A Course for Pratitioners - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - 16 to 21 August 2010

SaveAct of Pieterburg in South Africa and VSL Associates Ltd. are offering a five and half-day course in the history, principles, practice and implementation of Community-based Savings & Credit. The course will be taught in English by Gabrielle Athmer, a VSL Associate and Consultant in Microfinance and Gender and Nolufefe Nonjeke-Dlanjwa, an experienced facilitator in the model with SaveAct. There are 20 places available on this course.

Course description

The Community-based Savings Group (CBSG) course exposes participants to best practice by the leading practitioner organisations promoting savings-based community-managed microfinance. The course covers five key areas:

• General introduction, including principles and emerging best practice; why CBSG; the scale and extent of practitioner programmes; methodological background and emerging issues;
• Field visits to SaveAct Savings and Credit Groups implementing the VSL CBSG model;
• Practice sessions illustrating the VSL methodology used by CARE, the Aga Khan Foundation, Plan International and numerous southern NGOs. All current training materials will be used;
• Management Information Systems for CBSG: Version 3.02 released on April 2010;
• Implementation planning at all levels.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COURSE TOPICS, COST AND OTHER DETAILS, download the course flyer at www.SaveAct.org.za

Course objectives

The course will allow participants to:

• Understand the basic rationale for community-based savings and credit, and what type of target group most benefits from the system;
• Gain familiarity with the training approach and tools and make informed choices about which system, or combination of systems, best suits local conditions, clients and staff;
• Track and measure programme performance;
• Design and cost a CBSG programme.

Registration

Participants may register with or direct any further enquires to Gail Cornhill at gail@spottedowl.co.za, or download the registration form on the SaveAct website.