THEME: Good working partnerships between government and NGOs do not happen by chance.

The IFAD-supported Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project, now completed, was designed and implemented on the basis of a partnership with national non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The main objective of the project was to bring about the economic and social betterment of women. The idea was that this would both improve women's status within their families and community and benefit their families. NGOs gave the type of organization and empowerment support, particularly at the grass-roots level, that would have been impossible for the Government to provide. The IFAD completion evaluation in late 1999 drew some lessons from the experience-on NGO partnerships-that have relevance beyond a single country or region.

The 1999 IFAD evaluation mission observed that the project could not have been a success without the involvement of the NGOs. Some 30 NGOs were contracted for a role in implementation. They were carefully selected on the basis of an NGO grading system that had been developed by the Tamil Nadu Corporation for the Development of Women. About half of initial NGO applicants were excluded. Those that were included were still fairly varied. Some had focused exclusively on the needs of poor women, while others had not given priority to poverty targeting. Again, some were wellknown, experienced and established NGOs, while others were much newer and weaker. The evaluation linked the effective or weak situation of the women's groups directly to NGO performance, commitment and capacity.

NGOs played the central role in implementation of the project in all five districts, particularly in:

• identifying women beneficiaries;
• forming and supervising women's self-help groups (SHGs);
• establishing credit linkages for women group members; and
• training animators to work to with the women's groups.

The evaluation of the project stressed some lessons learned in working with NGOs.

• The catalytic or support role of the NGO has to be clearly defined and understood. The study found that over half the NGOs were making the decisions for the group, instead of holding back and letting the women in the group make their own decisions. This is sometimes hard for enthusiastic NGO field workers to do, but is important from the point of view of women's empowerment.
• The remuneration basis of NGOs is very important. Originally, the remuneration of the NGOs was based on the number of women applying for bank loans in the groups the NGOs had helped set up. But, as the evaluation noted, where NGOs were underfunded themselves, and NGO staff therefore heavily reliant for their salaries on income from the project, this had adverse effects. Such NGOs became too anxious to set up new groups and encouraged women to apply for credit before group cohesion had been fully established. In recognition of this problem, the basis of the NGO remuneration was changed so that it included group formation and sensitization and helping groups become sustainable. This allowed a more balanced type of support.
• NGO support is most important at the early stages of group formation, and should gradually be phased out. Unlike many other projects, the Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project placed considerable emphasis on the sustainability of groups. This meant also that NGOs had to avoid developing "NGO dependency" and gradually had to give the women the skills and courage to take over responsibilities. Planning an "exit strategy", therefore, becomes a key part of NGO support.
• NGOs sometimes also need training. Even in a country such as India, where there are so many excellent and experienced NGOs, the weaker ones may still need training in order to be effective partners in implementation.

The project experience underlines the importance of careful selection of NGO partners and, if needed, their up-front training. Where large projects are involved, it is inevitable that there will be gaps in coverage that will have to be filled by less-experienced NGOs. These weaker NGOs will need extra support and more supervision. The way the partnership is set up will also affect project effectiveness and impact.

Adapted from:

IFAD/OE. 2000. The Republic of India: Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project: Completion Evaluation, Report 340-IN. Rome, April.

Hot links Rural poverty in India IFAD operations in India