From Aga Khan Development Network -
Second Consecutive Social Performance Reporting Award
The First MicroFinanceBank Ltd. Pakistan (FMFB-P), an institution of the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance, was awarded a certificate of recognition in the silver category for reporting on social indicators to the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) by the World Bank affiliate, CGAP (Consultative Group for Assisting the Poor), in the year 2010. This is the second consecutive Social Performance Reporting Award won by FMFB-P. The award was initially launched in 2009 by CGAP together with its partners the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF).
The award is designed to promote greater transparency in social performance reporting of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and recognises the efforts of MFIs in establishing a strong social performance outlook within their organisation.
Around 350 MFIs submitted reports on their social performance to the MIX this year for the Awards, easily surpassing the 200 that were received in 2009. “This is a tremendous response to the call for greater transparency,” said Xavier Reille, Lead Microfinance Specialist at CGAP. “We have seen nearly a doubling in the number of applications to the Awards in a single year, and it shows the sincerity of MFIs in their mission of providing financial services to the poorest people, as well as to their own financial bottom lines.”
“FMFB has been working over the last two years to establish its own unique set of poverty-measurement indicators and to mainstream its efforts to measure poverty levels of clients throughout the country,” said Hussain Tejany, President / CEO of FMFB. He added that FMFB-P had been reporting on a set of social performance monitoring indicators that had been developed through the Social Performance Task Force in cooperation with the industry leaders. Important indicators included the degree to which MFIs were measuring the poverty level of their clients and the poverty-measurement tools being used.
The Social Performance Reporting Awards provide a yardstick for those wanting to assess an MFI’s commitment to showing progress in helping their clients, supporting their staff, and protecting the environment. MFIs across the world are showing a strong commitment to transparency and accountability in their efforts to reduce poverty, with a growing number reporting on the social benefits of their activities to their investors and to the public.