The Future of Microfinance Impact Assessment

On July 4, 2010, I had the honor and privilege of presenting a paper on the future of microfinance impact assessment to an audience in Glasgow, UK that included Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank.  The paper presents three mindsets that exist on a continuum of increasing complexity.  Each of these mindsets has its uses, but in conducting impact assessments of development programs it is important to ensure that the assessment is at least as complex as the impact it seeks to measure.