Royat DaNisH Emsassy, New DELHI ANIDA yy we ~~ INNOVATIONS Learning From Danida Supported Activities in IndiaRoya Danisn Empassy, New DEH Danida INNOVATIONS Learning From Danida Supported Activities in IndiaINDEX ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY OF WORDS. INTRODUCTION SYNOPSIS L Ll 12 13 14 LS 1.6 17 18 19 21 22 31 3.2 44 42 43 44 INNOVATIONS IN THE HEALTH SECTOR Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation. Mobility Training for Village Health Nurses Advanced Gender Training to Faculty of Health Training Institutes Training of Health Workers as Microscopists “Care and Concern’ Camps for Leprosy-affected Persons Trialogue District Leprosy Eradication Societies Calendar Blister Packs Rapid Assessment Survey to Gauge the Magnitude of Cataract Blindness THE RURAL DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SECTOR Village-based Management System Quality Assurance by Communities INNOVATIONS IN CONSERVING AND DEVELOPING MEDICINAL PLANTS In Situ Conservation Ex Situ Conservation INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURE Institutional Induction of Women Extension Officers ‘Women in Extension Services Training and Extension Approach Farmwomen Link Leaders ii Index ix xi u 12 15 17 18 19 22 28 30 31 33 36 39 41 43 4545 5.1 5.2 5.3 54 55 6.1 6.2 63 64 cal 72 13 Group Approach INNOVATIONS IN THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR Livestock Extension Service ‘Women Assistant Veterinary Field Officers Alternative Extension Services Delivery through Community Link Workers Village-based Training Village Institutions INNOVATIONS IN THE WATERSHED SECTOR Government-NGO Partnership Appropriate Low-cost and Indigenous Technologies The Village Hamlet as a Unit Selection of and Support to the 10 Poorest Households INNOVATIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENT, RENEWABLE ENERGY AND TOOLROOM SECTORS ETIs — An Innovative Institutional Model Wind Turbine Test Station, Tamil Nadu National Tool Room Programme PHASING-OUT STRATEGIES CONCLUSION v Innovations 46 49 54 55 57 63 66 68 14 8 8 81 83 85 86 88 90ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY OF WORDS Al Anganwadi Arsi-Parsi AVFO BET Bunds CAD-CAM. Chua DANLEP DANTB DDTE DFID DIT DKK DLES DLO Doh DOTS DIET EEC EMF EPTRI ETI FRALT Gabion structures Gau Sevak GTTC IDTR IEC TLDP IPP VII JEM Artificial Insemination Pre-school health and education centre (Hindi) A work-sharing arrangement among farmers in Madhya Pradesh Assistant Veterinary Field Officer Block Extension Team Small earthen walls constructed on field boundaries to conserve soil and moisture Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Management A water collection pit dug in the comer of an agricultural field Community Organiser Community Link Worker Computer Numerical Control Central Tool Room and Training Centre Centre for Wind Energy Technology Traditional mid-wife Danish International Development Assistance, the official Danish development cooperation Danida Assisted National Leprosy Eradication Programme Danish Assistance to the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Orissa Disease Diagnosis Treatment and Education Department for International Development (the official British development cooperation agency) District Implementation Team Danish Kroner (currency denomination) District Leprosy Eradication Society District Leprosy Officer A natural depression in the bed of a river, used in Madhya Pradesh for storing water in the dry months Directly Observed Treatment, Short course Directorate of Technical Education and Training European Economic Community Ethno Medicinal Forest Environmental Protection Training and Research Institute Environmental Training Institute Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions Earth and rock structures, held by wire mesh, to conserve soil and moisture Carer of cows (Hindi) Government Tool Room and Training Centre Indo-Danish Tool Room Information, Education and Communication Integrated Livestock Development Project India Population Project Joint Forest Programme GlossaryKfw LAPs LCRT MAPWA MCR MPCA MPCP MPDA MRI Nalla bunds Nati Vaidyas NGO NLEP NWDPRA Odee OuT opp Panchayat Panchayati Raj PHC PLA PMS POD PPC PRA RNTCP SFD SHC SHG SIDA Taluk or taluka TANWA TEWA TNMSC Trialogue TRTIC UNDP UNICEF ve VEC Kreditanstalt fiir Wiederaufbau, German financial development institution Leprosy Affected Persons Land Conflict Resolution and Titling Madhya Pradesh Women in Agriculture Programme Micro-cellular Rubber Medicinal Plants Conservation Area Medicinal Plant Conservation Park ‘Medicinal Plants Development Area Magnetic Resonance Imaging Earth and rock plugs placed in ravines and gullies to prevent soil erosion Traditional herbal healers (Hindi) Non-government Organisation, a loose term to signify a whole range of voluntary civil society organisations National Leprosy Eradication Programme National Watershed Development Project for Rain-fed Areas Shallow well on river banks in the State of Madhya Pradesh Overhead Tank Out Patient Department The elected body of people's representatives at the village level Describes the system of panchayats Primary Health Centre Participatory Learning Appraisal Preventive Maintenance of Machines Prevention of Disability Production, Planning and Control Originally Participatory Rapid Appraisal, but since its popularisation by Dr. Robert Chambers a term now applied to a whole range of participatory methods Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. State Forest Department Sub Health Centre Self-Help Group Swedish International Development Agency The lowest level geographical administrative unit in India Tamil Nadu Women in Agriculture Programme Training and Extension for Women in Agriculture Programme Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation A word coined to describe a conversation between three gtoups of people Tool Room and Training Centre United Nations Development Programme United Nations Children’s Fund Village Committee Village Forest Committee vi InnovationsVLW vMS VQAT VWSC WDCU WOCAT WB WYTEP Village Health Nurse Village Level Workers Village-based Management System Village Quality Assurance Team Village Water and Sanitation Committee Watershed Development Coordination Unit - the Danida coordination unit for watershed activities in India World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies World Bank Women and Youth Training and Extension Programme Glossary| | INTRODUCTION The objective of Denmark’s official development assistance to developing countries is, according to the law thereon, through co-operation with governments and public authorities in these countries, to support their endeavours aimed at promoting economic growth, thereby making contributions to ensuring social progress and political independence in accordance with the aims and principles of the United Nations Charter, and to promote mutual understanding and solidarity through cultural co-operation. In the strategy paper ‘Partnership 2000’ the strategy to reach these basic objectives is formulated as follows: The overriding objective of Denmark's development policy is to create lasting improvementsin the living conditionsof the poorestsections of the world’s population through poverty reduction. Denmark’s development policy is intended to promote sustainable development through pro-poor growth that creates equality between men and women and promotes respect for human rights and democracy, Equal Participation by men and women in the development process (the gender issue), concer for the environment (the environmental issue) and popular participation, respect for human rights and democratisation (the democracy issue) are of crucial importance for poverty reduction. Denmark's development policy seeks to reduce poverty by: * Promoting sustainable development through broad-based, pro-poor economic growth with equal participation by men and women. * Promoting human development through expansion of the social sectors, including education and health * Promoting democratisation and popular participation in the development process, the establishment of rule of law and good governance as prerequisites for the stability of economic, social and political progress. DANISH ASSISTANCE TO INDIA The Government of Denmark's developmentco-operation with India started in 1959, with assistance to a small non-government organisation (NGO) project. Assistance then rapidly grew and India became one of the three main recipients of bilateral Danish aid in the sixties and the seventies. Assistance has been largely focused in 4 states, namely Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, In November 2000, the State of Madhya Pradesh was partitioned into two separate states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and as a result, some of the ongoing projects are now in Chhattisgarh. The main sector focus has been on health, agriculture, and water and sanitation. Some significant investments were been made as well in the ‘modem sector’, including grants for the establishment of tool rooms and vocational training centres, and for the promotion of wind energy, for optical fibre equipment, and spare parts for a marine exploration ship, but most of these were terminated by 1998, IntroductionThe Purpose of this Document In 1998, consequent to India’s nuclear policy, the Government of Denmark officially announced its intention to phase out Danish support to the country. No new initiatives were to be introduced, but all old programmes were to be phased out in a sustainable manner. Alll aid was to finally cease not later than 2008. In 2003, as a consequence of changes in India’s own development policies, it was mutually agreed between the two Governments to complete the phasing out of official Danish development cooperation at an even earlier date of 2005. Danida’s support to India has consisted of supplementing existing Govemment programmes and piloting innovative approaches, demonstrating their feasibility and recommending and assisting in scaling up and ensuring replicability, and over the years innovative methods and approaches have been tried, rich experiences gained, and policies have been impacted across sectors and states. Although Danida has withdrawn bilateral support to India, itis imperative that these unique experiences and experiments are sufficiently documented to provide an opportunity to the international development community and the Indian Government to appreciate and perhaps replicate some of the unique features of these programmes and projects, and perhaps even serve as inspiration for developmental efforts in other parts of the world. Against this background, the objective of this document is to synthesise and document the new and innovative methods and experiences developed in the Danida-supported projects in India, as well as the strategies adopted by the projects in the context of the ‘phasing out’ scenario. In this document 25 projects, supported by Danida across various sectors, are featured, having been selected according to criterion particularly, but not only, for innovation, E ‘What is Innovation? hould be new in the context of the development sector, That is, it may have been tried before in the private sector, but never in the development sector, for example modern methods of management or accounting. + Itshould be new in the context of the particular sector. For example, Some strategy that may have been tried perhaps in the health sector, but was tried for the first time in say agriculture, * _Itshould be new in the context of India. «- Itshould be new in the way it has been used, For example, Self Help Groups is an old and tested concept, but using Self Help Groups as an extension mechanism in agriculture projects was innovative. + It should have had significant impact on the project objectives, An initiative would be considered ‘significant’ if it had at least become routine or institutionalised within the project and had potential for replication. ‘Those initiatives that had already been replicated at the state or national level would be included. + Itshouldbesustainable socially, financially, institutionally,environmentally and technically x InnovationsSYNOPSIS INNOVATIONS IN THE PROCESS OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION GETTING PEOPLE'S INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR OWN DEVELOPMENT Though the need for community participation had been well accepted for long, both within extemal donor-supported projects and the Government of India’s own policy documents, application of this approach was still not universal. It is not surprising then that most counterpart government staff, when asked their opinion on the aspects that they considered were innovative in Danida-supported projects, invariably mentioned that the approach to ensure that the community participates in the process of project implementation was, in their view, innovative. At the time of withdrawal, Danida-supported projects had not yet evolved to the stage where the community fully participated in project design and monitoring, essential to ensuring the appropriateness of interventions, but their involvement in the proce: of implementing the projects was widespread. There are also some significant examples of how communities participated in the planning of projects, For instance, in the Orissa and Madhya Pradesh watershed projects, with the support of and co-operation between local NGOs and government, a period of one-and-a-half years was allowed prior to any physical project intervention to help the community organise, explore their local natural resources and plan for their development. Again, in the water and sanitation sector in Tamil Nadu and Kamataka, participatory Jeaming and action exercises were conducted with the community stakeholders to get their involvement in design and management of water supply systems, Great care was taken during these exercises to ensure that there was involvement of women as well as members of all classes and castes. There are many other examples of how Danida-supported activities have reached out to communities to involve them in different phases of project intervention. OUTREACH INNOVATIONS EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES Danida encouraged the development and use of various outreach methodologies, many of which were innovative in nature, Such outreach methods and tools were and are essential to the involvement of communities, providing them information that in a form that is both appropriate and accessible so that they can make informed decisions of their own, This is vital in getting communities to take on ‘ownership’ of interventions and thereby enhancing the likelihood of these interventions sustaining in the long term. Information, Education, Communication (TEC) The Danida-supported leprosy and tuberculosis projects produced a large amount of innovative IEC material, which have been widely appreciated by the Government of India and used in many other states across the country. The tuberculosis project in Orissa carried out an extremely innovative exercise using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques, where the tribal people themselves designed IEC material. xi SynopsisThe agriculture and livestock sector projects facilitated a process whereby good quality, low-cost IEC materials were prepared by the goverment project staff. In Madhya Pradesh these were reprinted and are now used extensively across the State. Interaction Forums The leprosy project developed a strategy of Trialogue, and ‘Care and Concem’ camps, which proved very effective in helping the community to overcome social stigma issues and to dispel myths related to leprosy. Trialogues are interactions between patients, the providers of health services and representatives from the community —all of them important stakeholders in community health. The Danida- assisted tuberculosis project developed a concept of interaction meetings, where again a forum was provided for the patients, service providers and community members to meet, on a common platform, to honestly and openly discuss all issues and problems faced by them in dealing with tuberculosis. This had impressive results in resolution of problems faced by patients and providers alike. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques Danida-supported projects used participatory techniques at various stages of the project. However, possibly the most innovative approach was in the Orissa and Madhya Pradesh watershed projects, where a PRA exercise was carried out by the project staff annually, based on which the annual plans were prepared, PRA here was used as a method to involve the community in the prospective planning process rather than simply as an extractive data collection tool, Such PRAs were carried out at the village or hamlet level to ensure maximum participation of people. The resulting plans of each hamlet were then presented in a combined village assembly. In the health sector in Tamil Nadu, Government health trainers in a Danida-sponsored training programme developed participatory modules to interact with communities and community leaders to raise awareness about gender-related health issues. These are now included in a Gender and Health Trainers’ Kit produced for wider use. Participatory Leaning Appraisals (PLAs) were an innovation in the water and sanitation sector that helped communities decide what kind of water supply system they wanted, and how they wanted to manage it. Involvement of NGOs Wherever necessary and possible, Danida-supported projects enlisted the support of local NGOs who have a close rapport with communities, to further enhance outreach to the community. This was particularly noticeable in the watershed projects, where the involvement of NGOs in partnership with the government, in the initial one-and- a-half year process of community organisation and planning, was a vital element. These NGOs themselves use many innovative means to involve communities, such as transacts, watershed mapping and tree preference ranking. Even traditional local approaches were innovatively adapted by NGOs for project implementation. For example, in Madhya Pradesh watershed projects, the old system of Arsi-Parsi was used, in which families work on each other’s lands in tum to carry out soil and water treatments. InnovationsGENDER AND EQUITY INNOVATIONS MEETING THE NEEDS OF WOMEN AND VULNERABLE GROUPS Women The need to ensure equality between men and women in the development process sone of the key requirements of the Danish development co-operation policy. To ut this policy into operation, Danida-supported projects in India adopted various strategies. These included reservation or quotas for women in every constituted committee and group; special targeting of women; special emphasis on ensuring women’s active participation; monitoring of gender-disaggregated data; building the capacity of women to enhance their knowledge and skills; and helping to change traditional attitudes that may block women's progress. One of the most significant interventions in the Danish development co-operation programme towards operationalising gender policy was the conduction of ‘gender workshops’ in almost all of the projects. Over the last 5 years of co-operation 18 sessions across 13 projects were conducted. A key aspect of these workshops, attended by all the project staff, was the preparation of gender action plans for the project. Project staff systematically reviewed every component of their project activities to identify the gender issues, and deliberated on strategies to be adopted to tackle these. Subsequently workshops were conducted for the government counterpart staff, for other government department officials indirectly involved with the Danida-supported project, and for state-level policy-makers. The Embassy constituted a core gender and poverty team, which cut across regions and projects and had a mix of male/female and Indian/Danish Advisers, This team met half-yearly to review progress on gender and poverty related aspects in the various projects, and to discuss future strategies The Area Health Care Projects in Tamil Nadu and Danlep in Orissa made considerable progress towards “genderising’ the in-service training curriculum of health service providers, and also submitted a revised ‘genderised’ curriculum for training of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives. The health projects in Tamil Nadu conducted a 21-day course to provide advanced gender training to the trainers of the Government training institutes in the State. In turn these trainers are expected eventually to train more than 30,000 other Government staff in the Department of Health. The Women in Agriculture projects recruited a large number of women in the state agricultural departments as permanent staff. These projects targeted women farmers as their primary beneficiaries and encouraged the formation of Self-Help Groups of women. These two factors contributed significantly to mainstreaming women in agriculture, both within the department as well as the farm sector itself. With agriculture being the predominant livelihood in rural India, the importance of mainstreaming women in this sector is paramount, and that Danida along with the Indian Government achieved remarkable headway in this, is an exciting and significant innovation and achievement. xii SynopsisIn the livestock projects women were empowered by being trained as link workers, along with a male counterpart. The technical and communication training provided, the exposure visits, the increased income and the frequent interaction with project staff greatly enhanced their confidence and their participation in the overall development of the village, as well as within their household. By building women’s capabilities, providing them with space and a platform to experiment and grow and mainstreaming them into important sectors, Danida has significantly contributed to meeting their strategic needs, Poverty All Danida-supported projects seek to help people find long-term solutions to poverty and are targeted at the poor. This is achieved through concentrating on (a) areas that have a higher percentage of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and (b) those sectors that directly impact on the quality of life of poor people such as health, water and sanitation, backyard livestock and subsistence agriculture. Over and above the usual practical approaches to ensure equity, some other innovative approaches were followed. In the watershed project in Koraput, to ensure that the poor benefit from the project, an innovative approach was adopted, wherein the 10 poorest households in cach village were identified. These houscholds were then provided specific assistance during the project period, as individuals and as a group. Exceptional care was taken to ensure that they were not adversely impacted by the project, and that project benefits accrued to them as far as possible. In addition, they were assisted to start traditional income-generating activities. The income levels of these families, which were tracked during the project period, showed a significant rise. Also, seasonal migration from the area, which causes great social and economic upheaval to the poor, reduced over the project period, despite a drought. Another innovative approach adopted by the watershed projects was to take each of the small hamlets of a village as a unit of planning. This ensured that the concerns of the ‘poorest of the poor’ and the marginalised, people who often do not live in the main village but in the hamlets on the outskirts, are incorporated in the project. A similar approach was also taken in the water and sanitation projects, wherein PRAS to prepare the village plans were conducted in each hamlet as well as in the main village, ensuring that the poor and marginalised had a voice in the development processes that affected them, INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL. EMPOWERING PEOPLE THROUGH THEIR OWN ORGANISATIONS The first level of institutional structure in development interventions, and the one ‘most important to community participation, is that of the community organisation at the village level. These organisations are the platforms and means for communities to participate in the development processes, and are essential to the sustainability of interventions, xiv InnovationsSince Independence many traditional governance structures, such as caste committees, have been gradually losing their relevance, their place being taken by more modern institutions. The lowest rung of the electoral system, the Panchayat, is the most important of these newer governance structures. Panchayati Raj Institutions The involvement of the village Panchayat, an official and democratically-clected institution, as the central unit in village water and sanitation projects in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, not only strengthened the whole Panchayati Raj system, but also brought many other benefits. In the watershed programme in Orissa the head of the village Panchayat was made the head of the watershed development committee, This helped to resolve conflicts and to ensure smooth implementation of activities Italso helped to access benefits from the Panchayati Raj institutions for the project's advantage. Formation of Village-level Institutions The agriculture, livestock, watershed and water and sanitation projects supported by Danida established a number of village-level institutions to facilitate community involvement, and though not all of these were innovative in themselves, they all facilitated the involvement of communities so crucial to Danida’s’ approach. Village Water and Sanitation Committees within the Panchayat system were responsible for planning, operating, maintaining and financing water supply systems. They made and enforced water supply by laws to ensure that projects sustained. Village Quality Assurance Teams (VQATS), consisting of one man and one woman, were selected by the village and provided training, These teams then very effectively monitored the quality of materials, their storage and the various construction stages of water and sanitation systems. ‘The agriculture sector is the biggest livelihood-provider in India, covering about two- thirds of the population. Women’s productive roles in agriculture at least equal those of men, but they receive scant attention in agricultural development programmes because land holdings are invariably in the names of men. The formation of farm women’s groups, as an extension approach in Danida-supported agriculture and livestock projects, was innovative and goes a long way towards redressing this long-standing problem. Similarly, women’s Self-Help Groups focused on savings and credit activity used their economic power to invest in their farming or livestock activities, thereby gaining higher respect and decision-making power within their houscholds. In the livestock sector in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, communities