Table 3.

Key full-time positions for managing and operating SLGs

Position Job description Qualifications Experience

SLG • External representation • Degree or diploma in • Previous senior

manager (fund raising, marketing, management programme
reports to organisation • Excellent track-record in management
lead, forging project management or high- experience
partnerships and level supervision • Familiarity with
managing donor • Proven leadership skills principles and
relations) • Proven capacity to organise practice of savings-
• Preparation of proposals complex operations led microfinance and
for funding • Proven strategic planning strong awareness of
• Preparation of strategic skills the challenges faced
and operational plans • Proven operational planning by traditional
• Supervision of skills methodologies
operations team and/or • Proven staff supervision skills • Community
field technical • Excellent diplomatic skills development
supervisors (depending • Excellent public speaking and background
on programme scale) presentation skills • Experienced trainer
• Supervision of M&E and • Highly innovative • Strong data analysis
liaising with • Extensive SLG experience background
administration • Strong experience of
• Innovating new ways to supervising senior and
maximise impact on junior staff
participants • Strong planning skills
• Good change manager
SLG • Monitoring and • Secondary school or diploma, • At least 2 years’
superviso supervision of SLG or promoted field officer experience in
r trainers and M&E • Preferably speaks local community
officers language development
• Reporting to manager • Well-known and respected • Experienced
• Assistance in the • Good organisational skills facilitator/trainer
preparation of annual • Team-building and • Experienced and
plans motivational skills detail-oriented
• MIS field officer • Analytical and presentational planner
performance analysis skills • Experience in data
• Management/supervision • Strong technical knowledge analysis
of MIS information and skills in implementing
flows to SLG trainers SLGs
• Spends 75–80% time in
the field supporting staff
SLG • Mobilisation and • Maximum of secondary school • Community
field awareness raising with education development
officer local leadership • Lives in community and knowledge
• Mobilisation of speaks local language • Experienced
community groups • Respected by local people and facilitator
• Training associations in leaders and known to be
the implementation of conscientious
SLGs before handing • Reputation for integrity
 Position Job description Qualifications Experience

over to community based • Organisational skills and an

trainer eye for detail
• SLG data gathering and • Good diplomatic skills
association monitoring • Well trained in up-to-date
• Preparation of periodic SLG approach and
operational plans experienced implementer
• Preparation of progress
reports
• Selection and direct
support of community
based trainers
Commun • Training associations in • Lives in community and • Practical experience
ity based the implementation of speaks local language of participating in a
trainer SLGs • Respected by local people and SLG for 3–6 months
• Association monitoring leaders with a reputation for and having
and data gathering as integrity demonstrated the
requested by the FO • Well-known throughout the necessary qualities of
• Training SLGs in other proposed working zone a CBT
trainings accompanying • Dynamic and has good
SLG programming motivational skills
(financial literacy, • Trained and certified as an
formal SLG financial SLG trainer
linkages, gender and
empowerment, etc.)
Source: adapted from Allen (2007)
Role of field officer (FO)

The FO is a paid employee who starts by working directly to create SLGs. Managed by a full-time
supervisor, the FO takes on a training caseload of between 10–15 SLGs. Each supervisor supports 5–7 field
officers. The field officer is given this responsibility because the first SLGs created in a community will set
an example and it is important that they are successful and operate in the correct way. Hence, it is more
important to focus on the quality of these first SLGs than it is to form a large number.

Once the FO succeeds in creating the first SLGs she/he will watch the members carefully to see if there are
people who could take on the job of training SLGs. The FO will then choose up to 5 people who can do
this work from their SLGs and train them to become trainers. These people are called community based
trainers (CBTs) and they should come from the communities they serve. Over time, these CBTs will create
about 5–8 SLGs of their own, every year, charging fees for this service.

After a year of supervision, the FO and supervisor will formally examine each CBT and, if they pass the
examination, the CBT will become a certified independent provider of SLG training services, enabling the
CBT to make a steady income. At this point the FO will move to another area and start the process again.

