Sa-Dhan Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 2 September 2000

Special Issue on

Sa-Dhan

The Association of

Capacity Building for Micro-Finance Industry

Community Development

Finance Institutions

From the Editor's Desk

Contents

Dear Readers,

I.

Building Human

One of the most common refrains about the Community Development Finance sector in India is

Resource for

the absence of retailing capacity. Different stakeholders have different interpretations about the

Microfinance

nature of this limitation. Lenders are concerned about the absence of skills primarily to manage

Industry : Issues and

and design new financial products. Donors, depending on their inclination, are concerned about

Concerns

either client-focus (and livelihood) issues or the limited outreach of strong community based

Building the Network organisations. Policy makers too are concerned about the regional differences, emerging between

II.

Mandate : Strategic  the density of Microfinance service providers in the north, north-east and south of the country.

choices for Sa-Dhan's  Central Bankers on the other hand are apprehensive about the emerging Microfinance

intermediary and its ability to prudently manage funds and follow appropriate disclosure norms.

MEP - 2000

It becomes therefore important that the designing, developing, and offer of training programme

address these points of view.

III.

Book review of "A

manual for

Capacity Building of  When Sa-Dhan started out with the network mandate, the demand characteristics of the different

Self Help Groups:The  stakeholders were not so clear. We began by bringing together the different participants to

MYRADA Experience  discuss the formidable task faced by the training mandate. The program design hence offers a

common platform for members to collectively present a training program, that results in a sharing

and the learning of content. The last training program brought to the public domain internal

IV.

Issues before the

S a - D h a n ' s Training programs that organisations have developed to improve service effectiveness. Such material and

learning are crucial to refine and improve effectiveness among CDFIs. In addition, it exposes

Sub-Group

other practitioners to the wider community of practitioners in the country. It leads to the establishing

Sa-Dhan News and of contacts, building of relationships and exploring of mutual support programs. The Sa-Dhan

V.

E v e n t s (April­Sept' program has led to more training programs taking place between participating members and

even opened up channels of financing both for grant and lending funds. Finally, such collective

2000)

efforts also brings problems that the sector faces, through the limitations of the offering members.

Summary of Chapter Addressing such constraints too is important in our quest to improve both training quality and

VI.

" Legislative Reform in finding innovative solutions.

Statutes" from the

In this issue of the Sa-Dhan newsletter, we bring together few of those different perspectives. We

Report of the

begin with Dr. Dutta's focussed piece that dwells on the nature and issues that training in

Committee on

Microfinance has to confront. This is followed by Mr. Mascarenhas's experience of participating in

Urban Cooperative

the Sa-Dhan's effort to address some of these problems. Having done this we then shift our

Bank Reforms/ RBI

attention to the challenge of SHG training and promotion facing the country. To highlight emerging

issues and challenges within the subject, we requested Mr. Soumen Biswas to review the MYRADA

book on SHG training. We then follow it up by outlining the problem, drawing on discussions taking

Published by:

place within the sub-group on training. Together, these different pieces highlight some of the

Sa-Dhan, B 4/3133 Vasant Kunj complexities we face in designing and building training programs. We hope that these diverse

New Delhi-110070

points of view will contribute to improve the training and ultimately the service quality to our poor

Tel./Fax: 011-613 2629

clients.

E-mail: sa_dhan@hotmail.com

Edited by : Mathew Titus

Mathew Titus

For Private Circulation Only