were helped to form Village Committees of men and women, and predominantly female Self-Help Groups. These village institutions ensured easy access to credit and equipment for their members that individually they usually could not afford. Care was taken that all these institutions were sufficiently strengthened during the Project period, so they could sustain even afier the project support was over. This x Synopsiswas achieved through training programmes and exposure visits, and by creating linkages with meso-level institutions. Linkages to the Broader Institutional Support Structure Establishment of community link workers, male and female, as private agents providing doorstep first-aid and basic veterinary services, was tried for the first time in India in the Danida-supported Integrated Livestock Development Projects. In Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, watershed project youth facilitators were identified and provided training. While the use of traditional midwives (dais) in health projects is not new, in Madhya Pradesh an innovative approach to their training was made by putting nurses in charge of the training and making the training residential. INTERMEDIARY LEVEL INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATIONS CREATING A SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT Village-level institutional structures need linkages with all kinds of other support structures to be able to sustain and grow. In some cases Danida worked with NGOs to provide such support, but predominantly worked with the government. Innovative institutional interventions can be broadly classified into two categories of (a) Institutional Arrangements, dealing with roles and responsibilities of the various institutions involved and (b) Institutional Development, dealing with capacity building of human resources, systems, equipment etc. Institutional Arrangements Based on a pilot project by the Danida-supported Area Health Care Project in Tamil Naduahighly successful model for drug delivery logistics and management was used in the State by forming the Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation (TNMSC). The TNMSC very successfully used efficient drug management to ensure that a drug stock-out situation in any of the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the State was a thing of the past. The TNMSC has clearly had a significant positive impact on drug availability to all the medical institutions in the State, leading to a reduction in prices of branded drugs and other items. Establishing district societies to channel funds directly to the district-level from the Central Government was first experimented by Danida in the Leprosy Project. Finding this extremely useful, the Government of India replicated the approach in all districts in the country, not only for the leprosy programme, but also for the National Blindness and National Malaria Programmes. In some states these district societies merged to form district health societies. Though NGOs and the government working together in watershed projects had become a standardised practice, in reality many problems were faced in the process, Either the NGOs were mere contractors for specific aspects of the project, or if they were the implementing agencies, they often tried to circumvent the government xvi Innovationssystem. The Madhya Pradesh watershed project successfiilly ensured that the NGO- GoMP collaboration in the project was a true partnership. Institutional Development To overcome shortages in trained laboratory manpower, the Danida-supported Tuberculosis Programme successfully experimented with training and using other categories of staff, such as ward attendants, health workers and pharmacists as microscopists in Orissa. In addition the project also piloted the concept of using cured patients as DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short course) providers, This strategy was found so useful that it was replicated in the entire project area. The Tamil Nadu State Department of Health is perhaps the only department in the State with a stated training policy and a specific budget for it, due to Danida project efforts. A unique 21-day training of trainers programme on gender and health was designed and conducted for trainers of the Government institutions in ‘Tamil Nadu, This and other gender training programmes continue to have an enormous spread effect. Staff members who attended such training were motivated to translate learning into action. Geographical Information Systems were introduced for the first time in leprosy and tuberculosis projects in Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, as well as in the respective national cells. Highly appreciative counterpart Government staff members now utilise these systems for more effective planning and monitoring purposes, The Tamil Nadu Water and Sanitation Programme developed a comprehensive model for sustainable implementation of the projects called the Village-based Management System (VMS), Piloted in 10 villages, this model is now proving its effectiveness, Recruitment and training of women officers in the Government’s agriculture extension services led to the practice of ‘Woman-to-Woman’ extension, Both the Government of India and respective state governments have appreciated and acknowledged Danida’s contribution and role in impacting gender-related reforms in the agriculture sector. The Livestock Projects introduced the concept of extension teams within the Animal Husbandry Departments, and the Bastar project model, with a block level extension team comprising of a Veterinary Assistant Surgeon and 3 Assistant Veterinary Field Officers, was found to be very sustainable. The capacity of Animal Husbandry Departments in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Chhattisgarh was considerably enhanced by the inclusion of women members in extension teams. In addition, selected staff members attended special courses at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and the Nordic Agricultural Academy, Denmark. SynopsisIn the Animal Husbandry Project in Tamil Nadu a very comprehensive indicator- based monitoring system was developed to assess project progress, trends, outputs and impact. This resulted in changes in the project strategy, further enhancing its effectiveness, All watershed projects supported by Danida had multidisciplinary teams from the State to the watershed team levels, facilitating a multisectoral approach. Later the position of a sociologist was also included. The Environmental Training Institute, established with Danish support, is a very innovative institutional model. The institute, which is organisationally a part of the State Pollution Control Boards, has only 3 full-time professional staff, and all the trainers are part-time. A panel of part-time trainers was identified and training on both pedagogical and technical aspects was imparted to them. This structure helps to keep the overheads low, while ensuring that actual ‘practitioners’ are trainers, thus making the programmes more relevant. Danida-supported the establishment of 6 tool rooms in the country. This project developed an innovative concept wherein each tool room General Manager was assigned a specificarea of excellence, and given the support of team of representatives from all the other tool rooms. This ‘task force’ was then given a mandate to implement the chosen area of excellence within the assigned tool room, and provided with the appropriate training and equipment. These groups then became core trainers with the job of replicating the experience in the other tool rooms. This proved highly effective in building capacities of the tool rooms on various fronts The practice in Danida-supported projects of identifying junior operational level staff of government, and even NGOs in some cases, and sending them for fellowship courses in Denmark, resulted in significantly improving the knowledge, confidence and motivational levels of the government and other staff members. Danida promoted collaboration with many other agencies and individuals within India and abroad, to facilitate training and to provide technical and other inputs, TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS Technical innovations are found primarily in the identification, development and dissemination of low-cost, indigenous technologies. Most of these were in the livestock, agriculture and watershed projects, but there were also some innovations in the health sector, Two successful innovations in the Danida-supported Blindness Project were development of a methodology to rapidly assess the extent of cataract, and introduction of the use of calendar blister packs for distribution of leprosy medicines. The latter resulted in reduction of pilferage, and deterioration due to humidity. The Tamil Nadu water and sanitation project constructed two 75,000 litres sub- surface ferro-cement rainwater harvesting tanks, based on an innovative economical design not previously used in India. Highly appreciated by the State Government, the design is now being widely used throughout the State. InnovationsIn the agriculture sector in the States of Kamataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, projects relied on teaching farm women through small number ofrelatively simple skill messages relevant to their small and marginal land holdings. Inall three projects in the livestock sector, the focus was on promotion of low-cost and relevant technologies, along with compilation and dissemination of ethno-veterinary medicines. This enabled a higher rate of adoption by poorer livestock owners, ‘Watershed projects in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh experimented, demonstrated and facilitated the adoption of cement-free low-cost structures, using locally-available materials. Changes were introduced in several existing low-cost technologies, making them more appropriate and acceptable to farmers. Watershed projects evolved from simple land development to programmes that included appropriate land use systems, or integrated farming systems. The Tamil Nadu watershed project very successfully used a concept of agro-forestry on private lands. This was new to the State at the time, but due to its success was subsequently scaled up. ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATIONS India is rich in biodiversity, with medicinal plants accounting for 8,000 species and around 50% of the higher flowering species in the country. While conservation and development of these is in itself not unique, Danida’s project support to this sector in the three States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala contained several elements of innovation, The establishment of a network of 33 in sifu Medicinal Plants Conservation Areas and Medicinal Plants Development Areas in the degraded forest areas, and 15 ex situ Medicinal Plants Conservation. Parks, are examples of strategic innovation. ‘Support ‘oincome-generating activities based on medicinal plants for the communities living around in situ conservation sites, and for the NGOs involved in the implementation of ex situ activities and the establishment of a Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre are other examples, INNOVATIONS TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY, THE KEY TO PHASING OUT With Danida’s intention to phase out its work in India, there was a genuine concern to ensure that its interventions and innovations sustained and that the process it had been involved in continued long after its departure. Even if it had not been phasing out, Danida believes that sustainability is a vital issue for all development players ~ government, NGOs and others. Development is not a series of single inputs or experiments but a process that builds and grows on the past, encouraging the empowerment of communities and individuals within them to meet their needs and reach their full potential, and in that process enriching entire nations. Danida significantly contributed to the sustainability of interventions in several ways. The formation and capacity building of community organisations and their xix Synopsis‘members is perhaps the most important of these, for it is through these that project interventions are managed and maintained, In the Rural Drinking Water Supply interventions in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the innovation of giving management of water supply systems to Gram Panchayats was important in two ways. First, it involved communities through their democratically- elected institutions and thereby lessened the burden on the State Governments, and secondly, it strengthened Panchayati Raj institutions by recognising their legitimate responsibilities and equipping them to take these on. The large variety and number of community organisations encouraged and strengthened under the projects helped sustain both project interventions and development processes. It is expected that many of these, such as the Self-Help Groups will progress to other development activities on their own Women farmers trained under agriculture projects were included as Contact Farmers in agriculture departments’ lists. This means that these women will now be contacted regularly by extension staff and receive input support for crop demonstrations, What happens within village institutions also determines the sustainability of an intervention. Danida’s significant inputs at building the capacities of institutions and their members led to good management systems and practices. For example the creation of by laws within water supply projects in south India enables regular maintenance and financial sustainability. Interventions sustain best when those most affected by them are involved in their implementation and management. While communities have been involved through their institutions and organisations, the targeting of especially vulnerable groups within these through Danida’s gender and equity approach contains some elements of innovation. In recognition of their major stake in the water sector, women were identified and trained as masons and hand-pump mechanics. In the agriculture sector, women’s roles, which are equal but different to men’s, ‘were recognised, and extension services in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh became accessible to women, according them their rightful place as agriculturalists. Agriculture being the main livelihood providing sector for women in India, the importance of this innovation cannot be underestimated. Within the Government, these innovations have been supported by structural interventions such as the placement of women Extension Workers, Further, close interaction and planning with governments during the phasing-out stage led to an assurance that governments would phase-in where necessary to ensure that the Process continued. This conscious phase-out/phase-in process is in itself unique. wx InnovationsINNOVATIONS IN REPLICATION THE KEY TO SCALING UP Replicability of interventions is of major concem in a country as vast as India, as without this projects cannot be scaled up to reach the whole population. Danida- supported projects consciously tried to develop innovative and cost-effective models that could be replicated in the post project scenario: Women in Agriculture Project The Tamil Nadu and Karnataka projects had already covered the entire state at the time of phase-out, while the Orissa project had a replication plan and the design of the last phase of the Madhya Pradesh project included pilot-testing of a replication. plan, Livestock The Tamil Nadu Government replicated the project in the entire State, for which the Government provided two-thirds of the funds, and Danida one-third. In the State of Orissa replication plans were also drawn up. Water and Sanitation The Tamil Nadu project developed and demonstrated a cost-effective ‘Village-based ‘Management Systems’ model, and the Village Monitoring System in the Tamil Nadu Water and Sanitation Project was developed as a model for scaling up. Health In Tamil Nadu the methodology of ‘Care and Concern’ camps and ‘Trialogue’ was further refined for possible replication and training provided to disseminate the model widely, while the pilot model for preventive maintenance of primary and sub health centres was extended to all project districts. The Rapid Assessment Survey developed by the Danida-supported National Programme for Control of Blindness, to gauge the magnitude of cataract blindness, has been used by the States of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and seven World Bank-supported states. Environment Models for Medicinal Plants Conservation Areas, Medicinal Plants Development Areas and Medicinal Plants Conservation Parks were developed for replication. xxl Synopsis1. INNOVATIONS THE HEALTH SECTOR SECTOR CONTEXT India has made significant progress in improving the health status of its people since Independence. However, many challenges remain, Life expectancy at birth has gone up from 49 years in 1970 to 63 years in 2001. The infant mortality rate has come down from 146 deaths per 1,000 births in the 1950s to 65 in 2003. Total fertility rate has fallen from 6 in the 1960s to 2.9 in 2002. However, nearly half of all children under five are malnourished, while anaemia remains a problem for about three-quarters of children under the age of three and for half of all women of reproductive age, and an estimated 5.3 million (2005) Indians are living with HIV — the virus having now spread beyond highly susceptible groups to the general population in many states. There are substantial disparities in health conditions across states, with Kerala comparing favourably with the developed world, while States such as Madhya Pradesh and Biharare at the bottom of even the developing nations’ list. This disparity cuts across the urban-rural divide, as well as across caste and class parameters. A large nusaber of people are still suffering and dying due to preventable infections, pregnancy and childbirth-related complications and under-nutrition In India, public primary healthcare is considered a basic right to which people should not be denied access simply due to inability to pay or for other socio-economic reasons, and the government has established primary healthcare as the foundation for the national healthcare system. Building on these principles, India today has an impressive infrastructure of sub-sector, primary- and community-level health centres, dispensaries, urban family welfare facilities and secondary and tertiary hospitals. Despite this impressive infrastructure, because of inadequate funding, weak management and corruption, the quality of services that are provided by the public health sector is extremely poor. Consequently, even the poor prefer to use private health facilities, if they can afford it. The Constitution of India provides for sharing the responsibility of healthcare between the State and the Central Government, with the primary responsibility for service delivery resting with the state, The Central Government sponsors health programmes in the priority areas of reproductive and child health and the control of major communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and leprosy. These programmes, which were earlier implemented as vertical programmes of the Central Government, sometimes with parallel state-level infrastructure, are now being integrated with the general healthcare system. DANIDA’S SUPPORT TO THE HEALTH SECTOR Danida was one of several extemal donors extending support to the health sector. Danida adopted a two-pronged approach towards supporting the health sector in Indi © Support of Area Health Care Projects in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu. I Innovations in the Health SectorSupport of Centrally-sponsored national programmes of blindness (National Programme for Control of Blindness), leprosy (National Leprosy Eradication Programme), tuberculosis and polio. The implementation agency in all these cases was the Central and State Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Danida’s support to healthcare in India began in 1976 with support to the national programme of blindness, and this was followed by the 2 Area Health Care Projects in 1981 The primary focus of the two Danida-supported Area Health Care Projects was primary healthcare at the sub-health centre level, and multipurpose workers (Village Health Nurses or Auxiliary Nurse Midwives). The projects adopted a comprehensive and integrated approach and had the following components: Infrastructure Drug distribution and medical supplies Training IEC Health and management information systems ‘The Area Health Care Projects implemented the project through the State Department of Health, with support from a Danida Support Unit. This unit typically comprised Danish Chief Adviser and 2-4 Indian Advisers looking after aspects such as training, community participation/IEC and health systems research. Danish support to the national programmes provided intensive assistance aimed at the national objectives in selected districts and states in the country. Project components for the selected areas generally included provision of infrastructure, training, establishing community participation strategies/IEC and operations/health systems research. The programmes also contained inputs to the central level to strengthen such aspects as monitoring and management. ‘The organisational structure for implementation of Danish support to the national programmes, with the exception of pulse polio, comprised a central co-ordinating unit located in Delhi. A Danish Chief Adviser, who was assisted by a team of 2-4 Indian Advisers, headed this unit, which liaised with the Central Government, and monitored the performance of the project at the state-level. At the state-level, in all Danida projects, implementation of project activities was primarily through the government, supported by a Danida Support Unit. An Indian Chief Adviser, with the support of a team of 2 or 3 more local advisers, typically headed support units at the state-level. 2 InnovationsOverview of Danida Supported Projects in the Health Sector ‘Project Phase | Duration | Area Danish grant (millions) Madhya Pradesh | Phase 1 | 1981-86 basic healthcare | Interim | 1986-89 | 7 districts in MP__| INR 144.4 programme Phase Phase 2 | 1989-1992 | 8 districts in MP | INR 131 Phase 3 | 1999-2004 | Alt districts TNR 364.68 Danida healthcare | Phase 1 | 1981-1988 | 2 districts INR 165.58 H : i S| ee Phase 2 | 1989-1996 | 2 districts INR 210.54 Phase 3 | 1996-2003 | 8 districts for | INR 542.28 Infrastructure and Mgt. Support —entire state Chhattisgarh basic | Phase 1 | 2002-2004 | Ail districts INR 129 health services programme Danish support | Phase 1 | 1996-2003 | Kamataka, MP, | DKK 232.8 to pulse polio Orissa and Tamil campaign in India Nadu National Phase 1 | 1986.91 | Tamil Nadu, MP | Phase 142; programme for and Orissa INR 218.33 eradication of _| Phase2 | 1991-96 leprosy Phase 3 | 1998-2003 INR 438.89 | National Phase 1 | 1976-1987 | Karnataka and | DKK 101.2 programme paaceo | toes joag ] some national level |= for control of | Phase 2 | 1989-1994 | it erventions IL blindness ~ Phase 3 | 1997-2002 INR317 Danida assistance Danida assistance | Phase 1 | 1996-2003 | Stage 1:3 districts | INR 319.5 to the Revised Stage 2:14 districts National pale ae | Tuberculosis | Phase 2 | 2004-2005 | 30 DKK 21.19 Control Programme Highlights of selected innovative interventions in the health sector can be found in the following pages. 3 Innovations in the Health Sector1.1 TAMIL NADU MEDICAL SUPPLIES CORPORATION The Danida supported Tamil Nadu Area Health Care Project was instrumental in the establishment of the Tamil Nadu Medical Supplies Corporation (TNMSC) in Chennai. In Phase I of the Area Health Care Project, two drug warehouses were constructed in the districts of Salem and Dharmapuri, and drugs were purchased centrally and supplied to these warehouses based on demand. A state-of-the-art computerised inventory management system was put into place to facilitate this. This set-up worked so effectively and efficiently that the Government of Tamil Nadu decided to replicate it across the entire State. This they did through the establishment of TNMSC, which centralised purchase and supply of drugs through 24 drug warehouses located in almost every district of the State. The original computerised system of inventory management was also adopted by TNMSC, with a few modifications, Comparison before and after TNMSC Before TNMSC After TNMSC | «Purchase by Deans/Joint > Purchase by TNMSC through open Directors of the hospitals by tender, open tender. > Supply by manufacturers. Prices © Supply by dealers. Prices lower due to bulk purchase, higher. > Supplies are made in strips/blisters, ‘© Supplies were made in bulk which are easy to handle. Also there quantities in loose form in is no quality deterioration, bottles, leading to quality > Rigorous quality control. Each deterioration, batch of drugs supplied subject to * Effective quality control was quality check through independent, not possible, as the quantity approved labs, on every purchase was low. > Uniform prices for all institutions. Rates not the same for all » Purchase orders placed by the hospitals. corporation based on dynamic © Poor logistics management consumption pattern, ensuring resulting in excess stocking continuous availability of drug and out-of-stock situations. supply. The TNMSC was set up in 1994 with the primary objective of ensuring ready availability of drugs and medicines in the Government medical institutions throughout the State by adopting streamlined and transparent procedures for their Procurement, storage and distribution. The TNMSC’s efficient drug management ensured that drug out-of-stock situations, in any of the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the State, were a thing of the past. Functions of TINMSC Today TNMSC supplies drugs to a wide range of medical and non-medical institutions, and the activities of the Corporation have expanded beyond simple procurement and supply of drugs to medical institutions, to include: 4 Innovations* Establishment of 2 MRI centres and 35 CT scan centres to provide diagnostic facilities to the public at nominal rates. * Procurement and supply of veterinary drugs to the Animal Husbandry Department. + Finalisation of the rate contract for blood banks, and consumables for the Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society. * Procurement of equipment for the Directorate of Rehabilitation of the Physically Handicapped. * Procurement and supply of high-value equipment to various speciality departments in hospitals. * Management of civil construction at the request of projects such as IPP VIII (India Population Project), Danida and RCH (Reproductive and Child Health), * Consultancy services on drug warehousing and drug logistics for other states, During the year 2001-02, TNMSC purchased drugs and medicines worth more than a billion rupees. Availability of drugs to the various Government institutions through the 23 warehouses in the State is ensured by closely monitoring the stock tion and the procurement process. The stock position in all the warehouses at any point of time was made available on a website that can be easily accessed by the registered office and the warehouses. The 23 warehouses are in convenient locations in the State to enable quick and easy movement of the drugs to the medical institutions. These institutions are provided with passbooks for withdrawal of medicines, surgical and suture items. Each institution is allowed to withdraw from the warehouses on the basis of the financial allocations made by their Head of Departments. Institutions Served by TNMSC All medical teaching institutions All district headquarter hospitals All faluk headquarters All Primary Health Centres and through them all sub-centres AILESI (Employees’ State Insurance) hospitals and dispensaries AILTN Electricity Board medical facilities All Panchayat union dispensaries Allpolice medical facilities Juvenile homes Prison and rehabilitation homes Co-operative si Transport Corporation dispensaries All local body medical facilities Financial Performance All client departments provide 90% of their budget for drugs and equipment Procurement to TNMSC. TNMSC charges a service charge for the goods and services rendered. The Corporation profit rose from Rs. 4.2 million in 2000-2001 to Rs. 6.4 million in the year 2001-2002, with a significant percentage of the income accruing from the CT scan centres. 