Does the addition of social objectives to microfinance enhance program impact?

Principal Researchers: Prof. Santosh Anagol (Wharton), Prof. Anandi Mani (The University of Warwick)
Partner Organization: Sonata Finance Private Limited

As the strength and reach of the microfinance sector grows, pressure mounts on microfinance providers to become sustainable and scale up deliverables. Many providers refrain from offering non-financial services, maintaining that these services are outside their area of expertise, and too costly. Others integrate social services with financial offerings, yet have no quantifiable gauge of impact. In collaboration with an MFI working in Uttar Pradesh, CMF aims to determine if incorporating social services with financial services increases the impact of microfinance. As the MFI expands its operations into a new region, the randomized design assigns treatment and control villages. Through separation of microfinance and “microfinance plus” villages for two loan cycles, CMF will distinguish progress through indicators of social well-being as well as income. More than measuring impact, the central aim of this study is the development of a sustainable, comprehensive intervention in close collaboration with domestic and international experts/practitioners. The intervention will be designed to synthesize best-practice knowledge, field-level challenges, and local context. The results of the evaluation will be disseminated to NGOs and MFIs seeking to add social programs to their catalogue of microfinance services, or to those seeking to improve on existing programs.

CMF Research Associate: Akhand Tiwari, Anand Shukla

See some related CMF documents:
# Project description document [pdf, 27KB]