Evaluation Insights: Sparkassen as Partners in Transformation

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming

Evaluation Report: Program Evaluation of the KVP of the Deutsche Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (DSIK)
Evaluator: Madiba Consult GmbH, Bonn
Commissioned by: Deutsche Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (DSIK)
Funded by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Overall Rating: 86/100 — Successful (Level 2, OECD-DAC Scale)

Context

Financial exclusion, limited access to training for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and structural gender inequalities in economic participation are persistent challenges in many developing and emerging economies. These gaps are especially pronounced in rural and informal economic settings, where market failures mean that neither the state nor private financial markets adequately serve underserved populations.

The Deutsche Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (DSIK), the development cooperation arm of Germany’s Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, SFG), has been active in this field since 1992, having implemented projects in over 90 developing and emerging countries. DSIK operates within the Chamber and Association Partnership Programme (KVP) — a BMZ-funded instrument designed to mobilize the know-how of German economic institutions for sustainable development cooperation. Since 2024, the KVP is part of the broader “Partners in Transformation — Business and Development Network” (PiT) portfolio.

The program targets three regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (including Southeast Asia), and the Caucasus (including Ukraine). The present evaluation covered a sample of seven projects completed between 2021 and 2023, representing 30 percent of all completed projects in this period, spanning Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Ukraine, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, Panama, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar.

Intervention Overview

The KVP program aims to foster inclusive and sustainable economic development by improving access to financial services for MSMEs and women-led enterprises, and by strengthening vocational training and financial literacy structures in partner countries. Its two headline objectives are (1) women’s economic participation in business and (2) financial inclusion.

DSIK implements projects through a multi-level approach targeting macro, meso, and micro levels simultaneously. At the macro level, DSIK works with governments, central banks, and regulatory authorities to develop national financial inclusion strategies and regulatory frameworks. At the meso level, it supports associations, training institutes, and financial intermediaries. At the micro level, it reaches end-clients — farmers, entrepreneurs, and trainees — through practical tools such as Business Games, pilot projects, and improved financial products.

A distinctive feature of the program is the deployment of both short-term experts (KZE) and long-term experts (LZE) from the SFG, who transfer methodological know-how from the German Savings Banks model to partner institutions. Tools include Train-the-Trainer modules, dual vocational training systems, FinTech collaborations, agricultural credit software, and South-South peer learning exchanges. The program ran across project phases from 2018 to 2023, with individual project volumes ranging from EUR 500,000 to EUR 7.4 million.

Evidence: What Worked

Financial Inclusion and MSME Access to Finance

The evaluation confirms that DSIK’s targeted support to partner institutions significantly improved access to financial services for MSMEs, with particularly strong outcomes for women-led enterprises. In Cuba, some 10,000 loans worth approximately EUR 17 million (in Cuban pesos) were processed through new credit methodologies developed with DSIK support between October 2019 and September 2022, and loan processing time at BPA was substantially reduced. On the Philippines, the development of the CARD SME Bank from a microcredit NGO into a formally regulated institution with a social mandate demonstrates systemic and durable transformation.

The Financial Inclusion Index published by CrediCorp showed improvement in the Latin America project region from 38.2 points (2021) to 47.6 points (2024), with Panama (56), Ecuador (53.2), and Colombia (48.3) performing best among DSIK partner countries. These regional improvements align with DSIK interventions in the same countries, though direct causal attribution remains methodologically complex.

Capacity Building and Training

Training and personnel development measures were highly effective across all regions. Train-the-Trainer initiatives led to lasting multiplier effects: training materials continue to be used beyond project end, and many partner institutions have independently expanded their educational activities. Dual vocational training (combining theory and practice in close cooperation with private sector employers) was implemented successfully in six countries and is recognized as a particularly strong instrument for practical qualification and long-term employment.

The SFG deployed approximately 50 short-term experts annually to partner projects worldwide. Their contributions (in financial literacy, microfinance, risk management, corporate governance, and product development) were consistently rated as highly relevant and effective by partner institutions. Long-term experts proved especially cost-effective due to their deep institutional integration and sustained knowledge transfer.

Multi-Level Systemic Change

DSIK’s implicit multi-level approach produced results across all three intervention levels. At the macro level, DSIK contributed to national financial inclusion strategies in Mexico (where analysis under a gender lens was integrated into national policy), Cuba (whose national financial literacy strategy was adopted by decree), Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Vietnam. In Georgia, the program materially contributed to the restructuring of consumer protection and financial literacy units at the National Bank. Such systemic anchoring was achieved through sustained collaboration with central banks, education ministries, and regulatory bodies.

South-South peer learning emerged as a particularly effective mechanism for transferring good practices at low cost. Exchanges with CARD MRI of the Philippines and COPEME Peru supported the adaptation of successful business models across Asia and Latin America.

