[MUSIC] Hi everyone, and congratulations on completing the first stage of the Finance for Everyone capstone course. In the second stage of this capstone, over the next three weeks, you will build on your written reflection from Stage 1 and develop two things. One, a problem statement and two, an action plan that together use a practical approach to resolve a finance related problem that is important to you or someone you care about. In this regard, your goal could be to use, let's say, a financial app that helps to build a budget for a family member. Or you may want to identify a project that enables your company to make a green investment in a local community. Or as an engaged citizen, you might be interested in organizing a workshop or an important financial topic in your community center. The point is to create and develop a project that motivates you personally and contributes positively to people around you. So, in sum, completing the problem statement and the action plan are the two core components of the capstone project. That is your primary task for Stage 2. To iterate your initial ideas into better ones, you'll provide peer feedback on their work, discuss your own progress and share ideas in discussion threads. So let me provide a little bit more detail here that explain your focus during the next three weeks. Through your reflections in Stage 1, you've already identified a few possible issues that matter to you the most. But now, think more deeply about the problem you're going to tackle in your action plan. Now this means that you have to narrow the problem down that will be the focus for your capstone project. And one effective way to do this is to spark ideas and bounce them off with supportive colleagues, and luckily, there's a space for you to do just that. Let's call that the problem statement brain storm discussion thread. Once you've finished this video, start working your ideas and share them with your peers in this space. These discussion should help you select a problem that is suitable for the project and still interesting to you. And don't worry, if you get inspired by a new idea or a suggestion in the discussion thread, it's okay to choose a problem that isn't one that you've mentioned already in your reflection in Stage 1. Your problem statement will briefly describe the nature, the context and the audience, that is of course, those who are affected by this problem and just how they are affected. Next, relate the problem to the financial knowledge you have gained from Finance for Everyone courses. So, for example, let's say you were interested to learn about negative interest rates that affect you. You may want to draw from the videos and resources in Finance for Everyone, where this issue was addressed, and use this to help you explain why this issue, on which you decided to focus on, is problematic. Next, you would briefly outline what you already know about the problem. This should include some basic background information on the sources, the context and the time frame of the problem, of course, the consequences as well. You should also identify what you will still need to find out about the problem in order to understand it enough, in depth to develop an action plan responding to it. So to continue with a negative interest rates example, you should briefly explain, what factors led to this unprecedented financial situation, the effect it is currently having on the global economy and some aspect of negative interest rates that you're still not sure about. So the next section has you briefly explaining what might happen in the future if the problem is not adequately addressed. So if we continue with the negative interest rate example, you might focus on particular consumer products, for instance, how are insurance companies and pension fund products adapting in a negative interest rate environment? How might this affect you and others that you care about? And so, next, you will outline some preliminary ideas about how to put your knowledge into practice to help address the problem you've identified and described. Of course, this will be unpacked in much greater detail in the action plan itself, but the point here is to give you a chance to articulate your ideas and receive some peer feedback on them before you proceed. On that note, make sure to address the final step in the problem statement assignment by including two to three points on which you'd like to receive feedback from your fellow learners. This is an opportunity to get the type of valuable personalized comments that you can incorporate. And you might, for example, ask about course concept you have missed, or whether your plan sounds realistic, or how you could overcome a bottleneck that you are experiencing or whatever that's going to help you to move forward. Finally, please make sure that you complete and submit the problem statement by the end of Week 3, since this will ensure that your peers have enough time to provide you with helpful comments that can be incorporated in your action plan before it is submitted at the end of Stage 2. In fact, it's these two tasks of providing the peer feedback to your colleagues, problem statements and beginning your work on your own action plan, these are what you're going to be working on during Week 4. And when you review your fellow learners' problem statements, focus on how well the statement meets the criteria outlined in the instructions we have just discussed, and provide the same constructive feedback that you would expect from your peers. So let's remember, your peers will be reviewing your work, just as you as going to review theirs. So take your reviewer duties as seriously as