People's Conventions

The increasing participation by the community in the water and microfinance movements in the country cannot be ignored. Many federations of women groups and farmers' associations have demonstrated that vibrant leadership and local management built through the enabling and empowering approach of the NGOs will have long-lasting impact in the local communities. Madurai symposium would provide a platform to the women's federations and farmers' federations to share their achievements, trials and tribulations, learnings in their engagement with development process.

Representatives from women and farmers' federations across the country would assemble and hold discussions. Large numbers of delegates are expected to participate from various parts of the country.

There would be several simultaneous sessions on various aspects of micro-finance interventions, women development, economic empowerment, banking, insurance, financial inclusion and the sessions would highlight the actual experiences from the field and expected actions from various actors in development. Similarly, seminars will be organised on Watershed development, river basin approach, rainfed farming, best practices in conservation and farming etc.

Launching of Gundar Basin Area Water Development Partnership; September 24, 2007

Gundar river basin is one of the water deficit river basins lying in the low rainfall and drought prone areas of Tamil Nadu. Water harvesting and conservation of the seasonal as well as the unpredictable rainfall is the only way by which both the surface and ground water potential of the area can be made use of in the region. Several conflicts like Social, political and communal caused primarily by the scarcity of water. The need for fresh water for all the sectors is increasing day by day due to the population explosion and environmental issues. Collective efforts of the various stake holders like Governemnt, Research institutions, general public, women self help groups, farmer’s associations, educational institutions, NGOs, private enterprises, corporate agencies are necessary to address the development environment issues of the Gundar basin and to achieve the million development. DHAN Vayalagam Tank Foundation proposes to launch the Gundar area – Water Development partnership along with Vayalagam Movement workers and other stakeholders.

First National Convention on Tank Based Watershed Development in India; September 25, 2007

Peninsular Indian states are endowed with a large number of irrigation tanks, each one of them itself is a watershed having its own catchments as well as one or more drainage lines. DHAN Foundation has evolved the concept of ecosystem based watershed approach with suitable development interventions and demonstrated the relevance of tank based watershed development in South India by implementing over 90 watersheds in the past ten years. It also requires suitable partners to implement such innovation on a larger scale with adequate resource support. DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) Foundation proposes to convene the first Natioanal Convention on Tank based Watersheds.

Convention on Medicinal Plant collection: September 27, 2007

As natural medicines being non-toxic, having no side effects and easily available at affordable prices, the demand for them is increasing. The growth rate of international market of medicinal plants estimated as 7% per year. According to WHO 80% of the people of developing countries rely upon traditional medicines for their primary health care needs. Hence, the collection and trading of such wildly growing herbs provide livelihood to many villagers and tribal people. But as these plants are predominantly of wild origin, they are now under threaten of extinction because of over harvesting, destructive collection techniques and conversion of habitats to crop based agriculture. The trade in medicinal plant is highly complex because of many unorganized individuals are involving in collection, the inter play of middlemen, limited access to market and dependence on intermediaries, quality of collected materials and the relationship between demand and supply. Government support for and supervision of medicinal plant development is also weak. More over there are also problems in fixing marginal cost pricing because of absence of determining mechanism of final revenue obtained from the finished products. There is a need to develop a mechanism to ensure the quality at the grass root level. Medicinal plant collectors are to be organized as business groups and evolve more integrated system. This can be achieved only by a critical examination of theses issues to arrive at plausible solutions to the current scenario, which is the motto of this convention.

Download Convention on Medicinal Plant Collection Brochure

The Third National Convention of Women SHG Federations; September 27 – 29, 2007

Microfinance and SHG has made a revolution in poverty reduction by addressing multiple facets of the vulnerability of poor communities. The SHG Movement started a decade before has gained momentum across the country in terms of reaching more poor and in deepening the microfinance services. The federation provides an organizational identity to the SHGs and federating helps SHGs realize benefits of a scale, without loosing the advantages of they being small. Indian Network of federations of Microfinance Self Help Groups (INFOS), a national network of SHG federations takes the initiatives to bring together the people leaders of various SHG federations from all over the country. The third National convention aims at creating platform for the leaders to share and gain experiences on various aspects with the view of strengthening SHG Movement in the country. It is an effective platform for sharing learning and dissemination of knowledge and best practices.

Download The Third National Convention of Women SHG Federations Brochure

Leaders retreat for Community Based Organizations I; September 28&29, 2007

The concept of SHG federations has proved its success in many ways. The remarkable growth of the SHG Movement in India has brought many concern and challenges to the fore. Sustainability of the SHG federations in the present scenario is a serious concern. Growth and sustainability of these people's organisation is greatly influenced by the people leaders, good governance process and practices in place. To make leaders play an anchoring role in setting the institutional agenda and directions for the future growth, different mechanisms needs to be carried out periodically for self renewal. Keeping this in view, Indian Network of Federations of Microfinance Self Help Groups (INFOS), a network of SHG Federations at national level which strives to strengthen the Self Help Movement across the country believes that there should be a forum for leaders of SHG federations to come together to reflect on their self, practices, belief and value system in order to facilitate co-learning and to build synergy for the leaders to go back with fresh energy for the future growth of their SHG federations. Retreat is a forum to share experiences, reflections, learning, achievements, challenging and frustrating moments. This platform facilitates to clarify the practices, derive inspiration from others and an opportunity to build the organisation's culture. Here retreat is organised for the leaders of SHG Federations. For leaders to play an effective role, SWOT analysis, environment and organisational appraisal is to be carried out periodically for self renewal. This continuous process of self renewal is called leaders retreat. Towards this pursuit, INFOS has planned to organise retreat periodically for the women leaders of the SHG Federations. Organising these retreats for leaders would help in strengthening their federations and to ensure the growth with quality.

Download Leaders Retreat for Community Based Organisations Brochure