Practitioner-led impact assessment : a test in Mali

The five tools are: (1) an impact survey to collect information to test AIMS project hypotheses; (2) a client exit survey to determine why clients left the program and whether motivating factors were related to the program or not; (3) in-depth individual interviews about loan use over time; (4) in-depth individual interviews about empowerment; and (5) client satisfaction group discussions about the program and their suggestions for improvements. This document reports the process and outcomes of a second field test of these tools, carried out with the Credit with Education program area of Kafo Jiginew, a Malian credit union federation, in March 1998. Section I presents the underlying assumptions of the AIMS project and lays out the specifics of the test in Mali. Section II provides background on the practitioner organization that served as the test site. Sections III and IV lay out the logistics of the test, the assessment design, and sampling methodology used. Section V examines loan and enterprise profit use and their link to the types of impact that can be expected. Impact findings related to the AIMS hypotheses, client exit, and client satisfaction are found in the next three sections (VI- VIII). Section IX highlights the institutional implications of the assessment findings. The final section, X, highlights lessons learned and examines the feasibility of practitioners conducting similar assessments. Perhaps the most encouraging of these lessons is that, for relatively modest costs, practitioners can both better document and learn from the impacts their microenterprise programs are having on clients and client households without employing the longitudinal methods and more advanced statistical analysis techniques that for many practitioners are neither feasible nor even desirable. The AIMS project provides practical tools to help practitioners who want to go beyond program performance figures to help their clients achieve what one senior Kafo Jiginew official called "durable development", that is, increasing people"s skills, their self- confidence, their well-being and their participation in the development process. (Author abstract, modified)