Your member and affiliate institutions have to know where they are before they know where to go. Incorporating The Smart Campaign Client Protection Principles is no different; before you can start you need to understand how the organization is performing today.

For microfinance institutions, the next step after endorsement is to complete an assessment of the organization, providing them with insights about strengths, weaknesses, and the most appropriate next steps. You have an important role to play in helping your member institutions complete this step - by encouraging them to take on the assessments and, when possible, assisting them throughout the process.

The Campaign offers microfinance institutions two ways in which to complete an institutional assessment following their endorsement of The Smart Campaign.

• Getting Started Questionnaire: Client Protection Self Assessment for Microfinance Institutions
  The Getting Started Questionnaire helps microfinance institutions begin to investigate client protection practices within their organization. The questionnaire is structured around the Client Protection Principles, each of which is accompanied by a list of statements about the institution's practices. The questionnaire provides a framework for evaluating a microfinance institution’s practices principle by principle. It also contains exercises to help the user identify strong and weak practices as well as opportunities to enhance the microfinance institutions client protection activities.
• Conducting Client Protection Assessments: A Guide
  By far the most rigorous assessment, the guide is a manual designed to thoroughly assess the client protection performance of microfinance institutions. It can either be used by microfinance institutions to assess their own performance or the assessment can be undertaken by a Smart-certified professional assessor. The Guide leads microfinance institutions through a thorough process of collecting the information necessary to evaluate your microfinance institution’s client protection practices.

If you have any questions about these assessment options, please contact a Smart Campaign staff member at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .