Microfinance Internships

Microfinance in India started in the early 1980s with small efforts at forming informal self-help groups (SHG) to provide access to much-needed savings and credit services. From this small beginning, the microfinance sector has grown significantly in the past decades. National bodies like the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) are devoting significant time and financial resources to microfinance. This reflects to the growing importance of the sector. The strength of the microfinance organizations (MFOs) in India is in the diversity of approaches and forms that have evolved over time. In addition to the home-grown models of SHGs and mutually aided cooperative societies (MACS), the country has learned from other microfinance experiments across the world, particularly those in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, and Bolivia, in terms of delivery of micro financial services. Indian organizations could also learn from the transformation experiences of these microfinance initiatives.
Over the last decade and a half, the microfinance sector in India has grown incrementally to reach out to over 50 million clients through both the home-grown SHG - Bank Linkage program as well as through the alternate channel represented by NGO-MFIs. Yet the challenges faced by the sector in India remain numerous and ask for global interventions.
This internship provides undergraduate and graduate students interested in microfinance and economic development an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in working on issues relating to access to financial services for urban and rural poor in a developing country.
Intern’s Role and Tasks:

• Expand and increase exposure of microfinance programs to outlying villages.
• Offer marketing, distribution, pricing, and management training to local microenterprises
• Provide entrepreneurial skills training to conduct feasibility studies, perform cost/benefit analyses, write business plans, acquire financing, and initiate start-ups.
• Research and analyze numerous topics that include local economic conditions, migration patterns, obstructions to economic growth, and efficacy of microfinance programs.
• Assist on ongoing projects, help in report writing, documentation, and other administrative work of the organisation.
• Develop policies, operational manuals and interact directly with women groups in field level;

• Initiate and maintain of self-help groups that offer financial guidance and credit, promote savings, free members from unfair debt burdens, and create collective action opportunities that minimize exploitation of women and other marginalized groups.
• Offer skills training and capacity-building workshops to increase economic independence, empowerment, and local employability of women and other underserved groups.
• Develop small businesses that produce saleable goods, such as traditional handicrafts.

Salary: Unpaid

Interested in this Internship: Please send us your CV/Resume to info@iece.in. We will soon contact you.