Entries tagged with social performance

By Lindsey Alexander

In late March, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) hosted an event in Washington DC to explore the challenges and opportunities surrounding measurement of social performance indicators. This event was in response to the recent release of WBCSD’s publication Measuring Socio-economic Impact, which provides practical information on social indicator measurement tools, including their application. The event attracted professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds, including public health, consumer products, and financial services. All attendees shared the same question: How do I know if my organization is improving the human condition?

In the recent New York Times article, "How Companies Learn your Secrets," Charles Duhigg discusses how companies can use demographics and data on personal consumption behavior to manipulate shopping habits and attract new customers. Target, for example, can predict if a customer is pregnant, what trimester she is in, and, with this information, target baby-related advertisements to her.

This blog is also available in Spanish below the English copy.

For three years, PRISMA Microfinance has been using the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) to help us reach and serve our poorest clients: rural women.

We began to implement the PPI as a pilot in 2008 in two of our branches, and thanks to that good experience, in 2009 we expanded its use to all of our offices. Our goal was to reach the poorest people, and to monitor if and how their poverty levels changed. To do this, in 2010 we surveyed a sample of customers who were new in 2009, and found that--in one year--2.6 percent of these clients had moved above the national poverty line.

The use of PPI has allowed us to focus our efforts on reaching our target clients (the poor and vulnerable), and explore strategies to improve our services and deepen our efforts to reduce poverty. For us, as a microfinance organization with a social heart, the implementation of the PPI confirms that as a tool it is standardized, valid, comprehensive and flexible.

Lift Above Poverty Association (LAPO), Microfinance Bank Limited in Nigeria—the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in the country—ended 2010 with a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on the use of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI).