Institutional Capacity Building Services (ICB) to Government and Non-Governmental Organizations

• Offers ICB services to Self Help Promoting Institutions (SHPIs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Governance, Financial Management, Developing Systems and Structures, and Visioning
• Conducts trainings to chief functionaries, training of trainers programs to core staff / middle management staff and provides on the job support in building the internal capacities of the institutions.
• Supports SHPIs in promotion and facilitation of Self Regulation elements in CBOs.

Research Studies, Baseline Studies, Project Assessments, Monitoring & Evaluations, Process Documentation and Feasibility Studies

• Provides bouquet of consultancy services on its own and/or collaboration with academic, research and other institutions in the field of research viz., studies, project assessments, process documentation, feasibility studies, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes funded by government, national and international donors
• Engages interns from premier institutions across the world

• Quality Assessments, Ratings and NGO Accreditation

  • Pilots concepts and innovations in the field of Microfinance and Livelihoods to promote self-reliance of the SHGs and their federations - Rating of community based microfinance institutions (CBMFIs) is one of the innovations undertaken by SF in the microfinance sector in the country.
  • Takes up rating of the other community based organisations like Producer cooperatives, Local Governance Bodies and other CBOs and supports in developing customized assessment / rating tools.
  • Undertakes systematic process of accreditation of NGOs to support and strengthen partnerships between NGOs and government / private agencies.

• Trainings and Exposure visits

  • SF organizes well-designed trainings and field immersion programs for professional staff of various organizations engaged in promoting people’s institutions to build conceptual clarity on various aspects related to good governance, and management practices.
  • Provides opportunity to learn from various experiences & best practices and offers clear direction to SHPIs in facilitating CBOs into sustainable institutions.

• Diploma courses on Community Based Microfinance and livelihood promotion

  • Conducts certificate courses / Diploma courses to build capacities of diverse stakeholders on Community Based Microfinance and livelihood promotion by collaborating with mainstream academic institutions and resource organizations.

• Offers follow up services and guidance to ensure learning leads to practicing

  • Knowledge Management – Information Education Communication (IEC), Publications, Films, Policy Briefs and Case Studies
  • Develops and designs IEC materials in the areas of financial inclusion, livelihood promotion for enhancing awareness, knowledge to the primary and secondary stakeholders CBOs and SHPIs as well as for advocacy and policy influencing.
  • Hand Books, Self Learning Materials, Brochures, Posters, Pamphlets, Training Manuals, Stimulation Games and Audio Visuals
  • Technical Series, Policy Briefs, Case studies and Case lets

• IT based Support Services and Tools

  • Provides IT based support services and tools for SHPIs and CBOs to improve the skills of the management in assessing the performance of programs / services and support them in strengthening decision making structures and improving the overall performance of the institutions.

• Piloting Innovations

  • Undertakes piloting innovations in the areas of financial inclusion, livelihoods promotion and mainstreaming gender in people’s institutions to improve the overall performance in terms of good governance, access to services, higher returns and sustainability
  • Provides platform for sharing, learning and linking with the best practices and undertakes measures for replication and up scaling

Promoting Urban SHG federations under SPUR, Government of Bihar

The Urban Development and Housing Department (UD & HD), Government of Bihar is being supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) to implement the Support Programme for Urban Reforms (SPUR) in Bihar. One of the key interventions under SPUR has been the identification, mobilization and organization of women residents of slums in the project towns to facilitate their access to livelihood opportunities to improve their income and overall wellbeing.

