Social Performance Mainstreaming

The CERISE Social Performance Indicators (SPI) tool assesses the social performance of institutions by evaluating their intentions and actions. An analysis of internal systems and organizational processes determines whether institutions have the means in place to attain their social objectives. It uses a questionnaire (version 3.1) complemented with an operational guide, that can be self-administered by the MFI or used with an external reviewer. You can find both documents in English, French and Spanish in the list of key publications at the end of this page, just scroll down. Visit the website for more information.​​

The Social Performance Task Force consists of over 350 leaders from all over the world from every microfinance stakeholder group: practitioners, donors and investors (multilateral, bilateral, and private), national and regional networks, technical assistance providers, rating agencies, academics and researchers, and others. Created in March 2005, the Task Force has been charged with clearly defining social performance and addressing questions about measuring and managing social performance. Find more on its website.

SDC, together with Liechtenstein Development Service, CGAP and The Ford Foundation has co-hosted SPTF's annual conference in Berne from 28 June to 2 July 2010. Find the meeting minutes and the powerpoint presentations here.

Since June 2014 SDC is represented on the board of STPF.

The Rating Initiative was launched in September 2008 and it is administated by ADA in Luxembourg. The Initiative collaborates with the Social Performance Task Force in all aspects concerning social ratings. The Rating Initiative aims at promoting and contributing to the establishment of a financially viable, sustainable and healthy global microfinance rating market both from the demand and supply side in underserved regions for financial ratings and in all regions for social ratings. The Rating Initiative also works at developing a standard rating product that combines financial and social performance.

Visit the website for more information or FSD links.

The Smart Campaign seeks to unite microfinance providers worldwide to develop and implement standards for the appropriate treatment of low-income clients based on six principles. The overall objective of the Campaign is for these principles to become embedded within the fabric of the microfinance community and for microfinance to be recognized as a strongly pro-consumer industry. The six principles of the client protection campaign are:

1. Avoidance of over-indebtedness
2. Transparent pricing
3. Appropriate collections practices
4. Ethical staff behavior 
5. Mechanisms for redress of grievances
6. Privacy of client data

SDC represents bilateral donors in the Camaign's Steering Committee since its launch in March 2009. For more information, please visit the website of the Smart campaign. There you will also find an extensive list of all the campaign endorsers including most of our Swiss partners.