I visited with Loyola Joseph of the Foundation of Occupational Development, India, who heads the Inter-City Marketing Network of Women Entrepreneurs Project, funded by infoDev. I had the opportunity to hold discussions with women participating in the program and to participate in a “market day” activity in which the women were able to meet with each other, display their products, and establish connections and new supply channels. Social facilitators for the project were also present.

It is very clear that the program is providing important and useful services and connecting women producers to each other and to markets. The program is already being recognized for its potential to raise women’s incomes, and is being linked to various government initiatives, including a program on community toilets, in hopes of making it financially sustainable.

There are three risks with the current program design:

• A thorough financial analysis and costing should be done before replicating the program on a large scale. What are the unit costs of facilitation and outreach of the program? Who will manage these costs in other places? Are participants willing to cover the costs of facilitation?
• The relationship between the social facilitators and the women’s groups should be carefully examined. From the meeting that I attended – especially compared with other projects visited in Andhra Pradesh – the relationship seemed to be more vertical than facilitating. Training in participatory training and methods may be useful.
• Finally, while it is important for pilot projects to obtain seed grants for experimentation, given that the phones are free to the groups, it is not clear how the scheme could be replicated on a large scale.

I am very thankful to Loyola for his time and his hospitality. This program is just one of many promising activities that he and FOOD are pursuing.