Visiting Zambia

MicroLoan Foundation doesn’t just work in Malawi, but have two (soon to be three) branches in Zambia too, so I headed over there to see what the issues in relation to Social Performance Management are. I was looking at whether the team there are working with the poorest, how they do their training and what can be done to address client exit. I came away feeling extremely positive: though poverty levels seem to be less severe than in Malawi, the team are being proactive in working with the poorest, the training is thorough and effective, and exit rates are being kept down by good communications between staff and clients, and by responding to clients when they raise a complaint. For example, clients said that they weren’t keen on fortnightly repayments, so the Zambian team have reacted by piloting a 3-weekly repayment loan product.

Otherwise, I was well looked after at a small local guesthouse just 5 minutes walk from the office, where the staff were delighted to learn that I could speak (a few!) words of Chichewa, which is very similar to Nyanja spoken in Zambia. They therefore took it upon themselves to create dictionaries for me to further my education and made sure I was fed the tastiest Zambian chicken and Nsima (local staple)!

Putting Social Performance Management (SPM) into action

We’ve just held our second MicroLoan Foundation (MLF) SPM workshop, with no fewer than 35 attendees, including Malawi and UK management and all of the branch managers from across the country. The purpose of the discussions was to present the findings of all the piloting research that’s been going on over the last 6 months or so, get everyone talking about the issues and ready to commit to tangible actions to ensure that MLF really is reaching its clients in the most effective way it possibly can! It was two days of intense workshopping, including role plays (and great hilarity!), voting and group discussions.

The highlights were:
• agreeing to pilot a couple of new products to make it easier for the poorest to join MLF
• committing to increased focus on training for field staff and clients through a dedicated training development programme
• focusing field staff more on the reasons for client exit via exit assessments and interviews

Integrating the many valuable and practical commitments made on the day will be Chikonzero’s job, though working closely with the Operations Manager.



Picture:
Workshop attendees discuss key operational issues