Friends of Women's World Banking , India ( www.fwwbindia.org )

Friends of Women's World Banking, India (FWWB India) is a premier apex level institution and a part of its strategy is to support and strengthen start-up organisations, from its list of partners, by providing technical assistance and small loan support helping them graduate to sustainable organisations. It is currently providing funds as well as technical support to about 120 microfinance organizations and cumulatively over 300 multi-sectoral NGO-MFIs and MFIs. Its current outreach is over 6 lacs women borrowers all over the country (the figures upto 31 st October 2007 ) . The mission of FWWB's capacity building programme is two-fold; one, to strengthen self-governance of women and federations at grass-roots levels, enhancing the capacity of the SHGs function effectively and two, to build the capacity of the promoters (CBFIs/ MFIs/ NGOs) to reach a self-sustainable level which helps them manage their microfinance activities in an effective way increasing their reach through organising trainings (strategic planning, portfolio and financial management and the like) for them at regular intervals and hand-holding through FWWB's Credit officers who visit these organisations regularly and help them.

SEWA Bank (an urban cooperative bank) is a renowned microfinance institution with over 30 years of experience in direct delivery of microfinance service including savings, credit, insurance and client financial planning. It currently has 3,04,933 total depositors or members with a share capital of Rs. 32,096,000 and share holders 55,311 and working capital of over Rs. 946,043,000.

SEWA Bank offers a unique training on financial literacy, which helps the clients understand the importance of financial management and how to do it. The rural arm of SEWA Bank conducts trainings at individual, group, district association, spearhead team and federation level. The trainings range from taking them through the entire cycle of SHG formation, financial education, financial management, leadership training and training of management function specific to people trained.

Both, SEWA Bank and FWWB, India are self-sustaining, leading women's organizations working at the grass-root as well as the policy level. They have served on many committees in the international as well as the national forums, such as Women's World Banking among others. They have played an instrumental role in formulating policies and suggesting constructive changes in policies related to the microfinance sector. They have worked closely with the Government at several occasions and so enjoy a good relationship with it. The School as an initiative therefore would also enjoy the government support owing to the government's commitment towards microfinance and the goodwill of its promoting agencies. Moreover, they have proven capacity to leverage local and international expertise. Some examples include work with World Education on member and leadership training, with Citibank and Freedom from Hunger on Financial counseling materials, and with the Coady International Institute on self-help group management and strategic business planning modules. Their training support has been in wide demand since the early beginnings of the microfinance field.

Coady International Institute ( www.coady.stfx.ca )

Coady International Institute , Canada has been promoting community self reliance for the past 40 years. Established by St.Francis Xavier University in 1959, the institute is a world renowned centre of excellence in sustainable community based development. The institute has been able to remain at the forefront of innovation within the field of sustainable community-based development by adapting and responding to the changing environment and the changing needs of development organisations and practitioners. Community based microfinance is one of the institute's strategic areas of focus. Among its accomplishments is an innovative distance learning program that has begun in the health, nursing and education departments but will be expanding over the next few years to other programs. It will support the School through institutional support in managing an educational institute, distance learning, adjunct faculty and a growing microfinance resource centre . There is long-term potential for accreditation of high-performing educational programs through the University.

The leadership of the Institute, all pioneers in their field, possesses the required mix of experience, innovation and links with key networks necessary to launch a project of this magnitude and depth. SEWA Bank has specialized skills in developing and delivering micro finance products and FWWB, an umbrella organization, has experience in training a wide variety of NGO staff and SHG members. The Coady International Institute, with over 40 years experience in providing training and education, is well positioned to support the educational aspects of the initiative as well as leverage international expertise through both distance learning and periodic direct training.