2

Sa-Dhan Patrika

Volume 6

Issue 2

Vision Building-a Sure Way to Facilitate

Sustainable institutions for the Poor

T

he Society for Elimination of Rural

from which all other activities arise. It is

Poverty (SERP), a government of

with this in mind that APMAS developed

Andhra Pradesh promoted society to

a participatory vision-building exercise,

implement  various  rural  poverty

to be completed by the MS executive

reduction  programmes,  has  been

committee and staff, and to be

implementing one of the world's largest

facilitated by APMAS staff.

rural projects - Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP

­ previously known as the Velugu Project)

How do you build vision?

with funding support from theWorld Bank

since 2000. The project objectives are to

The vision building exercise, which is

enable the rural poor, particularly the

modelled on the Discovery-Dream-

poorest of the poor, strengthen and

Design-Delivery diagram shown below

secure their asset base and improve their

and adopted from the appreciative

livelihoods. The project covers all the rural

enquiry developed by MYRADA and

mandals1 with high incidence of poverty.

others, follows a straightforward six-step

There are about 5.75 lakh Self Help

process. APMAS evolved the process

Groups

(SHGs),

30,000

Village

based on the experience of facilitating

Organisations2 (VOs) and 880 Mandal

the  development  of  the  vision

Samakhyas3 (MS), formed and supported

document for MS.

by SERP to achive the project's goals. To

achieve institutional and financial

sustainability of these federations, APMAS

advocated the need for a visioning

process at the Mandal Samakya level

to develop a five-10 year vision and a

detailed business plan for five years. SERP

requested several non-governmental

organizations (NGOs) and technical

support agencies including APMAS to

support them in facilitating the visioning

process for the selected federations on

pilot basis in 2004.

The Mahila Abhivruddhi Society, Andhra

Pradesh (APMAS) has been established

as  a  state  level  technical  and

management support institution for the

women's self-help movement. APMAS

works for poverty reduction by supporting

Step #1: Education about Importance of

people's organisations through capacity

Vision: The first step in the creation of the

building, quality assessment, research

vision is to educate the members about

and

advocacy

and

livelihood

the importance of having a vision,

promotion.

purpose,  and  strategy  for  their

federation. Without this understanding,

At SERP's request, APMAS has facilitated

the members will not see value in the

the visioning process for six mandal-level

exercise and it is doubtful that the vision-

SHG federations from four districts with

building process will have any long-term

the goal of developing them into `model

benefits for the MS. APMAS participated

federations'. These model federations will

in the MS executive committee (EC)

excel in all best practices and serve as a

meetings to orient them to the visioning

learning ground for other federations.

process and to seek their consent. It was

heartening to find an overwhelming

Why build vision?

response from the EC members to begin

the journey of visioning.

APMAS

One of the most important elements in

participated in the

creating an institutionally sustainable

Step #2: Formation of Stakeholder Groups:

MS executive

federation is that the members have a

Once they understand the importance

committee (EC)

shared vision for their organisation;

of the exercise, the MS members create

meetings to orient

something that binds them together and

a Secondary Stakeholders committee,

inspires the pursuit of their federation's

them to the

comprising mandal-level officials and

success. It is from this common vision that

visioning process

other external supporters such as NGOs

the members gain a sense of ownership

and to seek their

and bankers, and form themselves into

and pride, and it serves as a foundation

consent

the Primary Stakeholder group to lead