Thus, the FO is not just training SLGs, but setting up a self-financing system of sustainable service delivery
that will allow new SLGs to be continually created. The FO role requires him/her to be skilled as a trainer,
a good planner and manager, and always concerned about high quality. It is very important that she/he focus
on discipline and procedures as she/he trains and advises SLGs and supervises CBTs.

Community based trainers

Community based trainers (CBTs) are SLG members with the skills and motivation to train new SLGs for
a fee paid by the group itself. The role of the field officer (FO) changes when CBTs are used.
The FO starts out directly training SLGs in areas where communities are not aware of SLGs (these may
be thought of as ‘starter’ SLGs). The FO does this because it is necessary to create demand for SLG
training services and this can only be done through demonstration.

Identification, selection, deployment and compensation of CBTs

The selection of CBTs begins when the FO forms the first groups. The field officer must be someone well
trained in the SLG approach, possess at least a certificate of secondary education and with practical
experience of not less than 2 years. After the FO forms the groups, they begin to train the group members
in the SLG methodology, including lessons on the drafting of the SLG constitution and how to save, borrow,
repay and share-out funds at the end of the cycle (generally one lesson per week). Other trainings are
integrated and delivered within the first year (such as on financial education, consumer protection, linkages
to formal financial institutions, gender, nutrition and health, business management and life skills). During
the training, the field officer identifies 2 or 3 capable people from each of the strongest groups in a specific
location who are willing to be CBTs and who then take over the job of forming groups. Usually, there is no
competition within the groups for the job of CBT and there are clear criteria that candidates must meet.
Candidates for the position of CBT must:
• Be active SLG participants
 • Attend the meetings and trainings regularly
• Be able to guide others – demonstrate leadership skills
• Be willing to volunteer for a small compensation fee
• Have minimum level of reading and writing skills
• Have permanent status in the community
• Speak the local language
• Be hardworking
• Have good interpersonal skills
• Be able to easily mobilise the community, have facilitation skills and the capacity to train and
mentor a group
• Be accepted by the community
• Have the ability to link their group with other service providers in the community

By the 7th week of training, the FO will have identified the probable CBT candidates from strong groups
within chosen strategic locations. The FO will then ask the groups (minus the CBT candidates) what they
think about the candidates. She/he will then probe to see if the CBT candidates would be accepted by the
target communities.

In most cases, the groups agree with the FO’s recommendation because the identified people work well
with the other members and have gained their support since the group was formed. Occasionally, a group
objects to the FO’s choice because, for example, they say the person drinks too much or has family
problems. In such a scenario, the FO has to take the group feedback into consideration and identify another
candidate that is respected in the community. Groups are advised to continuously observe the performance
of the CBT and if she/he develops negative performance habits, relieve them of their duties. If a CBT is
asked to stand down, the group then identifies another CBT of their choice and develops a working
agreement with him/her including for payment of an agreed amount per training delivered.
Once the groups approve the CBT candidates, the FO reviews the tasks of the CBTs and asks each
candidate if he or she is willing to be a CBT. The group then votes to choose one of the candidates; those
who are chosen usually accept. The FO then supports the group to develop a memorandum of
understanding with the CBT, which covers the roles and responsibilities of both the SLG and the CBT,
the fees to be paid to the CBT, and that the group holds the mandate to relieve the CBT of his/her duties
unanimously in case of unsatisfactory performance. To deploy the newly-selected CBT, the FO assigns
the CBT a geographic area in which the CBT will form groups and then introduces him/her to the
community. At the same time, the CBT continues to attend group meetings in his/her own group, supported
by the FO. The FO then slowly phases out his/her group training load and spends most of his/her time
supervising the CBT.
Starter SLGs need to be relatively far apart to provide a locus distance so that each CBT has the
opportunity to train between 5–8 SLGs at any one time. The size of the geographic area set aside for each
CBT will depend on population density. A CBT’s motivation to form distant groups will depend on their
mode of travel (foot, bicycle, public transport, etc.) and the fee provided by the groups being supported.
For example, a FO forms the first 10–15 associations over a wide geographic area. CBTs are then
selected, as soon as the 3-month intensive training phase is