Mandated for Change: A Review of the South African Financial Education Ecosystem through a Collaborative Governance Regime (CGR) Lens

Abstract

Financial education has gained global attention as essential to financial well-being, yet national strategies often remain fragmented in design and implementation, constraining policy coherence. To address this fragmentation, this article explores the South African financial education ecosystem through a collaborative governance lens to enhance international efforts for sustained, coordinated policy approaches. The Quintuple Helix Model and the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance informed a deductive qualitative analysis of statutory law, policy documents, and grey literature to delineate the mandates of key ecosystem actors. The findings reveal four categories—highly formal, semi-formal, knowledge-based and informal. The article introduces a novel Collaboration Mandate Framework for financial education within a governance regime to assist diverse actors in tackling South Africa’s persistent socio-economic challenges. The article concludes that operationalizing a financial education collaborative governance regime offers a viable pathway to enhance policy coherence, strengthen multi-actor collaboration, and improve financial well-being in South Africa.

Keywords: {'name': 'ecosystem; collaborative governance regime (CGR); financial education; financial well-being'}

Authors & affiliations

Bernadene De Clercq
University of South Africa

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