comprehensive poverty eradication through social...
TRANSCRIPT
Comprehensive poverty eradication through
social mobilisation and empowerment of
rural poor women -
Andhra Pradesh experience of a statewide
programme
B.Rajsekhar, I.A.S,Addl C.E.O, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP)
Dept. of Rural Development, Govt. of A.P
29-09-09
Vision of A.P: each family in the state should beout of poverty, and, enjoy:-
Life with dignity, ‘voice’
Intra family equity – equal status for women
Freedom from hunger
Decent Income: >$100 per month, 3 - 4 sources
Planned household expenditure
Risk management - life, health, assets andincomes
Shelter, Health and Education
Core beliefs about poor
• Poor have a strong desire and innate ability to come outof poverty
• Poor have a strong sense of self-help and volunteerism
Obstacles – psychological, social, economic, political -suppress their innate capability
• Social mobilization to unleash their innate abilities
• Poor can come out of poverty only through their owninstitutions
• Social mobilization – not automatic, needs to be induced
• Hence, need for sensitive support institutions for poor
Critical role of Govt. of A.P
• Implementation of SAPAP Project (1995 – 2000)
• Scaling up SAPAP success to the whole state –through World Bank fund support
• Setting up of S.E.R.P - an autonomous society
dedicated to social mobilization
• District level initiatives of Collectors
• Support from all line departments and convergence
with all key ongoing Govt. programmes
• Strong and sustained commitment of successiveChief Ministers of A.P to this process
2004 – 2009: saturation approach - to cover all
the poor in the state
Scaling up through World Bank funding
Fund support: $350 mn – 2000-2009
Key components:
– Institution and human capacity building (26%)
– Community Investment Fund (C.I.F) (66%)
– 80% of C.I.F as seed capital
– Physical productive infrastructure
– Fund for social needs – gender, health, nutrition, etc.
– Skill upgrading of youth and placement
– Risk management
Since 2005-06, Govt of India’s S.G.S.Y in the samepattern
Role of S.E.R.P
Sensitive support organization for the poor
– Autonomous society, set up by Government in 2000
– Chief Minister – Chairman of General Body of S.E.R.P
– Statewide mandate
– firm conviction in the capability of poor, and, in organizations ofthe poor
– To induce social mobilization
– To provide facilitation support to institutions of poor
– To sensitize all line departments to be inclusive of the needs of thepoor
– To sensitise banks, insurance companies
Strategy
Social mobilization and empowerment
Organize rural women’s
groups
& their federations
Knowledge & awareness
Investment support
Govt. departments
Fin. institutions
Panchayat Raj institutions
Markets and others
Institution building process
• S.E.R.P helps poor to build their own institutions
• Recruited dedicated personnel – young professionals (1 per2000 members) – to initiate the process
• Subsequently through Community Resource Persons (CRP)and the Federations
• Starts with poorest of poor women - forming Self HelpGroups (SHG) - 10 to 15 members, based on affinity
• Capacity building and facilitation of group meetings
• Thrift and credit, collective action around key issues
• Guidance on collective action, formation of federations
Group activities strengthen members, and, vice versa
Federations of poor – force multipliers
• Social mobilization does not stop at SHG level
• Federating all S.H.Gs at village level – multiplies strengthof the poor
• A federation understands better problems of the vulnerable
• Higher level of federations – block and district level
• Network with other village level and higher orderinstitutions
• Principle of subsidiarity
• Self management – reduce dependence on supportorganization – they transform into support organizations
• Nurture member organizations
• Advocacy - Influence policies, programmes in favour ofpoor
• Scale – aggregating ‘demand’
• Linking key organizations with poor – banks, markets
• Greater pressure on service delivery
• Dynamic – roles change in response to memberaspirations, opportunities, experience
Pressure on S.E.R.P to continuously evolve and assumenew roles and responsibilities
Role of federations
Mandal Samakhyas and V.Os plan and implement the various
project components
– Each Mandal is divided into three Clusters of 10-12 habitations.