SF as a technical agency was awarded to form and nurture three tier structure of community institutions in 45 towns of Bihar under National Urban livelihood Mission later rechristened as Din Dayal Antodya Yojana – National Urban Livelihood Mission ( DAY-NULM) vide letter No.SPUR-PMU/145/SHG-FDRN/2014/157 dated 19 May 2014. The overall and specific objectives of the project are given below:

Overall Objective:

To form and strengthen Federations of Women SHGs at Town (45) and State (1) level over a period of three years.
Specific Objectives:
1. Promote 45 town level SHG Federations and one state level Federation
2. Provide support to ULBs to nurture minimum 6000 SHGs in 28 SPUR and minimum 3000 SHGs in 17 non SPUR NULM towns
3. Facilitate the registration process of the town and state level Federations under a suitable Act/legal instrument
4. Nurture leadership abilities in the SHG Federations
5. Develop financial & administrative systems within the Federations
6. Develop systems to provide Revolving Fund to SHGs
7. Nurture the SHG Federations to act as umbrella organizations for SHGs to leverage funds for income generation
8. Liaise with stakeholders to access resources to promote appropriate business activities at the town level; and promote producer groups/organization

The SPUR team:

There is a team of 45 Project officers (POs), 17 Social Mobilisers (SM) and 120 Community Organisers (COs) supported by Project Manager, Trainers, data entry operator and accounts. The State team is further supported by technical team of head office under leadership and guidance President of Sadhikaratha Foundation.

Consultancies - Technical support in Governance, Financial Management, Self Regulation of SHGs and SHG federations, Visioning, Trainings, Social Audits

The SHG sector is growing at a rapid pace and becoming more complex and competitive; the promoters are finding themselves in short of capacities and skills to keep up themselves in changing scenario. In this connection SF is offering consultancy services to Self Help Promoting Institutions (SHPIs) as well as the community based institutions in Governance, Financial Management, systems, visioning etc. To build the internal capacities of the institutions on various aspects, SF conducts trainings to chief functionaries, core staff / middle management staff. SF also supports SHPIs in promotion and facilitation of Self Regulation elements in SHGs and SHG Federations promoted themselves. The consultancy services provided to the SHPIs and CBOs are covers the following areas:
Strengthening Governance
Developing Systems
Financial Management
Implantation of Self Regulation
Financial Literacy
Learning and Exposure

• Developing / Offering Courses and Trainings

  Developing / Offering Courses and Trainings While working with diverse stakeholders, it was realised that, SHPIs capacities are limited in promotion and facilitation of CBOs in delivering microfinance and livelihood services to its members. Considering the massive scale up requirements, there is considerable work that needs to be done. In the past, several resource organizations have emerged to meet the growing need for capacity building of Government authorities, SHPIs and also of the SHGs and SHG federations. However, the efforts have not been well-coordinated to maximize the impact. In this context SF felt the need for developing certificate course / Diploma courses on Community Based Microfinance and livelihood promotion by collaborating with mainstream education institutions / resource organisations. The target group for these courses are
  • NGO, Government departments, Government projects, Special Projects staff
  • Federation Managers
  • Community Resource Persons
  • Federation Board members
  • Fresh young graduates to develop them as a cadre for the sector

• Material Development - publications, films, policy briefs, case studies

  The Capacity Building initiatives of SF focus on facilitating CBOs to become sustainable member-owned and member-managed institutions. The capacity building services are provided through a Training of Trainers (ToT), trainings mode and followed up with mentoring and hand holding support to SHPIs to strengthen the SHGs and SHG federations. To achieve the objectives of capacity building, different capacity building materials in the form of Technical series, hand books, self learning material, audiovisuals, brochures and manuals will be developed for creating better awareness, knowledge to the CBOs and SHPIs.
  
  From its past experience it is realised that financial literacy has helped improving financial literacy among SHG members and ensuring legal compliance as per their legal form, including conduct of annual general body meeting, elections by secret ballot and annual planning etc for improving transparency and accountability at all levels. SF will support in developing / customise required financial literacy modules, training materials, films in Indian languages and also developing ICT materials.

• Promoting financial literacy

  SHG movement is rapidly growing in the country. Government being a major promoter, SHGs and SHG federations are increasing dependent on external human and financial resources. Focuses of these institutions are also shifting from internal resource mobilization (mandatory savings, profit) to lending through subsidized bank borrowings. This situation called for need for spreading the concept/awareness of financial literacy and to build knowledge and skills among SHG members. In this connection SF will support apex institution like NABARD, ISMW, State Governments in the following areas