Meeting the Double Bottom Line: A Conceptual ...

Meeting the Double Bottom Line: A Conceptual Framework for Social Performance in Microfinance

Author Name : Susmitha G, Dr. Remya Ramachandran

ABSTRACT Poverty and Financial exclusion are the greatest challenges faced by emerging economies worldwide. Many countries including India had experimented with subsidized credit to eradicate poverty which often resulted in increasing the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of financial institutions. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) were originally formed for filling the gap between the financially excluded and the formal finance sources. MFIs are committed to achieve the Double bottom line of Social and Financial performance. Now the research interest in Social Performance Management (SPM) has increased due to the allegations of Mission Drift in Microfinance which states that commercial considerations have taken over many of these institutions gradually and that their outreach to the poorest people has declined. The Social Performance Task Force(SPTF) has developed a set of six Universal Standards of Social Performance Management(USSPM) which covers dimensions of Social Performance Management comprehensively through a large number of indicators. Many researchers have observed the fact that recently there seems to be an increase in the indicators of Social Performance which makes it difficult for small MFIs to assimilate & report on all the measures. The study aims to develop a conceptual framework for the analysis social performance in MFIs based primarily on the USSPM, focusing on single measures rather than composite indices.