1. Concept of Self-Help Groups (SHG)
The concept was adopted and composed through years of reintegration
experience with the vulnerable returnees from Thailand, which implemented
by Cambodian Vision in Development (CVD) and from the experiences
of Cambodia situation while introducing the sustainability approach
of the social services and reintegration program. It was thought
that this concept would be relevant in working with disadvantage
community in all rural areas.
The results of the work of the last 2 years proved that the concept
has been considerable success. In the long term run, however, it
is yet to be seen to what extent the concept will still be appealing
and relevant to the need of the people.
This manual has been written primarily to be used in house by Cambodian
Vision in Development (CVD). It may be used by other agencies, if
they find it useful. In this context I would like to remind the
readers that I have used the terms agency, or Cambodian Vision in
Development agency interchangeably to denote the external organization
that is using this concept.
This manual is put together rather in a hurry. It has not been
proved read by other yet. There may be many parts, which need further
improvement. Due to time constraint, this manual could not be shared
with others to get their feedback. Also, it would have been useful
if the manual had a section on training design and content of training
of SHGs. Due to time constraint it has not been possible. I hope
that CVD staff will make changes and additions in this manual based
on feedback and their own experience in future.
The manual is divided into three sections. The first section covers
the definition and origin of the concept, why SHGs and the relevance
of the concept to Cambodian problem and context.
The second section describes how to organize SHGs. By giving a
time frame for each phrase of development in the group, it gives
an indication of what aspects need to be ensured before moving onto
the next phase of SHGs process.
The third section contains the various formats of the documentation
maintained by SHGs. it also contains formats and details of a few
documents to be maintained by the facilitating agencies, based on
the experience of Samlot Community-Based Rehabilitation. These formats
and books are to be treated as examples, although these are being
used by CVD Samlot SHGs.
Any improvement on these formats is most welcome.
Mounh Sarath
1a - What is a self-help group?
A self-help group could be any association that is formed on principals
of self-help. Thus a pagoda committee, an association of people
formed to undertake specific tasks, the traditional solidarity groups,
and etc.; are a few example of self-help SHGs. They are usually
formed on their own, and function based on certain norms developed
by themselves. They are essentially formed and driven by felt needs
within the committees, or can be fully bodied groups like the Tontines
groups. These self-help groups can be small or can be very large.
The CVD self-help groups in Samlot has been experienced of some
difficulty in the first stage and it has always been developing
and will need further developed conceptually to give more emphasis
on personal and social development of members (employment, and social
justice). CVD defines a self-help as follow:
A self-help group is small, autonomous, non-political group of
people living in the same vicinity of near each other and sharing
common concerns, who come together voluntarily to work for their
mutual personal, social and economic development. All members participate
directly and fully in all group functions.
1b- Main characteristics of SHGs
- Small Group: The concept encourages formation of small groups
in order to enable effective participation of all members. Generally
groups with members ranging from 15 - 20 have found to be very effective.
If the size is too small, it may result in less seriousness among
members of the group.
- Homogeneous: If the members belong to the same social and economic
strata, if they have similar concerns, and if there is a natural
affinity among them, it becomes very easy to work as a group.
- Functional and fully participation: The group has to meet regularly,
at least twice and month. All members need to attend all meetings.
- Autonomous: The groups are autonomous in their functions. They
operate base on their own bylaws, rules and regulation. All members
meet together and decided the rules and regulation based on concerns.
The group is accountable to itself in terms of its functioning.
- Collective Leadership: Though the groups have a Representative,
Assistant and Treasurer, the office bearers cannot take any involvement
in on their decision. All decisions are made in the group meetings
when all members are present. All decisions are therefore made in
consensus. The position of the office bearers is seen more as responsibility
than as power. Nevertheless, the office bearers are rotated regular
basis to avoid concentration of power in the hands of a few.
- Membership Voluntarily: The group forms on its won based on the
concept explained to them. Membership in a group is to be decided
between the prospective member and the other members of the group,
and not by any body else.
- Non-Political: The SHGs expressly state that they will not discuss
any political agenda. Here politics means party politics. Members
are free to have their own political affiliation, which may differ
from member of member within the group. Their issues however, are
not discussed in the group meeting.
- Mutual Help: The SHGs strive for the personal social and economic
development of the members, though mutual help.
