Guidance notes

These Guidance Notes are designed to help training and support organisations apply a "social lens" to their capacity building approach.

Recognising that the ongoing support to MFIs from funders and support organisations is critical to ensuring a balanced approach to performance management, this series aims to help them integrate the missing "social lens" into existing MFI training materials.

This series of Guidance Notes emerges from a collaboration between the Imp-Act Consortium and key industry technical experts. Each notes provides targeted guidance on critical issues, as well as details on further resources available. Download and share the entire series:

Project framework

This overview note provides an insight into the background and context of the Integrating SPM into Mainstream Capacity Building initiative, led by the Imp-Act Consortium. Sets out the range of strategic issues addressed through the series, as well as the achieved result when an SPM lens is applied. (French) (Spanish)

Governance

Effective governance is increasingly seen as a key ingredient to success – whether for private companies, non-government organisations (NGOs) or microfinance institutions (MFIs). This briefing focuses on the role of the board of directors in ensuring effective governance. (French) (Spanish)

Internal control

This briefing emphasises the importance of integrating social performance into internal controls and audit. It offers guidance on how MFIs can systematically check compliance with their social mission into: client protection, quality of service provided to clients, and monitoring impact on clients’ lives. (French) (Spanish)

Risk management

This briefing provides a quick overview of the main non-financial and operational risks typically overlooked by MFIs. It discusses the key institutional questions, and the importance of analysing existing practices to assess how the MFI may overlook some of these risks. It also presents emerging practices that MFIs are finding useful to help them integrate social performance into their risk management activities. (French) (Spanish)

Staff incentives

This briefing frames the key questions to consider when reviewing an MFI‘s staff incentive system. It then identifies some emerging practices that MFIs are finding helpful in ensuring that the staff incentive systems appropriately balance their social and financial performance objectives. (French) (Spanish)

Strategic planning

This briefing offers guidance on how to ensure that social performance is included in strategic planning processes, as well as how to address key challenges. It is intended as a resource for MFI managers to support them through the strategic planning process, as well as for consultants who are facilitating the process. A list of resources addressing specific areas of SPM is provided. (French) (Spanish)