Micro-Finance Consulting Group (MCG)

on behalf of

The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group

(Sub-Group on Poverty Alleviation and Women's Economic Empowerment)

This Site is under construction.

A full fledged site with complete hyper-links and web service to meet your information needs will be on-line very soon.

MCG is a professional cosultancy organisation working in the area of micro-finance, communication and economic development. Founded by a group of committed professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, MCG desires to provide high quality consulting services and solutions at a reasonable cost. We offer a wide range of services, in the following areas, specially tailored to the micro-finance strategic context

Capacity Building and Training
Management Information Systems and Decision Support Systems
Impact Studies, Program Evaluations and ICT based Capacity Assessments
Project Design and Turnkey Project Implementation
Advocacy and Media Promotion
Web and Internet based Solutions
Research and Documentation
Communications Management
Marketing Research

We are likely to be involved in creating a comprehensive resource directory of training and communication material available in the micro-finance sector, particularly in India. To be commissioned by United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender and Development, the project has the following objectives:

to exhaustively identify the existing communication and training materials available and being used in micro-finance
to collect and critically review these material and catalogue them in a parsimonious and user-friendly manner
to produce a comprehensive, ready to reference resource directory (in print and database forms)
to disseminate the resource directory to various stakeholders and promote its use in India in the micro-finance sector - using print as well as on-line (Internet and CDs) techniques, and
to establish foundations for continuous information flow on such communication and training material by creating a permanent Website where the stakeholders concerned can provide details on newer material on a regular basis

So, if you have (or are using) training and communication material in micro finance, we urge you to respond to our brief questionnaire. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at

Please contact us at - [email protected] OR [email protected] OR [email protected]

Please provide us the following information:

            Name 
           Title 
    Organization 
  Street address 
 Address (cont.) 
            City 
   State/Province
 Zip/Postal code 
         Country 
      Work Phone 
             FAX 
          E-mail 
             URL

1 Are you aware of training and communication material in micro-finance Yes No

2 If yes, have you produced such material  Yes  No

3 If no, are you primarily a user of the material   Yes  No

4 Can you provide us a list of such material that you have produced or are

  currently using ?

Please provide the following demographics with regard to each of the training/communication

material(s)listed above

(For more than one material, please give details by using the Back Button)

 Title                                   
 Format(Print,Presentation Video etc.)     
 Language                                
 Producer/Author                         
 Publisher                               
 Price(if applicable)                    
 Available From

What is the focus of the material ?(Please provide a brief description)

For whom is the material intended (target audience) ?

Use back button to enter the details of the next titles, if you have produced/used more than one.

We thank you once again for your cooperation. We will get in touch with you.

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United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group

on

Gender and Development

(IAWG-GD)

This Site is under construction. A full fledged site with complete hyper-links and web service to meet your information needs will be on-line very soon.

The UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender and Development (IAWG-GD) was set up in December 1994, to review, coordinate and develop UN System strategies and activities in India, envisaged as a follow-up to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (PoA). One of the major tasks has been to develop a common UN framework to support the GOI's responses to the recommendations in the PoA.

The objectives of the IAWG on Gender and Development are as follows:

To integrate gender concerns more holistically and systematically into the work of UN agencies and the country's social, economic and political agenda;
To promote gender sensitisation of UN personnel and national policy makers, programme staff and other partners;
To promote sex-disaggregated data base and monitoring systems;
To explore opportunities for collective action and advocacy.

The UN System agencies' common interests, strategies and points of convergence have been analysed within the framework of the working group. After a series of consultations with the GOI, the IAWG-GD established three sub-groups to develop activities of relevance to the mandate given to the UN System:

1. Sub-group on Gender Disaggregated Data comprising UNPA, UNDP, UNICEF, UNIFEM, WHO, WORLD BANK;
2. Sub-group on Poverty Alleviation and Women's Economic Empowerment comprising APCTT, ILO, UNIFEM, UNIDO, WFP;
3. Sub-group on Advocacy comprising UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNIC, UNAIDS.

