Exposure Report of India2

8/10/2019 Exposure Report of India2

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RELIEF SOCIETY OF TIGRAY (REST)

West Bengal, India Exposure Visit Report

From December 21 to 31, 2011

Funded by IPA/CGAP, World Bank

Zeratsion Fisseha, Mehari Teamrat and Tekeste G/Kidan2/9/2012


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I. IntroductionKilte Awlaelo graduation pilot project aims to specifically target the ultra poor by linkingsafety net with financial services in order to combine the alleviatory elements of safetynet with the transformative microfinance to enable the poorest to graduate out ofpoverty in the long term. The overall goal of the program is to graduate the poorest 500households to a level of self sufficiency and food security within a period of 24 months.

II. Objective of the field visit To get more experience on CGAP- Ford Foundation Program implemented by

Bandhan and Trickle up projects in India.

III. List of participants1. Zeratsion Fisseha2. Mehari Teamrat3. Tekeste Gebrekidan

IV. Duration of the field visit

This field visit was conducted in West Bengal, India from December 21, 2011 toDecember 3, 2011.

V. Visited organizations and projectsIn this field visit we were able to visit two organizations that had more than fiveprojects, Bandhan and Trickle Up.


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B ANDHAN

Bandhan staff gave an orientation to us on their organisation and discussed different programsthey implement. From this discussion and orientation we were able to understand thatBandhan is 10 years old working in microfinance and development activities. Initially it was apurely microfinance organization but after working for four years in microfinance, Bandhan hadan important learning that microfinance is not the ultimate for the development of the poor.Besides credit, a lot of other interventions are required for ensuring holistic development of thepoor.

With this objective in mind, Bandhan forayed into credit plus interventions in 2006. Presentlyits intervention areas are: health, education, livelihood, skill development initiatives and aprogram aimed exclusively for the poorest of poor. Bandhan undertakes all its developmentactivities through a separate, non-for-profit entity viz. Bandhan Konnagar.

Within a span of four and half years, Bandhan has extended its development services to 10,257beneficiaries in four states viz. West Bengal, Bihar, Tripura and Assam.

With this background information we visited two sub districts, Simultala and Dhuri, wheredifferent interventions where development and microfinance programs were beingimplemented. The detail programs of the organization can be discussed as follows:


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Photo number 1 : Office orientation and discussion with Bandhan head quarter staff members

1. Microfinance activitiesThe beneficiaries of the microfinance program are those farmers who are with betterincome but do not have access to banks/service providers due to a variety reasons.Beneficiary targeting is based on the poverty line. Those households who are foundabove the poverty line are involved in the microfinance program. Bandhansmicrofinance and credit plus interventions accompany in economic unrestraint in thelives of women and bring them to the social mainstream. Presently all the microfinanceactivities are carried through not for profit entity called Bandhan Konnagar.

Bandhan has seven branches in West Bengal and there are five credit offices in eachbranch. In this program, Bandhan has large number of clients. As these clients are betteroff they have direct access to take loans from the organization and invest on a businesswhich is feasible and to the capacity and skill of the client.

Each client identifies a business which is to his/her interest, capacity & skill. This will becross checked by the credit office employees and the feasibility and profitability of thebusiness will be evaluated by the credit office. After evaluation if the business isfeasible, the beneficiary will be targeted and different training including technical,

social, confidence building will be given.

Then after giving the trainings and building the confidence of the clients, loandistribution will take place. Then the clients will be organized into groups having 20-25members/group and continuous supervision, technical support and monitoring atindividual and group level will follow. Each group has group leader and these groupleaders are responsible to lead the group, to conduct regular group meetings, to discuss


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with Bandhan branch office, to collect loans with the help of credit officer and to payback the loan to the branch offices. Every year the group leader will be replaced by anew group leader and all trainings will be given to the new group leader.

