Report of National Workshop - Strengthening Access to Financial Services for the Poor: Role of Community Based Organizations

This paper presents findings from a study that Sa-Dhan, an association of community development finance institutions (CDFIs), undertook of Self-Help-Group (SHG) federations to understand the pattern of their emergence, and the issues affecting them.

The study aimed to comprehensively and critically understand SHG federations, and identify their emerging best practices. The team visited 27 SHG federations and promoting organizations across the country to capture their regional diversity.

They examined:

• The role of SHG federations;
• The process of promoting federations;
• Gaps in operations and institutional systems of federations in becoming viable and self-sufficient intermediaries;
• Best practices in achieving synergies between their financing and social mobilizing roles.

The study found that SHG federations have a definite trajectory of growth: survival-subsistence-self-sustenance stabilization-generating surplus.

The study findings were presented at a workshop that aimed to:

• Share the findings with practitioners ands support agencies;
• Heighten interest in SHG federations and the various methods of involving communities in determining their trajectory of growth and development.

The workshop discussed the following:

• Organizational character of community-based organizations;
• An introduction to federations as seen on the ground;
• Role of federations and promoting institutions;
• Financial analysis of federations.