Udyogini/UJAS

Fair prices for disadvantaged women

About Udyogini

Udyogini is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with 60 employees, established in 1992. Udyogini works to empower economically and socially disadvantaged women through micro-enterprise development and management. They provide business development services to these women and help them to initiate and effectively manage their own micro-enterprises and grassroots associations. Udyogini holds a vision that rural women can build on their productive skills to become self reliant and knowledgeable entrepreneurs. The social impact of Udyogini is:

• local employment and/or income generation
• community involvement
• improving quality of life
• transfer of knowledge and skills

Business case

Udyogini supports an organisation named UJAS. The mission of this organisation is to improve the local economic situation of business women in the Mandla region of India. These business women are mainly tribal women. They trade in supply chains of agricultural and non-timber forest products. In the existing chain private traders are the main players. They are involved in retailing, procuring, sourcing commodities direct from the producer, primary value addition and money lending. The present chain is non-transparent. Also, weights and measures are improper and women do not get a fair deal.

UJAS has the objective to organise these women in order to:

• improve access to markets
• improve efficiency in the supply chain
• increase income

UJAS therefore facilitates provision of business development services, including microfinance. Udyogini asked SharePeople to assist the social enterprise UJAS in their Business Development Services. Udyogini/UJAS received assistance from Mr. Frans Robert Buerman, owner of The HRQM Company in Amsterdam, specialized in Process/Quality management. Frans Robert has experience in projects in medium and large organisations improving services such as change management, consultancy and Interim HR- and Quality management.

Results

Analysis

Udyogini's requested Frans Rober to address three main areas:

• Analyse the Supply Chain product flows and their dependencies. Estimate the UJAS (members) flows, calculate profitability and decide which activities are vital for obtaining fair prices. This includes preparing Business Plan outlines for Trading and Processing.
• Draw up an adequate Organisation Structure in order to manage the Fair Trade Chain and clarify roles and responsibilities of all parties involved.
• Suggest improvements in the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the daily operations and implementations of field staff.

To address these areas Frans Robert Buerman gathered information through desk research, field visits, interviews and the constructive cooperation with Raj Kumar Prasad, Manager of UJAS.

The main target of Udyogini's Mandla project is to motivate women to start their own enterprises, so developing an earning potential for their households. The overall analysis is that, although not quantified in detail, the project has been very successful. The Women Enterprise Groups (WEG's) have been and will continue to be improved very successfully thanks to Udyogini's implementation team. Participation grows and the introduction of new methods and techniques creates ongoing improvements. On the other hand, current risk lies in the uncontrolled growth of the project. Women are ready and willing to join the project but the amount of available support and monitoring is inadequate to assist their transition.

The effectiveness of the enterprises, in terms of benefits to the women and their families, is not yet clear. Little or no data is available to allow a comparison between their living standards before the project began and their living standards today. Accurate data on the targets, raising production and income is not yet available. Due to the ambiguous definition of roles and responsibilities allotted to members of the implementation team, to other organisers and to the women themselves, several areas of the implementation and production processes are now out of control.

Advice

Frans Robert has been able to give advice regarding above mentioned issues. He provided:

• advice regarding the gaps in the existing supply chain management
• a proposal for a new organisation model
• advice on how to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of the projects

Advice 1: It's important to ensure that the women achieve fair prices for their products. They should be involved in the ‘supply chain' via UJAS. 

Implicit Conditions:

• Sufficient product flows from UJAS members to ensure an acceptable profit level. Productivity and product flows from the women have been estimated for the coming 3 years. These estimations show that trading is likely to be profitable but that processing activities require higher volumes to show a reasonable profit.
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities are necessary for operational and risk management.

Advice 2: Supportive (Udyogini) and operational (UJAS) roles and responsibilities must now be separated. 

Implicit Condition:

Clearly defined individual responsibilities for operational tasks within the UJAS organization: a shift of focus from support to operations.

Advice 3: To create and maintain women's faith in the Udyogini approach, implementation must be improved.  

Implicit Conditions:

• Number of projects to be in accordance with and within the handling capability of the number of field staff employed.
• Clear roles and responsibilities for implementors and field staff (Conclusion 2).
• Efficiency and effectiveness to be improved by regular monitoring and evaluation at each phase of the implementations (Quality Circle).

Impact on the partners

The analysis done by Frans Robert in cooperation with Udyogini and UJAS representatives, has allowed them to get a better insight in the current gaps within their model and approach. Based upon these conclusions Udyogini and UJAS will be able to introduce changes, in order to assure the success of UJAS.

 ‘We have leant many things from the expert. One of them is hat the Plan - Do - Check - Action" cycle is a very simple but effective tool for the assessment and development of any activity. Each and every thing should be documented. Nothing should be done without proper planning, a small confusion at the beginning phase can lead to big problems.' (Raj Kumar Prasad, Manager of UJAS)

For Frans Robert the exchange has been a unique opportunity to further broaden his experience as a consultant in Process/Quality management and train his skills in a different environment.

"Out of the box working leads to out of the box thinking." (Frans Robert Buerman, owner of The HRQM Company).

Follow up

Udyogini and UJAS will implement most of the recommendations done by the expert. Frans Robert agreed upon long distance coaching of UJAS, and both parties consider a follow up visit at a later stage of development of UJAS, next year.

Raj Kumar Prasad and Arvind Malik, Economical developer at Udyogini, participated in the SharePeople Experience Week in July 2009. For him, this was a great opportunity to broaden his knowledge and to further exchange experiences and ideas with Frans Robert and other expert from different countries.  

Click here for the weblog 'Expert Programma Frans Robert Buerman'