5 Innovations in the Health SectorOrganisational Structure The Chairperson of TNMSC is the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Corporation has a staff strength of approximately 60 personnel. With the exception of the Deputy Executive Officer at cach warchouse, an accounts person and a data entry operator, most of the employees, including the Managing Director, are on deputation from other Government departments. This ensures low overheads and flexibility to reduce the size of the organisation if the need arises. Replication TNMSC has clearly had a significant impact on improving drug availability to all the medical institutions in the State. Excess stocking and loss due to expiry was avoided and the prices of drugs and other branded items came down due to constant monitoring as the following table shows. 1200 g g Cost of Drugs (Values in Millon Rupees) 8 8 The supply of logograms under special packing minimised pilferage at various distribution points. Today TNMSC is able to procure 20-30% more drugs within the same cost. A lean organisational structure, low overheads and a proactive approach towards expanding revenue opportunities has led to the organisation’s becoming financially self-reliant and sustainable. Given the success of the organisation, several other states expressed interest in replicating the model. Teams from the Health and Family Welfare Departments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Assam have visited the Corporation to learn lessons. Under the European Commission Sector Investment Programme, and in co-ordination with the Government of India, TNMSC was asked to take up consultancy services for the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. 6 Innovations1.2 MOBILITY TRAINING FOR VILLAGE HEALTH NURSES. The Village Health Nurse (VHN) in Tamil Nadu is the first-level contact person of the State department of health and is assigned to a sub-health centre. Typically, each VHN covers an area of 4-5 villages and a population of 4,000-5,000 people. VHNs are primarily responsible for mother and childcare activities, with additional responsibility for general health services and screening for endemic and epidemic diseases within villages. A VHNN is expected to cover at least one village every day before lunch and be available in the clinics in the evenings. They are supposed to reside in the sub- health centre (SHC) itself, but in most cases they actually stay in block or district, centres nearby, to be closer to their husband’s place of work and their children’s school. Consequently, a VHN spent a substantial number of her official hours travelling by bus or on foot ~ either from home to the SHC or within their assigned territory. Their available time for effective work was thus significantly reduced, and far-flung and remote hamlets under their area, were often neglected. To tackle this problem the Danida Health Care Project decided to extend Ioans to the VHS so that they could purchase mopeds for travelling to work. However, though many VHNS availed of this loan, it was observed that only a few were actually using them for their work. Enquiries revealed that this was primarily because most VHNs didn’t know how to drive a moped and, given the social mores, they either could not find anyone to teach them or were very hesitant to learn. Rather than by the VHNs, the mopeds were often being used only by men in the family. With this feedback, and an earlier positive experience of the Project Director in training women to ride bicycles, the project decided to provide driver training for the VHNs. The training was spread over three days, was residential and also contained inputs on yoga, physical fitness, communication skills and women’s rights and empowerment. The trainers for the programmes were all other VHNs who already knew how to ride mopeds. The all-women group approach enabled a very stimulating environment that encouraged learning. Additionally the inputs on communication and women’s rights promoted strong bonding and significantly increased the confidence of the women. The infrastructure support in terms of availability of mopeds, fuel, and a large open ground all facilitated the process, at the end of which all VHNs were able to get their driving licenses. Impact of the Training Programme Over 3,500 VHNs benefited from this training programme in Tamil Nadu. An impact study conducted by an external agency indicated a large increase in the number of VHNS using the mopeds for their work after the training, resulting in significant reduction in commuting time and a corresponding 10% increase in productive work, as the following diagram shows. 7 Innovations in the Health Sector—_ are M Commuting MField Work ALSHC m Records mee | Specific benefits observed in the impact study include: 50-60% saving in time spent on unproductive activity such as walking, waiting for a bus and traveling by bus. Increased frequency of visits to villages ~ 3-4 villages being covered per day now, as against 1-2 villages per day before. Ease in achieving targets ~ coverage of 100 families now as against 50 families earlier. Increase in time spent per patient — on an average an increase of 10-15 minutes per patient. Immediate attention in case of emergencies. Increased frequency of visit to remote hamlets. Increased feeling of independence. Increase in their perceived status both within and outside the family. Greater confidence in communicating with influential people in the villages. josted in the Etiyur SHC, with a population Wo sons, In 1997 she took a governme participated in the driving and communication it, The training has helped both her professional ible fo reach all the hamlets in her sub district, and personal life’ and she is Some as far as 7 kilometres away, which was impossible before. : EY nS Wes im Sumathi delivered this baby, the second girl in the family, in November 1998 Prior to that some family members wanted to kill the child because of her gender. Sumathi says she prevented them doing so by threatening police action, but convinced that they would still try after she lef, she told them she would be back for frequent subsequent visits. As the house was 2 kilometres away from her own home there was no way she could have made so many visits without a ‘moped and in all probability the child would have been killed. The training has also been of: benefit in her personal life. She can now easily visit her mother, and she has more time for herself. Sumathi says that interaction with other VHNs, gender sensitisation and training on women’s rights, have helped her to become more self-confident, both in family matters She cites one incident, which she believes helped save the life of a baby girl | and in her professional life. | 8 Innovations1.3 ADVANCED GENDER TRAINING TO FACULTY OF HEALTH TRAINING INSTITUTES The Danida Area Health Care Project (DHCP) had conducted a 6-day Training of Trainers course for trainers from health institutes in the year 2000. Six months later, when feedback on the use and impact of the course was invited, the need for more detailed and comprehensive training on gender emerged. Consequently, the DHCP conducted a 21-day training programme on gender for selected faculty from Health Training Institutes in the state, which was innovative for both its content as well as its duration of 21 days, in the context of a State Department of Health. The Danish Embassy, under the local fellowship programme, funded the training course, and an experienced extemal gender expert was the chief facilitator, with a team from the Danida Support Unit, Department of Health and an NGO supporting him. The course had 20 participants drawn from the various Health Training Institutes in the state for multipurpose workers, nurses and doctors. The venue of the course was a development education institute located in scenic surroundings near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The participants had access to a gender library with about 130 books, periodicals and articles, specially put together for this purpose. Field visits enable the participants to field test the posters, training modules, songs and skits developed by them during the training programme. TRAINING PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION Module Title Module Description I | Exploring our own identity | Awareness of oneself as male/female and implications of the same. I | The individual trainer's Family, institutional and village-level environment gender issues pertaining to each individual trainer. IL | Concepts This module placed gender in the broader continuum of social change and development strategies. IV _| The dynamics of gender This module examined the gender issues discrimination within class, caste and religion, how gender discrimination is reinforced. and how it impacts on the health of men and women. V_| Technical sessions Gender issues pertaining to various diseases. VI_| Effective communication for | Improving creative skills in conveying gender and health messages _| gender and health messages effectively. VII | Developing personal skills | Developing personal communication skills and ability to deal with difficult training situations. 9 Innovations in the Health Sector‘Variety and flexibility of different methods of training and how to create modules Outputs from the Training Programme © A gender and health training manual. * A genderised curriculum for (a) medical officers induction training, and (b) integrated skill training — reproductive child health for Village Health Nurses. 3 gender songs, 2 one-hour modules for training village leaders on gender. 2 one-hour modules for training village community on gender. 6 posters depicting gender and health messages. 1 case study. Asset of policy recommendations. Impact The 20 trainers trained in the above programme later conducted gender training for the Health Inspectors from the leprosy programme, who were being integrated with the primary healthcare system in the state. In the longer term the genderised curriculum developed will continue to have an impact on the sensitisation of health staff for years to come. 10 Innovations1.4 TRAINING OF HEALTH WORKERS AS MICROSCOPISTS The Danida-assisted Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in Orissa developed an innovative strategy to overcome the extreme shortage of laboratory technicians in the State. As per the national norms for RNTCP, | sputum examination centre was required to be set up for a population of 100,000 people. RNTCP Orissa however decided to set up 1 sputum centre for each population of 30,000-40,000 persons, but there was an estimated shortage of approximately 40% for lab technicians to man these laboratories. To meet this shortfall DANTB decided to train various categories such as educated ward attendants, health workers and pharmacists as lab technicians. These are called Non-Path Microscopists. The only criteria for their selection were that they should be willing, young and extremely motivated to take up this additional task. The Non-Path Microscopists were provided a 21-day training programme to enable them to effectively carry out the laboratory tests, and the training provided them with the knowledge and skills to examine collected samples of sputum as per RNTCP guidelines, enter results in the form and prepare a laboratory register of cach smear examined. Broad Course Content of Non-Path Laboratory Technicians Day 1. Objective, methodology, expected outcome of training and description of microscope and its operation and maintenance. Day 2. Description of microscope and its operation, and types of microscope parts and their operation and maintenance. Assessment of days I and 2. Day 3. Identification of bacteria, staining procedure and Z.N. staining procedure, Day 4. Revision ofall topics, personal precautions and assessment, practical demonstration of smear preparation and staining and disposal of sample. Day 5. Focusing of microscope with 10x, 40x, coarse adjustment and fine | - adjustment and movement. Day 6. Focusing with 100x use of fuel adjustment, identification of AFB, ‘mechanical stage movement in grid pattern and counting of bacilli Day 7. Counting of bacilli/field — own slide. Day 8. Counting of bacilli/field ~ own slide. Day 9. Reporting of own slide in degree of positioning and unification of results on spot. Day 10. Own slide exam and reporting in degree of positivity (10 slides). Day 11. Own slide exam and reporting in degree of positivity (10 slides). Days 12-15. Blind slide exam, reporting results (15 slides) and their own slides (7-10). Days 16-21. LT manual, LT module and DOT Provider module. Blind slide discrepancy re-examination of slides; 5-10 per trainee. ‘* Revision of modules and manuals, © Questions and answers. © Spotting. nn Innovations in the Health SectorImpact Though no scientific impact idy has been conducted, project staff observed that the Non-Path Lab Technicians were conducting the tests as per the guidelines. Additionally, even though they were paid no extra allowance, DANTB found that the training and additional responsibility increased their motivation, confidence, prestige and sense of job security, 1.5‘CARE AND CONCERN’ CAMPS FOR LEPROSY-AFFECTED PERSONS are and Concer’ camps are mixed-group, residential camps where leprosy- affected persons (LAPs), service providers and community volunteers live and lear together. The Danida Assisted National Leprosy Eradication Programme (Danlep) developed the concept of these camps, which proved very successful in achieving the following, * Assessment of needs of disabled persons and provision of supplies for them. * Training of disabled patients and at-risk patients in adopting self-care practices, Education of community and reduction of social stigma. * Training of health workers in prevention of disability * Raising self-esteem and confidence of LAPs. These innovative ‘Care and Concern’ camps sought to involve the community and change their attitude towards LAPs, and to address social, psychological and technical problems impacting the well-being of LAPs. 2 Innovations | IImpact The ‘Care and Concem’ camps, initiated in district Balaghat, were considered So effective that the Chief Secretary issued an order in 1998 that one camp must be conducted in each block in every district of Madhya Pradesh every year. Subsequently, approximately 80 such camps were replicated in various parts of the State, usually for 7 days’ duration each, Each camp typically catered to 30 LAPs, 10 health workers and 10 community key volunteers. A wide range of activities were conducted during the course of the camps. Range of Activities Covered in ‘Care and Concern’ Camps © Inauguration and Valedictory functions. * Hydro-oleo-physio-exercises ~ thrice a day. POD needs assessment of each case * Ulver care and provision of MCR footwear, pop cast, splint, grip aids and eye shields. * Trialogue to solve psycho-social issues. * Exoneration of leprosy conquerors, * Training activities for health workers to learn counselling and POD measures, © Regular skin DDTE camp or skin OPD. * Exhibitions, rallies, group discussions with different sections of the community. * Participatory cultural activities. Documentation of activities and preparing plan for follow-up of cases, * Supervision and monitoring of camp activities The important aspect of such camps is that the LAPs were treated at par with the health workers and community members, there being no segregation for eating, sitting or for sleeping arrangements. Bonhomie was built up by having a relaxed informal atmosphere, with many interactive activities. The community members who saw the health workers treating, cleaning and dressing the ulcers of the LAPs, without hesitation or fear of infection, realised that the disease cannot be infectious, At the same time the LAPs, who had been accustomed to discriminatory treatment at the hands of family members and the community, experienced a rise in their self- esteem and confidence, Most of the camp organisers cited an inerease in the number of community volunteers in the various camp activities, including dressing of ulcers, as the camps progressed. Insisting that the food be organised by the community also ensured community involvement in the camps. 13 Innovations in the Health SectorHow to Organise a ‘Care and Concern’ Camp 1. Sensitise key persons of local community to organise camp. 2. Select venue and finalise dates. 3. Form committees and. distribute responsibilities by a participatory process. 4, Collection of resources in cash or kind by local committees. 5. Selection of LAPs (15 grade I, 10 grade Il and 5 Neuritis and others). 6. Invite potential organisers for future camps e.g. village heads, NGOs or community key persons. 7. Conduct activities listed. 8. Maintain discipline ~ clean surroundings, strict timings, care of family members/escoris. Ensure cooperation and coordination with respect for each other. 10. Make it a memorable event! Problems Faced in Organising ‘Care and Concern’ Camps There were many problems faced by the organisers of such camps. The first problem ‘was that of selecting an appropriate venue. The place had to be adequate to cater to the stay of approximately 50 persons. The most difficult task in this was to convince the villagers, who were not enthused with the idea of LAPs from various villages coming to their village. This aspect was overcome after many discussions with influential persons from the village. Convincing LAPS to attend the camp for 7 days was also not easy, as they had to lose their wages for 7 days, if they were working The camp organisers overcome this by convincing them that their productivity would significantly increase once they learnt to take care of themselves in these camps. Another difficult aspect was the arrangement of food, which the community was expected to organise. There are examples cited by camp organisers where food was promised and even sent on the first day, but on the second day there would be no one willing to take on the responsibility. The camp organisers then had to manage the crisis and somehow arrange the food. By the 3 or 4" day the villagers were invariably impressed by the work in the camps and ready to provide complete support to the cause, Once a village has hosted such a camp, it was found their attitude towards leprosy completely changed. Similarly camp organisers, who were extremely apprehensive the first time they were asked to organise such a camp, were extremely motivated after their first experience and were happy to contribute to any such effort in the future. 4 Innovations |Baisakhin Bai gets Her Family Back A ‘Care and Concer’ camp was organised in village Khairbana, Baisakhin Bai from village Sandi attended the camp for treatment of her disabilities. She remained downcast and alone in the camp, but health workers developed an affinity towards her and asked the reason for her sorrow. She replied that she had been deserted by her husband and was now living with her parents. Later in the camp she came to know that her mother-in-law also had leprosy and was attending the same camp. But her mother-in-law was living with | her family, while she was being ostracised. “Why is this so?” she asked herself. In the camp every evening a Trialogue was conducted to discuss various issues. One evening opinion leaders and decision-makers among the villagers were called and the problem of Baisakhin Bai was put before the group. The patients and providers were already present in the discussion. After listening to all the facts the villagers consulted each other and also spoke to the mother-in-law of Baisakhin Bai. The villagers then took a decision and summoned her husband and father-in-law to listen to their point of view, Both of them argued that Baisakhin Bai had developed deformities, whereas her mother-in-law had no deformities, therefore Baisaikhin Bai could not stay with the family. This aspect was thoroughly discussed in the group. Heated discussions took place. Some supported Baisakhin Bhai, and others her husband and father in law. Finally everyone present agreed that the deformities were no fault of Baisakhin Bai, and that she should be accepted back into the family. Her husband and father in law remained adamant they would not take her back, and left the camp. However they retumed after two days to meet with the mother in law, and the camp organisers could sense a change in their attitude. Another Trialogue was then organised during which they were convinced and agreed to take her home. Baisakhin Bai was given a grand ceremonial send off from the camp, Subsequent follow up revealed that Baisakhin Bai was happy and settled in her house. 1.6 TRIALOGUE To address the social and psychological problems associated with leprosy, Danlep developed a unique methodology called Trialogue, which also later has been adopted by DANTB with great success, This methodology was at the core of the ‘Care and Concern’ camps, described in the previous section. It was part of the overall strategy aimed at changing community attitudes and behaviour through role models, active participation in caring for those disabled by leprosy as well as by facilitating honest and open discussions about fears, concerns, prejudices and problems, 5 Innovations in the Health SectorLeprosy is a disease that is completely curable, not highly infectious, and if identified and treated in the initial stages, no deformities or disabilities develop. However, the disease is associated with immense social stigma among both educated and uneducated people, and it is their entrenched attitudes and erroneous beliefs that are the major stumbling blocks to leprosy eradication. Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) has been very successful in curing millions of people of leprosy the world over, but due to the unnecessary shame of sufferers there are still many hidden cases always found during campaigns. This hard reality led to the development of the Trialogue methodology by Danlep. In its simplest form, a Trialogue implies that the three involved stakeholders, namely the patient, the provider and representatives from the community, sit together and openly discuss the issues. For this to be effective it is essential that there is an experienced facilitator present, who can initiate and moderate discussion and ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to express their view. In a Trialogue situation the facilitator establishes facts by using actual role models to talk of their experiences, For example, a cured patient will talk about his or her experience with leprosy and how he or she is now completely cured. Similarly, a family member of a leprosy patient will talk about how simply cohabiting with a leprosy patient does not cause infection, The ‘Care and Concern’ camps described earlier provided excellent opportunities for conducting Trialogues, because within the camps all the three stakeholders were present, and there was an actual demonstration of health workers and various community members freely interacting with LAPs. Outcome Trialogue is an interactive process between three groups of key players ~ patients, providers and local people ~ all of who are considered to be on an equal footing. In Madhya Pradesh this was found very effective in overcoming stigmas and myths related to leprosy. Further, Trialogues may also be considered for leprosy programmes in other regions, other health programmes for diseases with social stigma, such as tuberculosis and AIDS, and for social problems such as child abuse, violence against women and gender discrimination. While Trialogues have proved very successful in Madhya Pradesh, the process of changing age-old myths and beliefs has not always been an easy path, as the example on the next page of a village in Madhya Pradesh illustrates. 16 InnovationsTrialogue Helps Integrate a Leprosy Patient in His Village In a village in Madhya Pradesh, the project team came upon a situation where a barber was refusing to shave and cut the hair of a leprosy patient. The team in the evening called an informal meeting where the patient, the barber, influential and concerned village community members as well as the project team were present. They discussed the problem. The project team tried to convince the villagers that leprosy was not contagious, is curable and that the barber would not contract the disease by shaving leprosy patient. They also informed that even if the same blade is used to shave others in the village it will not pass on the infection. However, the villagers were not convinced, Heated discussions took place till late in the night, wherein the project team tried to give examples of how the children of leprosy patients are healthy, and how even the spouse of a leprosy patient does not catch the disease. Finally the project team asked the villagers if they would be convinced if the project team volunteered to be shaved by the same blade as used by the leprosy patient. The villagers though sceptical looked on. The project team requested the barber to first shave the leprosy patient and then one by one all sat and got shaved using the same blade. This action finally convinced the villagers, and from them onwards the leprosy patient in the village was treated with respect and dignity. 