Jun-09: Harley Reed completes SROI assessment on microfinance initiatives

Harley Reed conducted a study to attempt to measure the social impact of microfinance loans on the beneficiaries using Social Return on Investment (“SROI”) frameworks.

The SROI process uses stakeholder engagement for developing a “theory of change”, and the monetisation (attaching financial values or proxies to) of outcomes derived from the loans, in order to arrive at an SROI ratio. This allows microfinance institutions to recognise how and where this value is being created, and to demonstrate this to their funders and donors in financial, rather than just anecdotal, terms.