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Governance Knowledge CentrePromoted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public GrievancesMinistry of Personnel, Public Grievances and PensionsGovernment of IndiaCase StudyWomen EmpowermentUdyogini: Building Micro-EnterprisesTRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITYJuly 2011Executive SummaryParticularly in developing societies, women’s work has historically been confined to thehousehold. In rural India, women regularly contribute to farm labour and generating incomeat the subsistence level. Such income generating activities include those as varied ascollecting, selling and processing minor forest produce, embroidering on textiles and leatherand making baskets from local varieties of grass. At the same time, women have not receivedtheir share of education, training, health and livelihood opportunities that are consistent withtheir potential, which will enable them to deal with crises and improve their well-being. Inan increasingly market-ascendant ascendant world, severe constraints have been created to sustainablelivelihoods for poor, asset-lessand mainly illiterate women in the backward states of India.Market uncertainties often result in reduced incomes and lesser number of days ofemployment for them.Udyogini, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in New Delhi, came into existencein 1992 with the belief that solutions for such problems need to go ‘beyond credit’ and shouldbe ones that build women’s access, knowledge and capacity in a variety of ways. It works toempower the poor and socially marginalized women with adequate skills and resourcesnecessary for developing and managing micro-enterprises. Udyogini has done this byproviding Business Development Services (BDS) to them directly or to the organizationsworking with them.Udyogini’s two flagship programmes are the Training of Enterprise Support Teams (TEST) -for professionals and para-professionals professionals who want to work in microenterprise developmentbut do not yet have the business skills to do so- and Grassroots Management Training (GMT)-designed to help marginalized women become entrepreneurs and not just skilled producers.It works by establishing strategic partnerships with public and private agencies for elevatingtheir operations in order to increase the scale and scope of three core ‘products’- value chaindevelopment, market linkages and enterprise and entrepreneurship training.By 2010, Udyogini had trained over 1500 enterprise promoting staff from NGOs andgovernment with a combined GMT eligible base of almost 50,000 women. For their directlyimplemented enterprise promotion programmes at the grassroots- called ‘From Mobilizationto Market’- Udyogini selects locations that are challenging and where women are notsupported for micro enterprise work in any significant measure by the government or NGOs.Udyogini currently operates in Uttarakhand (Dehradun, Chamoli), Rajasthan (Udaipur,Bikaner, Pugal), Bihar (Patna, Kishanganj), Assam (Goalpara), Jharkhand (Ranchi, Khunti),Orissa (Keonjhar, Rayagada), and Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur, Mandla, Chihindwara).2Researched and documented byOneWorld Foundation India

Governance Knowledge CentrePromoted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public GrievancesMinistry of Personnel, Public Grievances and PensionsGovernment of IndiaCase StudyWomen EmpowermentUdyogini: Building Micro-EnterprisesTRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITYJuly 2011support comprising training for enterprise awareness, management and counselling, to moveinto developing microenterprise programs and having staff with orientation to microenterprise.URMUL, SURE and LUPIN in Rajasthan, NIPDIT and Samanwita in Orissa and ADITHI inBihar, are NGOs that have grown and now established microenterprise programs.Udyogini aims at greater market control at the hands of women. It looks at such capacitybuilding in terms of two stages- livelihood security and enterprise growth. In the former stage,women who are involved in rudimentary income-generating activities are provided training tohelp them understand market channels and operations, requirements for undertakingsustainable microenterprises, and coping mechanisms are put in place for them to deal withchanging market conditions. The latter stage is marked by development of an entrepreneurialcapacity in women, understanding of markets beyond the local ones, and lesser dependence ofwomen on wage labour since enterprises begin to yield enough income for them to act as theprimary source of earning.Udyogini’s field programmes are headed by team leaders operating out of field offices. It hasseparate offices for BDS and state-wide clients in every state. Its staff members near 60 innumber and are mostly located in state offices. Udyogini is headed by a Chief Executive Officerand its operations are managed by a Chief Operating Officer. It has a separate BDS Manager inDelhi who forms the BDS team along with BDS managers in the states. Enterprise PromotionManagers are in-charge for an enterprise; they are assisted by field assistants. Udyogini isfunded largely by international donors, the Government of India and corporate houses.ObjectiveUdyogini aims to provide quality, appropriate and timely business development services fortraining and promotion of poor women as entrepreneurs.Working DesignUdyogini works in regions that are backward and ‘enterprise starved’ and mainly in sectorswhere there is a concentration of women workers. Its work started with working in the field ofagriculture and non-timber forest produce owing to its operations in tribal areas where peopleare engaged mainly in these sectors. These are not enterprise-driven areas of work; Udyogini’swork started with the aim of integrating these activities with the market- a significantly crucialgoal particularly keeping in mind the ascendancy of the market in India in early 1990s.The focus areas of Udyogini’s work are gender and poverty, market-oriented capacity buildingfor producers, catering to both subsector and multi-sector business service requirements,4Researched and documented byOneWorld Foundation India