Evidence: What Did Not Work

Impact Measurement Gaps

The most significant shortfall identified across all regions is the absence of robust, systematic monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems capable of attributing impacts causally to program activities. Quantitative data on end-beneficiary outcomes — particularly on long-term behavioral changes in financial management and enterprise growth — is often unavailable, making rigorous cost-benefit analysis infeasible. The current M&E manual is described as descriptive, standardized, and linear, lacking feedback loops and cyclical processes.

Outreach to Marginalized Groups

Despite a stated commitment to gender inclusion and outreach to marginalized groups, the program encountered persistent structural barriers. Informally operating micro-enterprises, rural smallholders without formal registration, and socially marginalized groups were frequently not reached. Sociocultural barriers (including lower male participation in training, hierarchical social structures in village banks (Laos), and limited digital infrastructure in remote areas) reduced program effectiveness for the most vulnerable. In Bolivia, the introduction of dual vocational training failed due to normative and labor law obstacles. In Mexico, a financial literacy curriculum for primary schools was completed but never adopted, due to ideological disagreements within the Ministry of Education.

Private Finance Mobilization

Additionality in terms of private financial leverage remained below potential. While qualitative additionality (the private sector know-how and innovations that would not have materialized otherwise) was clearly demonstrated, the financial leverage effect (mobilization of additional private capital) achieved only 37 out of a possible 50 points in the evaluation. Regulatory hurdles, high transaction costs, and long capital commitment requirements constrained broader private sector investment.

Portfolio Coherence within PiT

Coherence deficits were identified with respect to internal networking within the PiT portfolio. Synergies in areas such as vocational education, Green Finance, and FinTech collaborations were not systematically exploited. The rigid BMZ country list was also identified as a limiting factor: abrupt project discontinuations in functional settings (such as Central America) reduced institutional continuity, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

Lessons Learned

Long-term engagement is a prerequisite for systemic change. Structural transformations (regulatory reforms, curriculum changes, and institutional development) rarely occur within a single project phase. Evidence shows that many key outcomes materialized only after project completion, sometimes following years or even decades of sustained collaboration.

Partner ownership is the decisive sustainability factor. Projects where partner institutions were actively involved in planning and implementation from the outset, contributed their own resources, and developed genuine ownership were substantially more successful and durable. South-South peer exchanges reinforced this dynamic by facilitating knowledge transfers rooted in comparable local contexts.

Gender-inclusive design is a program strength, but contextual barriers persist. The gender lens was consistently applied across all regions, but regional dynamics differed markedly: in Latin America, women’s social empowerment was pursued from the outset; in Asia, it often emerged as a positive secondary effect of economic interventions. Context-specific barriers (social norms, infrastructure gaps, informality) continue to limit outreach to the most marginalized women.

Flexibility and contextual adaptation are critical success factors. One-size-fits-all approaches consistently underperformed. The adaptation of proven instruments such as the German Savings Banks (Sparkassen) model to local conditions was identified as a key success driver. The COVID-19 pandemic and the military coup in Myanmar demonstrated the program’s capacity for adaptive management, though external shocks also illustrated its limits.

M&E systems are structurally underinvested. Across seven sampled projects, systematic impact measurement at the beneficiary level was the most frequently cited deficit. This limits both steering and accountability, as well as the program’s ability to generate replicable evidence.

Implications for Policy and Programming

For DSIK:

  1. Build a modular M&E toolkit that combines quantitative indicators with outcome stories and budgets for occasional experimental or quasi-experimental impact studies. This is the highest-priority recommendation and should be actioned in the next program design phase.
  2. Formalize partner selection and engagement through a scoring tool assessing institutional capacity, governance, financial sustainability, and local context knowledge, paired with binding data-sharing agreements and long-term collaboration frameworks beyond project cycles.
  3. Establish peer-learning platforms including annual regional workshops with rotating host countries, digital communities of practice, and a searchable knowledge portal for good practice documentation.
  4. Deepen SFG engagement through a curated expert pool with regional profiles, mentoring schemes between SFG experts and local partner institutions, and thematic task forces on Green Finance and Digitalisation.
  5. Adopt adaptive planning instruments including flexible LogFrames with variable outcome indicators and a “Rapid Adjustment Toolkit” for rapid response to context changes.

For BMZ:

  1. Increase portfolio flexibility in the PiT framework so that effective partnerships can continue beyond rigid country lists; introduce semi-annual priority reviews and flexibility corridors for strategic reorientation.
  2. Create a digital expert register mapping specialist expertise across all PiT implementers to enable matchmaking, reduce duplications, and foster synergies.
  3. Issue a PiT-wide results framework with common additionality and gender indicators to enable comparable evidence generation across programs.