- Regular Savings: The SHGs focuses on savings and credit activities
for mutual help. Saving is not from surplus, but from whatever little
the members can put aside from their consumption. The group members
collectively decide the size of the amount saved and the frequency
of saving.
2 - Why Self-Help Groups?
Forming self-help group is one form of organizing people. CVD has
been organizing people into various types of the organization, namely
disable association, village agricultural committee, rice banks
group. Firstly we need to understand why CVD organizing people.
2a - Why Organizing people?
One of the aims in development work is that all the work should
ultimately lead to overall development of families, which includes
security in terms of basic needs like food, health, and education.
This security must be sustainable. One of the features of sustainability
is that the families continue to enjoy security in terms of their
basic needs even after the Cambodian Vision in Development agency
withdraws its services. This mean that the community has to take
over the processes initiated by the external agency, and continues
to cater the needs of its members. This can happen only if:
- There is participation of the community in the intervention processes
right from the beginning.
- The community is organized in such a way that it clearly understand
its roles.
- The community has developed enough capacities among its members
to enable it to take over the processes initiated by the outside
agency.
2b - Why organizing small groups?
We saw above that there is a need to organize appropriate people's
organizations in order to make our development efforts to be sustainable.
Appropriateness of a people's organization, in this context, refers
to its structure and composition, which is depending on the objectives
and needs for which the people need to come together. Community
needs can be broadly divided into two levels, namely community-level
needs and family-level needs. This division is purely for our own
understanding of community needs and therefore the division should
be treated as arbitrary.
I - Community-level needs
Community needs are needs felt in common and require collective
action on part of the community. These include communication, drinking
water, and education. If the objectives were to address these needs,
then organizing people at the community level would be appropriate,
as this would make participation of all people possible.
II- Family/individual-level needs
Such needs as, food security, clothing, shelters, and access to
credit, self-confidence and social recognition. These needs can
be addressed more effectively through small homogenous group, than
through representative committees.
The reasons are:
- The best representative of an individual is the individual
himself or herself. Small groups like the SHGs provide opportunity
for people to directly participate in making decisions that affect
their lives. Representative committees are not close enough to
each individual or family to help them adequately.
- Villages are heterogeneous. Weaker members cannot express
themselves freely in a heterogeneous, threatening atmosphere.
Decisions made in such atmosphere are influenced by the dominant
sections of the community, with a passive acknowledgement by the
weaker sections. Thus equity is difficult to achieve. Smaller,
homogeneous groups provide a non-threatening forum to the weaker
members to express their views needs and concerns freely.
- The whole question of development depends on largely on who
has access to and control over various resources. There can be
no development if there is no structure of domination in the community.
In village-level organizations, domination and submission are
likely to exist within the organization. A rich powerful man and
a week, powerless person sits together in the same organization/committee
where they are expected to behave as equals. There is no level-playing
field. Through participation in small groups weaker member can
enhance their bargaining power in the larger community. Once they
grow in confidence, becoming more articulate it is possible for
them to sit in higher-level bodies and participate actively in
the issues deliberated by such bodies. They would certainly influence
the decision-making process.
2c - Small Groups have other Advantages as well
- Personal and social Development: Participation in small groups
makes possible a great deal of personal development, including development
of self-esteem and self-confidence. Cohesion and mutual understanding
development among group members and give them a strong sense of
identity and belonging. This is in turn enforces discipline and
a code of conduct on all groups members.
- True transparency is possible. Since all members participate
in decision-making, they become accountable and responsible to the
decisions made. This also develops a greater sense of ownership
among members of the group and group activities. The small groups
have greater chance of sustainability than do larger structures.
3 - Elements of the Self-Help Concept
The SHG concept has evolved into a more systematic model over the
last 15 years. Based on the experiences in the field, improvements
have been added constantly into the practice of this concept. These
improvements over a period of time have become regular features
of the concept. The SHGs themselves introduced most of these features,
in the course of their functioning. While these features may make
the concept look very rigid it should be noted that these have been
retained as features in order to:
- Preempt any chances of the groups making similar mistakes/falling
into very obvious pitfalls.
- To enhance the chances of ensuring equity and social justice
in the implementation of the concept and, not allowing the existing
dominant social structure to take over this new approach, this
is essentially aimed at empowering the disadvantaged.
