The South African financial education ecosystem

Purpose Liberal democracies often experience discrepancies between the envisaged principles of policy about the realities of practice, which leads to a decline in trust and legitimacy. The purpose of this paper is therefore to present a proposed ecosystem for the South African National Consumer Financial Education Policy to address the policy−practice gap better. Design/methodology/approach The study’s methodology is to develop an integrated conceptual framework informed by a literature review and related source documents. A qualitative descriptive design was applied to populate the theorized conceptual framework. Findings Ecosystems provide adaptive resources for value creation in recognizing the interdependence and iterative socioeconomic engagements among the key stakeholders. The holism of the system intends to counter the policy−practice gaps that include: insufficient integration around operational regulations and principle-led policy, challenges in multistakeholder coordination with duplication of efforts and persistent resource constraints. Practical implications This paper contributes to the emerging literature on public policy ecosystems and offers a replicable model for other emerging countries. Social implications The proposed model furthermore future-proofs consumer financial education (CFE) as the model anticipates emerging challenges in digital financial literacy and evolving stakeholder incentives, offering a basis for a resilient and adaptive structure for CFE governance in South Africa and potentially other emerging markets. Originality/value This paper makes a distinct theoretical and practical contribution by proposing and critically constructing a conceptual framework for a CFE ecosystem in South Africa – an original approach not previously theorized in this context. While financial literacy is globally acknowledged as a policy imperative, little scholarly work has offered a systems-level model that accounts for the structural, institutional and stakeholder-specific dynamics within a developing country context.