Improving Social Performance

MAY 2011 - In the first quarter of 2011, Triple Jump Advisory Services launched two Social Performance Management (SPM) projects, one in Tajikistan and one in Togo.

Though geographically far apart, the two institutions involved – Arvand and WAGES, respectively – have something in common: having reached financial sustainability and institutional maturity, both want to ensure that they are staying true to their original mission to provide financial services to poor and underserved populations.

In order to ensure that social performance management is as fully integrated into strategy and operations as financial management, both projects are focusing in this first phase on an in-depth diagnostic covering mission and strategy, client relations, human resources policies, environmental policies and management. The diagnostic and recommandations by the SPM experts, and more importantly, the discussions that ensue with the management of each institution then lead the institutions to develop a concrete action plan to address improvements in each area of social performance.

Although the diagnostic reports are not yet finalised, preliminary feedback from both the SPM experts and MFI staff indicate that the diagnostic mission also served to train staff on what social performance is – the term seems abstract, the difference between various SPM tools confusing , and it is often only in discussions that focus on concrete aspects of their jobs that staff and management understand that social performance permeates what they already do.

Once the action plan is agreed upon, then the Triple Jump Advisory Services project works with the institution to come up with a set of indicators that can be used to track social perforrmance, much like management (and other stakeholders) use financial ratios to track financial results. In Tajikistan, Triple Jump Advisory Services is also helping Arvand with its MIS so the SPM consultant will be able to work with the MIS consultant to see how the indicators can be integrated into Arvand’s MIS. In Togo, WAGES and Triple Jump Advisory Services are working on developing and testing a PAT questionnaire which the MFI will then integrate into its operations with clients, thus being able to assess their relative poverty and track it over time.