Establishing a member-led savings & credit union The organisational strengthening of the Savings and Credit Unions Development in Laos (ACCU-SACUDIL) is a follow up of project 5052. The focus is on establishing a sustainable member led savings and credit union in Laos with the expertise of ACCU. A technical adviser, subsidised with funds from PSO-The Netherlands, will support SACUDIL in the field of organisational development.
The Core objective of this position is capacity building of involved agencies and participating associations in establishing necessary organizational structures and management and governance mechanisms.
It is expected that from mid 2012 onwards ACCU-SACUDIL is able to continue functioning without an external technical advisor.

The Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU) is a regional member based organization of credit unions and cooperatives in Asia. Since its birth on 28 April 1971 to date, ACCU serves more than 16,000 credit unions with 20.5 million individual members in 26 countries in the region along with 17 affiliates promoting credit unionism in Asia. Membership to ACCU is open to national credit union leagues/federations or other national cooperative financial or similar organizations that follow international credit union operating principles and with membership of at least 20,000 individuals or one percent of the population of the country where the organization operates.

ACCU would like to to contribute to the development of a sustainable market-oriented rural financial system in Lao PDR to contribute to poverty reduction. Therefore the purpose of this project is to support the establishment of a credit union support institute to enable the development and replication of a sustainable micro savings and credit portfolio to service poor and rural low income groups.

This project is a follow up of project 5052 and continues till december 2013. The project’s main focus will be on: 
1.Transformation of Village Development Funds (VDF) to Savings and Credit Unions (SCU)
2. Promotion of an Association of Savings and Credit Unions on a national level
3. Marketing of the Savings and Credit Union (SCU) model.

Intended project results are:
1.       Improve the capacity of 18 credit unions by 80% by end of December 2013
1.1  Membership base of each individual credit union is expanded with each one having at least 250 members by December 2011.
1.2  Amount of savings of each individual credit union is at least 300 million kip by December 2011
1.3  Amount of share capital of each individual credit union is at least 100 million kip by December 2011
1.4  The leadership of each individual credit union consists of a 13 people Board of Directors (including Committee Members) and one Manager by the end of December 2011. The 13 people Board of Directors consists of 5 people Board of Directors, 3 people Audit Committee and 5 people Credit Committee.
 
2.       Increase the availability and use of technical resources for credit unions with the support of ACCU by 100% by 
2.1  Resource material including step-by-step procedures are developed, tested and implemented. 
2.2  At least 1 stakeholder coordination workshop is conducted to align and complement available resource material.
 
3.       Transform 50% of the 18 village development funds to savings and credit unions.
3.1  50% of the credit unions have completed and submitted the required documents for requesting establishment.
3.2  100% of the credit unions that have submitted the required documents for requesting SCU establishment received the SCU License 
3.3  The number of savings and credit unions in Lao PDR has increased with 9.
3.4  A number of 9 credit unions in the northern part of Lao PDR are monitored on a regular basis by BoL starting from the 1st of January 2013.
3.5  100% of the credit unions that have received the SCU license comply with annual external audit requirements
3.6  50% of VDFs (those that will not transform into savings and credit unions) are merged with nearby existing credit unions or newly created SCUs by the end of December 2012. 
 
4.       Increase understanding on the savings and credit union model among the project target group, village people, government officers and development agencies by 80%
4.1  50% of credit union members come from poor rural backgrounds.
4.2  Membership base of each individual credit union is expanded with each one having at least 250 members by December 2011.
4.3  Government officers submit at least 2 requests per province to the project for VDF transformation into SCU.
4.4  Already existing SCUs in the southern part of Laos supported by different development agencies collaborate with newly established SCUs in the northern part.
 
5.       Organize an Association of Savings and Credit Unions (ASCU) among existing and newly created SCUs in Lao PDR by the end of December 2013 with at least 3 created SCUs within project as founding members 
5.1  A feasibility study including data gathering for credit unions operating in Lao PDR is conducted and analyzed with the help of BoL by the end of July 2012.
5.2  A working group between registered and licensed SCUs, the Bank of Laos (BoL) , ACCU and other relevant stakeholders is created in August 2012 with the purpose to prepare a business plan for ASCU.
5.3  The business plan for ASCU is ready by the end of December 2012.
5.4  A location for the establishment of ASCU is identified by the end of July 2013.
5.5  50% of all existing SCUs by the end of December 2012 have committed human and financial resources to run the Association by the end of July 2013.
5.6  Training material used by the project is documented and produced in a manual by the end of July 2013.
5.7  Internal and external auditing procedures and requirements are documented by the end of July 2013. 
5.8  The Association of Savings and Credit Unions starts operations from the 1st of January 2014. 

Intended outreach is 3143 women and 1800 men during the total duration of the project.

However within the project Agriterra/PSO support will focus purely on supporting  ACCU-SACUDIL in Laos with technical assistance in the field of  organisational strengthening during the period mid August 2011 till mid August 2012 (1 year).

Core objective of the adviser position is capacity building of involved agencies and participating associations in establishing necessary organizational structures and management and governance mechanisms. More specifically, the external advisor would:
•	Assist ACCU – SACUDIL  and national partners in its further organisational strengthening and institutional building process including the creation and functioning of a federative membership structure
•	Advise ACCU –– SACUDIL in their networking and coordinating role between national stakeholders (credit associations, Bank of Lao, Government at various levels) and external partners
•	Assist ACCU – – SACUDIL in its institutional development efforts including development of an operational network of partners and improving ASCU’s positioning in the institutional working environment.
•	Assist national partners – Bank of Lao and Lao government -  in further enhancing an enabling environment for functioning and growth of the credit union movement in Lao.  
•	Assist ACCU-– SACUDEL and national partners in developing a monitoring and evaluation system enabling collection of data and experiences for learning and advocacy functions. 
•	Assist ACCU-– SACUDIL in its advocacy role and built structural linkages to the programme of ICA aimed at developing a legislative framework for cooperatives in Laos. 
•	Assist ACCU-– SACUDIL in developing demand driven services in the field of capacity building for the staff and  stakeholders.

The consultant's salary package fits within the Human Resource policy of ACCU, level 5. He/she will be reporting directly to the CEO of ACCU.  The consultant will be coordinating with the level 6 staff of ACCU – Manager Member Services.

Budget requested is US$ 24,000 for the period August 2011-August 2012. Main source of funding: PSO.

Monitoring and evaluation: 
The project has institutionalized   monitoring and supervision system. Monthly work plan and progress report need to be submitted on or before 25th of each month to the CEO. These plan and report are presented at the progress review meeting of the project. The ACCU Program Assistant will be attending the meeting. 
 
Annual work plan need to discuss with the staff planning meeting and project planning meeting. ACCU Program Assistant and Manager Member Services provide necessary guidance on impletion of the project. 


Sustainability:
After one year ACCU-SACUDIL will take over the full responsibility of the external advisor. The advisor will build the capacity of the Project Manager to manage the project by introducing appropriate training and developing credit union management tools.

ACCU requests US $ 23,750 which equals Euro 16,224.

capacity building of ACCU-SACUDIL and involved agencies and participating associations in establishing necessary organizational structures and management and governance mechanisms.