Strengthening Financial Literacy in Germany

6. Monitoring and evaluating the Strategy

Monitoring and evaluation are an essential component of evidenced-based public policies, including on financial literacy. They are necessary elements of the proposed Strategy, to assess the impact and effectiveness of the initiatives that contribute to the Strategy’s implementation and of the overall national strategy (OECD, 2022[31]; 2020[4]). The data collected through these processes are also essential from an accountability perspective, to provide evidence to improve financial literacy policies and contribute to their sustainability in the long term.

It is proposed that the Strategy includes monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track its overall impact and how the objectives of the Strategy have been addressed by stakeholders in the implementation of their financial literacy initiatives. A comprehensive evaluation approach which is embedded into the Strategy is more likely to deliver good results and to provide guidance to relevant stakeholders (OECD, 2022[31]).

Monitoring and evaluation of the National Strategy can take place through monitoring and evaluating its annual action plans, which would identify the projects to be undertaken during the year and explain how these will address the priority areas identified by the Strategy.

Monitoring

Monitoring the Strategy includes actions aimed at tracking the progress of its implementation. Monitoring serves to address key questions, such as whether the strategy is effectively reaching its intended audience and whether allocated resources are being used as planned.

Monitoring the progress in the implementation of the Strategy for Germany should take place through:

• Tracking the KPIs associated to each priority area, to understand if activities are implemented according to the Strategy’s action plans.

• Number of initiatives implemented by financial literacy stakeholders across Germany which contribute to the Strategy’s implementation.

• Collecting standardised information by financial literacy stakeholders on the individuals who participate in their initiatives. This information, to be shared with the Strategy’s leading authority or mechanism would provide useful information on the demographics reached by the initiatives which contribute to the Strategy’s objectives.

• Analysing qualitative feedback provided by financial literacy stakeholders, gathered during annual events or through questionnaires.

Evaluation

Monitoring information should feed into the evaluation process. Evaluation of a national strategy is a process that seeks to assess if, and how, the national strategy is meeting its objectives and what impact it is having. This process should consider whether the national strategy is leading to a change that would not have occurred otherwise (OECD, 2022[31]).

It is proposed that the evaluation of the National Strategy for Germany should build on an assessment of the following components:

• Institutional coordination: analysis of the effectiveness of the governance structure in contributing to reaching the objectives of the Strategy; analysis of the communication channels with stakeholders and of the coordination mechanisms; effectiveness of the institutional coordination in avoiding duplication and inefficient use of resources.

• Implementation: evaluation of the initiatives under the umbrella of the National Strategy and whether they have contributed to its overall goals; analysis of the role of multipliers, of the delivery methods (notably digital ones) and how appropriate they have proven for different target groups.

• Impact and change in financial behaviours: analysis of changes in financial literacy indicators, both across the population and specific groups, as well as in the possible long-term impact indicators identified in the roadmap.

The evaluation process should use both quantitative and qualitative information, including financial literacy data, other relevant surveys, data from consumer complaints, qualitative interviews with financial literacy stakeholders. The collection of qualitative information can prove particularly useful to understand to which extent some of the behavioural changes observed can be attributed to the Strategy’s implementation.