Benefits of Social
Performance Management for Stakeholders
SPM has a large impact on various stakeholders:
enables clients to receive better tailored products and
services; investment costs in product development and
innovation are targeted;
increases the clients’ needs and preference
satisfaction and effectively improves their living
conditions; the drop out rates decrease;
Socially responsible investors and donors have a simple
and cost-effective tool to assess social results of the
MFI;
staff can get a better and fuller understanding of
their work and become more client focused ;
board members can easily monitor the fulfilment of the
social goals;
the whole organisation benefits from a better decision
making process through better balancing of financial and
social objectives.
Examples of how SPM was successfully used in MFIs:
PRIZMA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, strengthened management
systems and commitment to mission, and redesigned staff
incentives to reflect this.
CARD, Philippines, understood problems of paying for
others in repayment leading to drop-out and reduced its
drop-out rate.
LAPO, Nigeria, used MIS system to identify patterns and
trends in client progress and pin-pointed issues to
explore further.
SAT, Ghana, discovered that women were less confident
than men about taking on individual asset loans and has
now developed a training programme designed to improve
confidence.
SEF, South Africa, monitors ‘vulnerable
centres’ with proxy impact indicators as an early
warning system.
ODEF, Honduras, has found that effective collection and
use of social performance information can lead to better
client retention, resulting in improved financial
sustainability.
Some examples from the SPM Working Group members hard
work implementing and institutionalizing SPM:
AgroInvest, Serbia, Montenegro, was one of the MFIs
which pilot tested the QAT and as a result they are now
in the process of including Social Performance Management
in all future plans and they are introducing Social
Performance Indicators into their MIS and SIS.
Aregak, Armenia, have included the Social Performance
perspective in their Business Plan, they have also made
sure that a social performance focus is incorporated in
the organizational culture.
MDF, Serbia, have identified and filled in the gaps in
the organization, especially in the information area they
have also successfully communicated the SPM message
through staff trainings and a motivated SPM working
team
Partner, Bosnia and Herzegovina, have come a long way
in institutionalizing the everyday procedures regarding
SPM, they have managed this since there is a strong
support and commitment from the management level in
Partner as well as the Board.
Women for Women International, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
have successfully communicated the message of SPM in
their organization which has resulted in strong
engagement and commitment from all levels in the MFI,
from Board to Loan Officer.