The National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and the Centre for International Cooperation in Training & Agricultural Banking (CICTAB) jointly organized an international training of trainers (ToT) for cooperative rural financing institutions at its headquarter in New Delhi from December 2 to 6, 2019. 28 participants of CICTAB members from Bangladesh, India and Nepal participated in the five day long ToT. The participants were from central banks, cooperatives, federations and training institutes.
The programme was inaugurated by Dr. Manoj Nardeo Singh, Secretary General, African Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) in the presence of Shri N. Satyanarayana, Chief Executive NCUI, Executive Directors and senior officers of NCUI. Introducing the programme, Ritesh Dey, Programme Director, International Relations of NCUI provided a brief of the programme, profiles of the participants and the topics to be covered.
In his welcome remark, Shri N. Satyanarayana stressed upon the need to procure a fair deal for the farmers to bring them out from poverty and the significant role of cooperative rural financing institutions. Welcoming the participants from neighbouring countries to NCUI, he urged them to take maximum benefit from the ToT so that they can learn and replicate the learning outcomes in their organization.
Dr. Manoj Nardeo Singh, stressed on rural transformation and said that a good rural financing institution can meet the demand of farmers in each country and urged the participants to empower themselves in all aspects to realize the transformation. He mentioned that the role of cooperatives is very important to develop the agriculture sector and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. He emphasized on technology adoption in cooperatives to compete with other players in the market. He described “training” as important tool that helps each individual to enhance his / her knowledge on specific topics and advised the participants to share and exchange their ideas with a positive mindset.
During the programme the participants were imparted training through experts from different fields on various aspects of training and development – ethics and systematic approach, Training Need Analysis (TNA), evaluation, and implementation of techniques. Resource persons from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and other institutions were invited to speak on important aspects of rural financing, digitalization, role of SHGs for empowerment of youth & women. A special session on adult psychology and learning principle was also organized. A one-day field trip to Agra was organized where the participants interacted with the CEO of District Central Cooperative Bank in Agra to learn the process of rural financing in India and also visited the world famous Taj Mahal.
On the last day, the Consultant of CICTAB made a presentation on how to conduct a training programme and appraised the participants about the parameters for the same. The participants were then grouped and each group was assigned a mentor to prepare the draft training programme for their respective organization / countries. This was presented to the senior officers of NCUI and CICTAB. The participants also made presentation on their organization / country.
Mr. Balasubramanian G. Iyer, Regional Director of ICA–AP was the Chief Guest at the valedictory ceremony. In attendance were Shri N. Satyanarayana; Dr. K.K. Tripathy, Director, CICTAB and VAMNICOM; Dr. K.N. Sinha, Executive Director, NCUI; and Dr. D. Ravi, Consultant, CICTAB and Faculty Member, VAMNICOM. During the feedback, one of the participants from Central Bank of Bangladesh described the ToT as an excellent platform to exchange the ideas between participants and a great learning experience for her to replicate training in her organization. A participant from Nepal said that the programme added knowledge on cooperative banking, micro-finance including SHGs and functioning of NABARD in India towards lending credit to rural financing institutions. He felt that this could be replicated in his country.
Participant receiving a certificate at the valedictory from Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP.
In his valedictory address, Mr. Iyer said that trainers play an important role in cooperatives by educating member institutions, stakeholders and the public. He requested all to create the synergy to target more and more youth and women to encourage them to join cooperatives.
