EIF Working Paper 2020/065: The social return on investment (SROI) of four microfinance projects

The paper results from a research project on “Measuring Microfinance Impact in the EU. Policy recommendations for Financial and Social Inclusion” (MeMI). The project was initiated and supervised by the EIF and was funded by the EIB Institute under the EIB-University Sponsorship Programme (EIBURS).

The aim of this project is to contribute to the debate whether microfinance is able to deliver the expected impact in terms of financial and social inclusion. The first paper (2020/065) introduces and applies - in the form of case studies - a specific methodology, SROI, to measure the impact of microfinance on financial and social inclusion. As such it provides useful guidance and ideas for microfinance practitioners who want to analyse non-financial returns. The second paper (2020/066) complements the SROI methodology by introducing an analytical approach, which relies on indicators concerning the three dimensions, i.e. economic, social and environmental.

The EIF Working Papers are designed to make available to a wider readership selected topics and studies in relation to EIF’s business. The Working Papers are edited by EIF’s Research & Market Analysis and are typically authored or co-authored by EIF staff or are written in cooperation with EIF.