Perspective: Leaders are not enough!

By G Muralidhar,

“Let us remember we have come ahead. We no longer suffer because there are no resources. It is their distribution that is the problem. Access to financial resources is a small problem. Bigger problem is the human resources. Bigger problem is the ideas for investing resources; ideas for building enterprises; and lack of span of attention of the people who matter. Biggest problem is the best minds are not turning up for this task. This cannot go on. Let us change it. Let us begin to changing it.”

Microfinance Focus, June 17, 2010: As we live the month, World No Tobacco Day (31 May), World Environment Day (5 June), Fathers’ Day (Third Sunday in June – 20 June), International Children’s Day (1 June), and World Day against Child Labor (12 June) pass by. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (17 June) and UN Public Service Day (23 June) are coming. World Music Day (21 June) is underscoring the music’s scores of inspiration, celebration, healing, solitude, and soul searching. Fathers’ Day (Third Sunday in June – 20 June) may have some exchanges and some celebrations!

This month endorsed our understanding of differentiating work ethic and ethics of work. I came face-to-face with situations during the month on Employment. During the Abilities’ Mela at Sweekar-Upkaar organized by LSN Foundation in Hyderabad , there was a discussion on self-employment. In India of 120 Crore people, we add at least 2-3 Crore youth into potential productive group every year. We have 2-3% disabled in them i.e. 5-6 lakh disabled youth enter the potential productive force. All jobs pout together in the country may come to a mere one lakh for them. What is the way out for the remaining? Self-employment is the answer! If we have to accommodate 5 lakh youth, we need Rs.5000 Crore even if we budget Rs.1.0 lakh per person. Do we know who are they? What are the skills they are endowed with? What are the skills that can be provided to them? What are the competencies one looks in a self-employed? Do they have the competencies to develop business/sell, to negotiate, to manage a team, to manage some money? Can we offer them? Importantly, do we have unique ideas that these youth can take up and build enterprises around them? We need to build a special component in National Rural Livelihoods Mission that specifically looks at self-employment and enterprise development with adequate budgets, pool of competent resource persons and protocols for converting potential productive force into a self-employed and entrepreneurial productive force.

Second face-to-face is with the migrants in homeless shelters. What is the way we can address their employment issues? They offer no common background, common skill, common resource base, and no trust in each other. How do we work on this?

Third face-to-face is with the Products and Services by the families of the members in SHGs. As we are aware, poor are in both farm and non-farm livelihoods viz., agriculture including horticulture, sericulture, floriculture, etc., dairy and livestock, Non-timber forest produce, inland and marine fisheries, wage labor, artisans including handlooms, handicrafts etc., trade and small local enterprises. We are also aware that they have multiple livelihoods. They need inputs and they also have consumption and they also have risks. There are gaps in these value-chains. They could benefit by collective purchases, collective sales and local value-addition collectively.  Even then, we have no clue why these enterprises taking of whether individually or collectively? We need to dig deeper. We need to do a mapping – mapping of livelihoods, resources, skills, etc. We need to understand the markets and products and services in the local markets. We need to see what people trade in and trade out. We need to analyze livelihoods in terms of productivity, employment, income and expenditure; we need to analyze resources in terms of use, no use and less use; we need to analyze skills in terms of various use categories and scope to enhance them; we need to match them with job needs, self-employment needs, enterprise worker needs; we need to see their workday and workdays in a year in a gender disaggregated and season disaggregated manner. We also need to appreciate the positive role being played by middlemen in terms of services and supports and how these can be continued in the new thinking. We also need to appreciate the roles, scope and limitations of existing institutions there.

We are talking of the existing efforts, products and services from these groups. Can we build collectives of these groups? Can we give them a brand? Can we offer quality control? What are the other ideas around which groups can come and build enterprises? Can we build a set of protocols and routines for taking this entire effort forward?

While face-to-face with employment, we continued our deep immersion in understanding institutional architecture of the poor across in Andhra Pradesh and beyond. The work on deepening and expanding zero drafts of the business plan(s) for ‘L-channel’ and other L-info units are picking up momentum. Collectives, watersheds, social entrepreneurship, social enterprises, urban, rural, tribal and coastal livelihoods, elders, poorest of the poor, disabled, elderly and other marginalized communities, the people who work with/for them, financing them, business/strategic plans and creative tension continued to hog the most of our time during the month.

Rana Kapoor of Axis Bank argues for innovations for financial inclusion in terms of customized and cost-effective products and services for under-penetrated markets. His argument is for reducing transaction cost for micro-transactions using ICT – may be digital currency through mobiles (like the ‘change’ given as tokens in Chennai buses accepted in small hotels and shops earlier).Given our existing mobile density and its growth can offer an effective solution. Let us think more. We can have more such solutions that use the architecture of the wide-spread community-institutions.

As the community institutions grow with time, their combined financial resources are increasing beyond our imagination. A federation of SHGs with about 10,000 members established about 10 years go, can talk of adding savings in its network to the tune of Rs. 1.5 Crore savings and Rs.1.5 Crore in interest per year. Today, they talk of having own funds in the network exceeding Rs.10.0 Crore. If this trend continues, there is no reason to believe otherwise, the network will touch Rs.25.0 Crore in 5 years and may be Rs.50.0 Crore in 10 years. Then, they need no small loans from MFIs or banks. They need maha bulk loans. They need loans for small and medium enterprises. Of course, this needs to be facilitated with care and concern. They need to be statute compliant. They need to have professional CEOs. They need robust funds management and loan processing protocols. They need to have internal audit processes. They need to have autonomous businesses. Their governance systems need to be strengthened. Then, this will be reality.

With this in the domain of possibility, mFI s  ( Microfinance Institutions ) may have to get into mF+ operations. That seems to be the future. Informal chits and other savings institutions can add mF into their portfolio. We are hearing about post-office making a huge difference. There are 1.5 lakh post-offices in the country more than any bank or MFI today. Number of savings accounts with post offices is near to 8.0 million poor. With the paradigm shift towards prosperity and financial access, rather than reducing poverty, post-office represents a robust and credible alternative mF provider.

Leaders are not enough. We need workers, activists, professionals and paraprofessionals too. While we persist with building leaders who build or support this wider and expanded institutional architecture of the people and their support structures, we need to develop mechanisms, institutes, academies, centers, and units that build these workers, activists, generalist and specialist professionals and paraprofessionals. Some individuals can also anchor these efforts. We need to build leaders who build these mechanisms.

We are running out of time. We need to work on our political, business, academic and bureaucratic leaders to become social leaders and build more social leaders, social entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs supporting social entrepreneurs, double quick for this wider endeavor.

Let us remember we have come ahead. We no longer suffer because there are no resources. It is their distribution that is the problem. Access to financial resources is a small problem. Bigger problem is the human resources. Bigger problem is the ideas for investing resources; ideas for building enterprises; and lack of span of attention of the people who matter. Biggest problem is the best minds are not turning up for this task. This cannot go on. Let us change it. Let us begin to changing it.

Let us increase access to human resources at every level. Let us attract the best brains into this agenda. Let us make Collective Indian Leadership in every dimension to commit to this agenda.

Direct all your energy towards doing it!

About the Author :

G Muralidhar

G Muralidhar, Chief Mentor, Akshara Network is a Development/Livelihoods Management Worker/Professional/Thought Leader with intense and diverse experience portfolio.

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