Inclusive Finance India Summit 2015

ACCESS has hosted the Inclusive Finance India Summit from December 8th to 9th, 2015 at in New Delhi, India. The summit has gained recognition and the Inclusive Finance India Report has been quoted extensively in the Malegam Committee, and working report for the Microfinance Bill. The Summit has facilitated discourse on issues like-policy environment, data analytics in financial inclusion, mobile wallets, BC model, customer protection, impact of JAM, and innovations in the sector. I attended the summit as the delegate of ACCESS team.

The Summit began with release of the Sector report 2015 was followed by several sessions on microfinance and financial inclusion in the country. The buzz of the sessions were around Mudra bank, Payment banks, cash less economy and Small Finance Banks. Eight out of 10 Small Finance Banks which have been given in-principle nod by RBI are microfinance institution (MFIs).  Sector experts are hopeful that Small Finance Banks  fill the "missing middle" in reaching the bottom of the pyramid.

India is an interesting scenario as there is rapid updates in telecom infrastructure, IT services and progressive government spending on digital infrastructure. I was really impressed from a particular session  on use of data in digital financial services.  The main issues were  hurdles faced in data sharing and cashless transactions.  Big Data, Small Credit is a good report quoted by a speaker on the impact of the digital revolution on the emerging markets.  I was impressed with a start up company - Lenddo. They use users online social connections to build their creditworthiness and access local financial services. 

Also, one act in a stupid way while confronting a hero. I was glad to have seat next to Prof Malcolm Harper and was literally at the loss of the words required for having a meaningful dialogue. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference with the hope I can attend again. After coming home from the summit  put on by ACCESS, I am feeling renewed, and energized. 

Mid Day Meal (MDM) Program

Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard, notes that spending on education and family health care is especially likely to generate social and economic returns. Midday Meal (MDM) program is a school meal programme of the government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. India's MDM program feeds 120 million children and employs 2 million women. It's an initiative that changes lives and provides human-capital investment in millions of children. 

The poorest of the poor are defined as those who can eat only when they get work and who lack shelter, proper clothing, social respect, and means to send their children to school. They have no land, live on daily wages, and need to send school-age children to work in times of crisis. They send children to government schools as this is the only way to ensure one time meal to their wards and the best chance for children to break the cycle of poverty. MDM scheme has many potential benefits: attracting children from disadvantaged sections (especially girls, Dalits and Adivasis) to school, improving regularity, nutritional benefits, socialisation benefits and income support to women .

An impact study has shown that the food stamps alternative or the direct income support is not feasible, for it may lead to adverse consumption choices by the targeted households. This would happen, particularly in countries like India, where educational and awareness levels of the targeted households are low.

Learn more in this animation designed by Rhitu Chatterjee and Mathilde Dratwa.

Livelihoods

What is Livelihood ? Nobody understands this word outside the cocoon of the development sector. The problem with the word livelihoods is that it has overtones of subsistence. It hints that poor people should only have enough just to live – not to prosper. As Kate Magro says : “Why is it that Westerners have careers, jobs, employment opportunities and everyone else has a livelihood?”

Livelihood is a convergence of multiple disciplines of profession leading to the cash flow in the household. Mostly the poor are engaged in a “diversified portfolio of subsistence activities” (DPSA) for earning their livelihoods. Hence, Understanding smallholders' financial needs will be the key step to understand livelihood scenario. A new survey of 1,800 banks conducted by the Initiative for Smallholder Finance reveals that the total amount of debt financing supplied by local banks to smallholder farmers in the developing world is approximately $9 billion.

The first step towards designing livelihood plan for the beneficiary will be to seek information on all of the income sources, various consumption and investments, interplay among cash flows, barter arrangements, credit sources and the financial tools in use throughout the year. Migration is a major livelihood strategy for the rural poor that must be included in the project design. That will give us ideas to better understand their needs, preferences, aspirations and behaviors. This information set must be shared with Donors, Government, Financial Institution and NGOs. The future programs designed to strengthen and develop rural livelihoods must grasp the whole range of vulnerabilities and risks faced by  an entrepreneur or farmer/ artisan.

