Improving transparency and integrating SPM: The case of UCORA (Armenia)

This case presents the experience of the Union of Credit Organizations of the Republic of Armenia (UCORA) and its work with the MFC Social Performance Start-up Fund project, which aimed to support members to manage and report on their social performance. This 12-month project was designed to help its 12 members address the reputational risk related to increasing client over-indebtedness, and promote SPM best practice among its members as well as other stakeholders including the Central Bank. As a result of this project, UCORA doubled the number of members reporting on social performance and successfully used the social performance report verification process to assist members in improving their SPM systems. Importantly, UCORA also produced a country-level social performance report, which among other things was used to communicate the state of SPM practice with the Central Bank, other stakeholders and the public at large, with the aim of improving the overall image of the Armenian microfinance sector.