Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund (S3IDF)

Owned by Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 19, 2022
3 min read

Notes from Sep 19 call with Avinash Krishnamurthy (Chief Program Officer)

@Ravi Shankar Sharma (Unlicensed) please chime in as well.

Next Steps

  • S3IDF has facilitated access to collective assets (millet and oil processing) for a few FPOs in Karnataka (Tumkur and Chitradurga) ; they recognize member engagement as a critical enabler and can invite their program team to JP Nagar BLR to hear more about our plans (and KDE demo). @Sai

Notes

  • Overall, Avinash’s perspective seemed to validate a focus on shareholder engagement + awareness

  • Putting in a collective asset only works when there is already strong member engagement, using it as a hook to drive engagement or change perception the FPO among local farmers doesn’t really work

  • Avoid situations where there is elite capture and BOD members and resource institutions are in on it; if its just BOD members and resource institution is strong it is possible to overcome but not in the former situation

  • Local market context is important, really hard for FPO to disrupt long-standing relationship between farmer and informal aggregator 

  • BOD members need to communicate with their members and build awareness and change farmer perception about the FPO (its not just a channel for subsidies).

    • AGM is formal annual meeting, what are tools and channels beyond that?

    • Types of content: informational (basic and value-add info like advisory), motivational, inspirational, transactional

    • Critical for farmers to see the FPO as an institution

  • If you ask CEO how many of your shareholders have smartphone and feature phone; they don't know

  • Sequence of operations in new FPOs: member engagement -> input business → input business 2x. This takes ~3 years

  • Data officer is potentially interesting but there needs to be FPO demand for such a role for it to succeed

  • BOD members face a lot of unique pressure, they are a bridge between the community and resource institutions / development orgs while also needing to deal with their own livelihoods

  • How can FPOs add value? offer something related to climate resilience. This could be insurance or advisories related to crop diversification, etc.

  • When looking at financing products, need to understand the details. There is a Samunnati product where they pay vendors after receiving delivery challan which creates a cash flow issue bc vendors need some up front payment from FPOs who don’t have the money

 

Background

Poverty alleviation through the creation of micro, small, and medium enterprises to provide infrastructure services to the poor. Through its Social Merchant Bank Approach, S3IDF provides essential linkages between environmentally friendly technology providers, entrepreneurs/poor communities, and local financing institutions.

Developed an approach to small-scale infrastructure investments that takes technical, financial, and business organizational innovations common in large infrastructure investments and applies them to small-scale, explicitly pro-poor investments. S3IDF focuses on increasing the participation of local private-sector players in all aspects of these investments – planning, implementation, ownership, and operations – as well as developing local sources of financing. In addition to focusing on the viability of small-scale investments, S3IDF’s work addresses capacity building of investment sponsors/owners and local financial institutions.

At surface, approach seems pretty aligned with our thinking (incl this diagram from their ag intro doc on where during the FPC lifecycle they focus):

 

Reached out to CEO and India team on Aug 8 to learn more