MEMI - Measuring Microfinance Impact in the EU

On Thursday 7 November 2019, Professor Lucia Poletti, Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma and Riccardo Grazioli, Research Centre for Economic and Monetary Policy, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Piacenza, Italy) presented the results of the MEMI PROJECT at the EIB INSTITUTE in Luxemburg.

We participated at 5th European Microfinance day organising a workshop where we discussed about the strategies for measuring the outcomes and impact of microfinance.
Speakers from Università di Parma and Microfinanza srl on behalf of MEMI partnership presented different approaches, including Social Return on Investment (SROI) and a specific social impact methodology developed.
We also presented an overview presentation of the social impact tools and policy recommendations defined in the framework of the MEMI study funded by EIB Institute

Jointly with the EIF, we organised the workshop in the MFC-EMN Joint Annual Conference that will be held in Bilbao (Spain) from 3rd to 5th October 2018.

Objectives and contents of the session: The impact of microfinance is gaining the increasing attention of investors and policymakers. In turn, MFIs can improve access to funding opportunities and prospects because of being able to show their social impact.

Moreover, social impact analysis is a tool to manage and measure how MFIs fulfil their social mission. Starting from the presentation of two cases, the workshop aims to involve market players (policymakers, investors) in an exchange of their points of view on current and future practices in impact measurement.
The key questions are: What type of impact measurements the market expects from MFIs? Would it be feasible for MFIs to develop such measurement tools?

Facilitator and coordinator: Salome Gvetadze, Research Officer, EIF; and Lucia Poletti, Assistant Professor, University of Parma.
Discussants: Andrea Limone, CEO, PerMicro; and Nejira Nalić, Director, Mi-Bospo

Prof. Giulio Tagliavini, supervisor of the Memi Research Project, and responsible of the University of Parma research unit, was invited speaker at the workshop organised by the Grameen Italia Foundation at the Yunus Social Business Centre - University of Bologna, Forlì Campus (Italy) on 21st May 2018.

Prof. Tagliavini held a speech titled «Measuring the Impact in Microfinace» in which he explained the importance of the impact measurement in social business and the associated difficulties.

The Memi Consortium organised the seminar with the collaboration of the Grameen Italia Foundation. The seminar was hosted by Yunus Social Business Centre – University of Bologna at Forlì Campus (Italy) on 16th May 2018.

Memi participated in the conference with its own desk in order to give visibility to the project. The conference was also a chance for networking with the EIF, the EIB, the EIB Institute, microfinance institutions, and colleagues.

We presented the plan and the methods of our research at the early stage of the project during the Annual Meeting, an important occasion to meet the other granted projects – some of them at the second year and some others at the end of their research – taking advantages of their knowledge.