Activities of the Sub-group on Poverty Alleviation and Economic Empowerment

On the occasion of the World Micro-credit Summit in February 1997 in Washington, "micro-credit for women living in poverty - a tool to economic empowerment" was taken up as a first issue of this sub-group. With financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the UN System collaborated with a national NGO, SPANDANA, to organize two regional consultations and a consolidating national workshop for women's organisations, as well as to document case studies on micro-credit delivery.

The regional workshops were held in Bangalore from 8 to 10 January 1997 and in Delhi from 21 to 23 January 1997. The national workshop was held in Delhi on 29 and 30 April 1997. The main outcomes of the consultative process were establishment of a national collective for micro-credit coordinated by SPANDANA and identification of best practices and lessons learnt for documentation and dissemination. The publication (Micro-Credit Macro-Returns) is being disseminated to micro-credit practitioners and donors.

The primary focus of the sub group is to continue working in the microcredit and financial services sector, as a logical follow-up to the initiatives taken in 1997 and 1998. The area of capacity building and training has emerged as an area of follow-up for the sub-group. The sub-group members felt that it could contribute to the development of training materials which could be useful to NGOs who are dealing with micro-credit at grassroots level.
Then, the sub-group sent a survey questionnaires to NGOs to assess the requirement of such training materials in their work. The quantitative analysis of the responses showed that there is a demand for training materials in the thematic areas identified in the questionnaire. More importantly, the analysis showed that lot of materials is available with the NGOs already.

The sub-group decided that there is no point in producing another set of training materials without first having thoroughly reviewed and made accessible the already existing materials. Thus, the sub-group is now in the process of developing a resource directory of communication materials (materials that supports one in conveying information and informs how to apply it - like training manuals, audio-visual aids, accounting booklets, etc.) available in the microfinance sector (micro-credit and small-scale savings schemes.

Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (UN-APCTT)
attn. Mr. Roger Verschoor
Women in Development Group
P.O. Box 4575
Off New Mehrauli Road
New Delhi 110 016

Micro-Finance Consulting Group (MCG)

on behalf of

The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group

(Sub-Group on Poverty Alleviation and Women's Economic Empowerment)

This Site is under construction.

A full fledged site with complete hyper-links and web service to meet your information needs will be on-line very soon.

United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group

on

Gender and Development

(IAWG-GD)

The objectives of the IAWG on Gender and Development are as follows:

To integrate gender concerns more holistically and systematically into the work of UN agencies and the country's social, economic and political agenda;

To promote gender sensitisation of UN personnel and national policy makers, programme staff and other partners;

To promote sex-disaggregated data base and monitoring systems;

To explore opportunities for collective action and advocacy.

Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (UN-APCTT)
attn. Mr. Roger Verschoor
Women in Development Group
P.O. Box 4575
Off New Mehrauli Road
New Delhi 110 016

Copyright © 1995 by MCG].
Revised: .

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[YOU ARE OUR VISITOR

Micro-Finance Consulting Group (MCG)

on behalf of

The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group

(Sub-Group on Poverty Alleviation and Women's Economic Empowerment)

This Site is under construction.

A full fledged site with complete hyper-links and web service to meet your information needs will be on-line very soon.

United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group

on

Gender and Development

(IAWG-GD)

The objectives of the IAWG on Gender and Development are as follows:

To integrate gender concerns more holistically and systematically into the work of UN agencies and the country's social, economic and political agenda;

To promote gender sensitisation of UN personnel and national policy makers, programme staff and other partners;

To promote sex-disaggregated data base and monitoring systems;

To explore opportunities for collective action and advocacy.

Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (UN-APCTT) attn. Mr. Roger Verschoor Women in Development Group P.O. Box 4575 Off New Mehrauli Road New Delhi 110 016

Copyright © 1995 by MCG]. Revised: .

Back to Top

[YOU ARE OUR VISITOR

Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (UN-APCTT)
attn. Mr. Roger Verschoor
Women in Development Group
P.O. Box 4575
Off New Mehrauli Road
New Delhi 110 016

Copyright © 1995 by MCG].
Revised: .