Amfi We Lead

About the Project

Women Entrepreneurship-Livelihood Enhancement and Development (WE-LEAD).

Economic development plays an important role in the growth of any society. This is particularly of importance for a developing country like India. Developing income opportunities through entrepreneurial skill enhancement among the poor, which helps in tackling the problems of economic development by creating their enterprises/businesses, has become an important part of the development work. However, lack of knowledge and skills required for enterprises, poor infrastructures especially on rural connectivity, power/energy, communication etc. limited or non-availability of affordable finance, financial products and absence of appropriate channels have been some of the main reasons why many of the poor households with their erratic incomes in the developing countries including India and state like West Bengal. Access to finance and customized skill building inputs on entrepreneurship development can help substantially to promote, expand and sustain livelihoods opportunities for women and strengthen their social and economic empowerment.

In India, women make almost half of the population, therefore, to drive economic growth, it is imperative to empower them. Financial independence is one of the important factors that would accelerate growth rate. While in the last few years, through awareness campaigns and initiatives around women empowerment addressing to their needs and safety requirements, implemented by public bodies and private enterprises, a decrease in gender disparity has been noticed, but on a macro-level the condition is still need to be improved further.

West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. Years after independence, West Bengal is dependent on the central government for help in meeting its demands for food; food production remained stagnant, and the Indian green revolution by passed the state. However, there has been a significant increase in food production since the 1980s and the state now has a surplus of grains. The state's share of total industrial output in India was 9.8% in 1980–1981, declining to 5% by 1997–1998. In contrast, the service sector has grown at a rate higher than the national rate. However, over the years due to effective changes in the stance towards industrialisation, ease of doing business has improved in West Bengal. Steps are being taken to remedy this situation by promoting West Bengal as an investment destination.

AMFI-WB with the support of SIDBI-SRF primarily aims at to promote sustainable livelihood solutions among women by staring and expanding micro enterprises and enhancing their household income. Experiences suggest that there is no dearth of potentiality in any given population, capable and willing to be involved in economic activities, but there is lack of integrated and need-based strategies, business development services, support and training programmes and paucity of skilled trainers, facilitators and teachers, which inhibits the efforts. It is envisaged that these initiatives will be of great help for the poor women clients served by various member MFIs/banks in the state.

Enhancing Livelihood Security for poor and their households has been considered as one of the key priorities of all development agencies including the Government, especially in developing country like India. Access to finance, need based trainings on entrepreneurship and skill building can help substantially to promote, expand and sustain livelihoods opportunities for poor. Realizing the importance Association of Micro Financial Institutions – West Bengal (AMFI-WB) planned to take up a project, name as “Women Entrepreneurship-Livelihood Enhancement and Development (WE-LEAD) programme, mainly to promote and strengthen entrepreneurships among women SHG/JLG members in the six districts (South 24 Parga, Howrah, Bankura, Birbhum, Nadia & South Dinajpur) of West Bengal. The project is being supported by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). As proposed, AMFI-WB will implement the programme together with its Member MFIs, in the Six Districts (Three Aspirational Districts) of West Bengal.

AMFI-WB started the project to implement the program in above mentioned 6 Districts. Now, this work is going on in twelve blocks (Jaynagar-I, Jaynagar-II, Sakrial, Panchla, Bankura-I, Chhatna, Bolpur, Labpur, Ranaghat-I, Ranaghat- II, Gangarampur & Banshihari) & three municipalities (Gangarampur, Majilpur &Bolpur) area.

Presently, AMFI-WB is working more than 30 MFIs/bank in the above-mentioned districts. Women Members from various Group/JLGs served by MFIs are the primary target group who will be provided with thematic- EDP & Skill Training and necessary Business Development & Financial Services.

The Overarching Goal & Key Objectives of the project are Goal: Promoting 10,000 women Entrepreneurs from among the group/JLGs Members through Capacity Building-EDP/Skill Training & Business Development Services in West Bengal.

Objectives:

To undertake awareness building programs on financial and business literacy, livelihoods and enterprise promotion among low-income group of people especially women Group/JLG members.
To strengthen the livelihoods opportunities for women and their households by creating new business opportunities and enhancing productivity of their existing enterprise through need-based business development and financial services.
Develop/ customize suitable EDP modules by reviewing the existing materials in the market and design suitable training manual, posters, toolkit etc. accordingly in Bengali and Hindi.
To create a pool of local and community-based Resource Team-Livelihood Coordinators (LCs) and EDP Promoters on Livelihoods and Enterprise Promotion in order to meet the capacity building and business development services required for Women Group/JLG Members.
Impart customized trainings on WE-LEAD-EDP & Skill building to Women SHG/JLG Members and help enhance their knowledge on Enterprising Development & Management with inputs on business development services to pursue/expand their business activities.
To facilitate financial linkages, especially micro-credit for the potential women entrepreneurs with Banks, MFIs and other financial institutions so that they are able to start, expand and sustain their business opportunities.
Develop and suggest a suitable design for scaling-up of the program to other Districts/Blocks in the state at the need of the project.
To carry out lobby and advocacy with Govt. & Policy Makers by creating/ demonstrating positive impacts through these initiatives in the lives of women and their households through customized livelihood solutions.
Many more entrepreneurship activities would be identified during the field survey under the project initiatives.
Projected Entrepreneurs: Around 12000 Women Entrepreneurs would be selected out of which 50% would be Fresher and rest 50% would be Regular Borrowers from our member Institutions. The main purpose of the project is to sensitize, orient and impart skill trainings to Women group/JLG members on livelihoods and enterprise promotion and help them to start, expand and sustain their business activities in the operational areas. In view of that AMFI-WB will make sincere efforts to collaborate with MFIs and achieve the following coverage and deliverables;

• No. of Potential Women Entrepreneurs to be promoted: 10,000 (@ 50:50 Ratio)
• No of New Entrepreneurs to be promoted: 5000 (2500 Entrepreneurs each year)
• No of Existing Entrepreneurs to be strengthened: 5000 (2500 Entrepreneurs each year)
• Research Activities – Present status of Microfinance industry in West Bengal. Impact assessment during the project end and mid-level study. Post impact assessment of the project. Study on Project Entrepreneurs for their present Entrepreneurship activities.

Staffs of WE-LEAD Project

Project Staff Details We-lead

Project Advisory Committee (Legal Committee) Following Committee Members from AMFI-WB:

Project Advisory Committee (Legal Committee)

Monitoring and Supervising Committee

Project: WE-LEAD

Supported By: SIDBI-SRF

Project Implementing Agency: AMFI-WB

Supervision cum Monitoring Committee

IT Committee

IT Committee Members

Sub-Committee Nominated by Board: Following Committee Members are

Sub-Committee Members of WE-LEAD Project

Monthly Report

Sl. No.	Month	Report
1.	February to May, 2023	Download PDF
2.	June, 2023	Download PDF
3.	July, 2023	Download PDF
4.	August, 2023	Download PDF
5.	September, 2023	Download PDF
6.	October, 2023	Download PDF
7.	December, 2023	Download PDF
8.	January, 2024	Download PDF
9.	February, 2024	Download PDF
10.	March, 2024	Download PDF