Photo number 2 : Group leaders while taking refresher training and orientation at fieldbranch office

2. Development ProgramsIn order to bring a holistic development on the poor, microfinance is not the ultimatesolution for development of poor. Besides, Bandhan adopt a credit plus approach andengaged in the development space through its different program activities. In thisprogram there are five different components. These are:

2.1. Hard core poor Targeting program (HTP)In todays World, microfinance is universally recognized as a potential tool for povertyalleviation. However, microfinance intervention is not the panacea for all sections ofpoor, particularly the hard core poor/poorest of the poor. The hard core poor are thepoorest section amongst the poor with a little or no asset base, highly vulnerable toshocks and mainly depending on wage labor, begging etc.

Similarly as that of the microfinance program, beneficiary targeting is based on the

poverty line. These hardcore beneficiaries are those beneficiaries found below thepoverty line. The program (24 months duration) has been so designed that the initialtasks involved are tracking these hard core poor through Participatory Rural Appraisal(PRA), wherein the village community collectively select the neediest women.Thereafter Bandhan helps identify a feasible enterprise, which is easily manageable bythe client and trains her on enterprise management and simultaneously engages in her


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confidence-building. Once the beneficiary is identified as capable of managing such anenterprise, the relevant asset is bought and donated to the women (cash is not given).Regular training and hand-holding support is provided to her, both technical and withrespect to consumption, till the enterprise become profitable. She is also trained to

reach a stage of basic literacy and is educated on issues of social importance. Bandhanalso provides the beneficiaries with sanitary latrines. Bandhan assumes that within the24 months phase, the beneficiaries would graduate to the level of microfinance andhenceforth embark on a sustainable human development path.

2.2. Bandhan Health Program (BHP)This pivots around dissemination of health awareness in the community throughpromoting of health entrepreneurs. Health education is done through healthvolunteer s, participatory health forums and household visits.

2.3. Bandhan Education Program(BEP)Preprimary, non-formal primary schools and coaching centers encourage adiverse age group of under privileged children to begin and sustain academicsamidst a pleasant environment.

2.4. Employing the unemployed Program (EUP)This initiative program has been taken to address the grave issue ofunemployment in which Bandhan joined hands with different partners.

2.5. Bandhan Livelihood Program(BLP)Different livelihood options are selected for the targeted group of beneficiariesthose which are economically profitable, easily manageable and sociallyacceptable livelihood options. Some of these are horticulture development, goatrearing, pig rearing, handicrafts, vegetable selling and readymade garmentsselling.

Implementation modalities of the development programBandhan follows different methods and steps to target and implement theirprogram. This methods and steps are very crucial and paramount to target thereal hard core poor households and also to provide technical support,supervision and asset and monitor the changes brought about by the program.The mode of implementation can be discussed as follows:


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a) Beneficiary selectionDone primarily through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and questionnairefollowing the steps such as:

Rapport building : this is the first step where the community members andthe Bandhan staff makes first contact and introduce each other

Social mapping : Some group of the community members(100-120) will begathered together and put the map of their village, resource, houses, forestsand other found in their village

Questionnaire process : This is done by the project staffs. At this step aquestionnaire will be prepared- household survey- and house to house visitwill be done and the survey will be filled by project staffs.

Wealth ranking : The community members gather and will make the rankingof households based on the economic and social status of the household. Thelast two economically worse off groups are selected for the householdsurvey.

Verification and final selection: Area manger visits the households, verifiesthe household survey and makes final selection of the beneficiaries. A headoffice team does a sample check of the selected beneficiaries.

b) Livelihood selectionAfter beneficiary selection completed, each household will select a livelihood whichis feasible to her skill, capacity and interest. The livelihood options should beeconomically profitable, easily manageable and socially accepted.

c) Training Primarily it was given to both staff and beneficiaries that focus on enterprisedevelopment and confidence building. Later on different capacity buildings such as

technical training and refreshment training will be given immediately after theasset transfer has been completed.

d) Asset transfer Provided to all targeted group of beneficiaries including a weekly food allowanceand release of asset was done in three phases 50%, 25%, and 25% for better


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utilization. In this case asset transfer will be done in kind. Cash transfer is notallowed. For better success of the program the asset transfer will be conductedphase by phase. If the first phase asset transferred becomes successful the secondphase will follow and then the third. The amount of the asset transfer rages from

