Country-Level Effectiveness and Accountability Reviews (CLEARs)

Assessing funders’ effectiveness on the ground

The CLEARs are a methodology to assess funders’ contributions to building pro-poor financial systems, based on desk research and interviews. They combine a rapid financial sector analysis with an assessment of the effectiveness of funders’ systems and practices in a country.

CGAP conducted five CLEARs between 2004 and 2007 in Cambodia, Nicaragua, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The CLEAR reports provided recommendations on how funders in these countries can help fill financial system gaps and improve their effectiveness by aligning operations with their comparative advantage. Policymakers and practitioners have also used CLEAR recommendations to shape their actions.

The main finding of these reviews is that support at the retail level should be more performance driven, there is insufficient understanding and attention to building the financial infrastructure, and that the role of the government is not always appropriate. Finally, the reviews demonstrated that funders should establish better systems to coordinate their work to avoid redundancies, coordinate better, and add value by focusing on their respective comparative advantage.

The CLEAR Technical Guide [upcoming] – A guide to improve the effectiveness of microfinance funding

The guide is designed to help funders conduct a CLEAR. It includes the analytical framework and process for conducting a CLEAR.

The CLEAR Technical Guide can help funders and others with the following:

Rapid financial sector analysis to identify critical gaps in the financial system to scale up poor people’s access to a diverse range of quality financial services.
Mapping of funders’ programs at the micro, meso and macro levels of the pro-poor financial system.
Analysis of funder community effectiveness to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the funders supporting microfinance in the country and how well they are coordinating.
Programming recommendations to funders to help them prioritize areas of support and find out which funder is the best equipped to address the different gaps in the financial system.
Effectiveness recommendations to funders to help them find out how they can take into account their agencies’ capabilities and constraints in programming, improve coordination, avoid duplication and work based on each other’s comparative advantage.

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