MFC Quality Audit Tool for Managing Performance (QAT)

The MicroFinance Centre (MFC) developed the QAT to be a practical diagnostic tool that supports managers in reviewing the status and effectiveness of an MFI’s management processes in achieving social goals. It helps ensure that an MFI is on track towards achieving its social goals. The QAT also helps identify strengths to be built on and gaps needing improvement, while avoiding overload of management and staff.

The tool specifically focuses on:
• Examining process management
• Assessing the status and effectiveness of internal systems in supporting the achievement of social goals
• Acknowledging good social performance practice up to date (strengths) and identifying gaps (weaknesses)
• Identifying and prioritizing necessary actions to improve social performance

There are four steps of the QAT process:
1. Gap analysis conducted with senior management as an initial social audit.
2. In-depth follow-up to gather more detailed information in order to verify and better understand the gap analysis.
3. Analysis and draft report that examine the material collected in detail and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in each of the dimensions covered by the gap analysis.
4. Audit panel, a forum in which findings are presented to a group of key organizational stakeholders, who agree on the final results and win organizational buy-in for improvement actions. Following detailed discussions on the improvement action plan, a final audit report is produced.

The QAT may be implemented by internal staff or with an external consultant, although the
MFC recommends that the tool be implemented for the first time with an external consultant.
For the purpose of this User Review, all surveyed MFIs implemented the QAT with the assistance of an external consultant.

QAT is aligned with the social performance management (SPM) approach developed by the
Imp-Act Consortium.

Outputs
The QAT yields a concise report on the strengths and weaknesses of an MFI in each dimension of social performance management. The report also provides key supporting evidence and
prioritizes activities to be undertaken by an MFI in order to improve social performance management (by addressing identified gaps and building on identified strengths

The tool can be downloaded from the Microfinance Centre.