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Tools For Community Managed and
Rural Microfinance Institutions
In order to improve
the management and governance of the institutions and groups
working in rural and remoter areas, DFS has developed simple
tools for evaluating the impact on the performance of the
groups. Other tools assist in group formation and governance,
book-keeping, internal control, audit and other key
activities. The tools are targeted at both the groups
themselves and the NGOs promoting them. A key feature of
the tools developed by the project is their simplicity
and brevity. Local stories and illustrations (see
below) as well as
participatory rapid appraisal (PRA) matrices are used in the
facilitation of the tools.
Adult learning and facilitation techniques have been
incorporated to make the trainings more effective.
The initial stages of the project are
focused on the group level with tools primarily aimed at
small community groups such as ROSCAs
(Rotating Savings and Credit Associations) and ASCAs
(Accumulation Savings and Credit Associations) but also to
bigger groups like small village banks. More advanced
versions of the tools for organisations such as village bank
management companies and community based Savings and Credit
co-operatives will also be developed.
As of October 2005 the second round of
tools testing with partner institutions is underway.
Feedback from the testing will enable DFS to re-write,
refine and disseminate the tools.
Please contact
us if you want to learn more about the tools.
Research Component to Support the
Development of tools
While it is often thought that problems
of governance and management stem from missing services, or
from a lack of literacy skills or numeracy, these are only
some aspects of the problem. Many of the problems that
organisations such as Rotating Savings and Credit
Associations (ROSCAs), Accumulating Savings and Credit
Associations (ASCAs), and Savings and Credit Co-Operatives
face are actually related to the operation of power and
socio-cultural norms within their local environment. The
DFS project’s research component tries to understand the
underlying issues related to power and socio-cultural norms
and feed these findings into the tools.
Read more
There are many ways by which this can be done:
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This may involve enabling
members to understand the way in which more powerful members
can affect group functioning and developing strategies they
can use to manage these dynamics; |
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Finding locally appropriate
rules and sanctions that enable transparency to be better
ensured or governance to be practiced; and/or |
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Finding ways of presenting
information that may overcome literacy problems and become
more transparent to all (e.g. simply reading the books is
unlikely to be adequate – simple pictorial services may
help) |
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