It should be borne in mind that the groups have the right to decide
on whatever is presented to them. Lists of the elements of the SHGs
evolved over years of group functioning are given below. The Community-Based
Rehabilitation (CBR) worker needs to understand each of these elements
and facilitate discussions on these elements with the groups or
aspirant members who want to start a group.
3a - Saving and Credit Activities
Small groups can have many different focuses. Savings and credit
activities are considered as an appropriate focus for SHGs because
they meet important needs of the members and foster a high level
of self-reliance. I rural Cambodia where formal financial institutions
are virtually non-existent, this focus ensures those poor get access
to a credit sources that are not exploitative. It is also a good
focus for groups because it keeps people interested and motivation.
Help allow autonomy; people then have resources for activities.
Saving in small SHGs is not really savings in a conventional way.
The word is used for simplicity. It is not money kept aside for
a specific purpose. It is not even available to withdraw at will.
It is simply a regular contribution or investment by members to
have access to credit. This contribution is generally made though
practice of thrift. Such small amounts of savings as the members
make in SHGs do not look very attractive. Even savings of ONE YEAR
of members may not be a significant amount. However, people together,
saving in a group can look large enough for members to realize the
potential use of such fund. Nevertheless, saving is encouraged so
that the community demonstrates its commitment and interest in the
SHGs, which clearly leads to building among members a strong sense
of ownership about the group.
Groups are required to make the rule that all members save regularly
and equally. The groups decide the amount and frequency of savings.
The suggestion that savings among members of the same group should
be equal is based on years of experiences working with other development
agencies. The level of savings is up to the group to decide, so
that even the poorest of the poor can participate. Groups discouraged
from lending to non-group members. This is because the groups are
forms not to become moneylenders but to avoid the dependence on
moneylenders. If there are non-members who require credit, the SHGs
should encourage them to form another group. Saving in the group
is for development of its own members and not for lending to others.
3b - Membership
The membership in the group is voluntary. All the members of a
group have to mutually agree to work with each other. The staff
of CBR shall not influence the group in the selection of its members.
Before formation of the group, however, the staff may suggest to
the people to involve members who they all feel comfortable to work
together, and who share similar interest. The membership has to
be voluntary in the sense that a person shall not be forced to joint
a particular group either by the outside agency or by the group
itself. The staff however stresses the need to look at affinity
and homogeneity (in social and economic lives of the members) as
factors uniting the group.
3c - Book Keeping
Bookkeeping is an important element of SHGs concept. Apart from
help in maintaining records of the various activities of the group,
the book also helps in making the group more transparent. Further,
the documents related to the financial transactions of the group
give it credibility, which may be of used, if the groups were to
be linked to some formal financial institutions. Several books are
introduced to the group right from the beginning of the grouping.
These are:
- Minute book, to document the proceedings of every group meeting
- Attendance register, to monitor the attendance of members
- Savings book, to maintain the saving detail of members
- Cash-book, to record all monetary transactions of the group
- Loan ledger, to record loan particulars of each member
- Individual savings and credit pass book, given to each member
of the group, which contains information on the savings, borrowing,
and repayment of the concerned member.
3d - Meetings
Meeting forms the backbone of the SHG concept. It provides a forum
for exchange of information. All members are required to attend
all meetings. The outside agency can use this forum to discuss its
plans and programs with the members, which becomes more participation.
In tern, it can learn the community's wishes and aspirations, and
also use this forum to make mutual plans.
Facilitation of these discussions assumes importance. Initially,
meetings are facilitated by the staff to imbibe values of democratic
participation and consensus building. Meeting is a forum where most
things are decided. Proper facilitation of these meetings, in a
way as to generate goodwill and a sense of accomplishment, becomes
very crucial to the concept of SHG.
A meeting held democratically enables active and meaningful participation
of both the insiders and the outsiders that goes a long way in the
empowerment of the community. Meetings are exercises of enabling,
empowering the members.
The groups are required to meet at least twice a month. This is
because meetings, apart from providing a forum for transparent transactions
of their savings and credit activities, are seen as vehicles of
social and personal development of members. If there is a provision
to have two meetings, then one of the meetings can be devoted to
financial transactions and, the other for discussions aimed at fostering
social and personal development of the members.
