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Code: ASS – 009 Author: Elaine L.Edgcomb and Carter Garber Quantity: 1 Type: copy Status: 1/1
Introduction
Can NGO practitioners conduct credible, useful, and low-cost impact assessments of their microenterprise programs? What type of simple tools and process could support such an undertaking? What type of staffing is required; what type of training; and what does it require in terms of budget and infrastructural support? These are the critical questions that the Agency for International Development’s AIMS project (Assessing the Impact of Microenterprise Services) has set out to answer in its PVO/NGO component. Designed to respond to the growing interest on the part of these practitioners in evaluating the social and economic impact of their microenterprise programs on clients, their businesses and households, program activities have developed in several stages and been led by the SEEP Network, one of four institutions in the AIMS consortium. These activities have included:
– A collaborative planning process with representatives of the PVO community engaged in impact assessment work, and participating in the SEEP Network’s Evaluation Working Group.
– The design of a set of assessment tools by a team of PVO practitioners aimed at providing quantitative and quantitative data to address a core set of impact hypotheses, to provide information for program improvement, and to collect critical program and contextual background; and
– The testing of these tools with an NGO microfinance program in Honduras.
