Building the Network Mandate : Strategic choices for Sa-Dhan's MEP-2000

James Mascarenhas+

THE year ending March 2000, one round of the proposed training

are few more issues to be considered, such as:

programme was completed involving a total of 40 participants

1.

Building clientele by contacting all major donors and financial

from 28 organisations. The key topics/themes and the venues

institutions as currently being done.

were as follows:

2.

Tailor made modules to suit specific organisations.

Host

Mod. Content

Location

Period

Orgn.

3.

Costs ­ who will bear it, and can some amount of cross

1

Foundation

Ahm'bad & Oct' 99

FWWB

subsidies take place to benefit smaller NGOs.

Course

Guwahati

& Nov' 99

2

Livelihood

Ranchi

Dec' 99  PRADAN

4.

Logistic ­ perhaps zoning (i.e. North, South, East, West,

Linkages

Central and North-East).

3

Group Mgmt.

Bangalore  Feb' 2000 OUTREACH

4

Finan. Mgmt.

Hyderabad Apr' 2000 BASIX

5.

Language­English & Hindi have been predominantly used

so far, but there is a need to consider trainer proficiency in

other languages. Towards this end, Sa-Dhan should strive

The first round was extremely valuable from the point of view of

to establish sufficient training capacity in several of it's clients

gaining first hand experience by the Sa-Dhan training sub-group

in each region.

and Sa-Dhan as a whole subgroup. It has also raised several

issues and also generated considerable interest among various

Another question that remains is of foreign participants. Given the

developmental agencies who are engaged in Micro-Credit

present structure of the programme (1 module every quarter), the

programmes, including donor organisations and financial

costs would be extremely high (also for indigenous participants).

institutions such as NABARD, SIDBI etc.

However, to overcome this Sa-Dhan could announce

This paper discuss certain issues related to the organisation and

comprehensive one-month courses once or twice a year that

delivery of training which have arisen as a result of experience

includes all four modules. The organisation and logistics will need

generated in the first round as well as the possible participation of

to be worked out for this (e.g. as to where is the training going to

multiple organisations in the programme, which include, (a) Client

be located, whether all the modules going to be in one location or

organisations, (b) Partner organisations (resource organisations).

in multiple locations, and as to whether multiple resource

Some of the key issues arising out of the above :

organisation are going to be involved).

Organising training programmes

1.

Building partnership with other resource organisations.

At present, four modules as mentioned earlier have been

2.

Developing clientele within other MFIs.

decided upon. These will develop as time goes by and more

experienced is gained. However, in view of what is discussed

3.

Organising training programmes.

above, Sa-Dhan may have to consider two approaches :

1.

An integrated one month course which includes all the

Building partnership with other resource organisations.

modules.

2.

Offering the four modules separately.

The first question to be answered here is whether Sa-Dhan's

mandate allows it to function as a training organisation. If yes,

In both the cases, the logistics issue has to be carefully considered

then the first thing that is needed would be a training team. It also

as well as the host organisation for field work as mentioned above.

requires field projects where it can be carried out. Until then, Sa-

The issue also raised here of management and follow up of the

Dhan has to depend on other organisations that are operational

training assignments given to the participants.

and have training experience and resources. Fortunately, there

exist today several such organisations that can be engaged in

In conclusion, Sa-Dhan must decide whether it is a organisation

the programme. However, the issues like institutional

for facilitation or a training organisation. However, these two roles

arrangements, resources and compensation for services, logistics

are different, but equally important. The purpose of capacity building

and so on have to be sorted out.

of MFIs is important one and should not be lost. Sa-Dhan would

do extremely well to shoulder this responsibility making use the

Developing clientele within other MFIs

experienced and competent resources that exist and of the current

While from a macro or policy perspective there is no doubt about

environment which is supportive of the development of micro-

the need for training in Microfinance, there is immense potential

credit, micro enterprise and MFIs. We could not even say this 5

for developing a clientele that will ensure the self-propagation

years ago.

and sustainability of the training programme. In the process there

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+ The author is Director, Outreach, Bangalore

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