(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: The Ministry of Social Development and Family (MoSDF) has launched a financial awareness project“Aazim” (determined).
The project aims at raising awareness among Qatari families and youth about the necessity of optimal and advance planning for spending and saving and not resorting to debt for luxury.
The programme comes within a grand strategy of the MoSDF to transform Qatari society into a productive one, putting an end the dependency and irresponsible consumerism.
It will also pave the way for preparing future generations to rely on diverse sources of income that keep pace with global changes and preserve the capabilities of the family and society. The project targets newly employed groups, those who plan to get married and indebted people to provide them with personal financial management tools.
In this context, Minister of Social Development and Family H E Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad, said:“Qatar is looking forward through the MoSDF to create financial awareness based on Islamic values in spending as well as relying on models and means for managing financial life, which is greatly intertwined with the changes in global economic movement.”
“This is also to prevent our youth and new families from indulging in consumerism and unnecessary luxuries of life and to build a conscious and sustainable society in which future generations are guaranteed equal opportunities for prosperity and sustainability,” she added.
The Minister said:“The Aazim project also aims to transform the citizen, the family and groups of society in general into wise consumers who are aware of their steps and do not run behind campaigns of consumers' temptations that target high-income communities.”
The Aazim project came to express the meaning and content of the intellectual change that is required to be achieved in order to reach the societal awareness that is expected to be achieved as a result of acquiring knowledge of managing personal financial life, and empowering the individual with planning mechanisms for the family economy.
The programme aims to influence at two levels: The first is behavioral influence and enhancing individuals' orientation towards financial management that maintains the prosperity of society and achieves optimal exploitation of individual income. The second level is represented by cognitive influence and enhancing community awareness about financial planning mechanisms and avoiding falling into the pitfalls of extravagance, debt, and irresponsible consumption.
The programme also aims to provide citizens and youth with financial planning skills, which represent a road map that helps achieve financial goals and preserve wealth from wastage and overspending. Aazim programme enables citizens to draw a comprehensive picture of an individual's income and its paths, and identify the main priorities and separate them from subsidiary luxuries.
On a related level, the National Planning Council (NPC) is working on implementing the Qatari Family Income and Expenditure Survey 2023-2024, which includes 5,000 families for providing a series of accurate data from an economic and social perspective about the conditions and standards of living in Qatar and the general expenditure paths in the country. The Aazim programme places among its main objectives the elimination of cases of debtors in the country, and strengthening the financial situation of the neediest groups by empowering them with financial management tools.
Qatar Charity had announced that the total volume of social assistance it has provided through the Al Aqraboon platform since the beginning of 2023 until the end of February 2024 amounted to QR340m. As many as 8,480 debtors including divorced women, widows, the sick, the disabled and the elderly, in addition to people with disabilities and low-income families benefited from the initiative.
The Financial Awareness Project (Aazim) comes in cooperation with a number of agencies and institutions in the country and with the support of the Social & Sport Contribution Fund (Daam) and Sheikh Jassim Bin Mohammed Foundation for Social Welfare. The project is expected to pave the way for alleviating the debt burden on society, benefiting from financial life skills and strategic planning for responsible spending.
Given that Qatar ranked first in the Arab world among countries with the highest GDP per capita for 2023 at about $81,900, the need arose for action by the MoSDF to launch the Aazim programme.
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