Potential for Scaling and Transferability

The KVP program model demonstrates high transferability potential in several dimensions. The modular design of training materials, the Train-the-Trainer architecture, and the dual vocational training system are all context-adaptable instruments that have already been successfully replicated across regions. South-South peer learning (between the Philippines, Latin America, and the Caucasus) provides a tested transfer mechanism that is cost-effective and contextually sensitive.

The CARD SME Bank on the Philippines represents the most developed scaling case, evolving from an NGO into a nationally recognized, formally regulated financial institution, a model that has since been introduced elsewhere in Asia. In Cuba, the national financial inclusion strategy developed with DSIK was adopted into public policy by decree, demonstrating scalability from project to national system level.

Key enabling conditions for scaling include: strong partner institutions with existing credibility and regulatory relationships; government willingness to anchor interventions in law or curricula; availability of long-term expert support; and South-South exchange networks. Contextual limitations include political instability (Myanmar, parts of Latin America), legal and labor market barriers to dual training (Bolivia), and digital infrastructure gaps in rural areas. The absence of Africa in the current evaluation sample means that findings cannot be automatically transferred to that continent.

Methodological Notes

The evaluation was conducted by Madiba Consult GmbH (Bonn) and employed a mixed-methods, Theory of Change (ToC) approach aligned with the six OECD-DAC criteria plus additionality. Evidence was gathered from desk reviews of program files, monitoring data and policy documents; 170 semi-structured key informant interviews (78 women, 92 men) with partner institutions, beneficiaries, DSIK and BMZ staff; eight focus groups; an online staff survey with a response rate of 63 percent; and selective field visits triangulated with remote data collection where access was restricted.

Data analysis followed qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2014) using MAXQDA software, with triangulation as the core validation principle. A reference group validation session was held to review preliminary findings. Quality assurance followed OECD standards of independence, impartiality, and transparency.

Key limitations: Quantitative cost-effectiveness analysis was constrained by data gaps in monitoring systems. The sample of seven projects (30 percent of completed projects in 2021-2023) limits the generalizability of findings, and no projects from Africa were included. Self-reporting bias in the staff survey is acknowledged. Long causal chains between DSIK interventions and end-beneficiary outcomes make rigorous impact attribution difficult; this is explicitly noted throughout the report.

Stakeholder Perspectives

Partner institutions consistently valued the practical expertise transferred by SFG experts, emphasizing the relevance and quality of long-term expert deployments over short-term missions. Several partners noted that DSIK advisers developed a deep understanding of local business risks through financial literacy campaigns, which led to more realistic and responsible lending practices.

Beneficiaries in Cuba, the Philippines, and Colombia confirmed the positive effects of improved financial products and training on their business growth, though systematic beneficiary surveys were not conducted across all projects. In Colombia, Banco de Bogota reported lower delinquency rates among clients reached by financial literacy programs; in Mexico, Nacional Monte de Piedad documented improved repayment rates following targeted financial education supported by DSIK.

BMZ staff welcomed the program’s alignment with national partner priorities and SDGs, while suggesting greater portfolio flexibility and a stronger common results framework across the PiT portfolio. Partner institution staff in politically volatile contexts (Cuba, Honduras, Azerbaijan) highlighted DSIK’s unique ability to operate effectively at arm’s length from government — a distinctive comparative advantage in the German development cooperation landscape.

Additional quantitative highlights:

  • 170 key informant interviews and 8 focus groups conducted across three continents
  • 63% response rate in online staff survey
  • ~50 short-term SFG experts deployed annually to projects worldwide
  • ~10,000 loans worth approximately EUR 17 million disbursed in Cuba through new methodologies (October 2019 to September 2022)
  • Financial Inclusion Index (CrediCorp) improved from 2 (2021) to 47.6 (2024) across Latin America project region
  • 7 projects sampled across Latin America, Asia, and the Caucasus; project volumes from EUR 500,000 to EUR 7.4 million
  • Dual vocational training successfully implemented in 6 countries
  • Loan processing time at BPA Cuba reduced from several days to under 30 minutes through agricultural credit software

Further Resources and Links

Implementing Organization:

Donor and Funding Partners:

Evaluator:

  • Madiba Consult GmbH, Bonn (Evaluation Department)

Related Platforms and Programs:

Report Citation

Weitzenegger, Karsten, and Kristian Kampfer. Kammer- und Verbandspartnerschaftsprogramm der Deutschen Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation e.V. Programmevaluierung, Madiba Consult GmbH, Bonn 2025. sparkassenstiftung.de/fileadmin/160923_Sparkassenstiftungen_HTML/downloads/Infopaper_Imagebrosch%C3%BCre/2025_Evaluationsbericht_KVP-Programm_DSIK.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2026.

Disclaimer: The author participated in this evaluation. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and cannot be attributed to any affiliated organizations. Portions of the text and images were supported by artificial intelligence.