MEC Project
Micro Enterprise Consultants as a concept started by Kudumbashree in Kerala in the year 2004. Based on the experiences of Kudumbashree, KS-NRO piloted the MEC Project in 6 states, namely Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan for micro-enterprise development through building and strengthening local pool of Micro-enterprise Consultants (MEC) in partner-States.
Micro Enterprise Consultants (MECs) are drawn from the community, trained and placed locally to provide handholding support to existing and potential entrepreneurs on a chargeable basis. The MECs work in groups which are registered partnership firms offering business consulting services, leveraging the different skill sets of its members in the interest of providing quality services to targeted clients.
Prime activities in partner states include:
• Identifying and selection of MEC
• Capacitation of MEC and placement of MEC Groups
• Establishing MEC – CBO linkages for sustainable rural enterprise development
• Roll out of measurable and effective monitoring mechanisms
39 personnel drawn from Kudumbashree’s resource pool of former CDS Chairpersons, Micro- Enterprise Consultants, KAASS members provide on-ground mentoring and hand-holding support for project activities in partner-States.Young Professionals are engaged in supporting mentors, designing and developing training, planning and monitoring modules and tools.
The MEC Project pilots are taken up by the State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLM) as part of their Annual Action Plans for (National Rural Livelihood Mission) NRLM. Kudumbashree-NRO provides technical support in design and implementation. The interventions are locally contextualized jointly by the SRLM and KS-NRO.
The specific roles of the SRLM are:
• Mission Management Units at State, District and Block level takes ownership of the project activities and provides support and guidance throughout
• Helps establish relationship with existing community cadre and field level stakeholders for smooth running of project
• Conducts regular monitoring and review of the work of the MEC groups and their relationship with the community institutions
• Interfaces with banks and other sources of financial support
• Plans for replication and scaling-up of the pilots to other parts of the State
The States and SRLMs implementing the MEC Project are Jeevika - Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, GLPC - Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company, JSLPS - Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, Sanjeevini - Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society, Umed - Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission and Rajeevika - Rajasthan Grameen Aajeevika Vikas Parishad(under Rajasthan Rural Livelihoods Project).
Coverage Map of MEC Project
4 Pillars of the MEC Project
- Micro Enterprise Consultant Firms: Individual MECs pool in their capabilities as a consulting enterprise to offer wide range of services to SHG entrepreneurs
- Performance Tracking System:IT-enabled real-time information system for micro-enterprise accounting and performance tracking; with potential to grow intoa ME ERP system
- Community Institutions Driving Enterprise Development: The SHG-Federation network built by NRLM owns the enterprise development process in the village; uses the MEC Group as a technical support agency
- Sustainable Rural Enterprises:Viable and sustainable enterprises of rural entrepreneurs, in line with market conditions
Stakeholders involved
Capacity Building of MECs
The Capacity Building of the selected MECs forms a crucial period in the implementation of MEC project in partner states. Capacity Building modules and activities are divided as per the content designed for each:
1.Training in Entrepreneurship Development (TED)
- Soft-skills and team building
- Entrepreneurship Orientation
- Understanding markets, financial institutions
- Modules developed by Kudumbashree NRO and delivered by trainers from Kerala
2.Certificate in Rural Enterprise Administration and Management (CREAM)
- Compressed MBA (35 days over 6 months) with clear focus on small rural enterprises
- Training of Trainer approach to expand coverage in a cost-effective manner
- Modules developed and delivered by TREE (Training Resources for Enabling Enterprises) Society
3.Training in Rural Enterprise Administration and Management (TEAM)
- Application oriented modules on business management (22 days over 3 months)
- Module developed by CREAM faculty; Delivered by CREAM trained trainer MEC
4.Market and demand assessment exercises for hands-on practice of concepts
5.Exposure Visits for ‘seeing and learning’
Stages of Enterprise promotion and services offered by MEC
Stages Services offered by MEC
Opportunity identification for entrepreneurs Facilitation of orientation on business opportunities in the local area
Entrepreneur orientation and training Module creation and training facilitation
Business planning Conducting Viability check and Preparation of business plan
Credit linkages Providing linkages for credit from banks and Community institutions
Enterprise setting-up and market linkages Providing market support for purchase of raw materials and selling of finished products
Performance tracking and advisory Generating PTS sheet and financial statements in a periodic manner and providing consultancy based on the data captured
Growth diagnostics and problem solving Identifying issues in an existing enterprise and finding out solutions to increase its profitability
Performance Tracking System for the micro enterprises
Performance Tracking System (PTS) is a method of systematic collection and analysis of business information, to understand and measure business performance
It involves:
• Micro-Enterprise Consultants (MEC) ensuring that the entrepreneur maintain basic records for the business
• MEC collecting the transaction information from the records of the business, and generating financial statements
• The financial statements allowing for comparison with:
– Same enterprise over a period of time
– Similar businesses in the same marketplace
Components of PTS
• Enterprise Registration: It captures the basic information of an enterprise at the onset of MEC intervention
• Maintenance of Business records: MECs train the entrepreneur to maintain daily record of transactions
• Intermediary Calculations: MEC consolidates the daily records kept by the entrepreneur to generate a PTS Sheet
• Financial Statements as Outputs: MEC uses the information from business records to compute Cash Flow statement, Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet of the enterprise
• Comparative Analysis: Using financial statements, the MEC compares the performance of the enterprise over time and with other enterprises in the same time period
• Advisory Services: Based on the analysis, MEC offers advice to the entrepreneur for improving business performance
Mobile App for PTS
PTS Mobile application to be used by all MECs on smartphones
Project Accomplishments
• Master trainers pool from partner states have been created to facilitatecapacity building of MECs
- By partner states as part of scale up activity
- By KS-NRO while implementing Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Program (SVEP) in partner states.
• Internal mentors have been created in partner states for scale up activities
• SVEP design has been substantially based on the experiences of MEC Project pilots undertaken by KS-NRO
• KS-NRO has developedcapacity building training syllabus in business skills, pedagogy and materials for SVEP
• First-of-its-kind Micro Enterprise accounting and near- (Enterprise Resource Planning) ERP application has been initiated through introduction of Performance Tracking System (PTS) and its Mobile App
About
