Opening up the Impact Assessment Agenda

The paper examines the changing role of impact assessment (IA) in microfinance, looking at:

• The options and choices for undertaking impact assessment;
• How impact information can be used as a managment tool and not just for proving the positive effects of microfinance programs;
• Product innovation within the microfinance industry, the overlap between impact and market research data and whether impact assessment can be used for market research.

The author finds that there has been a movement towards developing middle range/lower cost approaches to impact assessment under pressure from both donors and practitioners. Specifically she finds that:

• Purpose and resources must guide the choice of IA;
• Assessment tools such as those from CASHPOR, AIMS and others are proving useful not only for accountability but also for the generation of information useful to MFI management;
• While there is considerable overlap in impact assessment and market research, it is not complete and additional data needed for market research will have to be generated in other ways - particularly through the use of participatory tools.

The author concludes that useful information is being generated on clients, drop outs, and non-clients and their behaviors. At the same time a set of tools is emerging that can contribute to the needs of MFIs in the area of market research.

[Adapted from the author's abstract]