This blog is also available in Spanish below the English copy. 

By carrying out the MISION Program of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), REDCAMIF, a Central American Microfinance Network, has helped expand social performance management (SPM) among microfinance institutions (MFIs) affiliated with national networks in the region. During the past four years, 52 MFIs have begun to implement SPM systems in their operations.

To further these social performance implementations, REDCAMIF in January joined forces with Grameen Foundation to promote the use of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) a poverty assessment tool designed to address some key challenges faced by MFIs. These include: how to properly identify target clients, especially among the poor population; and how to measure change in living conditions--in this case, what percentage of customers is moving out of poverty. To introduce and promote the PPI, REDCAMIF sponsored the recent workshop to train network trainers, who could then work with MFIs. The workshop was hosted by ASOMI, the network from El Salvador. It was attended by eight consultants and staff from the Central American networks REDIMIF, REDMICROH, ASOMI and ASOMIF. Trainers included Mary Jo Kochendorfer and Sergio Correa from Grameen Foundation and Jack Burga, director of the MISION Program.

It’s Friday and it’s all coming to a close. Participants from FDEA and and MEC Feprodes are preparing their action plans—getting ready for their PPI pilots and ensuring appropriate allocation of time and resources for using the PPI. This is an incredibly important step in the process; we find that without action plans, many participants would return to their institutions, overrun with work, and PPI plans would lag. Action planning gives our trainees a chance to consider all the possible operational issues, resulting in a draft plan to take back to their executives and to talk over with their field officers. Together management and staff can then understand the needs and costs of using the PPI. The planning process also results in strong commitments from more institutions to invest in social performance, an excellent way to wrap up our training.

This trip has been eye opening on so many different levels. It has given me a clearer understanding of how MFIs see the PPI and why they choose to use a poverty assessment tool. In poverty stricken countries such as these it is so important for MFIs to be able to be able to show they are mission aligned, to track their clients' progress out of poverty, and to reinforce the image of microfinance as an important tool in the fight for poverty alleviation. Lastly,  this trip has definitely reinforced the need to practice my French more when I return to DC.

West Africa may be very poor economically but the people are incredible, they are committed, and they are so generous with their time, their homes, with everything. Their “teranga” always comes through. Merci bien à tous, c’était un grand plaisir, a la prochaine!

To close, I'll leave you with a clip from our Executive Day in Bamako that was covered by Mali National Television (ORTM).

 Preeti Wali is Communications Officer at the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center (SPMC). She is based in Washington, DC.

Today I took a short trip with Ali (Babacar's brother) and Andre Roland Youm, Director of Operations at Caurie MF, to Thies in west central Senegal. Thies is situated 35 miles 56 km) east of Dakar, a 90-minute drive from Saly, where we held our PPI Training and Executive session. Thies, one of the largest cities in Senegal, is an important transportation center. The junction of the eastern Dakar-Niger River railway and the northern rail and road systems is located there. So is Caurie Microfinance, one of the larger MFIs within the country.

Caurie Microfinance has a portfolio of 31,479 clients in 6 branches. It is one of three MFIs that have most recently completed a PPI pilot in Senegal through the PPI Users Collaborative in Africa (PUCA) and is a partner of Catholic Relief Services (CRS).Caurie MF is using the PPI to know their client base, to better target whom to reach, and to understand the poverty movement of those clients over time.

I met with Mamadou Lamine Gueye, the CEO of Caurie Microfinance to talk about why Caurie chose to use the PPI, what it has learned and what it is planning going forward. Check out the interview below!

Preeti Wali is Communications Officer at the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center (SPMC). She is based in Washington, DC.

“Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat” - the sound of heavy rain on a zinc rooftop. “Image is important,” I hear Alou Sidibe’s* words in my head.

“Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat,” the rain continues. “Kafo is serious,” says Bourama, the first client interviewed with the PPI in the field test**, as we converse in his sitting room and he sweeps away the water that seeps in from the heavy rain outside.

“Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat,” continues the rain. “Kafo is safe,” say Mamadou, the second client interviewed in the field test, as he explains that his family was robbed of all their savings which they kept in their home, and he had a good experience with Kafo a very long time ago when he lived in the village.

“Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat,” the rain beats down on the truck window as we journey on rough pathways that are supposed to be roads to our last interview. During our trip, I reflect on the comments of the client which whom we’ve spoken and realize that Mr. Sidibe’s comment, “Image is important,” is so simple, but encapsulates so much of what social performance is about.

Social performance is about image – that of the microfinance sector, the MFI players, and the clients of those institutions. In essence, it is about how the sector and its actors, microfinance institutions, are perceived by a variety of stakeholders. Perhaps most importantly it is about how clients perceive these institutions and the potential value MFIs bring into their lives.

