Community Based Organisation

In terms of development approaches, it is increasingly becoming clear that the focus of intervening agencies has to be on reducing poverty and improving the quality of life on the one hand and restoring degraded primary environments which are actually the habitats of poor people on the other. Achievement of food security is the first step in the process of development. In this process it becomes important to remember that stakeholders of all sort have to be included and mainstreamed.

Robust community based organisations (SHGs / CLAs) capable of addressing their own development needs and which are able to place demands on the system are preconditions for sustainable development.

As on date, it has almost 1506 SHGs with total membership of approximately 22576 persons / families  98% of these members are women. They have an owned fund of Rs 4,51,92,218 on raised through small weekly savings and through lending activity among themselves on a service charge basis. Their funds have been rotated 2.5 times for the said purpose. They have also mobilized from the Government towards watershed development programmes as well as capacity building (training).

These SHGs are currently being organised into secondary and tertiary organisations mainly consisting of rural women. At present secondary level cluster collectives called Cluster Level Associations (CLAs) have been established. Each CLA roughly covers 10-15 SHGs. The CLAs themselves are gradually entering into a federating process in which 2 regional federations seem to be emerging . OUTREACH is engaged in facilitating this process and promoting the formation and development of confident, viable and multi-functional institutions.

Emphasis is being placed on mainstreaming of the above institutions. This is to be accomplished by the promotion of group entrepreneurial activities to take advantage of current market opportunities and by the establishment of linkages with other mainstream institutions such as credit / financial input supply, marketing, research and training and Government and Non-Government agencies.

In this way OUTREACH hopes to enable CBOs to make the transition to Community Based Development Organisations (CBDOs) which are capable of defining and addressing their own development needs, directing and implementing their own developmental programmes and placing effective and organized demands on the system. 

A NON GOVERNMENT & NON PROFIT ORGANISATION COMMITTED TO SERVING THE RURAL POOR