Jenna has worked for over ten years in the development sector, mostly in her home country Indonesia. She first had the chance of seeing the importance of social and financial education for children up close through her work with World Vision Indonesia (WVI). As a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator, and later as an Area Development Programme Manager, she supported the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of many programmes, which included education as a key component. Jenna continued to pursue her passion for programme effectiveness and evidence-informed programmes by joining J-PAL Southeast Asia. As a Research Manager and later as a Senior Policy and Training Manager, she learned to support the generation and dissemination of evidence in multiple sectors, including in education. 

Why do you work for Aflatoun International?  

Aflatoun works with many key education actors, from governments to non-profit organisations, across various regions. I think it’s both a privilege and responsibility to be able to work alongside these actors in this larger cause of improving the access and quality of education for children and youth.   

What is your role at the organisation?  

With my colleagues from the Research team and with other partners on the ground, I work to generate evidence about Aflatoun’s programmes through research. I also work to utilise the evidence gathered as internal learning for programme improvement and to disseminate these lessons to add to the broader collective knowledge on social and financial education for children and youth.   

How would you explain what you do to a 5-year-old?  

My friends and I work with teachers, principals, and many others to help teaching and learning at places like schools keep getting better, so you and other children can learn different things and grow into adults with bright futures. What do you like to learn about?  

Why is social and financial education important?  

It could be a powerful tool to reduce various forms of inequalities. Although there has been more consensus, especially on the importance of financial education in recent years, it is still relatively new. I believe it’s very important to continue focusing on it as there are still many questions to unpack to help us better understand its potential.   

What do you like most about Aflatoun International?  

So far, I have been really impressed by how passionate and dedicated everyone is, and I’m looking forward to discovering more things to love.   

How do you see the future of Aflatoun International?  

Aflatoun has seen so much growth in the past few years in terms of the number and level of engagement with partners and in its reach. It has been able to achieve such growth from the constant process of learning, adapting and improving. I believe that a bright future lies ahead as long as we keep on learning, adapting and improving.   

Who is a hero of yours? / Or please share with us a motto or quote close to your philosophy of life.  

My mom is my hero, she always believes in doing good and being kind no matter how difficult and discouraging things can be sometimes.