– A development professional, called Community Coordinator(CC) is placed in each Cluster. S/he stays in her cluster.
– SERP selects and trains them. After completion of training, theyare contracted by the MS and are accountable to MS.
– M.S responsible for social mobilisation, institution building andfunding the microplans of S.H.Gs/V.Os from C.I.F
– Micro credit plans are evolved by the S.H.Gs in each village.These plans are funded by their own savings, CIF fund andBank Linkage.
– V.Os responsible for appraising the microplans andrecommending them to M.S for financing from C.I.F
– V.Os appraise microplans and also finance them from therecycled C.I.F
C.B.Os implement the projectA.P Federation Model
SHGs
• Thrift and credit activities
• Monitoring group performance
• Micro Credit Planning
• Household inv plans
• E.C - 2 from each S.H.G, 5 Office bearers
• Strengthening of SHGs
• Arrange line of credit to the SHGs
• Social action
• Village development
• Marketing and food security
• Support activists – 3 -5
• E.C - 2 from each V.O, 5 Office bearers
• Support to VOs
• Secure linkage with Govt. Depts.
fin institutions, markets
• Auditing of the groups
• Micro Finance functions
10 - 15
SHGs SHGs SHGsSHGs SHGs
V.O
150 -
200
MMS
6000
9000 -
Z S300,000
500,000
Village
Organization
Mandal
Samakhya
Zilla Samakhya
SELF HELP GROUPS
Key impacts of social mobilisation
1. Institution building
– 10.2 million women organised into 850,000
S.H.Gs,
– All Villages covered
– S.H.G Federations: village – 35,525 V.Os,
mandal – 1098 M.M.S, and, district – 22 Z.Ss
– Universal coverage of poor - 90% of rural poor
households organized
2. Social capital created
– 1.7 mn trained grassroots women leaders
managing S.H.Gs and federations
– 180,000 para professionals at village level –
accountable to women’s groups
– 20,000 Community resource persons – scaling
up and deepening social mobilisation
3. Community financing institutions
Seed capital support to Mandal samakhyas:
• Project facilitated financial intermediation by
federations – M.S – V.O – S.H.G – member
• $200 mn disbursed to 1097 mandal samakhyas
from 2001 – 2009
• C.I.F (World bank project) and S.G.S.Y funds
channelled to federations
• Catalytic role of the fund:
―Enable poorest of poor to get a sizeable loan
and build their credit record
―Innovate and develop new financial products:
food security, marketing, health, education
Financing model
Village
Organization
Mandal
Samakhya
SHG SHG SHG
Terms of Partnership
(VO – MS)
Terms of Partnership
(SHG – VO)
Terms of Partnership
(Member – SHG)
Repayment
Period
Members
Prioritization of
Needs and Members
Micro Credit Plan
100 - 120
Months
40 - 60
months
12-24
months
Banks
4. Micro finance : SHG-Bank linkage
– S.H.G’s own accumulated savings and corpus $630 mn
– Bank loans to S.H.Gs –$1400 mn in 2008/09 : almost 50% of the entire country
– Per capita S.H.G-bank linkage – $2850 per
group
– Per member linkage : $240
Key impact: S.H.G-bank linkage
5. Major policy changes in banks and Government
‒ From savings linked lending to lending based on microcredit planning by S.H.Gs
‒ Total Financial inclusion - Bank finance for debtswapping, social needs and income generation
‒ 6000 villages covered. Balance 29000 by 2011/12
‒ Upto $10000 per group under debt swapping
‒ From 2004 – interest subsidy for on-time repayment -‘Pavala vaddi’ scheme. Outlay for 2009/10: $63 mn
6. Leveraging APRPRP and S.G.S.Y
investments
W.B project outlay (2000 – 2009): $340 mn
Govt of India S.G.S.Y – $120 mn
– S.H.G’s own corpus $630 mn
– Cumulative lending from banks: 2004-09: $3840 mn
– State Govt’s incentive for prompt
repayment: 2004-09: $180 mn
SHG-Bank Linkage in AP
4091
151204
400
613
1177
1393
01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09
Target 2009-10: $1800mn
7. Prerequisites for a family to come
out of abject poverty