Ultimately, as participants in and observers of the microfinance sector, reaching the poor and unserved and improving their lives is the image of microfinance that we equate with success. To solidify this image, the sector and its actors must have strong data…and PPI data can get us there.

*Alou Sidibe is director general of Kafo Jiginew based in Bamako, Mali. Kafo Jiginew is a partner of Oikocredit, a member of the PPI Users Collaborative in Africa (PUCA).

**A field test is the application of the PPI questionnaire (scorecard) to a handful of clients by loan officers. It provides loan officers with the opportunity to conduct a few interviews, raise questions or issues they have around any of the indicators, and assess clients’ reactions to the questions.

 
Sharlene Brown is a Program Officer with the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center, handling trainings for MFIs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle-East/North Africa. Sharlene is based out of Washington, DC.

“Can you drive a wheel? Can you drive a door?” As pictures of pieces of a car were passed around the room, these are the questions our trainers asked. Of course, the response was a resounding “No.” Just so, the trainers explained, “The PPI is like a car, you can only drive it if you have all the parts in place.”

The most common questions during training are usually around specific PPI indicators and how they are chosen, why they are chosen, and if they can be changed. However, the PPI is not just a compilation of random questions; each question is carefully chosen through a statistical logit regression process, based upon the national survey and the correlating strength of the questions, to determine poverty likelihood. PPI trainers use exercises like the one about the car to show how those indicators are chosen, Trainees learn that the PPI is the sum of its parts, not to be broken apart. This said, it is common practice in the PPI development process and it is absolutely vital that we obtain input from institutions working on the ground to determine if there are large concerns with any of the indicators and, if so, to consider putting in a different indicator that is statistically relevant.

These exercises go a long way. They help assure participants that this is an objective process based on real data that drives the indicator selection process: “It’s not a person, it’s the machine that does the math.”

To learn more about how the PPI is developed visit our "What is the PPI?" section! 

Preeti Wali is Communications Officer at the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center (SPMC). She is based in Washington, DC.

The PRE-training. It’s the first time we’ve tried this approach--training a group of PPI trainers and then having them immediately train a group of participants from MFIs that are committed to social performance and interested in using the PPI. Why do it this way? We’re building capacity among our partners who, in turn, will build it further. This approach allows Grameen Foundation staff to provide immediate feedback to our newly trained colleagues, providing clarifications and strengthening their understanding as needed. Sharlene and I will go back to DC at the end of this trip, and when that happens, who’s on the ground to be able to answer questions? Who can talk to and train other institutions interested in understanding how to use a poverty assessment tool like the PPI? Our PUCA partners can.

Catholic Relief Services, Oikocredit, Terrafina Microfinance, and Planet Rating are on the ground in Mali and Senegal. They are committed. They are willing to learn and willing to teach. This collaboration is just that, a joint venture where we work hand-in-hand to ensure that anyone who wants to use the PPI is able to do so with a support network of trainers in place.

Our group of six trainers in Bamako, Mali:
Sharlene Brown, lead facilitator
Boubacar Diallo – Mision II Afrique, lead facilitators
Bart de Bruyne – Terrafina, trainer
 Sadio Diallo – APIM, trainer
Ibrahim Mare – Terrafina, trainer
Oumar Tangara – Oikocredit, trainer

 (Left to Right, B. Diallo, I. Mare, S. Brown, B.  de Bruyne, S. Diallo, O. Tangara)

 Preeti Wali is Communications Officer at the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center (SPMC). She is based in Washington, DC.

Teranga is a traditional Senegalese term meaning hospitality. Our wonderful colleague Babacar Sambe’s family did not hold back in showering us with all the teranga possible, taking us around, feeding us, and always having tea ready for those long days. Teranga gives the “T” in TLC new meaning . For me, teranga resonates with the cultures of so many developing countries--when a guest is present, the host will prepare atleast one extra serving than is necessary for meals. When you first hear this, you think, Isn’t that a waste of food in a region that suffers from famine and prevalent poverty? When we asked Babacar this question he said, “Nothing goes to waste; if it isn’t eaten here, we give it to a poor family nearby. That is the way.” I’ve just arrived but I already feel at home and, I’ll add, very full. The majority of these countries’ populations may be poor in income but there is no dearth in generosity and hospitality.

Tomorrow we’ll be leaving for Bamako to begin the pre-training and prep for our PPI training and Executive Day with our PUCA partners in Mali. More to come!

Preeti Wali is Communications Officer at the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center (SPMC). She is based in Washington, DC.

Today I arrived in Dakar to join Sharlene Brown from our Social Performance team and Babacar Sambe, our West Africa representative. Along with our partners in the PPI Users Collaborative for Africa (PUCA), we were gathering for the second installment of PUCA PPI trainings.

