A discussion with Nobel peace prize laureate Muhammad Yunus inspired Center for Social Development (CSD) experts to write an article for this month’s China Social Work Magazine, which has about 300,000 subscribers.
“From financial inclusion to financial capability: A grand challenge of social work in the United States” followed a forum in September at Peking University that included discussants Yunus and Li Zou, CSD’s international director. Yunus, who is an economist, microfinance innovator and founder of Grammeen Bank, observed that poverty is largely the result of a set of structural factors.
The article is the first in Chinese to describe U.S. social workers’ growing view about the importance of policy changes and institutional arrangements for financial inclusion and capability, and to emphasize the unique role of social workers in achieving this goal, said CSD expert Jin Huang. He wrote the article with Zou and CSD Research Professor Margaret Sherraden. “People require both financial knowledge and access to quality financial services,” Huang said. “Financial capability is not just about financial education.”
CSD’s body of work in its Financial Capability and Asset Building (FCAB) initiative provides the groundwork for the article. FCAB has advanced work on financial capability and inclusion by establishing a theoretical foundation and key components of an educational curriculum.
The article also articulates the rationale for identifying financial capability and asset building as one of the 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work in the United States.
The citation is Huang, J., Sherraden, M. S., & Zou, L. (2018, October). 【视野】普惠金融与金融能力：美国社会工作的大挑战 [From financial inclusion to financial capability: A grand challenge of social work in the United States]. China Social Work Magazine.