Social Performance Progress Brief (Volume 1, Number 3)

This brief focuses on the progress made in the area of social performance assessment (SPA). The note provides information about:

• Social performance assessment (SPA) the process by which an organization measures its social performance relative to its social mission and objectives, as well as those of key stakeholders;
• The "social-impact causal chain a model that explains the creation of impact;
• The tools and the processes involved in SPA;
• The conceptual framework and progress of the following three assessment tools that look at a microfinance institution's (MFI's) internal processes:
  • CERISE's Social Performance Indicators Initiative (SPI) that defines social performance in microfinance and develops a set of indicators for MFIs' that have broad social relevance;
  • The Social Performance Assessment (SPA) tool developed by Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project for the United States Agency for Social Development (USAID). This tool combines a set of social performance indicators and a social audit to evaluate the social performance of MFIs;
  • ACCION's diagnostic tool - SOCIAL (social mission, outreach, client service, information transparency, and consumer protection, association with the community, labor climate), that evaluates the success of an MFI in fulfilling its social mission and its contribution to broadly accepted social goals;

The brief also includes:

• An interview with Reynaldo Marconi, President of "FINRURAL" in Bolivia;
• Information about assessment tools that look at outcomes as well as those that look at impact.