Yunus Social Business Centre Università di Urbino

An important event organized by the Yunus Social Business Center in Urbino has brought microcredit and ethical finance to fight poverty and education into the center of the debate

# OttobreEdufin2019, the month of financial education, made a stop at the prestigious University of Urbino Carlo Bo where, in recent days, the seminar "Financial education and microcredit" was held.

The event, organized by the Yunus Social Business Center - Urbino (research center on the themes of social economy and microcredit, inspired by the theories of Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, and which resides at the Department of Jurisprudence of the Urbino University), in collaboration with the Iccrea Cooperative Banking Group (GBCI), has contributed to raising the already high level of the over five hundred events scheduled in the calendar of this second edition of the month dedicated to financial education.

In a classroom packed with university students, professors and citizens who are lovers of the subject of the meeting, the thousand and one nuances that bind microfinance, and microcredit in particular, with financial education have been addressed.

The common thread that unites these two topics is above all that which allows people to "live a good life".

On the one hand, in fact, knowing how to manage one's money well means loving oneself and one's loved ones, on the other hand microcredit is the tool that in every corner of the world allows one to rise from situations of social or occupational discomfort .

On the speakers' stage professors Elisabetta Righini, director of the Yunus Social Business Center of Urbino, dealt with the topics not only from a legal, economic and financial point of view, but also by introducing reflections of a psychological nature related to behavioral economics.

Chiara Piva, from Federcasse, talked about the Cooperative Credit and the "Microfinanza campesina", the program that for years the Italian Cooperative Credit has been supporting in Ecuador, where thanks to the work done by the Ecuatorian Populorum Progressio Fund, thousands of families have defeated poverty.

Marco Marcocci, representing the Iccrea Cooperative Banking Group, has outlined a picture of financial education initiatives carried out in Italy since the national strategy on the subject was launched and subsequently exposed some credit access techniques practiced in many southern countries. Among other things, the exponent of the Iccrea Group, spoke of the Third Sector and, in particular, of Coopera (www.coopera.gruppo.iccrea.it) which distinguishes all the Group's initiatives aimed at the non-profit world.

Particularly appreciated by the public was the extraordinary participation of the soprano Felicia Bongiovanni, artistic director of the Yunus Social Business Center - Urbino and of the related Project "Impresa e Cultura", which interpreted the air "Born twice" taken from the contemporary opera "27 dollars" by the composer Paola Samoggia and dedicated to the life and work of Prof. Yunus. The opera was premiered last May on the occasion of Prof. Yunus's visit to Urbino for the inauguration of the Yunus Center, and Felicia Bongiovanni interpreted the role of the female protagonist, the first woman to collaborate with the professor in the foundation of the Grameen Bank. The objective of the "Enterprise and Culture" Project is indeed to spread the knowledge of economic and social issues through art and culture, the highest expression of that humanity which must also shape economic activity in the noblest sense of the term.

As Professor Maria Paola Mittica, President of the Urbino University School of Law, recalled at the beginning of the work, "we must learn to stay in the world" and financial education and micro-credit go in this direction, especially if accompanied by reflection profound that only art can offer and stimulate.