1.7 DISTRICT LEPROSY ERADICATION SOCIETIES District Leprosy Eradication Societies (DLESs) were initially set up at the behest of Danida. The Danish Appraisal Mission, before the commencement of Danida’s support to the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) in Phase I (1986), specified as a precondition to Danish funding “a system for channelling Danida funds for operational expenditure directly from Danida to the District Leprosy Officer.” In order to achieve this direct funding to the districts, the concept of DLESs was evolved. This concept was found so useful that when World Bank support to the National Leprosy Programme was proposed, in the early nineties, it was replicated in all districts of the country, and similar societies were formed in the national blindness and malaria programmes. The overall objectives of forming DLESs were to enable easy flow of funds from the Government of India directly to the district, to enable effective planning and implementation of the activities under the NLEP and to oversee the Programme in the district, 7 Innovations in the Health SectorDLESs are registered as societies under the Societies Registration Act, and have 7 members: * District Collector/Deputy Commissioner/CEO District. Panchayat — Chairperson * Chief Medical and Health Officer — Vice Chairman District Leprosy Officer (DLO) - Member Secretary State Leprosy Officer ~ Member Consultant-cum-epidemiologist of Multi Drug Therapy district - Member District Education or Social Welfare Officer — Member Representative of the local voluntary organisation involved in leprosy — Member DLESs meetings are held as per their need, but at least once a year. Before cach DLES meeting the Secretary prepares an agenda, and the agenda notes are circulated to all the members and special invitees. During the meetings the progress on various planned activities is shared, and suggestions incorporated. Approval on the activity plan and budget for next 6-12 months is also obtained, Typically each DLES in 2004 had an annual budget between Rs. 500,000 and Rs. | million of which approximately 40% was for activities (IEC and community participation) and the balance for expenses such as salaries and incentives, maintenance of vehicles, office and contingent expenditure. ‘Advantages and Problems The biggest advantage of the DLES has been the easy transfer of funds to the districts, without any delays. The involvement of the Collector made it easier for the DLO to get activities organised that require support from other departments, Under the DLES, the DLO had more approval powers and his own vehicle, which greatly helped him to achieve targets, However, more independence from state control led to a lack of ownership by the state, while at the same time the Central Government experienced difficulty in monitoring the societies. Because this situation was fraught with dangers, two decisions were taken: 1. State leprosy societies were formed in all states, to improve the quality of supervision and monitoring as well increase state ownership. 2. Since the districts had several such societies (such as leprosy, malaria, blindness), it was decided to merge them into a single District Health Society, with separate accounts maintained for each programme. 1.8 CALENDAR BLISTER PACKS At the time when Danida began supporting the National Leprosy Programme, the Government of India was supplying MDT drugs in a loose form. The leprosy staff had to count the loose tablets and wrap them in bits of paper, which was both time- consuming and messy, as the Clofazimine tablets tended to stick together in humid weather and then became difficult to separate. Loose tablets also made it easier for 18 Innovationspilferage to take place, especially of Rifampicin, which was much in demand for treatment of tuberculosis and short in supply. Danish consultants suggested to the Government of India that the drugs should be supplied in a blister calendar pack. Subsequently the drugs were sourced from Pharmanova AS, Copenhagen, in blister packs, each containing 28 days of medication, and with a calendar printed on the back. There were separate packs, in different colours, for patients with multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy and for child patients Impact This innovation brought tremendous benefits as the following diagram illustrates. For the Health Department ¢ Reduction in pilferage. Reduction in wastage due to spoilage. © Improvement in MDT coverage. ‘Productivity of leprosy workers increases, as they are able to spend time on more useful activities. For the Leprosy For Leprosy Workers | Patient * Reduced time and © Easy to carry and effort in packing store. loose tablets. © Easy to self- | © Easy to monitor monitor. (no patient, At a glance * Easy to see when | / Benefit for Leprosy possible to see how the next ‘pulse’ or Workers many doses the visit to the doctor patient has missed. is due, as the blister * Easy to store and pack gets deleted. distribute. 1,9 RAPID ASSESSMENT SURVEY TO GUAGE THE MAGNITUDE OF CATARACT BLINDNESS Proactive monitoring and evaluation of cataract intervention programmes require information on indicators that can be obtained only through population based surveys. Due to rapid changes in the pattern and prevalence of cataract blindness, information on indicators is required at regular intervals of 3-5 years. A 9 Innovations in the Health Sectarcomprehensive population based survey requires tremendous time and resources in terms of manpower and finances, in a country as vast and varied as India. To make it feasible to obtain information on some critical indicators, the Danida-supported National Programme for Control of Blindness refined and applied innovative methodology for ‘Rapid Assessment Survey’. Rapid assessments surveys for cataract blindness are designed to provide the following indicators: * Prevalence of total blindness, severe visual impairment and visual impairment * Prevalence of blindness, severe visual impairment and visual impairment caused by cataract Prevalence of aphakia and/or pseudophakia The cataract surgical coverage for persons and for eyes Visual outcome after cataract surgery Barriers to cataract surgery Rapid Assessment Methodology The methodology for rapid assessment was kept as simple as possible without any significant compromisation on accuracy. It was decided that since 95% of blindness and severe visual impairment due to cataract in India occurs in people Who are 50 years and older, the assessment would be limited to this age group. A systematic random cluster sampling procedure was adopted, using the following information: Expected prevalence of bilateral cataract blindness (VA<3/60) The population of the survey area (only people of 50+ age group) The required precision of the estimate The estimated design effect The higher the desired precision, the larger is the’ sample size needed, so to keep the design effect with a low sample size, clusters of 30-60 were recommended, The clusters were selected through systematic random sampling from all possible clusters. Once the clusters were identified, local health workers informed the people about the purpose of the survey and the time of the visit and requested people in the village or area to stay at home. A simple procedure was developed for ophthalmic examination, which could be administered by Ophthalmic Assistants, After undergoing the ophthalmic examination, the patients were asked some basic questions to understand their cure seeking behaviour. Benefits of Rapid Assessment The rapid assessment methodology can be used for initial assessment of the cataract Problem in a defined area and provides baseline data for programme management and assessment of barriers, thereby giving valuable information for health education messages. The combination of prevalence data and cataract surgical coverage gives good insight into the magnitude of the problem. The visual outcome of the surgery reflects the quality of the intervention. This type of survey is very useful in countries 20 Innovationssuch as India, where large differences exist between various districts, making it essential to have district-specific data. Local staff can carry out the assessment, within reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. This increases the involvement of the eye care staff, and helps them obtain a better insight into the disease. Costs are limited mainly to allowances and transport. A specially designed software package that allows standard data entry and easy analysis was also developed These rapid assessments can be used to identify areas that need more specific in- depth epidemiological or ophthalmologic research. Information on causes of poor visual outcome, gender differences in prevalence of cataract blindness and details on barriers to cataract surgery, for example, may be collected using this kind of rapid assessment, Although such assessments cannot fully substitute for more in-depth clinical studies, they do provide replicable and scientific data for quick understanding of the trends, and help to give a better direction to the programme at the micro level. Replication ‘The Government of India accepted the rapid assessment survey method, and Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and 7 World Bank-supported states have since used the method, covering 80,000 people. 21 Innovations in the Health Sector2. THE RURAL DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SECTOR SECTOR CONTEXT India, with its rapid growth in population as well as in industrial and agricultural activities, along with factors such as erratic rainfall, groundwater depletion, increasing salinity and pollution of existing ground and surface water sources, consequently experiences severe water scarcity. Provision of safe drinking water has been a central concern for national and state governments since independence, and significant achievement has been made in provision of infrastructure for supply of safe drinking water to the rural areas, The Government estimates that by the end of 2001 almost 88% of rural habitations had access to safe and adequate water, 11% were partially covered and only 1% was not covered at all Despite these encouraging statistics, there has been real concen among stakeholders regarding sustainability of the infrastructure. Schemes had been government- driven with little or no community participation, resulting in serious operation and maintenance problems, with a number of schemes going defunct due to lack of funds and no clear responsibility for operation and maintenanee. It is now widely accepted that it is simply not possible either financially or infrastructurally for the government to be responsible for operation and maintenance of the water supply systems, and that the onus must lie with communities themselves. The World Bank, UNICEF and bilateral donors such as Danida, DFID, KfW and the Netherlands have all contributed to the sector. These contributions have historically been in experimentation with new technologies, but with the increasing need for community participation donors have also played a critical role in developing various new models. The learning from these is reflected in the Government of India’s sector reform project, a pilot programme that emphasises a demand-driven approach with active community participation and cost sharing by the user groups. DANIDA’S SUPPORT TO THE SECTOR ‘The Government of Denmark's partnership with the Government of India in the water supply sector dates back to the early seventies. Danida’s early projects, in line with the Government's priorities at that time, consisted of providing drilling machines for tube-wells and implementation of hand-pump schemes. By the early cighties Danida-supported projects already had community participation and gender components, but though financial contribution from the community for operation and maintenance was specified, this aspect was never taken very seriously. Based on experience gained from the various projects, the on-going projects in Tamil Nadu and Kamataka were redesigned and initiated in 1996. 2 Innovations 4Summary of Ongoing Projects in Water and Sanitation Sector Project : “<:| Phase [Duration | Area”. [Funding i ee Sp upees) Ruiral drinking water and 1996102004 | 2 ‘districts: of | 562° sanitation programme). “| Tamil Nadu’ | million Tamil Nadu’ Rural drinking water and | Phase 1 | 1996'to 2002 | 4 districts of | 509 sanitation programme, Kamataka’ | million Kamataka : The development goal of the projects was to achieve ‘Sustainable water supply and improved sanitary conditions in the project area’, while the immediate objectives were: Adoption of'a demand-driven approach. Improved and sustainable community-managed maintenance. Appropriate technology solutions adopted. Regulatory mechanisms for groundwater extraction in place. Improved hygiene and sanitation Details of two selected innovations from this sector can be found in the following pages, 2B ‘The Rural Drinking Water Supply Sector2.1 VILLAGE-BASED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. The Danida-supported Tamil Nadu water and sanitation project commenced in the two districts of Cuddalore and Villupuram in late 1996. Innovative concepts for the time were integrated into the project design, with requirements of capital and contribution to operation and management from the communities. The project stressed community participation at each and every stage of the project and care was taken to ensure equity during the process. Participatory exercises were conducted to develop village-level plans, and Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) and user groups were established to enable the process. The project transferred funds for construction to the Gram Panchayats, though the village committee managed the construction itself. Progress, however, was slow as there were difficulties convincing the community of the need for their financial contribution. Subsequently, connections without payment were deemed illegal and terminated. Once this phase was over, it was then realised that the VWSCs that had played a very active role during implementation were fading away. The User Groups also were weak and had no clarity on their role, making it difficult to collect user charges for operation and maintenance. Overall, management aspects were weak and there was no coherent vision to bind all the activities together. This understanding led to the establishment of the Village-based Management System (VMS), with a well- defined vision, in 10 model villages in the project. Vision of the VMS Atthe centre of the vision were the users or community members, aware of their rights and responsibilities, and who could demand the service they need, and pay for it. Their active participation was envisaged in the management of user groups and through their representation in the VWSC. The VWSC was expected to work within the framework of the village Panchayat and be able to finance at least operation, maintenance and ‘minor expansions. It would receive external assistance from the private commercial sector, the government's state-, district- and block-level organisations, as well as civil society. Institutional Structures The VWSC is the focal point of the VMS. Its composition, function, powers and responsibilities are regulated through by-laws specially developed by the project. The VWSC comprises representatives of the elected Panchayat, User Groups, Self-Help Groups and other influential persons in the village. Selected members of the VWSC form a Quality Assurance Group and an Environmental Protection Group to ensure that a large enough number of people are involved in operation and maintenance of the water supply and sanitation systems in the village. The exact structure and functions of the VWSC can be seen in the diagram on the next page. The project also prepared comprehensive by-laws for water supply in the village Panchayat, These by-laws defined the various user categories, the application Process, technical stipulations, the payment details for house service connections and public fountains, as well as fines and penalties for defaulters. VWSCs found Pr InnovationsRoles and Responsibilities in the Village-based Management System 25 Village pelea) Roles and responsibilities Panch (not more than 10) 1, Responsible for all Water and Sanitation assets "anchayat 1. Village 2. Responsibility for management of all : Panchayat public Water and Sanitation installations president including planning, implementation, i 2. rae a operation, maintenance and monitoring ; anchayat vice 3. Develop annual plan Village-level president 4, Assist in selection of suitable candidates Water and 3. peteoie for hand pump mechanic or power pump Sanitation a etait ‘operator I Traditional 5. Responsible for motivation and awareness Committee leaders campaign on health and hygiene To ee) 6. Active role in construction of household 6. Village head Eee nurse 7. Conduct regular sanitary surveys: 7. Panchayat 8. Responsible for long term and short teem assistant ~ protection of drinking water [_sesreury || 9. Responsibie fr all household connections — of water supply 10. Assist the village Panchayats in construction, supervision and procurement of quality materials 11, Financial management — __ pam) Responsibilities. (oot moce than 10) 1. Supervision of civil works and 1. Village Panchayar president} Peon — 2. Ward members ain 2. Verifying quality and quantity of Quality 3. Any two ofthe folowing Nesifying 4) Hand pump mechanic || Assurance |-»| 2 pinup mecha Ly] 3. Assisting village Panchayat “ower Pump operator and contractors in procuring of Group ce eacoe materials ome tcoician) __| | 4. Solving disputes during implementation 5. Facilitating the contractors and officials in implementation ‘Members { Responsibilities i— (Got more than 5) 1. Location of sites Environ- 1. Vice president 2. Safe disposal of waste water from water 2 Panchayat — L-»| points [>| ments) asta 3. Illegal tap connections ~ pit taps Protection | | 3. Hand pump 4. Upkeep ofthe pump house, OHT and the Group mechanic stand posts 4. Power pump 5. Garbage disposal mechanic 6 Collecting water samples and testing using 5. vig eats] [int | — J [Responstbiies 1. Regulanfperiodic maintenance of water points 2. Maintenance of local finds collected for —— water fembers 3. Assisting the operator or the mechanic in L, | User (oot more than 4) the maintenance 1. Stand post users 4, Safe disposal of the waste water from | [Group J") 2. andpunp wes water points | 5, Helping in conducting water samples and testing 6 Informing the VWSC for timely repair ‘The Rural Drinking Water Supply Sectorit very useful to have clearly defined by-laws, which they were then able to use to enforce user charges, There are even examples where the VWSC have used police support, on the basis of the by law, to check defaulters. : z 7 ] Schedule ‘A’ of Water Supply By-laws Water Charges (for house service connection) For domestic use, water charge per month is Rs.30-to be paid half- yearly. For other purposes (non-domestic use) water charge per month is Rs.60 to be paid half-yearly or monthly. ‘* The water charges shall be paid for one year in advance at the time of getting the initial house service connection * The due date for payment of water charges is the 10" of the succeeding month or 10 of the first month in the succeeding half-year (July- Jamuary), * The supply of water to mosques, temples and churches, only for drinking Purpose, shall be regulated as domestic use and water charge is to be paid at the rate of Rs.30 per month. * If the water supplied to the mosques, temples and churches is found is to be used for any other purpose then the water charge is to be paid at the rate of Rs.60 per month. L Capacity Building of Stakeholders Building up the capacity of VWSCs and village Panchayats is one of the essential components of the VMS concept. Training packages were developed by the project to ensure that consistently good quality standards were maintained for all training programmes. The emphasis of the capacity building programmes was on imparting good management skills to the VWSC members, which included the VMS concept, health and hygiene, by-laws, participatory planning, leadership, communication, conflict resolution, group dynamics, planning and budgeting, organisation, revenue collection, environmental protection and quality assurance. Technical training was also provided to hand-pump mechanics, power-pump operators, masons and plumbers. Management Information Systems The project developed appropriate registers and forms at the village-level, which helped to provide complete transparency for all income and expenditure incurred for the water supply system. A simple format to monthly monitor the progress of the village based management system was also developed. This provided operational and financial details to be maintained by the VWSC, and in addition to being a self. ‘monitoring tool it also served as an agenda item for the VWSC meetings. Impact of VMS and Scaling Up The project implemented the VMS concept in 10 model villages, and moving from initial hesitation, the villagers quickly appreciated the concept and became very enthusiastic about it. The formation of the various committees, the by-laws, and the capacity building initiatives were greatly valued by the villagers, 2% InnovationsData collected from these 10 pilot villages indicated that within 4 months of implementing the VMS 56% of house service connections had been fully regularised and 78% partly regularised. At the same time 62% of the potential deposits for house service connections and 60% of the potential monthly charges for house service connections had been collected. These figures are substantially higher than villages where VMS was not implemented. However, implementation of the VMS concept. is still relatively nascent, and whereas indications are that VMS will provide a sustainable model, the true impact may be ascertained only after some years. The following problems still needed to be overcome at the time of Danida withdrawal * Willingness to charge is a bigger problem than willingness to pay. * _ Unwillingness of the state government to practically devolve functions to the village Panchayat slows down processes. * Payment of electricity dues by the district level instead of by the village Panchayats results in lack of responsibility by Panchayats. © Recovery is still essentially from user charges for household connections. With no government order supporting user charges for public fountains, this becomes difficult to implement. ‘Some important preconditions for successful implementation of VMS are: * Involvement of block-level and district-level development officers. Project experience indicates that only capacity building of the village-level structures is not enough. It is critical that the block and district-level officers are involved from the beginning. This is because both during implementation of VMS and later, support is required for aspects such as enforcing regularisation of illegal connections, ensuring payment of user charges and obtaining funds in case some major repair or expansion is sought. © Theproject, based both on learning from experience during VMS implementation and the guidelines of the Rajiv Gandhi Water Supply and Sanitation Mission, must constitute block-and district-level Water and Sanitation Committees. * State government support is essential. If the state government continues to implement schemes that do not require users to pay, it is extremely difficult to ensure appropriate recoveries. + There must be a genuine demand from the community, without which even the best-managed programme will fail. Scaling Up of Interventions The Tamil Nadu Water and Sanitation Project is working on a replicable model to scale up the VMS concept. During the pilot stage considerable input was required to build capacities of the various village level structures, Subsequently it was found that scaling up was easier than expected as several villages adjacent to project villages, having observed the good results, on their own adopted the by laws and regularised illegal connections. It is estimated that the manpower required to establish a VMS during the scaling up stage would entail an expenditure of only Rs.25,000 per village. This is about 10% of the usual rejuvenation cost for water supply in the project area, or about 1-2% of the total replacement value of existing installations. a The Rural Drinking Water Supply SectorThe current project was implemented under close supervision of Danida staff, who provided all software and management inputs, and technical support was provided by the government. For scaling up, the project built up the capacities of Gandhigram, an NGO, which will now be implementing the concept at a far lower cost. 2.2 QUALITY ASSURANCE BY COMMUNITIES The Government of Karnataka implemented the Jalanidhi Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Project, in 728 villages of 105 village Panchayats in Kolar, Bijapur, Bagalkot and Chitradurga districts, with assistance from Danida. The project commenced in 1996, and had entered its second phase prior to Danida withdrawal. Apart from financial assistance, Danida extended professional support in terms of both technical and social aspects of the project. The project strategy is to adopt a demand-responsive approach, through intensive community involvement in order to provide sustainable water and sanitation systems. The village Panchayat has the overall responsibility for operation, maintenance and management of the water supply and sanitation systems and is the focal point for all project interventions. 5% of the capital and 100% contribution for operation of water supply systems were envisaged. During implementation of the project construction activities, the project staff felt there were inadequate controls on both quality of goods purchased and construction Processes. In order to ensure appropriate quality assurance, it was essential to visit the site frequently, at various stages of the construction. Since this was not practical forthe section officer in charge, the project evolved the concept of a Village Quality Assurance Team (VQAT). The VQAT comprises of two members, usually and preferably one male and one female, nominated from within the VWSC by the villagers, based on criteria such as: They should be respected in the village. They should be responsible. They should have high credibility. Their physical presence in the village should be assured. If there is a mason or a contractor in the village, he or she is preferred, as they would already have some basic knowledge. Once selected the VQAT members were then trained by the project. The project prepared simple, illustrated posters in Kannada, to enable the VQATs to monitor quality. The VQAT team closely supervises the progress of construction on a daily basis using simple techniques taught them by the project, and ensures that the material delivered is of the required quality and quantity and is appropriately stored, The involvement of the community in quality assurance had a major impact on improving the quality of the material. The villagers felt more involved and took proactive steps to ensure good quality. Later the VQAT members even got involved in the quality assurance of any other civil work carried out in their village, such as road laying and repairs. 