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A DIY Approach to M&E: Four Tips to Overcome the Complexities of Monitoring and Evaluation
Most social enterprises and non-profits recognize that high-quality data and evidence can help them improve performance, attract more funding, and understand — and eventually increase — their impact. Yet as Mia Jeong and Linh Vo at IDinsight point out, these organizations often face financial constraints in creating and sustaining effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. They share some simple but effective ways to create these systems on a limited budget, by taking a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to monitoring and evaluation.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Do Formal Savings Accounts Lead to Better Results for Low-Income Users?: Lessons from Two Customer-Centric Research Studies in Africa
The Savings Learning Lab was a six-year initiative that supported learning among Mastercard Foundation’s savings-focused financial inclusion programs across Africa. Program partners Savings at the Frontier and Scale2Save employed two different research approaches to better understand the impact of formal savings accounts on the lives of low-income people. Jenny Morgan at FinEquity discusses these approaches and the insights they generated, which went beyond access and usage to reveal the nuances of clients' savings preferences and behaviors.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Understanding Consumer Satisfaction in Low-Income Markets: The Factors that Turn Customers into Brand Promoters – or Detractors
Many companies are addressing social needs by selling affordable food, hygiene and other products in developing countries. But as Rakib Hasan Rabbi and Patrick Guyer at Bopinc explain, in order to produce positive social and business impacts, these products must achieve a sufficient level of consumer satisfaction. They share results from consumer-level research in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, which reveal several key product attributes that can keep low-income consumers satisfied and motivate them to recommend products to others.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2022: Vote for Your Favorite!
It's time for NextBillion's “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest, in which we select our 12 most-read articles from the past year and invite readers to choose their favorites. We welcome you to read the articles and to vote by scrolling down to the voting app at the bottom of this announcement — or at the individual articles in the contest, which are linked in this announcement and posted on our homepage. You can vote up to one time per hour during the voting period, which will run from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3. We wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Environment, Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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The Global Development Sector Is Focused On Gender-Based Violence: Investors Should Be Too
In September, the U.N. adopted a resolution condemning all forms of sexual and gender-based violence (GBV), reflecting a growing recognition of the profound consequences of this global problem. But as Josh Dobiac at Milliman Financial Risk Management and Alana Kolundzija at Collective Impact argue, global development organizations aren't the only ones who should play a role in addressing GBV. They explore how investment decisions can impact GBV, and make the case for tackling this issue through socially responsible investing.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Bringing a Gender Lens to Technical Assistance: New Research Reveals the Benefits and Costs of Gender-Smart TA to SMEs and Investors
There’s growing momentum behind gender lens strategies in impact investing. But according to Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi at the William Davidson Institute and Lisa Willems and Ladé Araba at the AlphaMundi Foundation, investors tend to apply a gender lens to their investing and pipeline development activities – but not to technical assistance and other types of post-investment support. They share findings from a recent study from the Gender-Smart Enterprise Assistance Research Coalition (G-SEARCh) consortium, which explores the business case for gender-smart technical assistance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Designing an Impact Measurement Strategy: What’s Your North Star?
As impact investing evolves, there are a growing number of impact measurement solutions available to investors and the ecosystem at large. But as Shruti Goel at Upaya Social Ventures and Sachi Shenoy at Calidris explain, the deluge of impact measurement data, frameworks and methods can be confusing. They share some key lessons Upaya has learned in its 11 years of supporting impactful entrepreneurs, and explore how investors can develop a robust measurement strategy that helps them understand the breadth and depth of their impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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From Impact Investing to ‘Impact-First’ Investing: Seven Ways Investors Can Take a Holistic Lifecycle Approach to Impact
Impact investing is playing a growing role in addressing many complex societal problems. But as Varad Pande and Twinkle Malhan at Omidyar Network India point out, one of the critiques of the sector is that its approach to impact is not holistic – i.e., many investors' focus on impact stops after a fund's strategy has been set and its deals have been vetted. To address this issue, they propose a more holistic approach to creating impact across the lifecycle of each investment – from sourcing higher-impact deals, to supporting investees' efforts to sustain and increase their impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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