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

Microfinance Expand social performance management $2.2 million Three years May 2009 Latin America and Africa

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.

Social Performance Management (SPM) 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.

This initiative promotes SPM in Latin America through national and regional microfinance networks. Based on learnings, SPM will be promoted throughout Africa, starting with a pilot in Senegal. 

Anticipated Impact

• Train 107 microfinance institutions on SPM and enable them to report to the Microfinance Information eXchange
• Develop benchmarks for comparing social outcomes
• Share learnings between Latin America and Africa