4000 to 16000 Rupees depending on the type of the enterprise.

e) Additional support Additional support is provided in the form of subsistence allowance to meet thefamily expenditure of the beneficiaries until return is yielded from the enterprise.Since the food expenditure requirement of the household is covered by thesubsistence allowance, the household can run its enterprise without any challengeand this is the key for the success of the program.Other services extended are:

Build shed/shelter for the asset Day to day technical support Provide treatment support Provide sanitary latrines Weekly home visits and counseling Literacy (beneficiaries learn to sign their names and count and write

numbers)

f) Follow up and Monitoring

Hierarchal weekly and monthly follow ups from the Chief Executive Organizer (CEO)to the grass root level Community Organizer (CO) and Health Community Organizer(HCO )for better functioning of the program such as day to day technical support,weekly home visits and counseling. The community organizer should visit 15beneficiaries a day and every week for each beneficiary. In order to achieve thiseach community organizer has household visit schedule program sheet, daily basedaction plan, attendance meeting sheet, and others.

Table 1 : Household visit schedule of community organizer

Nameof CO

Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Signature

Table 2 : Action plan of CODate Branch Morning Afternoon


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Table 3 : Attendancemeeting sheetDate Place Morning Afternoon

Not only is this, at each household the monitoring format that is going to be filled by thecommunity facilitator also checked by the coordinator. In addition to this there is assetfollow up format/progress format that is filled by the beneficiary and the communityorganizer which is very crucial to see and evaluate the progress and the changes of thebeneficiary. The monitoring and asset follow up/progress format looks as follow:

Table 4 : Monitoring formatDate Day Issues

discussed

Problem

faced by thebeneficiary

Solution

given

Signature

Table 5 : Asset follow up/progress formatDate Income

openingcapital

Expenditure Profit/loss Remark Signature

g) Graduation: It was assumed that within two years phase, the beneficiaries would graduate to a localmicrofinance program followed by sustainable human development activities to achieveeconomical and social importance such as:

Diversification of income sources Access to safe water and sanitation Better health care Practice of immunization and family planning Literacy (knowledge of letters and numbers)

Case studies and some changes brought about by the project

During our visit we had a chance to discuss with microfinance clients and hard corebeneficiaries both in groups and individually. We were also able to visit the enterprises run by


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both the microfinance and hard core beneficiaries. Of the 300 beneficiaries targeted byBandhan, 294 graduated after 24 months. The 6 non graduated beneficiaries were those peoplewho are unable to work properly due to many reasons like age (old people) disability. To seebriefly on some cases for both microfinance and hard core beneficiaries:

Photo number 3: conducting regular group meetings

Case number1:

Name of the beneficiary: Anawara Bibi

She is hard core beneficiary of the program. She was daily laborer and her incomewas very low and it cannot cover even the expenses for food of her family

Two years ago she was targeting by the program and she was participated in thebeneficiary targeting process through different techniques of the organization

Then after, with the consultation of her family and Bandhan staff members, shechoose her livelihood option and she decided to participate on selling of readymadecloths

She got different types of trainings including technical, financial and confidencebuilding.

After the training, she received readymade cloths that worth 4182 Rupees as a grantby the program. In addition to this she was receiving 140 Rupees/week forsubsistence allowance

She was receiving continuous technical support, every week supervision, education,health program, refresher trainings and other supports by the community organizerand other Bandhan staffs


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Before she targeted by the program she had not any knowledge about business andthere was no any credit access in their village except the local money lenders with highinterest rate

After she targeted by the program, she got different types of trainings including

confidence building trainings, and also education and health services At the first round she took 10000 Rupees and she has opened small shop At this time she paid her first round loan totally and she took another 20000 Rupees to

expand her business and to start a new local caf and to provide tea, coffee, milk , softdrinks and to prepare some fast foods to the local community

