People get hooked on stories. The multi-billion dollar film and video industries have gotten this down to a profit-making science. Development agencies have also maximized this penchant for stories to promote behavior changes by couching information in compelling narratives. In Mongolia, a project assisted by ADB and the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction used storytelling to help people protect themselves through saving and financial planning.

The global financial crisis and a dry spell followed by another dzud or a long severe winter in 2008 to 2010 pointed out the obvious: with no financial safety nets, the most vulnerable households needed financial education.

A 2014 survey under the project found that 80% of Mongolians cite TV as their main source of information. Since serial dramas are very popular, they were identified as the most effective vehicle for messages on financial literacy. — blogs.adb.org.blogs