For millions of garment workers worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to wage digitization, which holds the promise of significantly enhancing women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. However, without proper opportunities to build financial knowledge, skills, and an enabling environment, wage digitization often results in workers withdrawing their entire paycheck in cash each payday. Technological developments often fail to address entrenched behaviors around money mindsets and
practices that many—in both developing and developed contexts—still grapple with today.
Recognizing this challenge, our team saw an opportunity to support young garment workers in Vietnam to develop a comprehensive understanding of their financial health and planning, which would better equip them to support themselves and their families. In 2023, IDEO.org, in collaboration with Doodle Design, set out to identify the barriers, enablers, and practices affecting Vietnamese garment workers’ engagement with financial services and tools. This initiative was part of a broader collaboration with the Standard Chartered Foundation and Primark, each bringing unique strengths and commitments to the work.
Using a peer-driven learning approach, the program helps build foundational financial knowledge and awareness with the goal of building longer term financial resilience. At its core, the program anchors learners in their “money personalities” and aims to inspire individuals to make positive changes in their money mindsets and habits.
The program was developed in 2023 using a human-centered design approach that took into consideration the needs, the barriers, and the aspirations that workers had around their money.
Some key highlights during our project include:
- We ran the Bright Futures program for 8 months and conducted a 4−week live prototype in three factories across South, North, and Central Vietnam, targeting 171 people, with a focus on women and how to build a “money mindsets” approach.
- We engaged with factory workers to understand how financial knowledge could best support them and their families. We developed and tested concepts and solutions, ranging from in-person training to self-serve tools, to enhance financial management and planning.
- We worked closely with factory teams and leveraged their existing resources to amplify the program’s impact. These collaborations enabled us to provide tailored support aligned with the specific needs and challenges of the garment industry.
We’re also excited that Bright Futures won runner-up for the Best Adult Financial Education (Non-Profit) Award at The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards.
Dive into the details of the Bright Futures Case Study