Governance Knowledge CentrePromoted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public GrievancesMinistry of Personnel, Public Grievances and PensionsGovernment of IndiaCase StudyWomen EmpowermentUdyogini: Building Micro-EnterprisesTRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITYJuly 2011programme to go digital. It is hoped that digitalization would help national-level scaling up ofthe programme.Udyogini has recently ently collaborated with the Aditya Birla Group and ACC Cement for itsprogrammes in Madhya Pradesh.c. Government agenciesUdyogini has worked with the forest departments under the governments of Rajasthan andMadhya Pradesh in World Bank-funded projects such as the District Poverty Initiatives Project.Currently, Udyogini works closely with the National Bank for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) in Rajasthan, MP and Jharkhand.d. International organizationsInternational organizations are involved in Udyogini’s initiatives mainly in the capacity ofdonor bodies. These include Oxfam, Action Aid, UNIFEM, Ford Foundation, DfID and UNDP.Currently, Udyogini is closely working with UNDP in the field of child care initiatives in UttarPradesh.Programme ImpactBy 2010, Udyogini had trained over 1500 enterprise promoting staff from NGOs andgovernment with a combined GMT eligible base of almost 50,000 women. While its work hasexpanded to 7 states in the country, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been among its oldestand most successful initiatives. Initiatives in Jharkhand are currently undergoing intensivedevelopments and show much promise.In 2010, Udyogini completed six years of its operations in agriculture and non-timber forestproducts collection and trade in Madhya Pradesh and covered 3000 women in 100 villages with135 skilled BDS providers. A VLSC in the non-timber forest produce and agriculture valuechain was piloted in Mandla in 2009. Improved returns and business viability have encouragedpurchase of assets that contribute to the growth of the business (e.g., wireless phone connectionto get information on market prices from CLSC and for renting out to village users like a publiccall facility). As per Udyogini’s records in 2010, knowledge of market prices has enabled 40 percent of participating households to increase their margins on produce by selling to the VLSCand CLSC. 20 per cent of participating households have invested in vegetable cultivation fornutritional benefit for the household. 10 per cent of these households have been able to acquirelivestock where previously they had none. Children of 5 per cent of families have reducedvulnerability to serious illness because of the additional money available for curative services.10Researched and documented byOneWorld Foundation India

Governance Knowledge CentrePromoted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public GrievancesMinistry of Personnel, Public Grievances and PensionsGovernment of IndiaCase StudyWomen EmpowermentUdyogini: Building Micro-EnterprisesTRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITYJuly 2011iii.Is there any training provided to people involved in these groups? If yes, please providedetails- type, duration, the agencies involved, and following up procedures.6. Monitoring and evaluationi.Is there any monitoring mechanism in place to assess the impact of Udyogini’sinitiatives?a. If yes, how are performance indicators identified?b. How is the monitoring data collected? What is the frequency of data collection?c. How is the data utilized?7. Financial modeli.Udyogini’s working model is capital intensive. How is the revenue generated? What arethe major heads under which it is spent? Please give an approximate break-down ofcosts per month or annum for each.ii. Is there a revenue generating aspect to the model, that is, is there a direct return onUdyogini’s financial investment in the programmes? If yes, how does that operate? Ifno, how is the functioning sustained?Impact8. Could you provide examples where Udyogini’s programme has been highly successful andwhere it has not succeeded as per expectations? What are the exact reasons for both?9. Are there any other initiatives in the planning phase?10. Please provide current programme achievement figures.i. Number of states and districtsii. Number of partnersiii.Approximate return that various initiatives are generatingiv.Number of VLSCs and CLSCsv. Overall number of women the initiatives impactvi.Has there been any measured effect of these initiatives on human development factorsin the regions- education level, employment rate etc?15Researched and documented byOneWorld Foundation India