National Workshop on SHG Federations

This paper presents discussions held at a national workshop conducted by APMAS and its key collaborators in Andhra Pradesh, India on 20th and 21st June 2003. Over 120 participants, from 82 organizations participated in the workshop. Self-help group (SHG) federations, self-help promoting institutions (SHPIs), capacity building institutions and the state government were represented at the workshop.

The workshop aimed to engage practitioners and promoters in a critical review of experiences in promoting SHG federations across India. It also sought to promote sustainable SHG federations designed, owned and managed by members.

During the workshop discussions, participants felt that SHGs were too small and scattered for any external agency to be of significant help in their functioning. Recommendations included:

• Setting up of SHPI federations;
• Improvements in capacity building, management information systems, book keeping, protection of member savings and loan assessment;
• Locating federations close to SHGs.