As we share with you the successes of the programme, we also would like to share with you some of its failures.

1. Absence of a long-term recruitment strategy 

At present the work we do is dependent on programme mentors who deliver the programme in communities. We faced major problems in operations when two of the programme mentors left or had to leave without notice. We recognise the fact that we must develop a recruitment strategy that allows us to have spare capacity in order to ensure smooth functioning of the programme.  Like any other organisation/business, it takes at least 1 programme cycle for a programme mentor to be able to confidently and aptly deliver the programme in the communities. At present, we conduct Intensive Mentor Training (IMT) Part 1 and 2 once a year as a part of the recruitment process. Though this selection process is good, we need to increase the frequency of conducting IMT to four times a year. We are currently studying and implementing a few employee retention techniques.

This will offer us the opportunity to identify, train and retain programme staff on a long-term basis without affecting programme operations.

2. Closure of Mumbai branches

After graduating 36 men from the four branches in Mumbai in the last curriculum cycle, we have decided to discontinue our work in Mumbai. This decision was made mainly because:

• It wasn’t cost effective for us to run four branches in Mumbai with one Programme Mentor working in Mumbai and travelling to Pune every week for training and reporting. 

• We were not able to provide inputs and support needed to run the programme. As a result we were not able to learn from those branches either.

• Over the last 6 months, the team was working on the five-year strategy for the organisation and programme. As part of the plan, we will continue to focus on implementing the programme in 20 branches across Pune. We will run the programme outside Pune only in partnership with local community based organisation (CBO) and build their capacity to work with men to reduce violence and discrimination against women. So, the local CBO will implement the programme with our support.

So, even though the branches in Mumbai were performing well we had to take the decision of discontinuing operations.