III.5- Social performance
Struggling against poverty is the mission of microfinance. The
analysis of the outcomes
of this mission enables to evaluate the social performances of
MFIs according to two complementary steps: An evaluation based on the
institution according to its outreach and an evaluation based on its customers
according to impact assessment.
III.5.1- Outreach
MFIs make efforts in order to serve those who are constantly
excluded from official
financial systems: Their operation rests on the social bonds
and the proximity with the recipients while moving into the rural zones, by
contacting them and in their offering training sessions. They are based on
group work and meet the needs of the populations by supplying small amount
loans and regular refunding. The goal, which aims at extending microfinance
services to the populations that are not served by official financial
institutions, defines outreach (Lafourcade et al., 2005). However, MFIs must
determine which group-target they must satisfy.
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Analysis of microfinances' performance and
development of informal institutions in Cameroon
By Djamaman Brice Gaétan
Poverty, by its multidimensional nature, covers various
aspects of the households? economic and social status. To capture these
dimensions requires at the same time quantitative and qualitative indicators.
Poverty is quantitatively defined as being a given daily (or yearly) income,
for people without provision of a stock. It is also qualitative as it takes
into account their living conditions (Lelart, 2006). It can integrate data such
as the needs for food and clothing, housing availability, level of educational,
health care, women empowerment, level of integration within the social
background, etc. In this respect, extending accessibility to financial services
for these poor seems the major goal of MFIs: Thus it raises the question if
they do manage to reach the poorest (Van Bastelaer and Zeller, 2006).
Some indicators, used as proxies, enable the measurement of
outreach: The extent or scale of outreach corresponds to the numbers of
customers, total outstanding portfolio and volumes of services such as total
savings in deposit (Lafourcade et al., 2005); the depth of outreach corresponds
to the social and economic characteristics of the customers served by MFIs,
i.e. the level of poverty of these customers as regards very low income and
rural populations, women and/or unemployed. Schreiner (2002) worked out
outreach indicators according to six dimensions, each one of which can also
correspond to a component of social value: Worth of outreach measures the
wealth of customers, cost of outreach measures transaction costs, scope of
outreach measures the number of customers that are served, length of outreach
measures the time delivery for requested services, depth of outreach measures
the accuracy of targeting and breadth of outreach measures the number of
services that are provided.
Studies of outreach devoted to the analysis of the
characteristics of MFIs customers show that some institutions tend to be
exclusive and are not accessible to all categories of population. Although
customers are not necessarily among poorest (Lelart, 2006), according to their
characteristics they belong to poor or vulnerable population such as
individuals practicing survival productive activities, who do not access the
banks and who are mainly female customers (Soulama, 2005). This latter
characteristic is particularly significant in several programs such as Bancosol
in Bolivia (74% women), BRAC (75%) and Grameen Bank (95%) in Bangladesh, as
well as in East and Central Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Cameroon, etc.). Outreach
varies according to the type of MFIs and across areas (Lafourcade et al.,
2005), but the coverage rate of poor remains weak.
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Analysis of microfinances' performance and
development of informal institutions in Cameroon
By Djamaman Brice Gaétan
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