you would want your colleagues to take them when they review your work, and take the time to thoughtfully respond to particular questions they want your feedback on. The same feedback loop is going to be essential in developing your action plan. A detailed outline of what should be included in the action plan, can be found in the peer review action plan assignment instructions for this deliverable, which you will need to read carefully before proceeding. But briefly, the action plan has at least the following elements. It has a short restatement of the problem that includes feedback from your peers. It articulates the main outcome you hope to achieve by implementing the action plan. Perhaps identifying 2-3 ways to practically address the problem. Evaluating these choices and deciding why you're going to select one of these ways to move forward. Identifying the data and the sources that you'll need to consult, to support the implementation of your choice, and an implementation plan, which specifies the sources that will be needed, as well as who will be responsible for executing each of the steps that you are applying. And finally, a proposed timeline and, if required, an estimated budget to implement the plan. So this will take you into Week 5 of the capstone course, during which you will finish and submit your action plan. Again, your aim is to submit by the end of Week 5, so that it can be peer reviewed in time for the feedback to be useful, for your work, in the final Stage 3, which will involve seeking out and meeting with a stakeholder or a knowledgeable individual who can give you advice for putting your plan into practice. It can be difficult to navigate the various deadlines of the different pieces, but if you are mindful and set target dates and refer regularly to our capstone stages and weeks visuals, you will stay on track to submit your work and give and receive feedback in a timely manner that will make the experience better for everybody. So, to summarize in Stage 2, you will be creating 2 core components of the capstone, the problem statement and the action plan. Stage 3 is where you start taking steps towards putting this action plan into action. And I'll speak to you about this more at the start of Week 6, by which time you will be well on your way to using your financial knowledge to make a difference in the real world. Beyond these finer details, you might be wondering why we are encouraging you to consider a financial issue, in the context of a social action project, as the core component of the capstone for a finance course. Well, one of the reasons is tied to a primary goal of this specialization, which is to combine learning the basics about finance with an understanding of the wider social impact. Financial literacy is certainly important to all individuals, but it is also aimed to improve the well being of the organizations, and the communities that we serve in our roles as responsible global citizens. The first four courses have helped you to establish your financial literacy, and so the capstone is about putting that into practice in a way that positively contributes to something bigger than ourselves. One effective way to accomplish this is through a social action project, which is an exercise that leverages skills and knowledge you've learned, and apply it in real, practical settings. And this is why we encourage you to propose an original initiative, through a multi-step process, that includes identifying a financial issue, in a social setting, that has not been adequately addressed. Researching the problems underlying causes, and using knowledge and expertise, to propose and implement practical solutions to it. Successful action projects actively involve community members and stakeholders directly in the development and the implementation of solutions. They are based on a sophisticated, and usually, nuanced understanding of the issues at stake, and focus on addressing the root causes of the problems in question. They also leave a positive legacy by educating and motivating others to continue the efforts after the project is completed. Some of the most transformational initiatives of our time began as a small scale social action project. In the realm of finance, for example, the Grameen Bank organization, who's founder Dr. Mohammed Yurus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He began when he looked at a micro-lending initiative in his home country of Bangladesh. He started in the mid 1970s with a loan of just $27 to a group of very poor families who would otherwise have been unable to get a loan except at predatory rates. They successfully used this as a "start up" money to build a business making items for sale in local market places. And the benefits of what came to be called microfinance soon became very clear. In the subsequent years and decades, this small locally focused social action project, in which a socially engaged economist applied his knowledge to a practical problem in his home community, blossomed into one of the most powerful, poverty fighting initiatives in the world. Well now, of course, very few initiatives of any kind will be as successful as the Grameen Bank Initiative by Dr. Yossef, but that doesn't mean you can't still use your financial literacy to make a difference in your own corner of the world. Let's do what all great learners like yourselves do, which is fine tune your idea to develop it, to improve it and then to serve others. That's why we've modeled this capstone around the idea of a social action project. You guys have already been really awesome and I can't wait to see what you're all going to come up with, and I'm looking forward to that.