To understand what NGOs are doing, it is important to understand what they are not doing. There have been various attempts to improve income of farmers & artisans in order to making the value chains more inclusive. While addressing the critical gaps in the respective value chains, the donors put more emphasis on the capacity building than market linkages.  The utter disdain for market forces by such initiatives and short planning without critically looking sustainability factor has led to massive failure till now. Sustainability parameter evaluates the likelihood of continuation of interventions initiated due the project by the community, scaling of pilot activities, leadership development in the community, institutional and financial arrangement in post project scenario. Hence, a livelihood intervention requires a critical first step in the process : Development of a livelihood project, as proof of concept and live workable model on the ground.

Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector has huge potential for growth in the semi urban and rural India. Throughout they also account for a disproportionately large share of new jobs in OECD countries. The rural entrepreneurs operating and managing the solar lighting enterprises at village level constitute the backbone of TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign. There are successful cases  make us arrive at a conclusion that with a very little financial help and skill training, the villagers are able to be enterprising. The rural entrepreneur has been enrolled into skill development programs promoted by the government for livelihood enhancement. Now, there must be urgent focus on provision of soft loans and vulnerability reduction funds with  financial tools designed as per the cash flow of the occupation.

Any livelihood programs must build up the physical, financial and social assets of the rural poor using local resources. Empowering communities to take control of economic development is slow, patient work and even end as failure —and people funding or supporting development work need to take into account when designing livelihood programmes.

Tribal Affairs: In the name of 'development'

How tribes are often destroyed in the name of 'development'. A new film, ‘There You Go!’, has been launched by Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, which takes a satirical look at how tribes are often destroyed in the name of ‘development’.

Indigenous peoples make up around 370 million of the world’s population – some 5 per cent – they constitute around one-third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people. According to a UN report: In Australia, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years earlier than his non-native compatriot. The life expectancy gap is also 20 years in Nepal, while in Guatemala it is 13 years and in New Zealand it is 11.

Traditional tribal habitats, particularly in mainland India, are rich in mineral and other resources and this has attracted large-scale power, mining, and infrastructure projects. Like any other indigenous communities all over the world, they face issues of brutal violence by police, denial of land rights, dispossession of land and marginalization. Rehabilitation and resettlement efforts have been pathetic, The apathy and slow progress of various departments in taking up the community claims is often resented by tribal communities.Even if they are increasingly recognized for their unique relationship with their environment, they face racism and discrimination that sees them as inferior and uncivilized. They are in process of assimilation by the forces of mainstream with their benefits usurped by non-tribal and government (Revenue, Police, Tribal Development and Forest Departments). There are also instances of the Tribal Sub Plan funds being diverted for projects of little direct benefit to tribal (Detail report). Even where the allocation is sufficient, the money is neither disbursed on time nor programmes implemented optimally due to administrative inefficiencies and corruption.

We conceptualizes development as something done to individuals and communities, rather than with or by them. This paternalism of government/ NGO / Religious leaders is ethically flawed; the fact that it often fails to achieve development outcomes only adds to the case against it. Development is a slow process. As once Russian scientist once said: ‘‘Ice forms instantly, but the process of forming the ice is slow and invisible." There must be feeling of being partners in progress rather than development being thrust from above. We have to ask tough questions - Is goal of development to help developing countries catch up to and copy developed countries ? What is development for a tribal boy ? Is development economic only ? Unless we answer such questions, there isn't much hope in the fast changing world for the tribal.

Career Advice

1. Upton Sinclair -: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it. ”

2. Interest on debts grow without rain. :- Yiddish Proverb

3. Ability is nothing without opportunity.  :– Unknown

4. Forget the risk and take the fall, if it’s what you want, then it’s worth the fall. :– Unknown

5. Negative choices are our worst choices. :- Unknown