Social Impact Assessment of Microfinance Programmes - weman

investors and donors became interested and decided to invest in Asasah. Currently, the
largest funding comes from the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, followed by First
Elite Capital Modarba and Orix Leasing. (See Appendix for funding breakdown)
Asasah has a range of products designed for the very poor to non-poor micro
entrepreneurs, who have modest capital requirements, which are not met by commercial
banks – see Appendix. Asasah’s philosophy is that the first step is to make a household
economically sustainable and after that, matters such as health and education should be
tackled. Therefore, Asasah targets the active poor who have skills but lack funds and
provides them with micro loans. It also focuses on women’s empowerment as it plays a
pivotal role in the social and economic uplift of a household.
3.1.2 Organizational Structure
The main governing body of Asasah is a six member Board of Directors, who come from
various backgrounds. Their experience ranges from research on enterprise development
to working in Information Technology. Two members are from Save the Children, which
is a long term strategic partner of Asasah. The members meet quarterly or more
frequently, if required. Currently, Asasah is hoping to diversify the Board and increase
the members so that the vision of the organization can be enhanced.
Apart from the Board of Directors, Asasah has a Steering Committee comprised of all its
Department Heads, which is in-charge of decision making and gives a strategic direction
to the organization – see Appendix. The Steering Committee meets twice a month. An
Operations Committee is also present and comprises of senior staff involved in
operations, such as the Area Managers and the CEO. This committee oversees all the
different operations of Asasah and meets on a regular basis.
The organization is led by the CEO, who is supported by the Steering and Operations
committees. There is no operations department at the Head Office and the
operations/field staff forward queries and problems to the concerned department from
which they need assistance. The Organizational Structure is attached in the Appendix.
The department most closely involved with the field operations is the Quality Assurance
Department, involved in both screening and monitoring. Recently, a marketing
department has been set up to build marketing capabilities of all the field staff and to
ensure that all branches implement the marketing strategy. At the branch, the Branch
Manager (BM) is the Head of Operations and four Loan Officers, called Community
Development Officers or CDO’s report to him/her. Apart from the operations staff,
branches also have an Accountant and an Office Boy. Each BM reports to an Area
Manager (AM), who report to the CEO.
3.1.3 Lending Methodology
Asasah uses the Grameen Bank methodology for its group lending of the protective and
productive loans and monitors each individual client to assure portfolio quality and verify
loan usage. Asasah asserts that it lends to households who have sufficient skills but
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