Regular group meetings are essential to SHGs. All group activities
would take place in them. All financial transactions would occur
in meetings, to ensure transparency. Members would discuss and decide
issues and resolve conflicts in meetings. They would be encouraged
to share with each other in the meetings, to better understand each
other and build solidarity. To avoid domination by strong members,
all members would be encouraged to speak up during the meetings
and thus build up confidence.
3e - Leadership
Whenever more than one individual come together for a certain purpose,
leadership becomes necessary. Whether it is the affairs of a family,
activities of a peer group, or the governance of a nation, leadership
is necessary. Depending on the nature and activities of unit for
which leadership is required, its style may differ.
In the case of SHGs collective form of leadership is encouraged.
All decision in groups is made by all members in consensus. The
whole group is responsible for, and accountable to, all its decisions.
However, in order to see that certain functions of the group are
carried out smoothly, each group needs three office bearers, namely,
a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer.
These positions have more responsibility than power. Group leader
would not make any decisions unilaterally in the leadership in SHGs
is based on consensus. All decisions would be made in meetings attended
by all members of the group (at least more than 80% attendance).
The three office bearers have clear responsibilities, which are
as follow:
- The president is responsible for facilitating meetings, calling
emergency meeting and representing the group in any external relation.
- The secretary is responsible or the maintenance of all books
of the accounts and other related documents of the group.
- The cashier or treasurer is responsible for maintaining the cash-in-hand
and handling all cash transactions during group meetings. These
include collecting savings, loan repayments, interest payments,
and fines, and issuing loans and money for expenses approved by
the group.
Given the emphasis on decision-making by consensus and downplaying
the role of the group leaders, even the use of the teams "president"
"secretary" and "cashier" may not be appropriate.
It is advisable to use terms such as "representative"
of the group that have specific responsibilities.
This terminology would evoke less association with power and authority;
leadership in SHGs should involved responsibility more than the
authority. Groups would decide themselves on term of office for
group leaders, but would be encouraged to rotate leaders regularly
to avoid the accumulation of power in the hands of a few. Groups
are required to make the rule that office bearer may not make any
decisions on their own.
3f - Rotation of office bearers
Based on the experience in Samlot CBR project, and some emerging
trends in the SHGs, I think that the groups should have rotation
of office bearers rather than elections. It was seen in Samlot district
that elections normally reaffirmed faith in the exiting leadership.
In most cases the members did not feel like changing the leaders
because change meant the group was not happy with the present leadership.
Further, elections gave an opportunity for the current leader to
contest again and the group in a way forced to retain the same leader.
Rotation of leadership on the other hand offsets the above constraints.
Firstly, it assures that the change in leadership is not a judgement
on the performance of the previous leadership, but an exercise aimed
at giving everyone the opportunity to shoulder the responsibility.
This would at the same time successfully avoid the danger of power
getting gradually concentration in the hands of a few, and thereby
perpetuation the existing social order, which the SHGs set out,
in the first instance, to question.
3g - Rules
Any association of people needs certain norms to carryout their
tasks smoothly and with greater efficiency. Rules are made for their
own convenience and not to create obstacles. The SHGs formulate
their own rules and regulations. This is an expression of the group's
autonomy. Each group would have its own rules on meeting, savings,
terms and conditions of lending, and other issues. Groups have the
liberty to repeal, amend or add any rule depending on the situation.
The rules are made to help in smooth functioning of the group and
not to provide bottlenecks.
3h - Working Capital Assistance
Facilitation, training, working capital assistance, audit and monitoring
support and helping SHGs form federations are the four major forms
of assistance provided by the facilitation agency to the SHGs. Working
capital Assistance - WCA, would be provided to groups that have
managed their own money satisfactorily over a period of time. Loans
would be given directly to groups. This money goes into the common
funds of the groups, and is used for lending activities.
The groups decide on how to use the capital assistance, within
certain broad framework of conditions. Later, the money would be
repaid to agency. The agency and the SHG would jointly agree upon
the repayment rate. However, the groups are encouraged to repay
on a monthly installment basis, preferably from the very next month
of borrowing. Here, WCA is an interim arrangement until the groups
are able to linkup to financial institutions. The rationale for
providing WCA is in three folds:
- WCA increases the common fund and thereby enables a group to
grant larger loans to its members.