6 to 8 years of continuous nurturing and handholding of
women members by Self Help Groups and their
federations
Adequate investment: minimum investment of $2000-
per family ( by way of numerous ‘small’ and ‘big’ loans)
over 6 – 8 years
A.P Govt. plan to raise $2 bn by 2015/16
covering 10 mn S.H.G members
Key livelihoods impacts
8. Sustainable agriculture initiative
– Low external input sustainable agriculture – based on local
natural resources (‘Zero budget farming’)
– covering 1.4 mn acres in Kharif 2008 – largest initiative in the
country
– Community managed extension system
– Cost savings: $60 – $300 per acre
– Seen as a national model for sustainable agriculture in the
context of adaptation to climate change and mitigation
– Kharif 2009 – 2 mn acres coverage (10% of State’s cultivable
area)
Key livelihoods impacts9. Collective marketing of agriculture produce
− Village level procurement centres for paddy, maize, red gram, soybean, etc
− V.O as franchisee of A.P.State Civil Supplies Corporation for procurement of paddy at minimum support price
− 2008-09 paddy turnover: $90 mn– from 497 V.Os
10. Women dairies: franchisees of A.P State Coop dairy
− 156 Bulk milk cooling centres run by Mandal samakhyas
− 2784 village milk collection centres
− 250,000 litres of milk per day (flush season)
− 140,000 dairy farmers
Risk mitigation
11. Social risk management
– 8.1 mn members/spouses covered under life insurance
– largest in the country
– Front end managed by the S.H.Gs federations
– Low admin costs: $0.2/ per member
– Target for 2009-10: $0.34 mn
12. Food security credit – covers 2.1 million families.
Specific focus on tribal areas, coastal areas, and
drought prone areas
Key social impacts
13. Health and nutrition initiative
– 660 villages - comprehensive nutrition and health care
support to pregnant women and lactating mothers
– healthy mothers and healthy babies – ‘zero’ low birth
weight babies
14. Education
– Pre-school centres managed by V.Os
15. Gender initiative – intra family equity, ‘no to domestic
violence’, family counselling centres run by Mandal
samakhyas
Key impacts16. Persons with disability: 2,12,888 persons with disability
organised into 23,069 SHGs. Supported for livelihoods
enhancement, medical treatment and rehabilitation, accessing
entitlements from Govt.
17. P.R.Is: Women’s network a strong lobby for the poor, strong
influence on PRI functioning, strengthens Gram sabhas
18. Innovative ways of working with N.G.Os – partnership between
N.G.Os and S.H.G Federations
19. Women’s network a platform for convergence of all anti-
poverty programmes: housing, land access, civil supplies, urban
development, forest management
20. Line departments modified implementation procedures in
consultation with S.H.G federations
Key lessons
1. A long term strategy for poverty
eradication, based on social
mobilisation and women
empowerment
2. State level mission and dedicated
project management unit at state level,
district level and block level
Key lessons
3. A single department to take overall responsibility for S.H.G formation and strengthening
4. Social mobilisation requires intensive handholding support – staff requirement cannot be underestimated
5. National Rural Livelihoods mission a unique opportunity
Key lessons
6. Investment on demand side critical for effective implementation of programmes of all line departments
7. Convergence with key line departments – critical
8. Building strong institutions of poor women provides the last ‘metre’ solution to each and every poor family
Key lessons
9. A.P experience can reduce the learning curve for new states. S.E.R.P providing need based technical support to many states
10.Community resource person strategy –low cost and sustainable strategy. Reduces staff requirement
11. Intensive approach in the first 3 years –develop internal social capital for scaling up for the whole state
