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Thinking About the Performance and Sustainability of Microfinance Organisations
Schreiner, M.
Publication Date: 11 Aug 1996
Published by: Microfinance.com
Document Type: Paper
A guide to defining and measuring performance and sustainability
This framework is a guide to analysis. It suggests questions, highlights the links among questions, and proposes ways to answer the questions
The goal is to improve social welfare by measuring performance better. The performance of MFOs bestows benefits and inflicts costs on five groups:- customers
- society
- donors
- managers
- investors
Each group has its own goals, so each group asks its own questions about performance. No single measure informs all the questions, nor does any single measure give all the useful information for any single question
This document gives measures that inform the questions drawn from the goals of each group. The framework is based on the traditional framework in the field, the Subsidy Dependence Index. It defines:- sustainability as repeating performance in the future. Such permanency requires a flexible organisation and a structure of incentives to maintain performance in spite of changes in the environment Judging measures as they stretch into the future is qualitative. No quantitative measure is sufficient for self- sustainability
- performance as progress in reaching the mission of microfinance. The mission is to make the lives of poor people better by producing outreach, loans and deposits used by the poor. Measuring performance sparks better performance and casts light on bad performance. It is worthwhile if the benefits of better performance are more than the costs of measurement
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