Photo number 5 : Visiting of microfinance client engaged in small shop

V) Wrap up sessionAfter two days of house to house visits we had a feedback session with Bandhan headoffice staffs including the director of the organization. We reflected on our field visit anddiscussed on different issues. Some questions and ideas were raised for moreclarification and Bandhan manager with all respected staff members answered all thequestions and gave us a short summary on all of the development activities. During thediscussion emphasis was given how to improve the income of the hard core poorhouseholds and make them graduate from the program. Among other factors, Buildingthe confidence of the beneficiaries was very crucial. Confidence building of hard corepoor comes from:

Provision of different types of trainings Proper asset transfer Consumption support Self reliance


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Continuous technical support, supervision, monitoring and day to day followup of the beneficiary

Improved and sustainable income

VI) Lessons learned Beneficiary selection through the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and

questionnaire Rapport building (first point of contact b/n Bandhan& community

members) Social mapping (self identification of community and details acquired) Questionnaire process(conduct questionnaire pertaining to criteria of

eligibility) Wealth ranking(villagers themselves rank the households) Verification and final selection(done by area manager and head office

team ) Accompany of different interventions to ensure holistic development such as

microfinance institution, health and sanitation, education of a diverse agegroup and livelihood development.

Developing clear graduation criteria Documentation and financial recordings at individual beneficiary and office

level Before asset transfer takes place building the confidence of the beneficiaries is

very important. For this reason different types of trainings were given Close follow up: day to day visit, provision of technical support, monitoring and

supervision of the program Weekly provision of consumption support: This helps the hard core

beneficiaries to run their enterprise properly Phase by phase asset transfer: This gives chance to evaluate the enterprise of

each households and identify the gabs and to provide support for thebeneficiaries

In kind asset transfer: this is very crucial to use the grant to the intendedobjective and to bring changes

Mandatory and weekly based saving Detail study of the feasibility of the enterprises selected by each households

and conduct asset transfer based on the result of the study

TRICKLE UP


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Similar to that of Bandhan brief explanation was given to us by the staff anddiscussed on different program activities about the implementation, handholding andmonitoring systems of Trickle Up, CGAP- Ford Foundation Graduation Program andMainline program. Trickle Up is an international NGO working in India withpartnership of local NGOs. Three different projects were under implementation byTrickle up. These are:

1.

Trickle up projectA 13 months project with limited grant support involving 300 project participantsselected by the community members , local administrator and the staff members.During the project implementation activities such as health support, self help groupformation and success indicators were not started yet.

2. CGAP- Ford Foundation Graduation ProgramA 24 months grant support project in which project participant selection wasimproved and developed in the community level. However initially poor areas whichare ultra poor dense were selected by Trickle Up staff and then Participatory RuralAppraisal (PRA) took place immediately after area selection.

3. Main line programIt was a 36 months grant support project with comparatively better grant for 3000

project participants (pp) than the other projects which are implemented before (Trickle


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up &CGAP). The project was implemented having a lot of experiences from the previous projects. Accordingly project participants (pp) were selected using livelihood planning and participatory Rural Appraisal method and basic training about livelihood planning had provided to project staff members for 45 days. Self Help Group (SHG)

formation and opening of individual bank account for each project participants (pp)was followed so as to help asset transfer to individual bank account which wastransferred in two phases 60% and 40% respectively.

Table6: summary of trickle up projects

DescriptionProgram projects

Trickle up CGAP Main line program

Time 13 months 24 months 36 monthsGrant $100 $1112 $235 Staff number Very less Dedicative staff SHG formationProject participantselection

By NGOstaff Community

Livelihood planning andPRA

Health support X StartedTraining o f health staff for45 days

Self Help Group formation X Started

Serve as a midway of assettransfer

Success indicators X -do-Grant utilization in two

phases 60% &40%

Having these back ground information, we visited the Human Development Center alocal NGO working with partnership of international NGOs, Jibantala branch withlivelihood development and health staffs on the first day. This project is implementedby the partnership of Trickle Up and the Human Development Center. In addition tothis, we visited another site called Jhaltala to attend group discussions and otherlivelihood activities such as agriculture, livestock development, rending, fishery, handcrafts, and Self Help Group (SHG) formation.

