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Fonkoze Releases 2009 Social Performance Report

Haiti’s Largest Microfinance Institution Demonstrates Commitment to Client Monitoring and Accountability

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Fonkoze announced today the release of its 2009 Social Performance Report, Accompanying Our Clients Along the Staircase out of Poverty. Prepared by Fonkoze’s Social Performance Monitoring and Market Research department, the report provides a reflective and transparent analysis of data collected in 2009 through client surveys, focus groups, and program evaluations.

2009 marks the third consecutive year Fonkoze has released a Social Performance Report, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability to its clients, donors, and other stakeholders. An English language version of the report is available on the Fonkoze website at: http://www.fonkoze.org/. A Creole language version will be available soon.

“For 15 years Fonkoze has worked to fight rural poverty in Haiti by providing our clients with the financial and educational tools they need to make lasting improvements in their lives,” says Carine Roenen, Fonkoze’s Executive Director. “We prioritize social performance monitoring because it helps us get the data and information we need to make evidence-based improvements in our products and services, or create the new ones we need to achieve our mission.”

Results from this year’s analysis show that, on average, clients who have been with Fonkoze for a year or more make significant progress as indicated by decreased indicators of overall poverty and improved food security. Clients in Fonkoze’s pilot program for the extreme poor, Chemen Lavi Miyò, or Pathway to a Better Life, improved remarkably over the course of 18 months; improved economic capacity led to a 43 percent increase in the number of members sending “most or all” of their children to school, and a 50 percent increase in the number of members cultivating their own food.

Fonkoze also completed an evaluation of its Hurricane Loan program launched in response to the series of tropical storms and hurricanes that devastated the livelihoods of over 14,000 Fonkoze clients in late 2008. When a sample of Hurricane Loan clients was first interviewed following the storms in December 2008, 60 percent were considered “food insecure with hunger.” This classification describes families who experience hunger regularly and often do not know when and where they will eat their next meal.  Over the course of one year, the number of families in this highly vulnerable state decreased by 17 percent.

Fonkoze applied lessons learned through its Hurricane Loan program to design an earthquake response that would ensure the effective stabilization and recovery of over 19,000 clients affected by the January 12^th earthquake. The 2010 Social Performance report will examine the results of this response.

Fonkoze will incorporate lessons from its earthquake recovery program to roll out a permanent micro-insurance product designed to protect the personal and business assets of clients in the case of future natural disasters.

About Fonkoze

Fondasyon Kole Zépol (Fonkoze) is Haiti’s largest, most innovative micro-finance institution with over 200,000 clients. It operates out of 41 branches across Haiti and in every province of the country, including many towns and villages where no commercial banks operate. Fonkoze’s unwavering commitment to serving Haiti’s poor has driven the institution to develop its Staircase out of Poverty approach—a series of four complementary programs and products designed to meet clients wherever they are and accompany them on their journey out of poverty.

Fonkoze is also industry leader in social performance monitoring. It’s Social Performance Monitoring and Market Research department is a 14-member team dedicated to the routine and systematic monitoring of Fonkoze’s clients and programs. Social Impact Monitors based in branches throughout Haiti interact directly with clients to collect social and economic data and anecdotal information that help Fonkoze managers develop products and services to better suit the needs of Haiti’s rural poor. In 2009, Fonkoze received a Gold Certificate from the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) and the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) for achieving the highest standard in social performance reporting.

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