Cordaid features the Gender Performance Manual

July 2, 2013

Women’s World Banking supporter Cordaid recently featured the Gender Performance Manual, the indicators uncovered from the work of our Gender Performance Initiative, on their website:

Measuring Microfinance

Microfinance grew from the assumption that women are better credit risks than men. Three quarters of microfinance institutions target women. Women’s World Banking, a global network of microfinance institutions, has now published a manual aiming to help microfinance institutions determine whether they are indeed serving the needs of women.

The microfinance institutions (MFI’s) already know that 73 per cent of borrowers are women. They do not know, however, how many of their clients saving money with them are women. The report recommends institutions start collecting gender data on other clients as well as the microfinance clients. Additionally, collecting data on the growth of the client base would give an idea of the direction in which the MFI is developing. By measuring the number of clients below a predefined poverty threshold an institution can determine how well it is reaching the  poorest women.As women are not only customers but also staff at microfinance institutions, the report also contains recommendations to make the MFI’s good places for women to work.The research for the manual was financed and overseen by Cordaid and Hivos. The manual can be found here.