MetLife and Sesame Workshop Tackle Global Financial Education with 5-Year, $20 Million Initiative

The global financial literacy movement received a powerful boost with MetLife’s announcement that it has designated $20 million to Sesame Workshop’s financial education efforts targeting low and moderate income youth and families over the next five years.  The funds represent a portion of MetLife’s $200 million global financial inclusion efforts and will be used to develop a broad range of financial capability programs aimed at impacting approximately 75 million individuals poised to benefit from this financial literacy initiative.

MetLife and Sesame Workshop are seeking to roll out the financial literacy programs in up to ten countries, with the first being India, Mexico, China and Brazil, followed by countries in Europe and the Middle East in the next five years.  The initiatives will be customized to address the specific needs of the populations in each individual country.  The platforms through which the programs will be launched are anticipated to be wide ranging, including broadcast media, digital channels, local events and a broad spectrum of community outreach efforts.

Another distinguishing element of the MetLife-Sesame partnership is that the plans to be supporting by this funding include a substantial focus on partnerships with local and regional organizations in the targeted countries.  The organizations will work together in an effort to address the growing incidence of low financial literacy scores in both developed and developing countries.

The announcement of the MetLife funding is just the latest in a long history of combined financial education work between MetLife and Sesame Workshop, which have partnered since 2009 to address critical needs of youth and families.  The organizations believe that the breadth and depth of this latest effort will serve as an effective infusion of energy and focus within the global financial literacy space that many industry observers will closely follow and emulate in the months and years ahead.