Learning From Clients: Assessment Tools for Microfinance Practitioners

The manual was developed by the SEEP Network as part of the PVO (private voluntary organisation) and NGO (nongovernmental organisation) component of the larger AIMS (Assessing the Impact of Microenterprise Services) project funded by USAID. It was developed by and for practitioners and, as such, responds to the particular needs and challenges they face in determining how their programmes and services are affecting clients.

This manual offers several critical advances in the practice of mid-range impact assessment:

• Detailed guidance-written by and for practitioners-for planning and implementing impact assessments and for analysing all data generated;
• A coherent set of quantitative and qualitative tools that address the most common hypotheses that undergird microfinance programmes;
• Clear explanations of indicators and measures used, along with supplementary discussions of additional sets of potential interest to individual users;
• Methods that provide information on impact and client satisfaction and that result in specific feedback for programme improvement.

[Author's abstract]