Universal Standards

About the Universal Standards

The Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management (“the Universal Standards”) is a comprehensive manual of best practices. They help financial service providers put clients and the environment at the center of all strategic and operational decisions, and they show financial service providers how to align their policies and procedures with responsible business practices.

The Universal Standards were developed, tested, refined, and finalized by financial service providers all over the world, so they are highly practical. They do not just describe a vision or set forth high-level principles. Instead, the Universal Standards provide a clear roadmap that financial service providers can follow to achieve their goals. First launched in 2012 and now in their third edition, the Universal Standards have stood the test of time and proven relevant in many different geographic contexts, for many different institutional types.

The Universal Standards cover seven different dimensions of a financial institution’s operations—strategy, governance, client-centric product design, client protection, responsible human resource development, responsible growth and profits, and environmental performance management.

Financial service providers engage with social performance management at their own pace and according to their own priorities. There is no one place to begin. Typically, a financial institution will focus on the dimension(s) where they believe they have the greatest need, or where they have an opportunity for “quick wins,” meaning positive outcomes created by relatively simple and inexpensive changes.

Whether you are interested in one dimension, or a few, or all of them, the Social and Environmental Performance journey follows four basic steps.

LEARN

You have already started this step just by visiting this page. You can learn even more by downloading the Universal Standards and exploring the related items in our Resource Center or following our online trainings [link]. Feel free also to sign up for our newsletter, which has frequent features on real-world experiences with the Universal Standards, and contact us with any specific question or request you may have.

ASSESS

Use the SPI social audit tool to evaluate your organization’s strengths and weaknesses regarding its overall social and environmental performance management (SEPM). The SPI tool is free and fully aligned to the Universal Standards.

It is not unusual to feel overwhelmed by the results of the assessment—don’t be. By design, the SPI tool includes every aspect of SEPM; that comprehensiveness helps providers to understand deeply what SEPM is all about. Once financial institutions understand their relative areas of strength and weakness, it is perfectly reasonable to focus on a few practices at a time. Each provider will set the priorities and a realistic pace.

The assessment process is critical to helping financial service providers create a shared understanding within the organization of what SEPM is and how it can help the organization to achieve its goals.

IMPROVE

Many resources are available to help providers put the Universal Standards into action. SPTF’s Universal Standards Implementation Guide contains guidance on how to implement each of the Essential Practices contained in the Universal Standards. It also contains links to other useful industry resources. The SPM Resource Center, which is organized around the Universal Standards, provides descriptions of, and links to, dozens of case studies, templates, tools, videos, and guidelines. If you need financial assistance to put your plans into action, apply to the Responsible Inclusive Finance (RIF) facilities in Africa, Southeast Asia, or the Caribbean/Central America.

During this step, it is important to remember to be realistic! When SPM implementation fails, it is often because the provider tries to do too much, too fast. Set a budget and create an action plan, specifying the timeline for each step of the implementation process and which employees are responsible for specific deliverables. Revisit your action plan periodically and make adjustments as needed.

SHOW

There are many ways to demonstrate the results of your SPM practices, to both internal and external stakeholders:

  • The SPI social audit tool includes a reporting function that allows you to document both your SPM practices and social outcomes. Many providers are creating SPM dashboard reports using the graphs generated by the SPI4. The SPM Resource Center has examples of SPM dashboards.
  • You can demonstrate achievement in client protection specifically by joining the Client Protection Pathway and moving along it.
  • You can commission a social rating, which can include an evaluation of client outcomes. Social rates help providers demonstrate outcomes to external stakeholders such as funders.
  • You can collect and report data on client outcomes. To learn more about outcomes management, visit SPTF’s outcomes working group page.