28 Innovations {Role of Government Staff The project developed a set of quality assurance manuals to enhance the quality monitoring by Government engineering staff. These manuals contain ‘checkpoints? to be checked during different stages of the construction process. It is only possible to fill out this checklist by visiting the site. These manuals and checklists were disseminated to the relevant engineers through a series of district level orientation workshops. Sustainability and Replicability The State Government has found this approach extremely practical and cost effective, and is replicating it in non-project areas. QUOTES BY VQAT MEMBERS woo ‘We had a discussion with the contractor right in the beginning and wamed him that we were going to oversee quality closely and that we knew about the various aspects, so the contractor had better ensure that | he provides good quality. We also motivated him by saying that if he | does good work we will recommend his work to the other villages. So we had no problem.%? §*| always keep a photocopy of | | ‘The contractor is not using 1:1:5:3 the distribution network of my proportion and vibrator for mixing village inmy pocket, tocheck the concrete. Thematterhasbeen brought diameter of the distribution pipe to the notice of the site engineer and line laid by the contractor.99 taken up with the section engineer | Ss | “Contractors have a tough time these days. When I first demanded the test results for cement and aggregates they didn’t take me seriously, thinking that | couldn’t understand all that. But now they know I'ma user to be reckoned with!99 29 The Rural Drinking Water Supply Sector3. INNOVATIONS IN CONSERVING AND DEVELOPING MEDICINAL PLANTS SECTOR CONTEXT AmongstIndia’srichbiodiversity, medicinal plantsasagroupcompriseapproximately 8,000 species, and account for around 50% of all the higher flowering species. However, till recently the medicinal plants sector in India was largely unorganised. Government interventions in this sector were limited to considering medicinal plants as a part of the Non Timber Forest Produce. Before 1993, India had a medicinal plant national programme, led by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, which largely focused on the propagation and commercial cultivation and utilisation of selected economic species for industrial needs. There was no focus on conservation or sustainable use of medicinal plants. An estimated 90% of the collection of medicinal plants is from the wild, by rural people. No care was taken to ensure that species were conserved, as a result of which a number are now endangered. There was also no attention paid to the stage of maturity during collection of medicinal plants, thus resulting in poor Quality of material, which fetched a low price. Marketing of medicinal plants was again disorganised with no established norms or quality standards, Prices varied significantly and middlemen exploited the rural people. The international market for medicinal plants, as per the Government Task Force Report (2000) on the subject, was estimated at US$ 60 billion per year, and growing at a rate of 7%. Given that India has a large variety of medicinal plants, this sector has huge potential, OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT IN THE SECTOR Danida commenced support to strengthening the medicinal plants resource base in India, in 1993. The overall objective of the project was to establish a system of conservation for medicinal plants and their sustainable use in the three States of Kamataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. At the end of Phase I in 1997, the project was extended for another 7 years. Overview of Danida Support to the Sector Projects State Phase | Period | Implementing | Danish Agency Grant Strengthening the / Karnataka, | Phase 1 | 1993- | Foundation for | DKK medicinal plant Tamil 1997 | Revitalisation | 23.6 resource base in | Nadu, of Local million India in the context | Kerala | Phase 2 Health of Primary Health 1997- | Traditions DKK Care Project, 2004 | (FRLHT) 403 Karnataka million 30Institutional Arrangement ‘The project was conceived and implemented by the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLFT), an NGO that works together with communities, other NGOs and the State Forestry Department to implement the project. INNOVATIONS IN THE PROJECT The entire project concept and approach is considered innovative in south India as earlier there had been no serious attempt to conserve, develop or use medicinal plants in a sustainable manner. The specific components of this project were in sitw conservation, ex situ conservation, income-generating activities based on medicinal plants and establishment of a Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre. All were supported with esearch, communication and training inputs Details of these components can be found in the following pages. 3.1 IN SITU CONSERVATION Jn situ conservation means conserving the medicinal plants species in their natural habitat, that is, in the forest areas. This approach ensures that the species continue to grow and evolve in their natural habitat. Jn situ areas act as ‘gene banks’ where genetic diversity is conserved, There are broadly two approaches to in sitw conservation: (a) establishment of medicinal plants conservation areas, and (b) establishment of Medicinal Plant Development Areas 31 Innovations in Conserving and Developing Medicinal PlantsMEDICINAL PLANTS CONSERVATION AREAS (MPCA) PROJECT ‘The purpose of the MPCA was to ascertain the maximum possible medicinal species diversity as a proportion of the floristic diversity in the region concerned, and for continuous in situ conservation to ensure that a minimum viable population of the major species is maintained. The MPCAS are protected areas where no harvesting is permitted and where only a minimum of silvicultural interventions are done, such as weeding of dominant exotic weeds. Some enrichment planting is carried out with regard to medicinal plants, and collection of seed and planting materials for research purposes can also take place. An MPCA may be focussed on field research, conservation education, community participation or nursery outreach. Each MPCA is a forest area of 200-500 hectares, lying in different vegetation, altitude ranges, soil types and rainfall regimes. Thirty-three MPCAs were established during the first and second phases of the project. Barefoot botanist programmes were implemented in some MPCAs, where local people, including Natti Vaidyas — local folk health practitioners — were trained to monitor, record and finally document the data on forest species. The main involvement of the communities is in terms of protection of the MPCAs from cattle grazing, illicit felling of trees and fire, through co-operation with the State Forest Department, and the revival of local health traditions, by active experimental participation resulting from the set-up of kitchen health gardens. Some Specific Lessons Learned Based on Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Project © The unit for MPCA programme should be the state |» The MPCA network in the state should not exist in isolation from the already existing protected areas network, and the latter should be the basis for the former. © Medicinal plants in vegetation types not covered by the protected area network should be conserved in MPCAs. Last foothold areas of medicinal plants need to be covered. * Areas with viable populations of red-listed species not covered in the network as per above need to be included in the MPCA network of the state. * Species-atea curves should be used to determine the minimum size of MPCAS to capture the overall diversity of the flora in the area | * MPCAs should be strictly protected to conserve medicinal plants. Identification of major user objective should be the basis for identification and engagement of communities. The management focus to be based on this analysis, * Community participation in MPCAs and MPDAs should be based on existing formal institutional structures such as VFCs and VSSs. + Location-specific approach and guidelines for community participation should be prepared. * Botanical survey should be geared to the resources available in the respective SED. —_ —____] 32MEDICINAL PLANTS DEVELOPMENT AREAS (MPDA) PROJECT The other approach to in situ conservation is reintroduction of medicinal plant species in degraded areas. This promotes eco-restoration of the degraded areas as well as conservation. The objective of the MPDA programme was to develop a model for medicinal plant resource conservation, development and sustainable use under the Government's participatory forest management programme. The MPDA Programme aims at organising communities and creating an economic stake for them in conservation and management of medicinal plant resources in the MPDAs. Community organisation, protection and development of medicinal plant resources, along with income generating activities based on medicinal plants were the main activities of the MPDA programme. Lessons Learned from Phase 1 and 2 of the Project + Establishment of MPDAs should be carried out in buffer zones in the non-degraded forests based on the legal provisions made by the Government of India. ‘* Locations of the MPDAs should be as close as possible to MPCAS. * The size of the MPDA should be sufficient to ensure sizeable benefits to the participating communities * The forest areas to be managed as MPDAs should preferably have non- timber forest products that can be improved and managed for the benefit of communities. * MPDAs should preferably be established in Joint Forest Management (FM) areas, where a viable village-level organisation is in place and working with the State Forest Department. Site-specific approaches for people’s participation should be listed. * Community participation in MPCAs and MPDAs should be based on existing formal institutional structures, such as Village Forest Committees. 3.2 EX SITU CONSERVATION Ex situ conservation implies conservation of species outside their habitat. Ideally, all medicinal plant species should be conserved as an evolving population within nature, but ex situ conservation has been compared by FRLHT to an insurance policy. It can also provide plant material for reintroduction, cultivation, research and education purposes. Ex situ conservation is carried out in Medical Plant Conservation Parks (MPCPs) of 5-25 acres of land. At these centres, alongside conservation of local indigenous plant diversity, documentation and revitalisation of local health traditions is also carried out. 33 Innovations in Conserving and Developing Medicinal PlantsCommunity outreach is an important thrust of each MPCP, since conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants can thrive only with their participation of the community. Accordingly the ex situ component is managed by FRLHT through NGOs, to better achieve participation. Ex situ conservation at the MPCPs includes: Establishment of ethno-medicinal forest (EMF) for ex situ conservation and also to grow and maintain all the medicinal plants species diversity of the region. Survey of medicinal plants in the region allocated to the MPCP. Establishment and maintenance of herbarium, seed and raw drug museum. Establishment and maintenance of demonstration garden. Promotion of growing of medicinal plants in Kitchen Herbal Gardens. Lessons Learned from Phase 1 and 2 of the Project * Objectives for establishing MPCPs must be clearly expressed as the activities to bee undertaken and infrastructure to be provided for the MPCP will depend on these objectives ‘+ Ex situ conservation can only be done in areas similar to the natural habitats of the species to be conserved, and involvement of the SFD in this work is essential, * Arrangements for long-term seed storage as part of ex situ conservation should be provided. ‘* Responsibilities of MPCPs in terms of outreach programmes should be clear, and the use of each facility to achieve the objectives should be critically examined. * Analysis of costs and benefits of strategies for centralised and/or decentralised nurseries to be included. * Inputs to the MPCP model should not be too tigid, but should allow each MPCP NGO to undertake activities according to its capacity and expertise. ‘* Issues concerning growing and use of medicinal plants by beneficiary village communities, such as availability of seedlings according to demand and seedling price need to be properly assessed in advance to ensure sustainability of the programme. * Facilities created at MPCPs should be designed to meet the requirements of the target groups, instead of identifying clients after creating the facilities. * Creating individually-owned herbal gardens instead of community gardens should be explored. * Experience of income-generation programmes should be analysed and different approaches for viable income activities should be explored. 34 InnovationsSustainability The MPCAs will eventually be taken over by the State Forest Departments for maintenance and further development. All recurrent expenses for field activities in relation to MPCAs are in the SFD work plans and have been given due attention in the current Five Year Plan. Replication The project successfully demonstrated the in situ and ex situ approaches to conservation and development of medicinal plants. As a pioneering project in this sector, it contributed towards ensuring medicinal plants conservation and development is high on the government agenda, In line with the priority imparted to this sector, a task force was constituted by the Government of India to examine the issues in the sector and recommend the way forward, The task force report, at several instances, commended FRLHT’s work in the project and recommended using their experience, and replicating it in other parts of the country. The task force report also recommended establishment of 200 Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas in the country, where the project experiences are going to be utilised. FRLHT has been appointed as the co-ordinating agency to implement a UNDP country co-operation programme on ‘Medicinal Plants Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation’. This is a demonstration project, in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, to replicate the activities carried out in the Danida supported medicinal plants project, 35 Innovations in Conserving and Developing Medicinal Planes4. INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR CONTEXT The Green Revolution has been the comerstone of India’s agricultural achievement, transforming the country from one of food deficiency to self-sufficiency. Public research and extension played a major role in bringing about the green revolution, but due to its focus on irrigated areas it ended up benefiting mostly the better. off farmers. As a result, no significant development took place in the area of dry land farming, practised mostly by small and marginal farmers. Recognising this limitation, special national-level programmes such as the National Watershed Area Development Programme (NWADP) and the Small and Marginal Farmers Development Agency (SMFDA) were launched to ensure their inclusion in mainstream agriculture development. Agriculture is the source of livelihood for nearly two-thirds of the population, and around 84% of all economically-active women in India are engaged in agriculture and allied activities. Roughly 3/4 of the work in the fields, such as transplanting, weeding and non-mechanised post-harvest and processing activities are handled by the female work force. Research studies reveal that female participation eable in as many as 11 out of 17 farming operations involving physical energy. The Training and Visit Approach of the general extension service followed nation-wide typically focuses on crop production activities carried out by male farmers. By excluding operations performed by women, the extension system overlooks women’s roles in agriculture. Non-existence of women in the agriculture departments, and specifically in the extension services, was recognised as a key constraint to addressing the needs of women farmers. In view of the general extension system’s limitation in reaching out to women farmers, the Government of India signed an agreement with the Government of Denmark to launch the first ever project on ‘Women in Agriculture’ in 1983 in Kamataka. The success of this pioneering effort led to a series of initiatives in the sector. While Danida supported three more projects in the States of Tamil Nadu, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh, Dutch and United Nations Development Project assistance enabled coverage of a few more states. The Ministry of Agriculture also initiated a centrally-sponsored scheme on Women in Agriculture Mainstreaming of Women in Agriculture is one of the essential features of reforms envisaged during India’s Tenth Five Year Plan. The National Agriculture Extension Policy Framework listed the following strategies to mainstream women in agriculture: * Increase the proportion of trained female extension workers to gradually ensure that at least one third of all extension workers are women, * Train and orient male extension staff to the needs, approaches and perspectives of women farmers. + Train women farmers on appropriate technologies and agricultural marketing 36 Innovations* Develop appropriate extension methodologies that recognise the multi- dimensional role of women and the socio-cultural barriers that women farmers operate under in rural society. * Build incentives for more women to take up agriculture courses, * Redesign training facilities to make these suitable for larger numbers of female students and trainees. DANIDA’S SUPPORT TO THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR Danida extended support to 4 Women in Agriculture Projects in India, beginning in 1983, and was the first bilateral donor in the sector. The development objective of the projects was to increase agriculture productivity and improve economic and food security on small and marginal farms An overview of the projects is given in the table below Summary of the Ongoing Projects on Women in Agriculture Key Women and Youth | Tamil Nadu | Training and | Madhya Features | Training and Women in | Extension for | Pradesh Extension Agriculture | Women in Women in (WYTEP), (TANWA) | Agriculture | Agriculture Kamataka (TEWA), (MAPWA) | Orissa Period Phase -I 1982-1985 | 1986-1993 1987-1995 | 1994-2001 Phase ~I1 1985-2000 | 1993-2003 1995-2003 | 2001-2006 Phase -III 2000-2005 - — Project | All districts except | All districts | districts | 8 districts Area one except one - urban district Funding Phase-I_ | INR 60 million | DKK32.1. | DKK 133 INR 69.8 | Phase II / INR 173 million | million niillion million Phase —II | INR 429.3 million | INR 287.3 | INR 118 INR 87.4 million million million Even though the projects were implemented in 4 states at different points in time, there were common features actoss projects. However, the later projects exhibit a change in approach and strategy as a result of learning from the older ones. Sustainabil The projects presenta very sustainable model of project organisation, The respective agriculture departments directly implemented all the projects through existing staff, with no contractual positions. This enhanced the department's capacity and ownership to carry forward the initiative. The Danida Support Unit in each project comprised of a single Adviser, an Indian woman, providing only guidance and facilitation to the agriculture department, The most striking aspect of the projects 7 Innovations in Agriculturewas that this single adviser in each state was able to manage the project covering a large area, along with intensive community participation. Total extemal input, in comparison to conventional donor-funded projects, was minimal, which is especially notable in relation to sustainability of the proje Commonalities and Differences across 4 Projects 38 Approaches WYTEP — | TANWA TEWA _ | MAPWA Projects implemented | 7 v v v by state agriculture departments Induction of women — | At taluk | State to taluk | District _ | District to extension staffin the | level level to village | block level department following level ‘government procedures ‘Amendment in Parallel | Notneeded | Selected | Only recruitmentnorms to | cadre was | as adequate | women _ | those were appoint non-agriculture | created | women extension | appointed graduate women agriculture | workers | who graduates | given 14 | successflly available | months | completed intensive | one year training | diploma course in agriculture Gender sensitisation to v v v v male staff Holistic approach for | v v v v capacity building of women extension staff Organising farmwomen | 7 v v v Village based skill Institutional | Started with | v 7 training for farmwomen | training —_| institutional in improved low cost training but practices in agriculture shifted to and allied fields village based | skill training Group based approach | ¥ v v v to extension Women extension staff | Male Male Male | Male working with women | extension | extension _| extension | extension farmers staff staff working | staff staff working working | indirectly | working | directly indirectly | with women | indirectly | with with women | farmers with women farmers women | farmers farmers‘Women farmers as v v v Shift clientele for extension from only services women to family approach The whole concept of the ‘Women in Agriculture’ projects supported by Danida was entirely new in the early eighties. Each project progressively introduced new dimensions, based on learning from the preceding projects and previous phases Of the same project. An overview of the innovations can be seen in the following pages 4.1 INSTITUTIONAL INDUCTION OF WOMEN EXTENSION OFFICERS Prior to the projects there were hardly any women in the department for the delivery of extension services. In all the projects, women were recruited at the cutting-edge level of the departmental hierarchy. Through TANWA and WYTEP projects, all taluk administrative offices made provision for female extension officers, and in MAPWA and TEWA projects women extension workers were placed at district, village, and block levels. TEWA adopted a family approach wherein male and female village-level agriculture workers of the department worked in tandem. In MAPWA, male extension workers were trained to independently deliver extension services to women farmers in selected blocks as a pilot programme, with the objective of mainstreaming gender in agriculture extension. This was done to ensure that women farmers, as extension clientele, became integrated into the general extension system. This intervention strengthened the agriculture department to deliver extension services to farmwomen with small and marginal land holdings. Shift in Approach over the Last Two Decades of Work | Woman-to-Woman Mainstreaming Gender Male-to-Male Extension in Agriculture Extension (Approach introduced (Approach evolved from (Conventional by ‘Women in [7 the younger ‘Women in amas Agriculture’ projects) | Agriculture projects) ey | Py] Aaa Danida initially paid the salary of women extension officers, but this was gradually taken over by the government. All the projects worked on the principle of cost- sharing on a sliding basis. From Phase II, the State Governments begin to share the project costs with Danida and their share increased over the years. To ensure adequate facilities to extend institutional training to women, Danida projects invested in improving the existing training centres 39 Innovations in AgricultureCommunity Participation The projects ensured community participation through a group approach to extension and selection of farmwomen to work as link workers who establish a two-way communication between the farmwomen groups and the agriculture department. The projects first established and strengthened groups of farmwomen, which initially were only technical information sharing groups. However, over time, and in response to the needs of the project, these groups graduated to become savings and credit groups. The more successful and enterprising of these then moved up to become income-generating groups, taking up collective enterprises. The projects facilitated linkages between the farmwomen groups and the government departments to get benefits of government schemes for them, and they were also linked to banks for continued financial support. The projects also facilitated the formation of a federation of the stronger groups. The WYTEP and TANWA projects selected trained farmwomen with good communication and leadership skills to work as link leaders. These then become not only a role model for other women farmers but a strong link at the village level for the agriculture departments and the District Rural Development Agency. They are being used as local resource persons and trainers by several agencies, including the agriculture department, for which they are paid an honor: Gender AIlL4 projects introduced the concept of gender to the state agriculture departments, The Royal Danish Embassy organised a workshop on gender issues for government officials of the implementing agencies of all the 4 projects, with a view to develop @ common understanding on the issue and to facilitate cross-learning among the projects. While the projects primarily focused on a women-to-women extension approach in agriculture by recruiting women extension workers, men across all levels in the general extension system were also trained to be more sensitive and responsive to the extension needs of poor farmwomen, All the women extension workers were trained on a wide range of topics to enable them to extend relevant agriculture advisory support to farmwomen, Training on technical issues was first given to selected farmwomen, to enable them to disseminate technical knowledge and skills to other farmwomen in the village. Later, from amongst the trained farmwomen, those with leadership qualities who could be good role models were selected to work as link leaders. These then became very cost-effective local trainers and resource persons for the agriculture department and other local agencies. By organising thousands of farmwomen into savings and credit groups across the 4 States, the projects further enabled a significant improvement in the status of farmwomen through both social and economic empowerment. Technical All the projects relied on teaching a small number of relatively simple skill messages to farmwomen, having relevance to their small and marginal land holdings. The projects selected a mix of no-cost, low-cost and improved technologies, for 40 Innovationsagriculture, animal husbandry and horticulture, Skills were taught to farmwomen through institutional training in WY TEP, and through village-based training in other projects. Women extension officers conducted all the training, with support from the Subject Matter Specialists in the department. Over time, the needs of farmwomen graduated from learning simple skills to training in income generating enterprises such as sericulture, mushroom cultivation and cashew plantation. 