Implementation modalities of Trickle up

A. Beneficiary targeting Village selection with the collaboration of Panchayat leaders(a group of 6-15 villages) Village visit will be conducted by the staff and panchayats leaders. No conduct and

discussion will be made at this stage Discussion with known contact person in the village


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Date will be fixed to conduct meeting with all the community members During the meeting the community members map their village and the resources with

the help of staff members Number will be given for every households found in the village and wealth ranking will

take place by the community them selves Based on this ranking, household survey will be conducted According to the conducted survey, the poorest people will be short listed/selected After creating awareness about the importance and advantage of the SHG/Self Help

Group, the selected beneficiaries will be organized into SHG having 15-20members/SHG

Name will be given to the SHG, By-laws will be developed and legal entity will be givento the SHG

The SHG will fix regular meeting date & time: one meeting ever week and for the firstyear it will be conducted with the help of livelihood staff

Every group members will start savings at a rate of 10 rupees/week After the group is formed and legalized, each household will go back to their home,

discuss with their family, select and design their livelihood enterprise/business to join. Each household enterprise will be presented in the SHG and discussed and evaluated

in the group The list of selected beneficiaries together with their livelihood plan will be send to

Trickle up. Trickle up evaluates the process and the beneficiaries and will send thebudget to the local NGO, Human Development Center. Then Human DevelopmentCenter save/put the money to individual beneficiary households at a bank pass bookopened by their names (first round payment which is 50 %).

Before asset transfer takes place all rounded training will be given to eachhouseholds(technical, business management and confidence build

Then first round of assets ( amounting 50 % of 11280 rupees for each households ) willbe purchased through established purchasing committee and this committee alsofollows the appropriate utilization of the budget/ whether it is utilized for theintended objective or not.

In addition to the free grant asset transfer, there is subsistence allowance for at leasttwo months and at most for 24 weeks of the first year. This is given during the leanseason in order to keep the household from any shock and to enter to the business

B. Supports/Services provided by Trickle up

Free grant of asset transfer amounting 11280 rupees. This grant is given in twophases depending on the feasibility of the enterprise


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1080 rupees of subsistence allowance only for two months in the first year Different types of trainings Continuous follow up, technical support, supervision and monitoring Production and market information

Education Health service: Mosquito net Health related awareness raising trainings Family planning Providing health related information and motivating the people to go to

health centers instead of using local traditional health services Training for the staff members of the Human Development Center

C. Hand holding systemIn each project office there is one coordinator, 5 livelihood staffs, 2 health staffs and 1program organizer

1) Livelihood staff Supervise 60 project participants/staff Weekly visit to each households: visit the day to day activity of each household,

provide technical support They follow livelihood activities and prepare action plan for the beneficiaries For the first year the livelihood staff attends and guides the self help group

regular meetings . Use five days of field visit per week for overall management. Each staff Prepare action plan separately.

2) Health staff Supervise 150 project participant/health staff She must visit each household every two weeks They follow the health status of the project participants. They visit house to

house to see hygiene and sanitation, check health status of projectparticipants, check for immunization, family planning

Awareness raising of the project participants to use and to go to health centers

3) Hand holding for project coordinator Coordination along all staffs.


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Prepare and demonstrate training module. Field visit with special focus of slow climbers. Feed back and monitoring off all staff. Hand holding to staff and create linkages to bank, Government, suppliers and

vendors. Write all reports to Trickle Up.

D. Monitoring systemThere is close follow up, technical support, monitoring and evaluation system by all the staffmembers found at different levels. These will be done at project participant level, Self HelpGroup level, staff level and coordinator level. Every project participant will be evaluatedquarterly and ranked as A for fast climbers , B for medium and C for slow climbers.Based on the result of the rank, monitoring and technical support will be arranged. That is,the weekly visit and support by the staff for the laggards will be increased to two times perweek.

1) Project participants level Prepare information book which describes the activity engaged. Having SHG pass book Have project participant bank pass book

2) SHG level Have SHG cash book SHG bank pass book SHG minute book.

3) Staff level Have program ledger (performance of project participants measure).