- Since it is given to a group on account of its good performance,
WCA provides an incentive for good group work.
- WCA helps enhance the decision-making capacities of groups by
providing them opportunities for managing larger amounts.
[Further details on WCA are given in section II]
3i - Training
Training is an important form of capacity building process in organizing
development. In the context of SHGs training takes place both informal
as well as formal ways. Informal training takes place in the routine
meetings of the groups, in the form of on-the-job learning, of book
keeping, facilitation group meetings, and through discussion on
topics of interest.
Formal training, on the other hand, is deliberately planned sessions,
based on a joint analysis of the training needs of the group. This
may also contain a few topics, which CVD think necessary for the
groups to learn. These training sessions are generally aimed at
making the group self-reliant in all aspects of its functioning.
Thus typically the least package of training for the SHGs may include
sessions on various aspects of the group dynamics such as, meeting
facilitation, decision making, leadership, problem solving and conflict
resolution, and on credit management and book keeping.
Further, training is also aimed at creating awareness on the social
and personal development aspects of the members and groups. In order
to strengthen the analytical abilities of members suitable training
sessions may be planned. In order to give them a better perspective,
it may be useful to conduct training on human rights, gender, domestic
violence, on issue of ecology and environment, and any other issues
of national or global importance. These awareness sessions are generally
aimed to provide enough information to people to enable them to
make appropriate decisions.
3j - Group Audit
Auditing of credit activities of SHGs is a very important aspect
in group strengthening and ensuring greater transparency. Auditing
in this context goes beyond the conventional audit, which generally
focuses on seeing whether the books are properly written and the
procedures, properly followed. The group audit, apart from looking
into the above aspects, also need to look loan utilization, impact
of the loan borrowed on the family, the ability of individual members
to plan their enterprises, the quality of discussion when loans
are disbursed, and the power play and other aspects of group dynamics,
crucial to ensure equity in the group. Thus group audit is not merely
a financial audit but also a kind of a social audit.
The staff may carry out the group audit in initial stages. The
audit is done based on a checklist, which may draw up jointly with
the group. The auditor conducts auditing of each group once in every
six months. While conducting audition, the auditor visits the group
and conducts audit in the present of the office bearers of the group.
Later, s/he prepares a report on the audition and submits a copy
each to the supervisor (Manager), to the concern staff (CBR worker)
in-charge of the group, and to the group. The auditor attends the
subsequent group meeting and explains the audit's findings to all
members. Based on the outcome, the group may make an action plan
to strengthen its weak areas. CVD, on its part, looks into aspects
where it can facilitate the capacity building process of the group.
As the concept and practice of audit becomes a familiar activity,
CVD hands over the responsibility of auditing to the community.
In line with its withdrawal strategy, CVD needs to identify potential
auditors from among group, who may be secretaries of the SHGs, and
train them in auditing skill. These may be called "community
auditors". The community auditors may be attached to the federations
of the SHGs, which appoints them to specific SHGs, receives reports
and act on them. Further, the federation may levy small amount of
fees collected from group as contribution and pay the auditors a
nominal amount for their services. It may even ask concerned groups
to make payment directly after the audit is done.
3k - Forming Federation of SHGs
The SHGs functioning in a given area may be organized into a federation
or federations at various levels. A federation of SHG is a representative
body, which plays a supportive role to the members. Federations
have an important role to play in organizing the poor into larger
structure, which can influence the decision-making bodies. They
are primarily seen as higher-level bodies, which fill in the gap
created by CVD's withdrawal from the groups, and provide moral support
to the small groups in the areas. They give a sense of belonging
to all the groups and do a way with the sense of isolation. It is
important, however, to note that forming federations of SHGs inevitably
gives rise to representative body/ies in relation to the SHGs.
Therefore care should be taken not to create federations that have
overriding powers over the SHGs. This is taken care of if the SHGs
are given full freedom to decide whether to have a federation at
all, and if so, what is should be like and so on. Additionally,
since the federations are formed only after the SHGs have attained
a level of maturity, the members would have gained enough confidence
to be articulated and represented their groups adequately and effectively.
