The internal learning system-assessing impact while addressing participant learning needs

The Internal Learning System or ILS is a participatory impact assessment and planning system for microfinance and livelihood programmes primarily designed to meet the learning needs of programme participants, village groups and operational field staff. The medium of the system's pictorial impact diaries or workbooks is an empowering tool for poor, illiterate participants and village groups to track and analyse changes in their lives and to use the understanding to alter their strategies as they participate in the economy and interact with actors and institutions in the wider community. Field staff use the system to track the patterns of lagging and excelling performance across participants and village groups and to analyse the reasons for the variation in impact performance. Programme managers at field team and headquarter levels benefit from the internal learning by staff and participants to improve' programme processes, while also using it to meet additional impact assessment objectives including external proving' to funders that the programme is having its intended impact. Because of its participatory nature in which participants themselves keep their own impact diary or workbook, not only tracking changes in their lives but also troubleshooting negative outcomes, planning remedies and reflecting on training inputs, ILS can also help enhance empowerment outcomes. This paper presents quantitative results and qualitative experiences of economic and social empowerment outcomes from a large Indian microfinance organization that has been using the system in a large field trial over the past two years. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.