The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) have entered into a strategic alliance by inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support rural women Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
The MoU, which covers a period of 3 years, seeks to harmonize NABARD’s role as an enabler and facilitator in the SHG ecosystem, with the transformative goal of NRLM to promote women led development in rural areas by leveraging on the strengths of both entities, the development financial institution (DFI) said in a statement.
The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY)-NRLM will engage with respective State/UT Rural Livelihood Missions to facilitate their participation as project implementing agencies with the regional offices of NABARD under the DFI’s capacity building, skilling & entrepreneurship training of matured women SHGs.
This alliance will provide physical and online marketing support schemes, support graduation of SHG clusters to Producer Organizations both in farm and non-farm sectors for sustainable economic activities, and promote climate resilient agriculture for women SHGs, livelihood interventions to women SHGs in NABARD’s Wadi and Watershed development project areas along with deepening of financial inclusion.
The MoU further aims to develop pilots in digital transactions of SHG federations to usher in transparency and efficiency with quick TAT (turnaround time) for members, besides exploring options to facilitate deployment of women SHG members as business correspondents of banks.