Veena Yamini is a Senior Analyst at MicroSave.

The Grameen Foundation and MicroSave have joined together in Asia to implement the Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®), a social performance management (SPM) tool that enables pro-poor organizations to measure whether they are reaching and helping the poor, and better align their products and services to serve the needs of the poor. This is especially critical in the current microfinance environment, where there have been concerns that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are
more focused on profits than fighting poverty.

MicroSave is a consulting firm that helps financial service providers implement market-led approaches to serve low-income markets. It has developed an SPM methodology and toolkit that provides simple, low-cost, fast and effective ways to align systems and procedures in line with the mission of the organisation. MicroSave adopted the PPI late last year as an element in its Social Performance Management Implementation Project (SPM IP).

"Grameen Foundation is pleased to be working with a strong partner like MicroSave, and welcome them as a new service provider for the PPI. We especially look forward to collaborating at this critical time for microfinance in India, where recent events in Andhra Pradesh showed that it’s more important than ever for MFIs to demonstrate their commitment to a double-bottom-line approach to microfinance," said Steve Wright, Director of the Social Performance Management Center at Grameen Foundation. 

Recently, some of my colleagues and I had the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop to learn data analysis techniques for the Progress Out of Poverty Index® (PPI®), developed by the Grameen Foundation. At our MFI, the Banco Solidario – a regulated financial institution that operates nationwide in Ecuador – we started to use the PPI in 2009 to help monitor our social performance. Like many other MFIs, we made a commitment to poverty reduction in our mission statement. Over time, the PPI will help us to better understand the progress out of poverty amongst our clientele.

Given our experience with the PPI, the topic of the workshop piqued our interest. I had my doubts about the two day agenda at first. How could we possibly spend two days talking about data analysis? Since we had already implemented the PPI at my organization, I wasn´t sure how much was left to learn.

I couldn´t have been more mistaken. My colleagues and I all completed the workshop feeling like it was a great investment of our time. The PPI team at the Grameen Foundation has traveled around the world, observing and collecting best practices for PPI implementation. During the workshop our instructors presented a process based on their research on best practices for collecting and analyzing PPI data. We found the detailed, step-by-step explanation of each phase of the process extremely helpful...

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.

APSFD Senegal, in collaboration with Grameen Foundation, successfully completed a four‐day PPI Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for 16 participants in Nairobi, and received positive evaluations with strong “pasha moto”, as Sharlene describes in her blog above.

Because of its social performance management (SPM) promotion plan along with its interest in working as a leader of SPM in Africa, APSFD Senegal was given the opportunity to test its training services abroad for the first time, generating extra income for the association. Sharlene and I provided an overview of global SPM trends, underscoring the importance of social performance for the sector, social investors, and for individual MFIs. The training session allowed leaders of MFIs interested in social performance and the PPI to ask questions and share experiences with other invited organizations like Microfinanza and KEEF. Overall, the participants had a good experience and appreciated the level of engagement the workshop offered. This kind of partnership will be duplicated in the future in other countries.

We are now moving forward in supporting the institutions as they lay the foundation to implement PPI, and a Google Group is set up to aid sharing and provide feedback.

I was excited to test the first experience of the PPI training in English, a third language for me. I was skeptical at the beginning but felt pretty confident at the end, due to the help of my young, winning team (Sharlene and Donald Bodzo) and the nice environment in which we have been working with the participants.

Ndeye Absa Gueye is the Manager of the MISION 2 Project – Social Performance Management in Senegal. MISION is a program of Catholic Relief Services in Senegal. APSFD Senegal is dedicated to coordinating the activities of the project and promoting SPM and the PPI in Africa.

My experiences for the past two days in Nairobi, Kenya have been eye-opening and hilarious, in many ways! After day two of an intensive training on the Progress out of Poverty Index™ (PPI™), I now better understand the PPI. This became clear during lunch time when I found myself comprehensively responding to questions about the PPI creation process, which l probably wouldn’t have done proficiently had it not been for my participation in the morning training sessions!

One of the foremost fascinating highlights has been how people misinterpret the PPI, therefore shunning it without a trial. The PPI is a 10-question poverty assessment tool that helps poverty-focused organizations to understand the poverty distribution of their clients and target clients, track poverty over time, and to adjust products and services to best serve their clients in moving out of poverty. However, I have observed that the blending of lectures, activities, and exercises is helping demystify this misinterpretation, allowing participants to understand the purpose of the tool, its construction, and how it is applied in practice.

As an Atlas Corps Fellow from Zimbabwe, currently with Grameen Foundation’s Social Performance Management Center, this trip has personally been a highly rewarding professional development experience, especially after being given a chance to facilitate a lecture, and lead a discussion. More so, it just feels great to be closer to home after about six months of being thousands of miles away.

I feel there is still so much work to be done in this quest to alleviate poverty, and after this experience I am more determined to help in the fight. This workshop has certainly broken new ground in Africa, not only here but in the ‘global village’!

 Donald Bodzo is a Atlas Corps Fellow from Zimbabwe. He is currently working with the Grameen Foundation and the Global Peace Service Alliance in Washington, DC.  

In June, three PUCA (PPI Users Collaborative in Africa) members– national association APSFD Senegal, along with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Grameen Foundation – excited about the success of the dual country training events in Mali and Senegal, began to discuss the possibility of a unique opportunity for APSFD Senegal. The association is the flagship partner of CRS’ Mision II Afrique social performance management initiative and has primarily focused its attention on educating and supporting its in-country members interested in better understanding and managing their social performance. We jointly explored the feasibility of APSFD Senegal offering a PPI training of trainers outside of its borders using a retail pricing model where each participant paid a registration fee. This would be the first time that such an offering would be made in Africa, and we’ve learned that it is the first time in the world that a national association has hosted a training on the PPI using this retail pricing approach outside of its borders. Elsewhere in the world, national associations have sometimes been asked to consult for specific organizations and train on the PPI, but the initiative and pricing approach taken by APSFD Senegal in this case is unique.

In its inaugural PPI training outside of Senegal that began today, APSFD Senegal will train 9 institutions and 16 participants from Uganda and Kenya. Absa Gueye, APSFD’s social performance manager and the lead trainer for this Training of Trainers (ToT) is joined by me and GF Fellow Donald Bodzo to observe and support this first-of-its-kind event. Attendees include staff members of AMFI Kenya, a national SPM association, several Kenyan MFIs, Microfinanza, international NGOs Catholic Relief Services, Stromme Foundation and Oikocredit, and staff from a software company and microfinance consulting firm. This retail pricing approach has brought together an interesting mix of individuals seeking to learn more about the PPI for different purposes and should lead to an engaging learning exchange.

I am personally excited about this event and the foundation we are laying for other national associations that are interested in including social performance trainings into their business models as a source of revenue generation. After the training, our hope is to document the learnings from our journey in making this experience a reality.

More to come on our experience over the next few days! Karibu Kenya!

***

The CRS Mision Africa is an initiative that provides intensive support for training, technical assistance and mentoring for a three-year period to build the capacity of national associations and AFMIN (African Microfinance Network), an association of microfinance networks in Africa.

PUCA is an innovative, two-year initiative designed to help African microfinance institutions effectively use the PPI. The initiative, the first of its kind in Africa, 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.

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.

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.