PUCA is a two-year initiative designed to help African MFIs understand the poverty outreach of their portfolios and better track the numbers of clients are moving out of poverty. The initiative is currently working with three MFIs—Caurie Microfinance and U-IMCEC of Senegal and Kafo Jiginew of Mali. All three MFIs were trained between December and February, and began piloting the PPI shortly afterwards. In the next few days, we are going to train the staff of PUCA members – Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Oikocredit, Terrafina Microfinance, and Planet Rating – and a few of their MFI partners as a means of expanding local capacity and the use of the tool in both countries. Even more importantly, we will enlist the experiences of the MFIs already trained to help us do that. The plan is to do a pre-training, host an Executive Session where leaders of all the invited MFIs gather to discuss the benefits and challenges of doing SPM and using the PPI, and then host a full training. There’s a lot to prep work involved for all of this, but we we’re ready to do it!

My role here is to help capture the experience through a number of different media – Twitter, videos, and blogs! I’ll also be compiling information for a PUCA case study planned for release next year. The case study will outline the experiences and feedback of the three MFIs that have piloted the PPI in Senegal and Mali in the past year as well as the benefits and takeaways of working within a collaborative structure with other networks.

Just so we’re all on the same page, It’s important to set the stage of what poverty is like in West Africa, so here’s a little background on the countries we are working in and more on the PUCA initiative.

SENEGAL*

Population: 14,086,103 (July 2010)

2000-2007 Population living below $1.25 a day  = 33.5%

2000-2007 Population living below $2 a day = 60.3%

2000-2006  Population living below the national poverty line  = 33.4%

MALI*

Population: 13,796,354 (July 2010)

2000-2007 Population living below $1.25 a day =  51.4%

2000-2007 Population living below $2 a day = 77.1%

2000-2006 Population living below the national poverty line = 63.83%

*This information is taken from the CIA factbook and 2009 UNDP Report

To learn more about the PPI Users Collaborative in Africa (PUCA):

• - View the blog on the PUCA launch.
• - Download our PUCA Fact Sheet in English or French
• - View the PUCA Press Release in English or French
• - Learn more about Grameen Foundation's work in Sub-Saharan Africa
  
  

 Preeti Wali is Communications Officer at the Grameen Foundation Social Performance Management Center (SPMC). She is based in Washington, DC.

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world. Grameen Foundation wanted to find the best way to help microfinance institutions in the region achieve their mission of moving their clients out of poverty - and so PUCA was born.

PUCA, the PPI™ Users Collaborative in Africa, is an innovative, two-year initiative designed to help African microfinance institutions better target poor clients and track how they are moving out of poverty. The initiative, the first of its kind in Africa, is a new, multi-stakeholder group that unites five charter partners—Oikocredit, Catholic Relief Services, Terrafina Microfinance, Planet Rating and Grameen Foundation—with the national microfinance networks APIM/Mali and APSFD Senegal.

The initiative will work with three MFIs—Caurie Microfinance and U-IMCEC of Senegal and Kafo Jiginew of Mali—to implement the PPI and analyze its findings. During the course of the initiative, PUCA will promote the adoption of the PPI by other MFIs across Africa and in other countries where PUCA partners are active.

“The PUCA initiative is laying the foundation for the microfinance sector in Senegal and Mali to collect and use poverty assessment data in the most effective way,” said Norman Buckham, Grameen Foundation’s regional CEO for Africa. “It also enables us to demonstrate the importance of integrating social performance into the day-to-day operations of poverty-focused institutions in Africa and, equally important, to provide them with a blueprint for doing so.”

To Learn More:

• - Download our PUCA Fact Sheet in English or French
• - View the PUCA Press Release in English or French
• - Learn More about Grameen Foundation's work in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sharlene Brown and Jeff Toohig from the Social Performance Management Center at Grameen Foundation are currently in Senegal for a PPI training with Catholic Relief Services partners.

With the temperature in the high 80s, we trek to the homes of clients to apply the PPI in Thies, Senegal with loan officers from Caurie, a local MFI.  This is the third day of our training which has twelve participants including members of four MFIs, two independent consultants, and staff members of CRS and APSFD Senegal – the national network - who have taken the lead in organizing this training of trainers and are providing assistance with translation.

So far, all is going well and as Boubacar, our friend from CRS likes to say, “We’re on the same page in the same book.” We all understand the importance of knowing the percentage of clients being served that are below the poverty line and recognize that it is key to be able to track clients’ progress over time. The PPI is recognized as an objective poverty assessment tool that empowers poverty-focused institutions to make such evaluations.