Depending on what the groups want and on practical considerations,
the federations can be at cluster level (a small group of two or
three villages), and or at the commune level. These federations
essentially are forums where the member groups come together for
purposes of sharing, networking and seeking moral and other forums
of support. They can for example, provide audit services to all
the groups, recruit promoters from among articulate members of the
groups to organize other poor into SHGs.
The federations may receive a nominal contribution from the member
group, which can be used to pay for such services. It can also provide
the problem solving and conflict resolving services to the member
groups on request. They may emerge as the voice of the groups to
represent them at larger forums for purposes of advocacy and lobbying.
Since the options are several, the federation/s can decide to take
up any one or several of these as their objectives.
The choice of deciding what the federation should address, what
should be the composition and structure of the federation, should
be left to the SHGs. The Cambodian Vision in Development should
create opportunities for sharing among all the SHGs of the given
cluster or commune or any defined area so that the groups are able
to see for themselves, if there is a need for forming federations.
There may have to be some provisions for any group, which is not
interest to be part of any federation and wants to retain its complete
autonomy. Care needs to be taken only if the federation poses any
potential threat to the autonomy.
3l - Withdrawal Strategy
As the groups become self-reliant in managing their functions,
especially the book keeping, meeting, facilitation and credit management
aspects, CVD gradually reduces its active role in the group, and
finally withdrawals from the group, which, by now, is fully self-reliant.
CVD realizes that this kind of complete withdrawal from a group
may take years.
The withdrawal plan needs to be made from at least the second year
onward. This is the time when the first stages of group organizing,
savings, lending and the first round of working capital assistance
are seen through. Withdrawal strategy requires a thorough understanding
of the group's needs in term of knowledge, competence and skill
required to manage the group on its own. The strategy, therefore
involves:
- Formulating jointly with the SHGs parameters/qualities of a good
SHGs.
- A joint analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the group
and listing out all the weaknesses, in light of the criteria set
for a good SHG.
- Jointly deciding on the action to be taken to rectify the weaknesses.
- Preparing an action plan to carry out the group strengthening
processes, with a definite time frame.
Withdrawal strategy may include, among other things, a package
of training program aims at capacity building of the group, and
networking to provide linkages with other agencies that are beneficial
to the sustainability of the group. Linkage with some financial
institutions, which could provide capital assistance, is one such
example. It may be desirable to draw up certain parameters to identify
the strengths and weaknesses of the group. If there are certain
criteria that are agreeable to most groups as the aspects of a good
group, then the same list could be used to assess the strengths
and weaknesses of the groups. Based on this assessment the future
action plan can be drawn.
3m - Stages in withdrawal
Withdrawal of agency's support to SHGs happens in stages. The first
stage would be to gradually withdraw the facilitation support given
by the staff in meetings. From the second year onward, the group
should conduct its meeting on its own. To start with, the CBR worker
may attend alternate meetings to give the group a chance to conduct
meeting entirely on its own. This also gives good feedback to the
staff to understand the weaknesses of the group.
In the second stage, approximately by the end of the third year,
the CBR worker should positively stop attending meetings. S/he may
attend once a while, not to facilitate the meeting but to merely
observe. This can happen, for example, once in a quarter. The agency
keeps in touch with the group through the federation of which the
group may be a member. In case the group still repaying the earlier
loan to the agency, the agency needs not continue attending meetings
until the group repays the loan completely. The group can be asked
to repay the amount directly to the office bearer after the meeting.
If the group cannot find any alternative to WCA and needs capital
assistance, it can be supported by the agency through the federation.
The loan application may be processed in the federation meeting
and decided. The actual fund management may still be with the agency.
The third stage would be complete withdrawal from the group. This
would happen when the following systems are in place.
- A federation of federations that are active and responsive to
group needs.
- A cadre of community auditors who are attached to the federation
and doing auditing work regularly.
- The federation is able to resolve any conflicts within or even
between groups.
- The groups have access to credit source for their additional
needs, as a replacement to the WCA.
Finally, total phasing out of the agency from the area may occur
if the agency has been able to ensure the following, in addition
to the above.
- Alternative mechanism to organize other poor in the area into
groups.
- Trained federations at various levels to cater to all the needs
of the SHGs.
- Either helped the federation/groups to establish linkages with
formal financial institutions in the area or set up a fund that
is managed by the community independently, exclusively for this
purpose.
