RDRS has always believed in a continual process of learning and in 2000 it had to learn how to cope with the growing imbalance between its micro-finance and social and environmental programmes.

This problem had been growing since the emergence of micro-finance as an answer to poverty and taken on-board by RDRS in the early 1990s as part of its comprehensive programme. However, the over-provision of credit (often without social or educational back-up programmes) to the poor in the RDRS working area by other NGOs had led to disintegration within RDRS groups.

Not unnaturally, group members shifted from one NGO to another as credit was made available, regardless of the economic consequences for themselves and their families. Over time, poor women (the main recipients of credit facilities) found themselves in trouble as they took loans from one NGO to repay their debts to another.

With no government policy to control the disbursement of credit funds, the overlap of credit provision by NGOs created disruption in the existing development programmes, and RDRS has had to work hard to restore confidence among its beneficiaries.

RDRS found that, with skill training being linked to credit, beneficiaries were less eager to attend other courses which offered no immediate reward or compensation for the time spent at the training centres. And, if beneficiaries did not attend these courses, it was felt in RDRS, they could not benefit fully from the comprehensive development package. This problem is likely to continue to disturb RDRS' work and goals for some time to come.