Bruce Meraviglia , Technology & Marketing Editor [ Microfinance Focus ]

The theme for this month’s issue is Social Performance Management (SPM), as highlighted in several of our articles.  In our first Marketing Reflections column (February 2009), I mentioned that one of the primary roles of the marketing department was the creation of a brand image for its organization; in our context, the MFI it is a part of.  A key to the creation of any brand, especially one that you would like to have enduring value, is the sense of being able to trust the company the brand represents. Continue reading →

Bruce Meraviglia , Technology & Marketing Editor [ Microfinance Focus ]

The answer to the questions above is “Yes!”  Since the beginning of mankind’s invention of new technologies, and new ways of using those technologies, the debate as to whether social policy should guide (or constrain) the development of technology, or whether technology should be created independently of social policy, with the outcome then informing those who create social policy as to what is possible, has raged back and forth.  With the movement to create a Social Performance Management (SPM) standard gaining momentum, the issue of technology once again comes into play. Continue reading →

Vikash Kumar |Editor-in-Chief | Microfinance Focus

Most MFIs might not have consciously evolved SPM as their key objective to measure their performance but none of them could evade their responsibility to do good to the society as their sole objective is to fund the poor who are denied access to fund from other financial institutions and that itself leads to transformation of the society by empowering poor people to earn their livelihood by pursuing some business. or farming.

However it is true most of the MFIs in their vision statements emphatically brought out that they primarily aim to alleviate poverty and empower poor people to become self dependent, “sustainability” mantra, by an emphatic group of stakeholders, or such as” increasing efficiency” or “providing a good return to private equity investors of-late, with all positive connotations that it is good for MFIs , however it caused a stiff challenge and apprehension to strike the balance between two bottom-lines. Continue reading →

Jerome Peloquin | Managing Editor-US | Microfinance Focus

Let’s stop providing grants, subsidies, and regulatory relief to those MFI’s who have abandoned or fails to live up to their social mission agenda.

The need for “Social Performance Management,” is a clear indicator of substantial mission drift within the Microfinance sector. Presently, Microfinance is engaged in an ongoing debate over the morality and ethics of the micro credit movement. Our magazine believes there is a pressing need to establish a shared understanding, of the vision, role, and function of global microfinance. We also believe the time for studying the problem is long past. It is time for ACTION! Continue reading →