Terms of Reference of Poverty Outreach and Impact Assessment in Mozambique
This document is a detailed outline of an impact assessment to be conducted by the Dutch Microfinance Platform on a Tchuma, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Mozambique, with the primary purpose of getting reliable information that can be used to judge the impact of microfinance as a poverty reduction tool.
The document also outlines the internal objective of support to strategic planning and including different category of clients.
The paper discusses that the focus of the study being processes, the approach focused on the practitioner, opportunity costs of the clients and MFIs, and confidentiality of information collected.
The methodology outlined the following in detail:
- Level of impact assessed at the client level;
- Method of analysis of existing data with attention to segmenting the client's portfolio, possible impacts, dropout rates;
- Qualitative research to arrive at a cause and effect relationship of factors affecting business growth and household economy;
- Institutionalization and poverty assessment.
The document outlines the phases of the study as:
- Pre-assessment preparation;
- Loan assessment through analysis of data that the MFI collected;
- Quantitative client survey to assess poverty outreach;
- Qualitative impact research;
- Institutionalization of the processes to make it more relevant for MFI strategic planning.
The paper outlines the phases of the assessment defined on the basis of the objectives of the phase, key assumptions, activities/inputs to be carried out in each phase, and their expected results and points of discussions.
