3. TRAINING DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION

2. IDENTIFYING TRAINING NEEDS

4. EVALUATIONS

THE ISSUES

While around 50% cultivator households in India are indebted, only 27% of debt is sourced from formal sector

Yet there are over 44,000 rural & semi-urban bank branches, offering the potential to improve financial inclusion

Possibility that barriers to effective outreach arise from ‘attitudinal’ factors was investigated in earlier project

BACKGROUND: The Earlier Project

(Jones et al, 2003, funded by DFID)*

60 BMs in Datia, Betul & Indore districts of Madhya Pradesh (MP) interviewed re their perceptions of:

clients/rural context

their organization (bank)

selves (goals, resources, risks)

quantitative & qualitative analyses revealed negative attitudes

BMs with more training were less negative

Training identified as means of promoting innovation & encouraging positive attitudes

BASELINE SURVEYS

 

Conducted with & by collaborators, to examine:

existing training provision & materials

(informed by banks - staff, trainers, training

institutes, & non- financial companies)

bank services (informed by individual

clients & SHGs)

 

 AREAS OF TRAINING NEED IDENTIFIED

 

problem-solving in rural context

(eg re rural lending)

social skills development

development of positive attitudes to

selves, organization & poor clients

participatory & innovative training methods

TRAINING

positive concurrent evaluations by trainees & trainers

ATTITUDE CHANGEpre- & post- training attitude measures (developed via earlier Project)

demonstrated significant positive attitude change.

OUTCOME EVALUATIONvisits to bank branches 2½ - 3 months after training by C.P.Mohan &

A. Sharrma (CAB), & UoR interviewers

12 accessible & representative branches chosen

semi-structured interviews in each location with branch manager (BM),

bank staff group, individual clients & bank-linked SHGs

barriers to achieving action plans included lack of resources (staff &

time), language, NPAs & environment/infrastructure, but:

all BMs had increased confidence, & majority evidenced more positive

attitude & behaviour towards poor clients & increased empowering of

bank staff

new initiatives were under way, including lending for new activities;

client base was expanding

SUSTAINABILITY

training programme successful due to being demand-led, innovative in

content & style, balanced in attention on the individual as well as on

collective issues, & supported by senior banking officials; it is now

mainstreamed within CAB

FUNDED BY DFID/EDIF

CONDUCTED BY:

University of Reading (UoR):

School of Agriculture, Policy & Development

(Dr Howard Jones & Esse Nilsson)

School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences

( Dr Marylin Williams)

& Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (Dr Yashwant Thorat)

IN COLLABORATION WITH:

College of Agricultural Banking (CAB);

CARE, India;

All India Women’s Conference;

Confederation of Indian Industry;

Bank of India (BoI); Central Bank of India (CBI)

……………………………………………..

*Ref:Jones,JHM, Williams,MJ, Thorat,YT & Thorat,A (2003) Attitudes of Rural Branch Managers in Madhya Pradesh, India, toward their Role as Providers of

Financial Services to the Poor. Journal of Microfinance, 5, 2, 139-167

1. ISSUES & BACKGROUND

PpA Training Programme addressing attitudes of staff delivering financial services to the rural poor in India: design & evaluation

TRAINING OF TRAINERS

As pilot

To achieve sustainability

TRAINING MODULES IMPLEMENTATION

 

Training of 2 groups of BMs from Dhar &

Hoshangabad districts of MP

44 BMs of CBI, BoI & Regional Rural Bank (RRB)

branches

Residential for 12 days, at BoI & CBI training

institutes, Bhopal

Each group developed plans to achieve on

their return

Module Delivery/

Facilitation

Focus

Knowing yourself Aavishkar Centre

Psychological evaluation

Knowing your organization (bank) Mankidy Associates

Role-efficacy, role-making & self-awareness

The banks and rural poverty in India to date

CAB/RBI Rural credit and poverty alleviation – an unfinished agenda

Poor livelihoods: the poor as clients: conventional & MF approaches

CARE, CAB, UoR

Poverty, rural livelihoods & innovative financial service remediation

[Poster presented by Dr Marylin Williams, University of Reading,UK]