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Introduction:

The Asian Development Bank in association with the Coady International Institute contracted CECI to undertake technical assistance -1904 NEP- the Institutional Strengthening of NGOs component of the Micro Credit Project for Women (MCPW) in 1994. The Project as a whole was executed by the Women Development Division of the Ministry of Women Social Welfare with the goal of improving the socio-economic status of women through provision of social preparation and skill training, institutional support to NGOs and provision of credit.

The purpose of TA-1904 was to facilitate the social preparation of women beneficiaries, group formation, mobilization of savings, and ultimately accessing of credit by project beneficiaries. Working in collaboration with the two other project components-namely T.A. 1903 (Group Formation and Training of Women Beneficiaries and Loan 1237-NEP (SF) Provision of Credit -TA 1904 aimed to strengthen the capacity of a select set of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to form and strengthen women's groups, manage viable savings/credit and enterprise assistance programs, and subsequently to assist these NGOs to become credit agents and/or financial intermediaries.

Goal and Objectives:

The Institutional Strengthening of NGOs component of the Micro-Credit Project for Women sought to achieve the following goal and objectives: To help establish and/or strengthen gender sensitive and self sustaining Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) capable of:

• Creating employment opportunities, increasing income, and enhancing the participation of and integration of poor Nepali women in national socio-economic and political life through the organization and strengthening of women's groups;
• Functioning as network organizations, through the formation of NGO Cooperation Associations (NGO/CAs), for training, information sharing, and linkage building.
• Mobilizing internal and external resources for their own organizational survival and growth, as well as to support initiatives of Self-Help Groups;
• Managing viable savings/credit and enterprise assistance programs,
• Acting as financial intermediaries.

Target Areas:

The project selected twelve districts and five urban areas, on the basis of the following criteria:

• a large number of potential beneficiaries
• the deployment of one WDO and at least five women workers;
• the presence of NGOs and of the participating banks;
• existing or planned activities of other aid agencies like USAID, UNICEF, UNDP, ILO and GTZ which would complement the project benefits; and
• relative accessibility of the areas.

The selected areas were Pyuthan, Dang, Salyan, Chitwan, Kaski, Siraha, Saptari, Dhankuta, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Baglung and Parbat; and the urban areas of Nepalgunj, Pokhara/Dumre, Bhaktapur, Dhankuta and Kathmandu.