4.2 WOMEN IN EXTENSION SERVICES All 4 projects supported by Danida were innovative from the point of view of ducting women into extension services, and sensitising and strengthening the agriculture departments to address the training and extension needs of farmwomen. This gender-strengthening of the departments helped to remove the institutional blind spot to focusing on operations carried out by women farmers. Recruitment of women extension staff was an essential prelude to providing extension services to farmwomen. Accordingly, in all the 4 States, the project ensured recruitment of women extension personnel in the respective agriculture departments. Both the Government of India and the respective State Governments appreciate and acknowledge Danida’s contribution and role in impacting gender reforms in the agriculture sector, Besides new appointments, existing women officers in the agriculture department were also re-deployed to the projects. This was not only cost-effective but also ensured institutionalisation of project approaches and activities. For example, the Tamil Nadu project made it mandatory for the existing women staff of the agriculture department to serve in TANWA for at least 3 years. While the basic concept of increasing the numbers of women extension personnel in the agriculture departments temained the same, there were state-level variations in terms of the actual number of women extension personnel employed, their qualification, level and capacity building provided for them. Capacity Building — Modular and Broad Based The holistic approach of capacity building of women extension staff was innovative compared to the usual routine training activity. The programme began with induction and was followed by refresher training, ensuring an ongoing process of capacity building rather than a one-time activity. Besides a focus on agriculture technology, training programmes emphasised a participatory extension approach, and planning and management of extension activities were designed to impart skills to enable the women extension staff to perform their job tasks effectively. Other topics included in the training were communication skills, developing low cost teaching aids, gender, training methodology and group formation, Selected women extension personnel were further trained as trainers. All the women extension personnel recruited by the department were given orientation and training before or soon after joining the department. The nature al Innovations in Agricultureand length of the induction-cum-training programme varied from state to state, depending upon the qualifications of women extension personnel. During the project period, the projects provided women extension staff additional training inputs on various related issues, and facilitated annual workshops. Two refresher courses of five days each were conducted annually. Women extension officers were also sent on exposure visits to similar projects of Danida in other states. Orissa introduced the concept of bi-weekly meetings in which women extension staff’s linkages with the line departments were established and strengthened. This helped in convergence of various government schemes for the benefit of farmwomen. Several women extension personnel underwent an Agriculture Management and Extension Fellowship Course in Denmark. This was a tailor-made course developed to suit the specific needs of female extension workers working in the 4 Danida- supported projects in India, enabling them to manage agriculture extension, training and other programmes for small-scale farmers in their home country. Women staff members perceived a very positive effect of this training and reported that they use the leaning daily in their work with the farmwomen. The training increased their self-esteem, their sense of responsibility to their jobs, and their job satisfaction, The training also strengthened their problem solving, planning and analytical capacities as well as their presentation skills, Outcomes ‘The employment and re-deployment of women in the agriculture departments, through Danida-supported projects has resulted in: i * Enhanced sensitivity of the agriculture department to focus on agricultural operations being carried out by farmwomen. * Overcoming the traditional cultural barriers to reaching out to farmwomen. * Effective delivery of training and extension services to a large number of small and marginal farmwomen in the 4 States, ¢ Recognition of women as ‘farmers’ rather than as insignificant farm workers. © Encouraging women to join agriculture courses. Opening new vistas for women’s employment. Bringing about a policy shift, thereby making it mandatory to recruit 33% of women in government agriculture departments. Sustainability and Replication Inall 4 project States, the women extension staff were inducted, even in non-project districts and blocks. Since women were recruited against existing positions in place of men, at the cutting edge level, they were well integrated into the system. In the initial projects, only female extension staff worked with farmwomen, but in the phase-out period male extension staff were sensitised and trained to work with 2 Innovationswomen farmers. Based on the learning from WYTEP and TANWA, the project strategy was modified in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to ensure that both male and female extension staff members work in tandem right from the beginning, thus ensuring that extension service delivery to farmwomen becomes institutionalised much faster. Learning It is important to have women extension personnel at the entry point to initiate the task of providing extension services to women farmers. This helps to overcome the social and cultural barriers inhibiting male extension staff from reaching out to women farmers. With initial training and other support, over a period of time they can independently and effectively extend agricultural services. 4.3 TRAINING AND EXTENSION APPROACH. The State Departments of Agriculture were following a training and visit system of extension, the focus of which was on institutional training of contact farmers who were all men, Danida supported ‘Women in Agriculture’ projects successfully, and experimented with and demonstrated two new approaches namely the village-based skill training and the group approach in extension. These approaches are now a part of the national agriculture extension policy. Village-based Skill Training The general extension system primarily followed institutional training methods coupled with result demonstrations, field trials, and farmers’ conferences. The focus was on result rather than method demonstration, Much of the communication was written in the form of extension literature, which is quite irrelevant to the illiterate farmer. Moreover, social and cultural constraints inhibit women from participating in institutional training. Being more classroom-oriented and theoretical in content these trainings had limited relevance to farmwomen’s needs. The concept of village- based training was virtually non-existent in the late eighties, when Danida supported projects initiated it, Village-based training is conducted at the village level for groups of 25-30 farmwomen selected from five villages by the trained women extension workers, with support from Subject Matter Specialists. This called for a radical change in the ‘raining curriculum then normally followed. To conduct the village-based training, several low-cost visual-based communication aids and easy-to-use training manuals were developed by the project staff. State departments found these materials to be extremely useful, and in Madhya Pradesh these were reprinted and used across the State. The training itself’ was innovative in that it involved a paradigm shift from teaching to learning. a Innovations in AgricultureFrom Teaching to Learning The focus of training indicates a shift from teaching to learning by doing and its various features further add to the innovation. These are: © Carrying out a needs assessment exercise ‘© Designing needs-based training. ‘* Emphasis on learning skills, by actually doing it in a field setting. © Focus on low-cost relevant technologies. ceased Village-based training also opened a feedback channel, whereby farmwomen’s skill needs and concerns are communicated to the agriculture universities and colleges. Additional training needs, identified during the training, were attended to later by conducting special training programmes for the farmwomen that indicated their interest. According to feedback from the department and the farmwomen, this demand- driven training approach was found highly relevant and well organised. Over a period of time the training has continued to become more and more needs-based. While in all three projects in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh the focus was on training farmwomen and then carrying out extension activities as part of follow-up, TEWA in Orissa placed emphasis on extension, and village-based training there was conducted as part of the regular extension service. TANWA introduced a very simple but powerful system of giving identity cards to all the trained farmwomen. This is not just a card, but also.a means to accord soci status to the farmwomen; it gives them a very special identity, which has helped them gain access to most of the government department offices, and banks. Sustainability and Replication Over the years village-based training has been substantially refined to make it more needs based and more cost effective to make it sustainable. Initially training was for eleven days and cost Rs.12,000 per training. Under the youngest project, MAPWA, by making the training programme much more focused in content and approach, the cost drastically came down to Rs.2,500 per training, making it more likely to be continued by the agriculture department, post-project. The 3-4 day training was based on information collected on the training needs of the farmwomen, the focus being on low or no-cost technologies, such as seed germination and treatment, which cut across regions. The initial training, which met the more generic needs of the farmwomen, was followed by extension activities. Subsequently, specialised training programmes were conducted to meet specific needs as they arose, the entire training and extension process thus becoming demand driven. The agriculture departments have now included several-trained farmwomen as contact farmers in their lists, under the ongoing Training and Visit system of extension. It can therefore be assumed that the departmental extension staff members will now regularly contact the selected farmwomen and that they will receive input support for demonstrations on various crops. Given the close interaction among farmwomen in the project villages, the results of these demonstrations and any information on “4 Innovationsimproved practices will be easily disseminated by these women contact farmers to others in the village, sustaining the spirit of village-based training, The State Agriculture Department of Tamil Nadu is now proposing to access other funds to carry forward activities initiated under the Danida project, indicating a seriousness and willingness to integrate the project model into the general extension system, 4.4 FARMWOMEN LINK LEADERS. During the training programmes, one of the trained farmwomen was chosen collectively by the farmwomen’s group and the women extension staff to help the latter to conduct multiplier training programmes in the village for other farmwomen. From this the concept of link leaders emerged, first in the WYTEP and TANWA projects and later in MAPWA. These link leaders also serve as a single contact point for the extension staff of the agriculture department. Role The link leaders play a key role in organising knowledge dissemination to non- trained women farmers, not only in their own village but in other villages as well. They call for meetings, impart information to the farmwomen on agriculture practices and on inputs available from the department and are also responsible for accounts and book-keeping in some groups, and depositing and withdrawing cash from the bank. During meetings they assist in decision-making and represent the group in district level meetings. Link leaders thus have come to serve as an effective link between the women farmers and the extension system of the agriculture department, Capacity Building To enable link leaders to facilitate and conduct training independently, and to liaise with the government departments on behalf of the farmwomen from their village, they were given an additional training of three days” duration. The key focus of this training was on communication skills, training methodology, group dynamics and developing linkages with banks and line departments, Sustainability and Replication The concept has economically benefited a large number of trained farmwomen. The link leaders have facilitated the agriculture department and several other local NGOs to increase their outreach, and they are also being taken as paid local resource persons for training on agriculture and related issues, both by the agriculture department and local NGOs. Initially, for one year Danida paid them an honorarium of Rs.150 per training, and then in the following year the department took over the payment, though reducing it to Rs.50 per training as per government norms. The advantage, however, is that the involvement of women link leaders as grassroots trainers by the government has been institutionalised and become a part of the department's budget. 45 Innovations in AgricultureSince the link leaders are members of farmwomen groups and various other block and district level forums, they ensure the groups’ linkages with various government departments, and also convergence of government schemes for the benefit of the groups and the larger community. TANWA’s rich experience with the concept of link leaders fed into the design of Danida’s subsequent projects on Women in Agriculture. Realising the benefit of having women extension workers from the local area at the grassroots, TEWA. subsequently recruited women in the department and has found it an extremely cost effective approach. 4.5 GROUP APPROACH From the very beginning all the projects envisaged selection of groups of 5-10 farmwomen, from each of the project villages, who would be provided direct training and extension inputs. These farmwomen were not organised into formal groups, but for all training and extension purposes they were referred to as ‘farmwomen groups’, Women farmers trained under the project in turn were expected to train additional women farmers from the respective villages. This approach helped the extension staff to reach out to women farmers collectively, overcoming social and cultural barriers, to disseminate information efficiently and meet their targets relatively faster. This initiative was a major turning point in the projects during the mid-nineties, and it is encouraging to see that group membership has sustained over the years, an important indicator of stability. Each group has 15-20 members, being a mix of trained and untrained farmwomen, and is linked to the banks right from the beginning. Many of the older groups, attracted by the element of savings and easy access to credit, eventually evolved into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) or income- ‘generating groups, further strengthening them financially. As the farmwomen groups became more active through savings, credit and income- generating activities, the projects recognised the need to federate them to provide collective strength and to ensure sustainability. TANWA adopted an interesting ‘model in this respect. The project formed clusters of SHGs, each cluster having 20 SHG. To become a member of the cluster the SHG has to pay Rs.1,000 as a joining fee and Rs.200 per month, The office bearers of the cluster are clected from amongst the office bearers of the member SHGs. Two or three clusters form a federation of the farmwomen SHGs. Each cluster can avail loans up to Rs.500,000 for small- scale enterprises such as milk-chilling units, and transport. 46 InnovationsEvolution of Groups in the Projects Clusters and | Farm- Income- =a Self-Help Ly generating Lo Federations of Groups Groups i Groups | SHGs L The group approach has helped farmwomen to: | © Adopt improved agricultural practices due to availability | credit; Purchase agricultural inputs collectively at a better price; Meet expenses for family’s health and children’s education; Come out of moneylenders’ clutches; Buy livestock; Get benefit of government’s schemes; Gain access to financial institutions; power to negotiate and fight against social evils; and * Gain recognition; many of them have been invited to gi elected ward members. these conferences, but subsequent to the formation of the SHGs, and other line departments were strengthened. Sarasu is Empowered Farmers’ Group and then things happen quickly!” sa Kappathurai village. “It is only after TANWA that it has goes on to say “My success as a cultivator allows me to do all aT Innovations in Agriculture “Wherever I go, I introduce myself as the head of the TANWA Women to go to government offices and talk to officials. I am now a member of the Community Police Task Force. I have helped widows and abandoned married women to get assistance through the District Rural Development Agency and also helped unemployed youth to get financial assistance. Our Group has been functioning for three years now, and we have an account that has a cumulative saving of Rs.150,000. The bank awarded us Rs. 5,000 for being the best TANWA group in the district. Certainly after TANWA out standard of living has been raised, and people in the neighbouring villages have also noticed the change and want to become part of TANWA.” She of easy access to Develop self-confidence, improve communication skills, and gain collective ive radio talk and Participate in TV programmes on agriculture, and some of them have been In all the 4 projects, farmwomen conferences were organised at the district or block level to provide a platform for farmwomen wherein they could exchange information and widen their horizons. Initially, only trained farmwomen attended , the office bearers of the groups attended them. During these conferences, groups’ linkages with banks ys Sarasu of become usual I these socially useful things!” |Sustainability and Replication The farmwomen groups, with very large membership in all the project States, serve as vital contact points for the extension staff for knowledge agriculture and allied techniques. The groups, with their inherent strength, have managed to establish an effective interface with the district administration at different levels and have managed to secure assistance and support for organising different activities in their villages. For example, several groups are getting financial support from the District Rural Development Agency for village development such as community toilets and tube wells. Even banks are using the groups to leverage repayments from defaulters. The groups have contributed significantly towards sustainability of project initiatives and benefits. With a large number of farmwomen groups becoming active SHGs, they are now federating at the block and district level. Several of these federations are already registered entities, and this will ensure sustainability of the groups. All of this indicates that the groups formed and strengthened under the project are there to stay, no longer need external facilitation, and have the capacity to manage their own operations. In fact several NGOs and government projects are now leveraging these groups for the benefit of their own projects. 48 Innovations5. INNOVATIONS IN THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR SECTOR CONTEXT The livestock sector in India is linked to the livelihoods of an estimated 70 million households, with 73% of all rural households depending on livestock farming for supplementary incomes. As in the agriculture sector, a majority of the livestock owners have smallholdings, primarily to supplement their income from other sources. Women carry out more than 90% of the work related to the care and management of livestock. Under the Government of India’s National Extension Programme launched in the First Five Year Plan (1951), the National Extension Service blocks had trained manpower up to the village level, to provide extension services in all sectors of rural development, Over the years, with more and more specialisation, agriculture and livestock became two separate departments. Since veterinary services adopted a treatment-based approach, extension functions to the livestock sector subsequently lost much of their significance. India has so far operated without a unified national livestock extension policy, Milk production, through the Operation Flood Dairy Programme, dominated the policy environment from 1970 to 1990 to the exclusion of all other options, The focus was on large animals and that too on breeding programmes. Prevention and control of diseases, fodder development, focus on small ruminants, backyard poultry and privatisation of veterinary services, especially at the grassroots, ‘marginal till the mid-nineties. While in commercial poultry India has received distinction, backyard poultry remained a neglected area despite a 40% contribution to egg production, The livestock-related services offered by government were generally free, and there had been no attempt on the policy front to ensure some form of cost sharing by the beneficiaries, although the need for privatisation of these services was recognised as far back as the early sixties, Over the years, budget constraints forced state governments to restrict fund allocations, till they became barely sufficient to cover the salaries and establishment costs. These costs alone consumed 85% of the department's non-plan budget, leaving very little for extension services. Recognising these problems, the Danida-supported projects addressed the growing concems in the livestock sector by developing replicable models that facilitated respective state governments to implement the new thinking and approach. While most other extemnally-assisted projects have focused on dairy development and livestock development, Danida-supported projects were primarily oriented towards livestock extension. DANIDA’S SUPPORT TO THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR Danida’s support to the livestock sector began in the mid-seventies with a small but significant share in the ‘Operation Flood’ project. This laid the foundation for a modem Artificial Insemination (Al) network having 20 moder frozen semen 9 Innovations in the Livestock Sectorproduction stations, over 500 AI outlets equipped to use frozen semen and the induction of very high quality genetic resources in the form of selected breeding bulls. This support enabled India to develop its breeding services into a vast network. After development of adequate infrastructure for cattle breeding, Danida shifted its focus to Integrated Livestock Development (ILD) with its first project in Tamil ‘Nadu. This was followed by similar projects in Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The overall objective of all the 3 projects was to improve the living standards of the rural population, especially the poorer sections, by generating additional employment and income through the adoption of improved animal husbandry and fodder development techniques. This was achieved through capacity building, introducing veterinary and animal husbandry extension services, augmenting fodder resources and organising the rural and tribal poor. An overview of the three livestock projects is given in the following table: Integrated Livestock Development Projects at a Glance as of November 2002 Livestock Integrated Bastar Integrated Development Livestock Livestock Features, Project, Tamil Development Development Nadu Project, Koraput, | Project, Orissa Chhattisgarh Project Period/ Duration 1990-1997 (7 yrs.) | 1993-2003 (9 yrs.) | 1996-2004 (8 yrs.) Phase I 1997-2004 (7yts.) | m= | ae Phase Il _ No. of Districts, | Phase I 1 | 1 3 Phase I 5 a ~ No. of Villages | Phase I 128* 100 130 Phase Il 782" = = No. of Community Link Workers 314 167** 186** Phase I 1484 (116 M; 51F) (138 M; 50 F) Phase II (50%M; 50%F) _ Funding Phase I INR 54.6 million] INR. 93.77 million | INR 140.1 million Phase II INR 275 million _ I * Indicates no. of Panchayats ; ** Indicates no. of link workers functioning. 