Program: Purpose: Amount: Term: Start date: Location:

Microfinance Expand social performance management $1.7 million Three years September 2011 Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal

Why We Partnered

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) assists more than 80 million impoverished and disadvantaged people annually and has been active in microfinance for over two decades.

With growing commercialization of the microfinance sector over the past decade, the industry has been working to ensure that microfinance continues to achieve both social and financial goals. To this end, Social Performance Management (SPM) is one approach that uses an array of best practices to help microfinance providers set clear social objectives, monitor and assess progress, and use results to design operations that balance social benefits and institutional financial sustainability.

In 2009 The Foundation partnered with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to successfully expand SPM training and tools in Latin America and pilot the same in Senegal.  The Foundation has now expanded this partnership to deepen the work in Senegal and expand social performance management to Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Benin, and Burkina Faso. Working in partnership with the African Microfinance Network and national microfinance associations in these countries, and with co-funding from the Ford Foundation, the project will enable 100 MFIs to implement plans and report on social performance to the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX). As a result, the project will build local capacity for social performance and improve transparency in the sector in Africa. 

Anticipated Impact

• Build capacity of six national microfinance associations to promote social performance management among 100 MFI members.
• Coordinate activities with other major social performance initiatives in Africa.