- Helped establishing linkages between federation/s and SHGs and
other agencies, government departments, NGOs, etc.; for advocacy,
lobbying, skill building and other needs of the community.
- Helped establishing of community level of PO, CBOs like VDC/CDCs
to address the larger community needs like drinking water, education,
communication, and community health care…
- Ensured that all the PO/CBOs, SHGs Federation, VDC etc. are able
to cater to the various needs of the community.
- There is a clear handing over of assets of the agency to the
organizations and stipulated clearly how to use them, so that there
will not be any dispute with regard to the assets.
This total phasing out may happen only when the agency decides
to move out of the area. However, experience shows that in a community
development project it takes rather long to move out of a community
because there are so many issues that need to be addressed and each
major issue needs almost exclusive focus. Though we say that the
approach should be integrated, it is common to see that within an
integrated approach one or two issues are focused. Though for a
community-based development agency to feel it has set up systems
that can address all the main concerns of the community adequately.
Further, by that time there may be newer issues coming up which
may need fresh inputs. It is up to the agency to decided whether
it wants to remain in the same community for a long time and help
the community in addressing all the issues, or to just focus on
a few issues in a larger integrated approach for a few year and
move on to another area where a similar program can be initiated.
In either case, the agency needs to make clear strategic plan with
regard to its intention of working with a community. Clear objectives
with indicators need to be laid out for the agency as well as for
the community to see whether the agency's work is accomplished and
whether it is time for the agency to phase out of the area.
3n - Other Activities
It is clear that SHGs are not merely organizations formed for credit
activities. The SHGs are used for an integrated approach to development.
SHGs provide a very efficient forum for extending many of the other
interventions. For example adult literacy can be effectively organized
through the SHGs. It provides good forum for disseminating information
on issues like health, family planing, etc. It can be used to select
representative farmers for intensive training. These farmers, in
tern, can share their learning with other members in their group
meetings, thereby disseminating information to more people.
The SHGs themselves can look into other activities as well. They
can address the food security issue by setting aside some capital
to buy rice and store for its members. In fact any issue concerned
with the personal, social and economic development of the members
can be taken up by the groups. They can, under the umbrella of the
federation advocate on issue like logging, on domestic violence
and any such issues. Any issue, which needs a micro level intervention,
may be taken up through the groups. The possibilities are plenty.
It is up to the group and its facilitator to realize these possibilities.
4 - SHG and Village Community organization
One the concerns expressed by some development workers about the
SHGs is that they may fracture the community by dividing villagers
into small isolated groups. This is not true. While it is true that
affinity and homogeneity are used to bring people together in small
groups to realize their personal, social and economic development,
SHGs do not preclude the possibility of higher forms of organizing.
In fact the SHGs are a first stage or means to build the individual
capacities of especially the disadvantaged sections of the village
community and thus enable them to take on greater roles in the community.
In the context of CVD's community-based rehabilitation (CBR) approach,
for example, the SHGs can play a critical and complementary role.
Generally CVD has been concentrating on organizing village level
bodies, most notably SHGs in Samlot district. If SHGs have been
organized in villages where there is the government (SEILA program)
VDC (Village Development Committee) is in place, it is possible
to apply the work of those VDC to participate in the real situation
with the SHGs. The SHGs may be allowed to nominate their representative
to the VDCs and being advisors to the groups, based on the work
of a specific group are being carried out.
Since the SHGs are associations of many families, in term of representing
people, there should not be a problem.
The representatives of the groups may share the VDC meeting proceedings
in the SHGs meetings. At present sharing of VDC deliberations with
the whole village, community has not been happening. There is no
mechanism to do this. Once the VDCs are elected and functioned,
there is hardly any sharing between the village community and the
VDC. The SHGs can fill this crucial gap, and make the VDCs more
accountable to their community.
Linkages between the SHGs and the VDC will bring them together
to address issues larger concern, which is beyond the domain of
the families. This may give rise to a kind of federal structure
in the village. The VDCs as well as the SHGs of a given area or
commune may joint to form larger federations that give them greater
bargaining force. However, the stress should be on building these
primary level organizations. If there are strengthened, they can
determine on their own, whether to federate, at what level to federate
and for what objective they need to federate. Such a need is based
federation of the VDCs/SHGs has better chance of being effective
and sustainable.
