Guidelines for Impact Monitoring & Assessment in Microfinance ...

MONITORING & ASSESSMENT IN MICROFINANCE PROGRAMMES
Documentation and Illustration
Good and clear documentation and presentation of results is very important for
transparency. In the following section, only a few examples of charts are illustrated.
However, the same approaches could be applied to other questions included in the
impact survey.
For example, frequency distributions can be depicted in two ways, as tables or
graphs. Example 6 on reported change in personal income over the last year is often
referred to as a histogram or bar chart and depicts both a table and a graph in
a combined presentation.
Example 6: Reported change in personal income over the last 12 months
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Distribution
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Reported Change in Personal Income
Over the Last 12 Months
increased
stayed the
same
one-year client 55% 35% 10%
two-year client 75% 12% 13%
new client 58% 35% 7%
Income Change
decreased
one-year client
two-year client
new client
Another example of illustration is presented in example 7 on distress periods at the
household level. First, the aggregated results are listed in a table. Because the results
refer to programme results, a statistical significance test can be conducted to
assess whether the responses of the sample groups are significantly different and
affect programme impact.