the University Foundation of San Gil (Unisangil), and the Colombian network of researchers and research institutions in solidarity economy UNICOSOL.

Gloria Almeyda

Gloria Almeyda, originally from Colombia, holds an MS in Finance and International Business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During her career in international development, she has gained extensive experience with youth workforce development in Latin America as a regional and senior coordinator with the Cooperative Association of States for Scholarship (CASS) and Scholarships for Education & Economic Development (SEED) programs funded by USAID and managed by the Georgetown University – Center for Intercultural Education and Development (CIED). Since 2017 she is appointed as a research fellow to the University Foundation of San Gil (Unisangil).