Many financial education programmes make a huge assumption: that financial decisions are made by individuals acting alone. For Pacific people, this is simply wrong.
So rather than asking how Pacific people could become better at using existing financial education, my PhD asked a different question: what would financial education look like if it were developed with the people of the Pacific, rather than simply delivered to them?
Before I began my study, I was speaking with someone who understood the importance of budgeting and saving. They knew how to save, yet every time they managed to put money aside, a family member needed help, a community obligation arose, or an unexpected event demanded support. To an outsider it might have looked like poor financial discipline. To them it was simply part of being a son, daughter, sibling and member of their community.
During many years working in financial education across the Pacific Islands region, I realised that was not an isolated experience. I repeatedly saw programmes developed with the best of intentions, built on false assumptions. They often assumed regular employment, easy access to a bank, reliable internet, and financial decisions made independently. For many Pacific communities, those assumptions did not reflect people’s everyday lives.
My research saw me work alongside students, graduates and educators in Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu using Talanoa and Tok Stori—Pacific oral discussion approaches that place relationships, storytelling and lived experience at the centre of learning and knowledge sharing.
The stories people shared revealed something both simple and profound. Financial capability is about far more than understanding money. It is shaped by the environments in which people live and the relationships that define their lives.
The greatest lesson from my PhD was not about money management. It was about listening.
By listening, it became clear there were two themes that consistently shaped financial decisions. The first was environment: access to banking services employment opportunities, transport, internet connectivity, digital financial services and the impacts of natural disasters all influenced financial choices. The second was socialisation: family responsibilities, cultural values, remittances, community expectations, and collective decision-making were not barriers to financial well-being, they were central to it.
These conversations became the foundation of the Pacific Financial Education Framework. Rather than being designed for Pacific communities and then tested with them, doing research through Talanoa and Tok Stori meant the experiences of Pacific communities shaped this framework. It allowed me to reconceptualise financial education with those whose lives it will support.
The framework is intended to be practical, not simply theoretical. Instead of asking whether communities fit an existing programme, it encourages policymakers and practitioners to ask whether the programme fits the community. Does it reflect local environmental and societal realities? Questions about these realities help transform financial education from information that is delivered, into knowledge that is meaningful, relevant and capable of creating lasting change.
Although my research focused on the Pacific, its implications extend well beyond the region. As Aotearoa New Zealand continues to strengthen its relationships across the Pacific, and with vibrant Pacific communities contributing so much to New Zealand society, there is growing value in approaches that recognise culture and context as strengths rather than weaknesses. The same thinking has relevance for Indigenous communities, migrant communities and rural populations around the world.
I want this research to help shift the conversation from simply delivering financial education to designing it in partnership with the people it is intended to serve. The framework gives financial advisors the tools to ask the right questions, so they can deliver culturally aware advice.
When we stop asking communities to fit financial education frameworks and instead design financial education to fit communities, we move beyond teaching people about money. We create something they recognise, trust and can use to build stronger financial futures.
Supervisors: Associate Professor Kabini Sanga and Associate Professor Bronwyn Wood
Originally published in the Sunday Star-Times Brainwaves feature. Read the original on The Post.