4) Coordinator level Consolidation of SHG Livelihood reports Financial reports Grant registering Send to Trickle up

Monitoring check list

Saving amount


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Diversification Confidence of the project participant and the way of expressing her self How is the project participants business and income going? Attendance at SHG

Writing and reading skill Health status of the household

E. Graduation criteria

A combination of 10 Criteria from each staff were developed to be assessed in individual project participant basis having 10 points each so as to be evaluated by grading andranking of all project participants out of 100 points. As a result project participants(beneficiaries) categorized as grade A, B, C, and D depending on the total score theycollect out of 100. A household categorized as grade A, B, C and D if they score >80, 65-

80, 50-60 and


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Has 20 members Every week conduct meeting Has developed local by-laws Has account book and able to save 20,000 rupees

Has box to collect money from the savings of individual members, fine, interest ratefrom distributed loan Every member has to save 20 rupees/week Provides loans to group members at a very low interest rate i.e. 2% per week. This loan

helps the group members to expand their business, even to start new business The group has access to take loan from bank equivalent to the amount of the money

that they saved by the group Benefits obtained by the beneficiaries because of organizing into the SHG:

Access to additional loan with very low interest rate Able to make regular savings and develop saving culture Linked with legal banks able to take loan from these banks through the SHG Improved the confidence of individual members Able to read and write


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Photo number 6 : Attending SHG meeting and project orientation at Human Development fieldoffice

Individual level Name of the site: Jhaltata Name of the beneficiary: Behula Sarder, with 9 family size and with no land for farming Before targeting in the project she was daily laborer gaining only 50-70 rupees/day, she

was suffering and cannot cover the food and other need of her family, she had only smallhouse

She was participated in beneficiary targeting process and at the end she became abeneficiary of the project

She has participated in sheep rearing and poultry/duck production Supports what she get from the project are:

Technical training on sheep and poultry training A total of 10 sheep and 10 ducks in two rounds Subsistence allowance of 13 rupees/week for 24 weeks Continuous and extensive visit and hand holding support from the staff Education and health service

Impact of the project in her life

Her income improved and she can cover the food and she developed confidence andable to manage her family

She has diversified her income sources: currently she is practicing sheep production(8sheep), poultry production(10-12 ducks), fish culture(worth 4000-5000 rupees)

basic needs of her family With the profit she gained from her business, she liaised 0.6 hectare of land for farming She received house from the government and invest 15000 rupees to construct the

house She sends her children to school She can now write her name


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Photo number 7: Discussion with the beneficiary and visiting her business (duckrearing/production)

G. Wrap up sessionSimilar to that of Bandhan we reflected our field visit with Trickle Up and discusseddifferent issues together. Some questions and ideas were raised for more clarificationand Trickle Up manager with all respected staff members answered all the questionsand gave us a short summary on all of the development activities supported by videoshow on how to implement the project and progress up to graduation.

H. Lessons learned More advanced project beneficiary selection using PRA Phase by phase asset transfer to individuals bank account

Developing graduation criteria Clear hand holding and monitoring system Implementing of different interventions to bring holistic change: health, education,

social works Household level livelihood planning and enterprise selection based on the household

interest and capacity Organizing into Self Help Groups: This group has a crucial role in strengthening and

confidence building of individuals, easily to manage and provide technical support & follow up, to link individual beneficiaries with financial institutions/banks and get

credit access and to scale up their business Enterprise diversification Opening of bank account by individual names for the purpose of asset transfer

creates the linkage of individuals with financial institutions/banks

Conclusion


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The field visit was a miracle and highly satisfactory for the team. Based on this, we would like tosay a great thank you for Bandhan, Trickle Up project and projects staff members and otherpartners of these projects for their helpful sharing of their experience and managingrequirements during the field visit. We would like also to express our thank you to Ms. Sandeep

Kaur from BRAC Development Insitute for her effort in arranging the visiting program with theabove mentioned projects. At the last but not least, we would like to forward that, we are goingto use the lessons learned from the visit in KilteAwlaelo Graduation Pilot Project and otherprojects of REST according to the modality and necessity of the projects under implementationnow and for the future.

Documents

Exposure Report of India2