50 InnovationsEven though the projects were implemented in three states at different points in time, there were several common features across projects. However, as a result of learning from the experience of the earlier projects, several differences in approach and strategy also emerged. The following table depicts the commonalities and differences across 3 livestock projects: livestock extension service providers with the animal husbandry | department Livestock | Integrated Bastar Integrated Approach Development | Livestock Livestock Project, Tamil | Development —_| Development Nadu Project, Koraput, | Project, Orissa Chhattisgarh Project ¥ ’ ’ implementation by Animal Husbandry Departments of the respective states in Introduction of ’ y Y extension services in the existing system _ Induction of Atthe district | At the block level | At the block livestock training and_| level level with mainly extension teams in the women staff Animal Husbandry Department Creating private Married One male and | One male and one livestock extension | couple one female female services at the village | approach level Linkage of private | v . . Creation of village institution for sustainability of livestock extension services ‘Women Self: | Women Self Help Groups| Help Groups Village Committees with at least 30% women representation | Door-step training to | livestock owners Village-based | v training on Strong focus on low-cost relevant few skills _ technologies Focus on small Y . . ruminants and backyard poultry - __ Thrust on preventive | v . . care 51 Innovations in the Livestock SectorOVERVIEW OF INNOVATIONS IN THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR PROJECTS The projects pilot-tested livestock training and extension strategies, processes and activities that were not a normal part of the Animal Husbandry Department's mandate and focus. In view of this, the entire concept of Danida-supported Integrated Livestock Development Projects is considered innovative. Moreover, the projects successfully addressed the current concerns of the livestock sector. An overview of the innovative aspects in the livestock projects is provided in the following paragraphs. Institutional Set-up All the three projects set up State Level Project Empowered Committees, These have provided policy guidelines and helped to tailor the project implementation to the changing scenario and needs. In the Animal Husbandry Departments in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Chhattisgarh the projects introduced the concept of extension teams to more effectively reach out to women livestock farmers. In the initial projects, these extension teams ran parallel to the department activity, but it was found that the lack of synergy and coordination with the department hindered institutionalisation of extension teams and their activities. However, this experimentation provided a good learning experience, and. accordingly, in the Bastar project, women livestock extension staff were recruited. This recruitment was done against existing positions within the department, thereby mainstreaming project activities. All projects had District Level Coordination Committees chaired by the District Collector, These committees helped to develop linkages with the various line departments, and enabled their participation in the project activities. The Tamil Nadu project collaborated with NGOs to enhance community participation, but since such outsourcing does not build government-institutional capacity, the later projects provided extension teams at the block level, which were less dependent on external agencies. A very comprehensive indicator based monitoring and evaluation system was developed in Tamil Nadu to assess project progress, trends, outputs and impact. The availability of this information feed-back mechanism resulted in introduction of changes to the project strategy, enhancing its effectiveness. A livestock census was carried out in all the project villages. Community Participation The projects achieved excellent community participation by adopting a community- centric service delivery mechanism comprising link workers, livestock target farmers and the village-level institution. The selection of 2 Community Link Workers (CLW) from each of the project villages bridged the gap between the department and the community, and ensured availability of services at the door step. The projects also introduced the concept of ‘user charges’, with villagers paying for the services of CLWs. To sustain the livestock development initiative, projects made special efforts to organise the target livestock farmers into Self-Help Groups and Village Committees 52(VCs). While the VCs have mixed membership, SHGs are primarily women’s groups. These livestock farmer groups provide a constituency of trained male and female farmers who recognise the need for a private local service delivery, thereby generating a demand for the link workers’ services. The link worker's easy availability helps to link the livestock farmer community in the village to the department, and at the community level these two structures mutually support and supplement each other. The village institutions have ensured their members easy access to bank credit, for livestock and agriculture purposes, and also for equipment which members cannot otherwise afford to buy on their own. Their linkage with the banks greatly facilitates their sustainability beyond the project period. Gender The extension teams have women staff to enable the project benefits to effectively reach rural women. Gender training for staff and gender de-segregated data in the monitoring reports have further re-inforced the focus on gender issues acro: projects. One male and one female were selected as Community Link Workers (CLWs) from every village or Panchayat and were trained to work as private livestock extension workers, Similarly, more than 50% of the target livestock farmers selected for training were women, thereby building women’s capacity to effectively manage their livestock. Formation of women’s SHGs, and more than 30% women’s Tepresentation in VCs further enhanced women’s participation in the project. 53 Innovations in the Livestock SectorPoverty The target group for the projects included small, marginal farmers and landless families owning small ruminants and backyard poultry. The key criterion for selecting the project villages was that a majority of the village population comprised of scheduled castes or tribes, and that the village was currently not served by the department due to its remote location. During the selection of CLWs, the projects also ensured that 75% of them were from poor families To ensure food security to poor families, emphasis was placed on introduction of improved varieties of traditional food crops and better practices, coupled with introduction of mixed cropping, so that both food grain and fodder requirements were met. Linkages of Self-Help Groups and Village Committees with banks was ensured, giving the poor easy and continuous access to credit. In monitoring and evaluation surveys, poverty-related qualitative and quantitative indicators were obtained and tracked. Technical The technical focus of all three projects was on promotion of low-cost appropriate technologies, and compilation and dissemination of ethno-veterinary medicines, Information on improved practices was imparted through village-based training using interactive demonstration methods. Easy to understand visual aids were used by the extension teams to demystify technology. Selected innovative interventions are described in greater detail in the subsequent pages. 5.1 LIVESTOCK EXTENSION SERVICE, Danida-supported projects successfully introduced livestock extension service in the Animal Husbandry Departments of the three project States. This happened at two levels ~ at the department level by induction of extension staff, and at the grassroots by creating a cadre of private extension workers. Further, the projects facilitated a linkage between the private extension workers and the department. Training and Extension Teams As indicated earlier, the projects were being implemented by the Animal Husbandry Departments of respective states. Acknowledging the lack of trained staff as the ‘major gap in the delivery of livestock extension services, Danida-supported projects introduced the idea of district- and block-level extension teams, with women staff, for project implementation. The key responsibility of these teams is to carry out training and extension activities, a service hitherto not provided by the department in the absence of requisite trained staff. ‘There have been innovations across the projects with respect to the placement of these teams, their composition and the involvement of NGOs. 54 InnovationsThe three projects presented different models with respect to placement of the extension teams. Tamil Nadu, being the first project, pilot-tested the concept of extension teams at the district level, but since this team had a limited reach at the grass roots level, the project had to depend on external NGOs for all community- based activities. Learning from Tamil Nadu, in both the Orissa and Chhattisgarh Projects, the extension team was placed at the block level for a closer contact with the community. Regarding the composition of livestock training and extension teams, the team in the Tamil Nadu project had only middle-level veterinary officials deputed from the Animal Husbandry Department, and therefore had limited capacity to deliver extension services. Toaddress this gap, the Orissa project introduced a multidisciplinary extension team of a woman social development officer and an agriculture/horticulture officer, and instead of only middle-level veterinary officials involved an Assistant Veterinary Surgeon and one Livestock Inspector. The involvement of Livestock Inspectors especially was very useful, since they operate at the grassroots and investment in their capacity helped to sustain the project benefits, However, while the Orissa model definitely overcame limitations of the earlier project, it was not a sustainable model, as the agriculture/horticulture person was deputed from the line department, and the social development officer was on a contract, so these two persons would not be available to the department in the post-withdrawal scenario, Learning from this, the Chhattisgarh project placed the extension team at the block level, comprising of three Assistant Veterinary Field Officers (AVFOs) led by an Assistant Veterinary Surgeon. This is quite similar to the prevailing structure at the block-level Veterinary Dispensary. With the team at this grassroots level, the project does not need the support of extemal agencies like NGOs. Further, to strengthen the existing structure of the Animal Husbandry Department, and enable it to more effectively deliver extension services, women AVFOs were introduced into the Chhattisgarh project 5.2 WOMEN ASSISTANT VETERINARY FIELD OFFICERS Women are an essential target group of Danida-supported livestock projects because of their significant traditional role in livestock management. Despite this role, women never take their animals to the dispensary, as it is too far away at the district level, and the livestock staff was not available at the local level for women to interact with them. To build the Animal Husbandry Department's capacity to deliver and sustain extension services to women livestock farmers, the Chhattisgarh Project decided to recruit women AVFOs. These were recruited against existing vacancies, so there was no need to create new posts. The department's existing norms were followed for recruitment of women AVFOs, and in all, 24 were selected, all of them from the Bastar region. These women AVFOs are at par with their male counterparts, and were given one year residential induction training on technical aspects and three months training on the project concept, communication and extension. 55 Innovations in the Livestock SectorThe involvement of women as AVFOs has not only helped to achieve project objectives, but has also impacted their own lives. Impact of Project Involvement on Women AVFOs | Knowledge and skills enhancement through training. Increased self confidence. | Improved social image. Economic empowerment. Better communication skills. | * Delayed marriage (as per local standards), This innovation is unique as it is the first time that the traditionally male-oriented Animal Husbandry Department has appointed women AVFOs, and fully trained them to deliver extension services. It is also sustainable because there is no deviation from the existing staff structure of the department. Moreover, the existing block extension team, being part of the Animal Husbandry Department has continued after the project, having merged with the dispensary staff Sustainability and Replication The Animal Husbandry Departments have now recognized the significance of extension teams and plan to give training on the project concept to its veterinary officers, who will in turn select and train community link workers to deliver livestock extension services at the village-level. The department staff, working with the project, will also help to replicate the project concept in additional villages of the blocks covered by the project. 56 InnovationsReplication plans have already been developed in both Tamil Nadu and Orissa and as per these the existing staff of Animal Husbandry Departments are to be oriented and trained to replicate the project model in the non-project districts, While Orissa plans to replicate the model in three additional districts, Tamil Nadu has very ambitious plans to cover the entire State, As the women AVFOs are already a part of the Animal Husbandry Departments, they will continue beyond the project period to deliver livestock extension services to women. Project Achievements due to Women AVFOs. * Women livestock farmers have been socially and economically empowered. Women who initially avoided meetings can now openly and confidently articulate their needs and concerns, and women who earlier never stepped out of their village, today independently visit and interact with bank officials. | * Village women have been trained as link workers, and provided an opportunity to earn additional income. * Many rural women have had their knowledge and skills on livestock issues enhanced, * Women have been organised into savings and credit groups, giving them easy access to credit at lower interest; several women have collectively started backyard poultry by taking loans from the Village Committee 5.3 ALTERNATIVE EXTENSION SERVICES DELIVERY THROUGH COMMUNITY LINK WORKERS To provide basic veterinary services right at the doorstep in the villages, the concept of private extension workers was included in the project design of all the three projects. This concept was started with the first project, in Tamil Nadu, and subsequently taken up in the other two projects. The projects envisaged selection of two CLWs, one male and one female, from each project village or Panchayat. CLWs are resident in the community, and have been trained as local private livestock extension workers in veterinary first aid and vaccination of animals, They are now seen as potential cost-effective providers of a whole range of livestock extension and veterinary services at the village level, and are considered to be the private extension arm of Animal Husbandry Departments. The projects have implemented two models of link workers, one where husbands and wives work together as couple link workers and the other having one male and one unrelated female link worker. While the former is implemented in Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Chhattisgarh have gone in for the latter model. The projects have gained good experience with both models. 37 Innovations in the Livestock SectorStrengths and Limitations of Two Models of Link Workers their work and dependable. © Norivalry or competition. * Noproblems faced by the woman from her family and society as the husband is aware of and involved Couple Link Worker One Male and One Female Link Worker Strengths Strengths * Mutually supportive, sharing | «Better dissemination of information, with two persons staying in different locations in the village. Benefit goes to two families Even if one Community Link Worker drops out, the village continues to in the work, © Reasonableincome forthe family, | + with two earning members. © Can serve a larger area. get the service of the other, | Competition with her male counterpart gives an impetus to the woman to perform, and visa versa. ‘Weaknesses Weaknesses * Husband tends to dominate and | Women have a mobility problem, wife tends to take a back seat. so tend to provide services to a few * In the absence of adequate work, nearby villages only. the income can’t sustain the|* Women find it difficult to attend family. training programmes and meetings. © If the couple lose interest, the village loses the service. © Benefit is confined to one family. To provide a client base to avail of the paid services of the link workers, a group of target livestock farmers were trained and sensitised to the significance of the services. This provided an initial boost to the link workers. The projects have two models of Village institutions, Self-Help Groups and Village Committees, and these provide livestock owners access to credit for livestock and agriculture, give the link worker an organised forum where he ot she can disseminate information, and provide the Animal Husbandry Department a platform to extend services more efficiently. The mandatory involvement of the link workers within the village institution ensures a Jink between it and the Animal Husbandry Department. The projects were also instrumental in preparing the CLWs to charge for their services. There was an initial resistance to user charges by the villagers, as they took the CLWs to be a part of the government system and therefore expected free service. However, having experienced the timely availability of quality services people became willing to pay for them. The paid services include, poultry vaccination, de-worming, vaccination of small ruminants and cattle and artificial insemination, From impact studies it emerges that both male and female CLWs are equally effective in delivering services and the target livestock families are satisfied with the same. While initially female farmers prefer to avail the services of female CLWs, 58 Innovationslivestock families generally give more weightage to the skills and responsiveness of the CLWs rather than their gender. Experience shows that the CLWs require two-and-a-half years to establish th base, gain people’s trust and confidence in their services, develop a client base which is willing to pay for their services and, above all, build confidence in their own abilities, Selection of CLWs The selection of the right person to work as a CLW was critical to the success of the concept. There were a few variations, across the States, in the criteria and process adopted for the selection of CLWs. The Tamil Nadu project had a very well laid out criteria wherein the couple selected as link workers should be below 30 years, own livestock, and belong to the poor strata of society. The project involved the Anganwadi Worker (the village-level health worker cum pre-school teacher) in shortlisting a few couples from the village based on this above criteria. NGOs are also now involved in shortlisting and final selection of the couples. ‘The Bastar and Koraput projects had a much broader criteria which simply specified that the persons selected as link workers should be acceptable to the village, able to influence others, and be educated up to class X. In these two States, the CLWs were selected by the Village Committees in a village meeting. While this was definitely a more participatory and transparent process of selection compared to Tamil Nadu, the lack of suitable criteria led to the wrong selection of CLWs in some cases. AS a result, the projects experienced a drop out of 15-20% of link workers, primarily women who were either unmarried or elderly. Accordingly the criteria was later modified to ensure that CLWs were younger, married women, who had studied up to the class VIII. Role of CLWs CLWs perform two roles, namely, assistance in project implementation and provision of veterinary services to the livestock farmers. Assistance in Project Implementation | Provision of Veterinary Services © Facilitate DTETSBETs to organise | © Poultry vaccination. village based skill training, follow- | * De-worming of goats, up and specialised trainings. sheep, pigs and calves, * Formation of SHGs. * De-lousing and de-ticking. * Facilitate VCs to prepare village * Firstaid to cattle, development plans, © Castration of small * Provide a link between VCs! ruminants, | SHGs and the Animal Husbandry | Department. © Collect database on livestock. 59 Innovations in the Livestock SectorCapacity Building of CLWs The training of CLWs was one of the most critical project inputs, as the successful delivery of livestock extension services depends on their capacity, The unique features of their training are: Modular approach ~ the training contents are covered in 3-4 training sessions. Holistic approach — includes technical, gender, community participation, ete. * Skill based training, * Condensed courses for weaker CLWs. + Follow-up support and linkages developed with the Animal Husbandry Department. The initial training covers commonly identified needs of livestock owners and is very basic in content. The link workers are then given an exposure to the private market and to practice in management of logistics through follow-ups at the village- level by the livestock extension teams. Subsequently, the link workers are given more specialised training, as per their needs, to enhance their effectiveness as livestock service providers in the following areas: * Poultry and livestock diseases — prevention, control and treatment. * Poultry vaccination, © Veterinary first-aid. * Sheep and goat management. * Backyard poultry management. * Fodder cultivation, * Small ruminant castration. As part of the training each pair of CLWs is also provided with a kit containing items for first-aid and vaccination. Follow-up of these trainings are conducted at the village level by the extension teams, during which the CLWs are facilitated to practise their newly learnt skills. Impact on CLWs Increased | Self-employment ||. + Knowledge and skills Opportunity eabauced | base. Provided to 2,151 || ° Social status. | + Income from Link Workers. || ° Self-confidence. L © Leadership | their existing and | | additional livestock qualities; some due to better care and Caw) CLWs have management. mH —— 4 been elected * Income through | as panchayat service delivery — they members. are able to earn unto © Communication Rs.500 per month. | skills and business © Assets, sense, 60 Innovations* Faster and more effective dissemination of livestock related information. + Animal Husbandry Department staff able to conduct veterinary camps more effectively with support from CLWs, * Basic veterinary services available to the community at their doorstep, thereby saving them time and money. * Up to 90% reduction in the mortality of poultry birds in the project area. + Increased contact between the Animal Husbandry Department and the community. * Demand generated from non-project areas. * Increase in the livestock base in the project villages. * Reduction in production losses of farmers by adopting simple low cost techniques. * Higher and faster income from improved breeds of goats and sheep. Increased availability of medicines and vaccines at local shops. Sustainability and Replication Due to their strong links with the Animal Husbandry Department, link workers are now able to easily access the services of veterinary doctors and the Livestock Inspector for any emergencies in the village, and dispensary doctors are now just a phone call away from target families in the project villages. The Danida-supported projects have thus brought the department’s services closer to the community, Indications are that at least 60-70% of the CLWs are likely to continue providing services in the foreseeable future. CLWs are also now playing an even larger role as communities seck their help on other issues such as how to get birth and death certificates and ration cards. CLWs are also extending book-writing help to the Self- Help Groups for which they are paid Rs.50 a month. Seeing the potential of their work and the opportunity to enhance their income, a few CLWs in Bastar, on their own initiative, also took Gausevak training conducted by the Animal Husbandry Department. This enabled them to provide additional Artificial Insemination services which are in great demand. The initiative of organising CLWs in Koraput into Self-Help Groups, which are further federated into an apex body, has enhanced the likelihood of their services sustaining. In Tamil Nadu, the State Government proposes to adopt the Link Worker Couple concept in the centrally-sponsored scheme of training on Artificial Insemination. Replication plans have also been drawn up by the Animal Husbandry Department to train an additional more than 2,000 couples as link workers in the 6 non-project districts. Block level veterinary doctors will be trained to provide this training. In Orissa the department developed a replication plan for eight districts, covering 200 villages, which is being implemented through existing department staff using funds from the Central Government, while in Bastar replication of the concept’ is being done in an additional 260 villages covering eight blocks, using existing project teams and department staff. 61 Innovations in the Livestock SectorThus, the link worker concept has graduated from the pilot-test stage to being fully recognised, accepted and replicated by the department, in non-project areas also, in all the three States. Indrani and Her Husband Show the Way Indrani i the link worker from village Tirumallaisamudaram in Tamil Nadu. She belongs to a landless family and it was a Herculean task for both Indrani and her husband to support their family of three children. They had only two birds in their backyard poultry, and her husband did some part-time work off and on. The opportunity to be trained as a link worker couple came as a ray of hope for them. Since they have become trained link workers there has been no looking back. Immediately, after training, Indrani carried out a livestock census in her village, and used the opportunity to introduce herself as the link worker and the services she and her husband would be offering. She has also facilitated the formation of an SHG in her village with 20 members. She shares livestock-related information in their monthly meetings and also advises the group on better utilisation of credit for livestock purposes. Her husband and she have charged for heir services right from the beginning. They share the work, with Indrani attending to 12 nearby hamlets while her husband goes to far-off villages. She says that as a woman it is easier for her to deliver the services, since it is the women who she has to convince, as they do most of the livestock work. Within three years, they have progressed from a two-bird backyard poultry to 55 birds. In addition, they now have three rabbits, one cow and two | sheep. Looking after her livestock and extending veterinary services is a full-time engagement for her. She has also added a few assets to the house like a mixer-grinder and a sewing machine. From their honorarium, they have managed to buy a moped, which has increased their mobility. They are also selling cattle feed from a small provision store started recently at their residence. While she often arranges to get the dispensary doctor to visit at_ short notice, she also, with the help of the department, organised a foot-and-mouth vaccination camp after listening to a news report on the radio. Nearby poultry farms also avail their services. Thus, Indrani and her husband now have multiple sources of income. 62 Innovations5.4 VILLAGE-BASED TRAINING In the absence of extension services, the concept of conducting Village-Based Training (VBT) was new to the Animal Husbandry Department. Since all three projects focused on livestock training and extension, VBT was a critical intervention. The key features of VBTs are: * Holistic training on low-cost relevant technologies covering animal husbandry, agriculture, horticulture, and fodder production. * Need based content. ‘* Learning simple skills through practice. The VBTs are a platform to help generate awareness and interest in small ruminants, sensitize the livestock owners on preventive care, introduce the village community to the private extension worker sand their services, and the concept of paid services. Impact The benefit accrued to the target families by adopting the improved and low cost technologies is well documented in various impact assessment studies. A study conducted for Koraput Integrated Livestock Development Project (ILDP) shows that ‘agriculture income per acre as well as income per houschold is seen to be higher in ILDP villages as compared to non ILDP villages; the households rearing livestock and the income from livestock i.e. actual value of marketed livestock and the imputed value of home consumption is higher in ILDP villages.” There have also been instances of farm level innovation of some of the technologies, such as white ant feeding to poultry and pitcher irrigation in Bastar. Sustainability and Replication AH departments recognise the benefits of VBTs. In Tamil Nadu VBTs have been included in the replication plan for the State. 