Projects

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  Design of FE Tool for Mobile and Branchless Banking Users in Nepal

  UNCDF engaged MicroSave to design a financial education tool to enhance customer awareness on mobile and branchless banking services in Nepal. The objective was to develop a generic financial education tool, which can be, adopted by the banks involved in mobile/agent banking. The project started with seeking Nepal Rastra bank and other banks opinion regarding key challenges around customer awareness and use of agent banking. A team from MicroSave conducted interviews to understand major challenges of communicating the concept and product features offered. We explored the customer journey of accessing branchless banking channels. Subsequently communication material prototypes were designed to deepen customer trust in the channel. The project outcome was a written down detailed FE tool development approach to be used by banks to design and customise FE tool as per their needs. 

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  Study on Responsible Microfinance Practices by Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in India

  SIDBI commissioned MicroSave to assess “As-is” status of the microfinance sector vis-à-vis responsible lending practices, impact of these initiatives on microfinance operations and to lay out key policy recommendations that will further strengthen responsible lending practices in the microfinance sector in India. MicroSave undertook the following activities:
   
  Phase I: MFI selection for secondary research; design of assessment and analytical framework
  
  Phase II: Secondary research and assessment of 36 sample MFIs as per assessment framework; secondary research on responsible finance international best practices
  
  Phase III: Primary research with 10 MFIs and key stakeholders of the sector to gather their thoughts on the impact of RF practices on the sector and their clients. Also gathered were recommendations from stakeholders and MFIs on the way forward for the sector in implementing RF practices.
  
  Phase IV: Policy workshop (to be conducted) with key stakeholders to refine the recommendations to improve responsible lending practices in Indian microfinance and develop an action plan.

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  Client Orientation and Protection Training for MFIs in Ghana

  “Responsible Finance, Banking Supervision, Financial Literacy and Consumer Protection” (Responsible Finance Project) is a component of GIZ’s programme with the specific objective of ensuring that “micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, economically active low-income households and students have a better understanding of loan and savings product as well as enjoy better client service and consumer protection in the banking sector”.
  
  MicroSave was contracted by the Responsible Finance Project to refine client orientation and protection training materials and deliver training to field and frontline staff and senior managers and board member of 38 MFIs. The training comprised modules on customer service, consumer protection, financial education and product marketing. 

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  Alternative Financial Education, India

  The Alternative Financial Education (AFE) programme was designed by MicroSave, for CASHPOR Micro Credit (CMC) – a leading MFI in north India. Based on product led financial education approach, the programme aimed to enhance knowledge, skills, and attitude of participants on product available to them; and increase objectives of the financial capabilities project were to: the uptake and usage of CMC’s savings and pension products and services.

  • MicroSave assisted CMC in development of the Alternate Financial Education (AFE) pilot started with a simple goal of enabling CMC clients to choose the right financial products and services appropriate to their needs.   This goal helped to direct the main objectives and subsequent development of the AFE approach.
  • MicroSave trained the CMC staffs towards using the AFE approach and tools to encourage existing CMC clients to learn about new products and services in order to feel capable to make financial decisions appropriate to their needs.
  • MicroSave designed AFE approach consisted of creative and simple tools and methods that both CMC staff and clients could be excited about. The AFE tools and methods were crafted using the SWITCH Behaviour Change Framework. The AFE approach also helped in directing clients’ queries around the products’ utility and process as well as how to access and use them.
  • The critical benefit derived by CMC through this AFE approach designed by MicroSavewas that it helped to advance the financial capabilities of the rural women that were part of the project. It was also an excellent marketing platform that ultimately helped to increase uptake and usage of both savings and pension products. The AFE approach made it easier for centre managers to discuss key savings and pension products with their clients, and in the end, this led to a direct increase in product uptake and usage. The programme also resulted in increased product uptake and usage of CMC products.

  
  To know more about the project and outcome assessment, please check this link.

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  Social Performance Management Implementation Project, Asia

  Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) has contracted MicroSave for the purposes of driving adoption of social performance reporting standards in the microfinance sector, and integrating these reporting metrics in the decision making and management of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The project was implemented in two phases:
   
  Phase I – SPM Foundation- The team assessed the performance on social and client protection parameters for 7 partner MFIs by using industry standards. Partners were supported to use and test tools such as MicroSave SPM toolkit including its proprietary staff satisfaction survey, CERISE SPI^TM social audit tool, Progress out of Poverty Index^TM (PPI) tool. Support was provided to conduct quantitative client survey (with around 2000 clients in each organisation) and analyse the data to help organisations take decisions.
  
  Phase II – SPM Institutionalisation- The team supported a sub-set of 5 organisations to institutionalise social performance management, helping them develop social indicators, institutionalise the data collection, track and report social data for effective decision making. Extensive support was provided to the MIS/IT teams to incorporate new data fields and do backend calculations for the social data, especially the poverty scores using the Progress out of Poverty Index^TM tool. Field staff and senior management were trained on data collection and data analysis and interpretation respectively.

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  Social Performance Management Strategy Implementation, Africa

  Opportunity International (OI) has contracted MicroSave to work with seven out of their ten partners in Africa to implement OI’s SPM strategy.  Over two years the team will:

  • Advice and support to implement Opportunity’s SPM strategy including review of OI dashboard, evaluation of proposed indicators, critique of OI’s suggested input template sheet and its appropriateness in local context.
  • Assist partners in developing a plan to adopt SPM best practices as captured in the ‘social performance dashboard’ that draws heavily from the Universal Standards for Social Performance Management (USSPM).
  • Build capacity of the partners to enable them to collect, analyse, report and use social data in decision making, and report results to external stakeholders.
  • At a minimal scale, provide support to partners who are not officially participating in the programme but are working towards best practice in SPM.

  
  Document and report the learnings of the project – both the challenges / problems and provide recommendations on the way forward.