Opportunity International in 2022 awarded a 3-year grant funding from the Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA) entitled “Strengthening Systems for Financial Inclusion in Rural Malawi” to strengthen both the supply and demand of formal financial services for marginalised and previously excluded rural populations in Central and Southern Malawi. Between 2021 and 2024, the project will strengthen the capacity of at least four regulated financial institutions to sustainably support Community Based Financial Organisations (CBFOs) and provide low-income smallholder farmers in some of Malawi’s poorest regions with access to financial training and products that build sustainable and prosperous livelihoods. Access to tailored financial services, training in modern agricultural techniques and improved linkages to markets will enable the farmers to improve their livelihoods. Ultimately, the project will facilitate permanent linkages between FSPs (including commercial banks, deposit-taking MFIs and credit facilities) and CBFOs in order to increase access and usage of formal financial products and services, including credit for MSMEs and smallholder farmers, secure savings and insurance. Enhancing access to and use of digital technology (e.g. mobile/agent banking, digital profiling, credit scoring, digital training) will accelerate financial inclusion in remote, rural areas and promote linkages between CBFOs and FSPs. The project started in September 2021 and will finish in August 2024.
To both ensure meaningful project implementation and to inform improved methodologies across a wider community of practice, BATH Social and Development Research Limited at the University of Bath in the UK and PALM Consulting Limited were taken on as evaluation and learning partners to apply an action research approach over the life cycle of the project. The main activities for the two institutions are:
- Review programme intervention strategies, undertake data collection and develop appropriate monitoring tools and learning strategy to help refine the theory of change (phase 1);
- Support targeted data collection which incorporates both quantitative and qualitative tools, and collects data including logframe indicators going from the output level (e.g. no. of members reached), to those at impact level, looking at changes in the socio-economic circumstances of participants and their households and review at agreed intervals to identify where outcomes are likely to be achieved (phase 2);
- Conduct a final evaluation involving an in-depth case study to verify outcomes and further unpack change processes between particularly relevant parts of the theory of change that have shown the promise to contribute towards development impact (phase3).
So far, most elements of the first two bullets have been done. A qualitative process evaluation report was submitted. In 2024 we are shooting for the final evaluation which will comprise a number of methods including the QUIP.