In June 2020, the UNCDF team in Tanzania launched the ‘Lenga’ financial literacy toolkit, which was developed in collaboration with Khanga Rue Media (KRM) and focuses on the inclusion of vulnerable rural populations in the Kigoma region of the United Republic of Tanzania.

The toolkit aims to provide clear, user-friendly financial education materials in local languages for savings groups and farmers in the region. The toolkit includes 3 comic magazines and 3 podcast episodes focusing on four areas - savings groups; saving, budgeting and tracking money; mobile money; and credit.

After careful reviews from both UNCDF and KRM, the toolkit originally developed for refugees, was adjusted to also benefit farmers living near refugee camps in Kigoma.

Based on extensive research and stories from the field, a set of fictional characters representing our target audience of the toolkit was developed. The ‘Malengo’ family serves as our role model on positive financial behaviours. All family members, from the parents (Baba Malengo and Mama Malengo) to the children (Tausi and Kobello), play an active role in money management within the household. The family lives in a little village and makes a living by selling vegetables at the local market, while the children go to school.

The Malengo Family

The style and format of popular youth comic magazines in Tanzania like ‘Femina’ and ‘Shujaaz’ were our point of reference for the Lenga comic.

Popular money management podcasts like ‘So Money Podcast’, which blend testimonials with experts’ information, served as a point of reference for the Lenga podcast.

Each podcast episode features fictional guests who were created based on real life stories. To make sure there was a direct tie-in to the comics, we made Baba and Mama Malengo hosts of the podcast. Over the course of each 11-minute episode, Baba and Mama Malengo, delve into the key focal areas of messaging.

After preparing the comic and podcast prototypes, UNCDF and KRM conducted a field test in March 2020 to check the practicality of the toolkit. We visited groups near Kibondo to get target audience feedback on likeability and understanding of the name, relatability of the characters, appropriateness of tone, language, believability, comprehension and relevance of the messages. 42 people were interviewed in the form of focus group discussions and individual- or family-unit qualitative interviews. These interviewees completed comprehension quizzes and evaluation questions. Our audience were between the ages of 25 and 85, most of them being subsistence farmers, with the highest level of education attained being Form 4 and the lowest Grade 7. The testing also involved Kigoma Joint Programme implementing partners who work directly with the target audience, namely Danish Refugee Council, Good Neighbors Tanzania, Kigoma Youth Agricultural Development Organization and Ministry of Agriculture Training Institute.

The podcast was very well received by the interviewees. Alfred Magehema, Livelihood Manager from the Danish Refugee Council stated that this podcast “[has come] at the right time as people need to hear this message. A lot of people we work with don’t know how to make a budget for their families. I think it’s a high-time that these people get financial education in order to understand the importance of sustainable goals and how they can benefit from them.”

Mama Sarah’s story about her experience with her savings group, which is featured in the podcast, resonated with many interviewees. A farmer named Rosalia – a savings group member in Kibondo said, “This story reminds me of the time when I joined a local savings group VICOBA. Thanks to this savings group I was able to borrow money and pay my twins’ school fees. I am so happy that now they are in their first year at university!” Overall, the interviewees liked the name ‘Lenga’ and the way that the characters told their stories, which they found relevant and easily understandable. They could see their families and neighbours in the Malengos. Furthermore, the tips presented in the comics and podcast were considered simple, actionable and memorable.

In addition, great suggestions were raised during the field test. Some were about new content to be developed, such as the registration of savings groups, adding community facilitators as contact personnel, reinforcing that men should be part of savings groups and the importance of talking about money management to children from an early age. More advice was also given on the design of the comic, such as making text larger and more readable.

Field visit for feedback on Lenga toolkit

After receiving feedback from the field, we increased the number of pages of the comic book from 16 to 20 pages in order to allow bigger font size. We also included community-based organizations as a channel through which farmers could get information about saving groups. We reiterated the testing on the second and third issues of the comic and podcast. Implementing partners played a huge role in reviewing and providing insights that helped in fine-tuning these issues. Danish Refugee Council helped a lot in reviewing translations for Kirundi scripts and recordings.

During this process, the world started experiencing the coronavirus pandemic and while this urged a general down-scaling of field activities, we prioritized the finalization and dissemination of the new materials. We integrated additional COVID-19 messaging in the form of radio advertising around the podcasts, encouraging savings groups to comply with safety measures and take precautions during their group meetings.

The comic magazines are currently distributed by UNCDF partners in refugee camps and neighbouring communities in the Kigoma region, whilst the podcast is being broadcasted on the local Kwizera radio station and is available on the digital podcast platform www.anchor.fm/lengauncdf.

More information on Lenga here.