October - December 2012 - National Institute of Rural Development

MYRADA’S Capacity Building Intervention .... 383The first column of Figure 2 illustratesthat between 1984 and 2004, MYRADA, asan external agency was building CBO capacity,while the second column shows that since2004, the role played by MYRADA inmentoring, monitoring and supporting SAGsand WMAs has been taken over by theCMRCs. Since CMRCs are people’s institutions,they have been referred to as endogenouscapacity builders. As exogenous actor,MYRADA has however been ‘training thetrainers’ thus building the CMRC staff capacity.Again, as base level CBOs- especially SAGsaregrowing exponentially in numbers theCMRC managers are not able to handle them.They in turn identify literate people from thecommunity, willing to work as resourcepersons [Community Resource Persons(CRPs)] for the CMRC. MYRADA trains theCRPs too in book keeping, auditing, legal,reproductive, and women and child healthissues. Today, as endogenous actors, CMRCmanagers and CRPs are together buildingcommunity capacity.Individual Level : Capacity building atthe individual level is a by-product ofMYRADA’s institutional capacity building. Thisgroup training leads to individual membersbuilding their capacity in leadership,advocacy, organising, book keeping(representatives of CBOs receive additionaltraining in book keeping), negotiation, andliteracy (literates revive their reading andwriting competence, while illiterates learn tosign). This is developing human capital.Community Level : To achievesustainable community development,participation of community stakeholders isnecessary but not a sufficient condition; it istherefore, an imperative to build theircapacity- and capacity of all and not just of afew people or groups in the community- sothat they can participate in a moremeaningful way. With this objective, MYRADAhas been building the capacity of variousstakeholders as described in Table 2.Table 2 : Community Capacity BuildingGroupsSchool teachers and college studentsCapacity BuildingPrevention of HIV and anemiaLocal council officials Documentation, programme planning andimplementation, audit sharing with community,prevention of HIV and anemia, mother and child,and reproductive healthBank (nationalised, private, andcooperative banks) staffVoluntary organisations, NGOs, andother agenciesConcept of SAG, importance of bank linkages toSAGs, credit support through SAGs, documentationrequirement by SAGs, SAG selection criteria forlending money, and building repayment cultureamong SAGsConcept and function of SAG, watershed, andpeople’s institutions, reproductive and child health,PRA, PLA, building registered societies, legal, bookkeeping and auditing, gender, health, agriculture,Appreciative Inquiry approach and institutionbuilding.Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 31, No. 4, October - December : 2012