Project MISION II: Helping Latin American and African MFIs Build up their Social Performance Management Systems

Posted by: Jack Burga, Director, Project MISION II, Catholic Relief Services 

(To read the original article in Spanish, click here.)

Established at the end of 2007, Project MISION is the result of an alliance between Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and two national networks, COPEME in Peru and ASOMIF in Nicaragua, with the support of the Ford Foundation. Its goal is to support microfinance institutions (MFIs) to build up their social performance management (SPM) systems, to be best positioned to reach the extremely poor, very poor, and other clients excluded from financial services.

In the first phase of the project, new tools were created and adapted to support a total of 8 MFIs. The project was piloted with different types of institutions – regulated as well as non-regulated— in rural, periurban, and urban areas. In two years time, the project successfully proved that it is possible to create SPM systems for MFIs without compromising their financial performance. On the contrary, improving their SPM systems helped the MFIs achieve a better definition of their target market and products and to therefore reach more effective and efficient financial results.

By May of this year, Project MISION was working with 42 institutions in 12 Latin American countries as well as Senegal in West Africa, enlarging its reach with support from the MasterCard Foundation. Looking forward, the project, which now holds new agreements with national networks and the support of REDCAMIF in Central America, aims to reach 103 MFIs.

Project MISION transfers capabilities and competences to the microfinance networks, enabling them to better reach their partners through training and technical assistance processes. It supports the exchange of experiences, systematization of best practices, adoption of useful tools to improve SPM, reporting to MIX Market, and showcasing of network leaders in international events related to social performance.

Project MISION also proves that South-South transfers are possible, as Latin American consultants are transferring knowledge to Senegal, thus creating a system of support and exchange between Latin America and Africa.

Finally, Project MISION and its partner networks have created a set of alliances and agreements with different cooperation entities and social funders. Through them, MFIs deciding to implement SPM systems can benefit from this positive environment.