The Group Promoter’s Resource Book

Table of Contents

A practical guide to building rural self-help groups

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

NOTE TO USERS

If you have any comments on or suggestions for improvements to this resources book, write to:

Senior Officer,
Cooperatives and Other Rural
Organizations Group, FAO/ESH,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00100 Rome, Italy.

Reprinted 1995, 1997

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Original text by
Verona Groverman

Edited by
J. Cook/G. Thomas

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

© FAO 1994

This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software and careful manual recorrection. Even if the quality of digitalisation is high, the FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

SECTION 1

Chapter 1: The role of a group promoter
Chapter 2: Working methods of a group promoter
Chapter 3: Using participatory learning methods

SECTION 2

Chapter 1: Group formation

Step 1: Entering the community
Step 2: Identifying the poor
Step 3: Discussing group formation
Step 4: Establishing a group

Block 1: Leadership
Block 2: Member contributions
Block 3: Making a group constitution
Block 4: Keeping records

Step 5: Self-reliance and sustainability

Chapter 2: Inter-group associations

Step 1: Promoting inter-group associations
Step 2: Forming an inter-group association

Chapter 3: Income generation

Step 1: Preparing for income generation

Block 1: Feasibility
Block 2: Profitability
Block 3: Planning
Block 4: Marketing
Block 5: Savings
Block 6: Loans

Step 2: Launching the group activity

Chapter 4: Participatory monitoring and evaluation

Step 1: Introducing PMOE
Step 2: Developing PMOE methods

ANNEXES

ANNEX 1: Participatory learning techniques
ANNEX 2: Participatory rural appraisal techniques
ANNEX 3: Sources
ANNEX 4: Addresses