Microfinance investment vehicles: how far are they from OECD social impact investment definition?

Social Impact Investment (SII) is high on the international agenda. Nevertheless, only recently have some international organizations tried to clearly define the boundaries of SIIs. Existing data shows that microfinance is one of the major developed branches. The aim of this study is to investigate if microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs), listed on the market and identified as “impact investment” through registration in the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN) or through the publication of an impact report, are compliant with the new definition of SIIs suggested by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, Social impact investment. Building the evidence base. Paris. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/social-impact-investment.pdf. Accessed 18 Feb 2015). The methodology applied is content analysis. Findings demonstrate that there is still much to do in order to “mind the gap” between MIVs management approach and the OECD definition.