Microfinance and risk management impact evaluation of an integrated risk management and microinsurance client training TYM, Vietnam, final report

The evaluation showed that TYM’s integrated risk management and microinsurance client training had the strongest effect on the financial attitudes of clients, especially on planning attitudes and on attitudes related to savings. The percentage of clients in the target compared to the control group that agreed to be able to put money aside for emergency expenses increased by a remarkable 22 per cent and the attitude towards planning household budgets for longer than a year improved by 17 per cent. Impact on client risk management behaviour was also strong by contributing to improving a number of situations that clients face. For example, clients who had access to the training less often ran out of money before making income than clients who did not have access to the training (decrease of 13 per cent). Interestingly, the observed change in financial attitudes regarding savings and planning already reflected in changed financial behaviour related to the same as we saw a 17 per cent increase in the ability to set aside money for emergencies as well as a 13 percent increase in clients with longer planning horizons. The analysis also showed some insignificant and some unexpected results for other outcome variables, which may be due to some issues with the experimental design of the research and the survey instrument. It is therefore possible that the innovation may have had a stronger impact than actually measured.