Grameen Foundation has long recognized the critical role of social performance in achieving its fundamental mission: maximizing outreach to and impact on the poor and poorest. In fact, social performance is at the heart of Grameen Foundation’s work; it stands for what Grameen Foundation is and what it wants to achieve.

To carry out its mission, Grameen Foundation also recognized the need for a practical, accurate and transparent tool to measure social performance in the same way that financial tools measure operations. The Grameen Foundation sought an innovative way to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) measure a “double bottom line”—both social and financial—in assessing the results of microfinance programs, and in using those results to better manage these programs.

The Grameen Bank had already established its 10-Point System, a set of easily observable indicators that, if achieved, suggest a family has moved out of poverty. Prizma Microfinance had also developed a poverty scorecard. Based on this, Grameen Foundation, in partnership with the Consultative Group for the Alleviation of Poverty (CGAP), commissioned the development of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI™).

Grameen Foundation: A Vision for Social Performance Management