Incofin cvso TA helps HKL leverage data to measure social impact

At Incofin, we believe that if you value something, you need to measure it so that you can monitor, analyze and ultimately act on it. Incofin cvso’s Technical Assistance (TA) program is helping Cambodian microfinance institution Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL) to do just that.

HKL serves over 212.000 clients, 61% of whom are female and 82% of whom live in rural areas. HKL’s extensive network consists of 59 branches nationwide, with a staff of approximately 3,000 offering its clients a spectrum of vital credit (SME, green, student loans) and savings (regular and term deposits) products along with cutting-edge mobile banking and ATM services.

Since its founding in 1996, HKL has been firmly committed to serving women and low-income families in rural areas of Cambodia. However, the MFI lacked practical tools to actually measure the positive impact of its services on clients’ livelihoods.

The TA project provided HKL with expert guidance to help them clearly define their social objectives in terms of concrete, measurable targets and to create a robust data management framework to collect, track, report and utilize data on clients’ wellbeing to inform the company’s strategic decision making.

Given its mission of providing long-term social and financial sustainability to low-income Cambodians, HKL decided to focus on 4 impact areas where they believe their products and services can truly make a difference in their clients’ lives:

1. Business growth – Accelerated growth of business assets and job creation for micro and small businesses
2. Quality of life – Improved quality of life through home ownership and educational attainment
3. Financial resilience – Improved resilience against future financial shocks through savings and insurance
4. Customer indebtedness – Reduced indebtedness and financial stress levels

In addition to other insights, the first batch of data shows that that, on average, HKL business loan clients across nearly all segments (i.e. women/men, urban/rural, etc.) managed to increase their business asset size and hire additional employees between Q3 and Q4 2018. Just as it tracks financial performance, HKL will now be able to track its social performance in a more tangible way thanks to the support of Incofin cvso TA.