Micol Pistelli, Manager Social Performance Program, MIX

Reporting on Social Performance Standards

2010 EMN-CDFA Conference, London, 24/06/2010

Why the SPTF/MIX indicators need to be looked at as industry standards?

- Over 50 microfinance professionals representing the industry have participated in defining the standards and in their revision process this year

- SPS report is both a learning tool and a reporting tool for MFIs- Rating agencies, MF networks and supporting agencies have created tools to rate and

audit SP process and result indicators based on SPTF/MIX standards- Increasing number of investors are asking for standardized SP information for their

assessment

What value does tracking and reporting give to MFIs and to the industry as a whole?

- To attract investors and donors

- To stay a step ahead

- To build personal and shared reputation

- To analyze performance and trends

- To justify investments in SPM

Why Social Performance Standards (SPS)?

How SPTF/MIX indicators can be used as a preliminary tool towards SPM?

To assess which areas of SPM are important to track

To understand the linkages between different SPM areas

To draft an internal work plan to improve an MFI’s SPM measurement tools

To assess which SP information MFIs wants its MIS to capture

To provide a check for MFIs’ strategies, planning process, products and programs

Verification of information

How and who perform data verification?

- MIX (internal consistency-check) and interviews with MFIs- Social rating support data validation when available

Which role for national and regional networks, supporting agencies?

- Social assessment tools, if used by third parties, can verify process information - Regional and national networks can help with consistency-check of information

reported and, eventually, data validation- PPI and PAT Poverty data could be validated by tool developers

Collection of data from Round 1

- Outreach: 208 MFIs reported

- Completeness: 76% MFIs completed at least part 1 of the report

- Challenges on reporting:

- 38% reported # of clients attending non financial services

- 33% reported poverty data

- 21% MFIs provided data on job creation

- 11% MFIs provided data on children at school

Improvements to questionnaire

- SPS working group refined questionnaire in March. For changes read here: http://www.sptf.info/group/socialindicators

- Round 2 of data collection started in April. In 2 months, over 100 reports received, 50% of them are new

SPTF/MIX Indicators

OutreachQ11- Geographic outreachQ12- Women outreachQ13- Clients outreach by lending methodology

Q1–Mission & Social Goals

Q2- Governance

Q3–Range of Products and Services (financial & non-financial)Q4–Training of staff on social performance Q5–Staff performance appraisal and incentivesQ6–Market research on clientsQ7–Measuring client retentionQ14–Poverty assessment

Q8– Social responsibility to clientsQ9-Cost of services to clientsQ10–Social responsibility to staffQ15 – Social responsibility to the communityQ16–Social responsibility to the environment

[---------------------------- PROCESS---------------------------- - - -- ] [-------------------------------- RESULTS -----------------------------]

Outputs and outcomesQ17-Outreach by ProductsQ18–Employment creationQ19–Children in School Q20–Poor clients at entryQ21–Clients in povertyQ22–Clients out of poverty

Intent Internal systems/activities

Outputs Outcomes Impact

Ind

icat

ors

SPTF/MIX Social Performance Standard Indicators

The 13 indicators in red represent the core indicators

Learning from social performance reporting

What are we learning from the process? 

- Quality of information can be only partially checked without ratings or audits

- Some SPS (governance, SR to community/environment and human resources) difficult to benchmark against results

- Some indicators (children at school, part-time/full-time employment have little information)

- Process indicators relatively easy to be tracked by MFIs

Profile of MFIs reportingProfile of the 208 MFIs reporting

Profile of the 51 ECA MFIs reporting

Azerbaijan 9Bosnia 8

Tajikistan 7

Armenia 5

Kyrgyzstan 4

Georgia 3

Kosovo 3

Kazakhstan 2

Macedonia 2

Russia 2

Uzbekistan 1

Serbia 1

Albania 1

Romania 1

Poland 1

Mongolia 1

30 NBFIs, 10 NGOs, 8 banks, 3 cooperatives

State of Practice in Social Performance Reporting and Management (joint publication with IMP-ACT Consortium). Soon available at: www.themix.org

• Not always clear link between product development and target groups needs. • Need to look at how policies and strategies are implemented besides tracking them  • SR to staff ,community and environment do not appear to have a clear relationship with

SPM as for clients and need to be further investigated• More qualitative information from MFIs reporting on SPS would help increase

understanding on implementation of policies and systems – further investigation with interviews needed

Synergies and trade-offs between financial and social performance outcomes. Soon available at www.themix.org

- Investments in human capital (training on SP and SR) go hand-in-hand with higher staff productivity and better portfolio quality

- Serving the very poorest comes at a cost in terms of efficiency, but not risk or productivity

MIX Agenda on SP Analysis

MIX agenda on social performance standards in 2010

•SPS data collection through September 2010

•Strengthen data validation process through collaboration with raters and auditors

•Promote core SPM information tracking among investors `

•Inclusion of social performance data display on MIX Market

• Change of the systems of diamonds of transparency to include SP reporting

•Social performance information integrated in regional analysis

•Work with SPS working group and SPM working group on a companion resource guide

How does this framework and these indicators apply to the European context?

A European SP roadmap

- Identify which of the 22 MIX/SPTF indicators are most relevant for the European context

- Identify new, relevant, simple indicators that apply to local context

- Define and identify indicators for social inclusion/poverty measurement

- Adapt social ratings and social audits to reflect the differences among the European context

- Identify SPM European best practices in Europe

- Advance agenda in coordination with the international SPTF

For more information about MIX Social Performance Program

please contact:

Ms. Micol Pistelli at mpistelli@themix.org

And visit our website: http://www.themix.org/standards/social-performance

For more information about the SPTF, visit:

http://www.sptf.info/

http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.11.48260/

Thank you!

MICROFINANCE INFORMATION EXCHANGE, INC.

The leading provider of business information and data services for the microfinance industry.

Web: www.themix.org

Email: info@themix.org

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