3 Innovations in the Livestock Sector5.5 VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS The concept of village institutions was taken up in Danida-supported livestock projects to ensure the sustainability of livestock extension services introduced. The projects followed two models, namely the SHG model and the Village Committee model. While the SHG model is strong in Tamil Nadu and Koraput, the Village Committee model has been effectively used in the Bastar project. Self-Help Group Model Self-Help Groups are formed in the livestock projects in order to provide women an access for livestock and agriculture, * the link worker an organised forum where he or she can disseminate livestock related information and + the Animal Husbandry Department with a forum to disseminate information efficiently, The women of the target livestock families of small, marginal and landless categories are organised into savings and credit groups. A majority of the groups have specified that preference on loans to its members will be given for livestock-and agriculture related purposes. This ensures the group’s continued focus on livestock issues. Since all the groups are linked to the banks, they have financial support. As the link worker is strategically made a member of the group in all villages, the groups get continued advice on livestock related issues and access to the services of the Animal Husbandry Department. Over 12,000 women have become socially and economically empowered by being members of these SHGs. In order to ensure sustainability of these groups, the Koraput project is now federating the SHGs, which will also further strengthen their collective capacity. Village Committee Model The Bastar project initiated work in selected villages by first forming a VC. In the first meeting in each village the villagers were introduced to the project concept, and then to the VC concept and its benefits. A list of households belonging to small, marginal and landless categories interested in joining the village committee was then drawn up. Atoken VC membership fee of Rs.2 per person is charged. On average the VC has 35 to 50 families, depending on the size of the village, and an attempt is made to have at least 30% membership of women members. In the third or fourth meeting of the VC, the members are asked to nominate an executive committee comprising of six office bearers and the link workers of the village, The involvement of the link workers in the VC is mandatory as it ensures a link between the VC and the Animal Husbandry Department and ensures a platform to the link workers to provide advice and dissemination of information on improved practices, Nearly 7,500 livestock farmers, men and women, have been organised into 155, VCs. 6 InnovationsRole of Village Committees * Preparation of Village Development Plans using participatory techniques. Mobilising small savings from members. Assisting the Block Extension Team (BET) in carrying out project activities, | Help in disseminating information on LCRTs related to livestock and agriculture. Manage the village revolving fund and other savings mobilised. Extend credit facility to members for individual and group activity. Capacity Building The project put a strong focus on strengthening the VCs through training and exposure. The VC executive committees were initially given two days village- based training by the BET, with the contents covering conducting meetings, record keeping, accounting, use of village revolving fund, participatory processes and credit management. A refresher training of two days is conducted after a gap of one year, to address their needs and any limitations they may experience during the year. The training also provides inputs on sustainability of VCs and gives an opportunity for experience sharing and cross learning. The BET of one of the blocks has developed an easy to use manual on VC functioning which is being effectively used in the trainings, and a copy of this is given to the VC executive committee, The Presidents and Secretaries of the better performing VCs are now invited as resource persons to new villages, to talk about VC functioning and use of the village fund. Financial Assistance The project had a provision of Rs.15,000 for each VC as a Village Revolving Fund, Part of this amount, up to a maximum of Rs.4,000, can be used for small infrastructure, as a one time expense. An analysis of the expenditure from village funds indicates that fifty percent of the amount was being revolved as a loan within the VC, one fourth was being used for community works, and several VCs had used the fund to collectively buy livestock medicines. The fund for community works has been used for items such as poultry house, soak pit, concrete compost making structures, cattle trough, winnowing fan, pesticide sprayer, and community buck. An impact assessment carried out by the project team indicates that within all VCs there was 100% recovery of loans. VCs have also purchased fodder trees and fruit trees and carried out plantation activity. Sustainability and Replication Seeing the effective working of the VCs, it seems likely that they will sustain Through the CLWs, VCs will continue to get benefits of the Animal Husbandry and other departments. The Bastar project is developing a replication plan for an additional 270 villages to be implemented during the remaining project period. 65 Innovations in the Livestock Sector6. INNOVATIONS IN THE WATERSHED SECTOR SECTOR CONTEXT The total cultivated land in India is 142 million hectares, Sixty-three percent of the area is rain-fed, but this accounts for less than 50 percent of the total food grain production. Rain-fed agriculture is complex, diverse, risk-prone and characterised by low levels of productivity and low input usage. The bulk of the rural poor live in rain fed regions. ‘At present, the Government of India gives high priority to holistic and sustainable development of rain fed areas based on the watershed approach. A large number of projects to enhance productivity are being implemented, based on this approach, through both centrally sponsored schemes of the Government of India, externally aided projects, private initiatives of local communities and NGOs. Thete are six major watershed projects, two under the Ministry of Agriculture and four under the Ministry of Rural Development. One of the largest projects is the National Watershed Development Project for Rain-fed Areas (NWDPRA). Impact assessment studies have shown that watershed-based interventions have led to increases in the ground water recharge, increase in the number of wells and water bodies, changes in cropping pattern, higher yields of crops and reduction in soil losses. However, while these are major gains, the problems of sustainability continuously plagued the first generation watershed development projects, as evidenced by the unwillingness of local communities to operate and maintain completed structures and plantations on community property. Local communities were too ofien merely passive rather than active recipients in the development of their watersheds. The benefits of watershed projects have also largely gone to land owning farmers and are unequally distributed even among this group, with small and marginal farmers receiving a relatively smaller share. The landless, poorest of the poor and women have been mostly bypassed. In the earlier approaches to watershed only that part of the village that fell under the watershed was covered, and low-cost technologies were not promoted. These factors inhibited wider participation of the community, in the absence of which there was no ownership of the large cost-intensive structures built under the projects. Experience has shown that in most cases, villagers are not willing to accept some of the conventional technologies because of high initial investment, high operational and maintenance costs or high technical input requirement. Very few attempts were made in the past to identify, acknowledge, validate and improve upon indigenous technologies without losing their comparative advantages of higher effectiveness and sustainability. Experience has also shown that watershed development projects often failed to achieve their financial and physical targets due to poor administrative and institutional arrangements, and inadequate capacity of the implementing agency staff and the local community. The skill and competence gaps recognised in the earlier projects related to technical aspects, participatory processes and methods and community organisation 66 InnovationsMany of the various watershed development projects of the Government overlapped geographically. Recognising the need for unification of the different programmes at the national level, in the year 2000 the national watershed projects were re-structured to retain the strengths, plug the gaps and weaknesses of the older projects and learn from successful projects, especially with regard to community participation. Land and water resource management of the watershed projects has now been made broad-based, The restructured watershed development projects provide for decentralisation of procedures, flexibility in choice of technology and provision for active involvement of the watershed community in planning, execution and evaluation of the programme to make it sustainable. ‘The World Bank, the European Economic Community and the German and Danish Governments have all extended financial support to the Government of India for watershed projects, and experience of all these projects has fed into the restructuring of the watershed projects in India. DANIDA’S SUPPORT TO THE SECTOR Danida’s support to the watershed sector started in the eighties. Prior to withdrawal from India it was supporting four projects on watershed development in Tamil Nadu, Kamataka, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to establish models that would illustrate effective people’s participation and ownership in a holistic watershed development project, using low-cost, indigenous technologies. The Danida projects conformed to the national policy on watershed development and encompassed the approach and components of the NWDPRA. The projects served as a testing ground for new initiatives and the lessons leamt have been duly incorporated in the restructured NWDPRA. The overall development objective of the Danida-supported projects was ‘to enable land users in selected watersheds to practice sustainable management of natural resources on private and common lands’. This was achieved by: * Facilitation of people’s participation in planning and execution. * Establishing and facilitating adoption of holistic land use systems. ‘* Implementing low cost and indigenous measures to protect natural resources. Increasing productivity on arable lands. © Providing short and long term income generating opportunities, * Providing assets to the poorest of the poor. Overview of Danida supported Watershed Projects Features | Comprehensive | Comprehensive | Comprehensive | Watershed | Comprehensive Watershed Watershed Watershed | Develop- | Watershed Development | Development Projet, | Development | ment Development Project, Ramanathepuram | Project,Koraput | Project, | Project, Malwa | Tinmnelveti, | dstct, Tamil Nedu | and Matkangni | Kemataka | region, Madhya Tamil Nady disticts, Orissa Pradesh | Phase | 1990-1994 1994-2001 1993-2005 1990-1997 | 1997-2002 Phase I | (5 yrs.) (ys) (Ry) (yrs) | yrs) | 1994-2003, 1997-2004 | 2002-2007 | (yrs) (yrs) | Syrs) Selected innovations from the watershed sector are given in the following pages. 67 Innovations in the Watershed Sector6.1 GOVERNMENT-NGO PARTNERSHIP In the past, two kinds of institutional arrangements were tried out in the watershed sector. There were government-run projects in which NGOs were sub-contracted for a short duration to do the social component. In this model each agency performed its assigned role and no activity was carried out jointly. There was no common platform for sharing, cross’ learning, and building on each other’s strengths, and thus there was no opportunity to work as a team. In other watershed development projects, implementation was either done by the government department or by an NGO. Each of these arrangements had its inherent problems. In the absence of flexibility to operate, the government system restricted innovations and experimentation On the other hand NGO-run projects were implemented with much flexibility and thus introduced innovative elements, but not enough consideration was given to replication. Moreover, NGOs have limited resources to take up the initiative beyond a certain scale and so initiatives even though successful remained localised. For a reasonable scaling up of initiatives government support is essential To overcome the weaknesses of the projects that were either independently run by an NGO or the government, or by sub-contracting NGOs, a model of GO-NGO partnership was pilot tested in Danida-supported watershed development projects in Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, A joint review of the watershed development projects in both Orissa and Madhya Pradesh has clearly brought out that GO-NGO collaboration proved to be a major asset in implementation of the activities as it enhanced the involvement of the communities. This co-operation between a government agency and NGOs was not a common practice in the early 1990s and is seen as an innovation in watershed development. The relationship between NGO and government staff gradually evolved from mutual scepticism and antagonism to a common understanding of the benefits accrued from the co-operation. To this end, the projects demonstrated an effective alternate system of project organisation that can be considered for replication by other government programmes. Selection of NGOs In Madhya Pradesh, the Department of Agriculture was collaborating with three NGOs, namely Sampark, Lok Biradari Trust and New Life Centre. While government officials from the State to the district levels were involved in the NGO- selection process, the Watershed Development Coordination Unit (WDCU) and Danida Advisory Unit extended guidance, considering that the department had no past experience on this, The selection exercise was meticulously carried out, and took almost six months to complete. The process followed for selection of NGOs is given step-wise below 1. The WDCU, in consultation with the implementing agency, drew up a list of local NGOs 2. Selection criteria were then developed. 68 Innovations3. Inaccordance with the government rules, the department advertised in the local newspapers to solicit expressions of interest from the local NGOs. 4. The Project Director invited the NGOs for a meeting at the department to get a first-hand feel of the NGOs and to share the project concept with them. 5. Based on the discussion, during the meeting and further information generated about the NGOs, a shortlist was made. 6. The Danida Adviser, in consultation with the project staff, then developed a format to collect detailed information about the shortlisted NGOs 7. The Deputy Director, Agriculture (district-level head) and the Danida Adviser then visited all the shortlisted NGOs and collected detailed information based on the formats, 8. Next, a selection committee was formed with the nodal officer of extemally funded projects of the agriculture department as the chairperson. The members included District Collectors of the three project districts; Deputy Director, Agriculture of the 3 districts; the Project Director; the WDCU representative; and the Danida Adviser. 9. Finally, the selection committee meeting was held to finalise NGOs, | per district. Criteria Used for Selection of NGOs * The NGO orits field office should be based in or adjoining the identified project area, It should have an established base amongst the local community. NGOs with their field operation distant from the project area will not be considered. * The NGO’s work should have strong focus on community participation. It should have a good rapport with and understanding of village communities (this is to be gauged from visits to villages where the NGOs is working) * Small grassroots NGOs ‘close’ to the village communities will be given preference rather than larger bureaucratic NGOs. * NGOs with an experience of working with tribal communities will be given preference, * NGO should have adequate staff members who have been working in the area prior to the project, and should be ready to depute full-time staff to the project. © TheNGO should be willing to work closely with the government staff on the project. * In villages where informal village groups and village institutions exist, the NGO should be willing to work with these groups and strengthen them. The involvement of the agriculture department as also the district administration made the selection process participatory and transparent. It also led to quicker and better acceptance of NGOs by the government staff, and a sense of ownership of the concept of GO-NGO partnership. Meeting and Overcoming Problems During the process of NGO selection problems were met and overcome. For example, in some areas it was found that there were no NGOs that met all the initial criteria, and so the criteria had to be revised. There were also problems of getting NGOs and the government to see eye-to-eye, due to inherent distrust on both sides, but close involvement with and facilitation by the Danida Adviser helped overcome these 69 Innovations in the Watershed SectorThe NGOs appointed Community Organisers (COs) and Village Level Workers (VLW5) as per project guidelines. For every 150-200 houscholds, there has to be one VLW, and for every 5 VLWs there is one CO. The NGOs sign a Memorandum. of Understanding (MoU) with the PMU on an annual basis. This specifies the educational qualifications and the emoluments to be paid to the NGO staff working on the project. Initially the NGOs were reluctant to accept this as it prevented them. from using their existing staff for the project - existing staffhad long work experience but lacked the formal qualifications. Further, the NGOs found it very difficult to get high school pass persons to work as VLWs within the budgeted salary. Even when they could recruit staff the difference in salaries of those working on the Danida project and those on other projects within the same NGO created animosity within their organisation, as the newly appointed COs were paid more than their existing staff, Initially, NGO staff reported only to their own head, and the team leader who is @ government officer was by-passed. They had difficulty in understanding and getting used to this dual reporting system. However, with appropriate facilitation and dialogue, over a period of time the team leader and the NGO heads resolved this issue jointly, The NGOs were able to get the department to understand their problems and the MoU was accordingly revised. The NGOs now get a lump sum amount towards salaries for a specified number of staff, and within that budget they have flexibility to pay variable salaries to the staff depending on their educational background, experience and performance. However, they have to ensure the minimum number of staff on the project as per the guidelines. This has allowed the NGOs to work within their organisation’s norms, as well as to hire youth froni the project area to work as VLWs. The NGOs have also been provided vehicles for their COs. The project invested much in the capacity building of both the NGO staff and the government staff, and today NGO staff is equally competent with those from the government side on technical issues, Respon: of NGOs Since NGOs work in a particular village for four to five years, they have a stronger base than government staff in the project area. Accordingly government staff of the district implementation team joins the NGO team as and when the particular activity concerning their discipline is taken up in the village. Thus, the NGOs have a very important role to play in the project implementation. NGO Responsibilities + Establish rapport with beneficiary community * Together with government staff carry out detailed socio-economic surveys (using PRA techniques) of villages and hamlets in the project area and develop participatory Village Development Plans. 70 Innovations* Facilitate the establishment of representative village development committees and Self-Help Groups (where required) in each project village and hamlet. * NGOs to ensure participation of all groups in the village, in particular the primary target group, including landless households. | © Identify training needs (both technical and non-technical) of beneficiaries and in particular for members of the VDC. * Once the village plan has been approved, the NGO is to assist in formation of a village fund in each project village. * Assist in feasibility studies for income generating activities and initiation of activities, * Together with the villagers, assist in the development of indicators | to regularly monitor the progress of the project. Preparation and uubmission of monthly monitoring reports to the team leader. Even though the above are clearly laid down roles for NGOs, the government departmenthas given them enough flexibility to work according to their own approach without compromising on project outputs. This has helped to get maximum benefit of each NGO’s strengths while adding enormous value to the project. Similarly, NGOs have accepted the limitations of the government system and complied with the requirements in the larger interest of the project. The following examples illustrate the flexible and accommodating attitude of both the partners. + Someofthe NGOs had proposeda longer time frame forcommunity mobilisation, but this could not be approved, as the project has to meet deadlines in terms of physical and financial outputs. Both the agencies mutually consented to keep one year for community mobilisation, * As per the budget, Rs. 1 million were allocated for 7 villages. The government staff proposed to spend the amount in the given time frame but the NGO felt that this was unrealistic. There was a realisation that both the agencies’ concems were valid, and that while there is pressure to utilise the funds, these must also be spent meaningfully. Therefore, a consensus was reached to increase the number of villages. GO-NGO Relations — Changing Attitudes The NGO Sampark has always worked on development issues by linking | these to local culture and has advocated that the project pace must match the community’s ability to absorb the benefits in a way that they sustain beyond the life of the project. Sampark impressed upon the department to allow them sufficient time to understand and address social issues that might affect the project outcomes. They brought to light that the villagers were under heavy debts and loans are taken primarily for non-productive social | 7 Innovations in the Watershed Sectorexpenditures, They emphasised that unless the community was mobilised and influenced to reduce this expenditure, any increase in their income due to project activities would not help. The project was convinced and allowed Sampark to implement accordingly. Sampark made each SHG in the village sign an [1-point social issues contract if it wished to collaborate on the project. This resulted in drastic reduction in wasteful expenditure incurred by the community. The NGO has also involved children in the project by educating them on land and water issues by giving examples from the village history through interactions with the elderly on how the villages were 50 years ago, and what has caused environmental degradation. To ensure the children’s continued involvement, the project approved Sampark’s proposal to run a few night schools for children. Sampark’s Director, Mr. Nitish Desai says, “I was completely against working with the government and had in fact walked out of the first meeting organised for the NGOs, I never expected that working with the government could be this good; this project has actually changed my views about the government...” Working Arrangement Madhya Pradesh Watershed Development Project created District Implementation ‘Teams (DITs). These include an Assistant Soil Conservation officer (as assistant project manager heading the team), two Agriculture Development Officers (soil conservation), 4 Surveyors (soil conservation), two Rural Agriculture Extension Officer, 1 Rural Horticulture Extension Officer, an Assistant Veterinary Health Officer, a Deputy Ranger, Community Organisers and Village Level Workers (NGO staff). Since NGOs work in the village for 4-5 years before, during and after the government officials’ involvement in the project village, they provide a continuous link in the village. Moreover, all the government officials do not operate together in a particular village, except during the participatory planning exercise. Recognizing this, the project made the involvement of NGOs in the DIT mandatory. Instead of expecting NGOs to carry out government's instructions as a sub-contractor, by involving them in the DITs they have been given an opportunity to voice their concems and suggestions to not only enhance community participation but also help in effective delivery of the project’s other components. Thus, according to the requirement of the field activity, whether agriculture, horticulture, forest, of soil and water conservation, the relevant government officials now associate with the NGO staff, playing a complimentary role. While NGOs bring to the DIT the needs and problems of the community and advice on how to proceed, the relevant government officials provide their expertise on the specific component and together with the NGO team implement the activity. NGOs say that their proposals and suggestions have been given respect and recognition by the counterpart government staff. The project had a system of monthly meetings of the DITs. This was and is an important forum for regular interaction and dialogue between the government officer and NGO staff that assists both partners to develop a common understanding, to 2 Innovationstake joint decisions, and resolve conflict. It has also helped in counter monitoring of each other's performance, and the open feedback system brings to surface any deficiency in either agency’s work. According to project staff, their involvement in the DITs has been a major contributory factor in ensuring a smooth working of the collaboration, Adequate Opportunity for Joint Capacity Building Both government and NGO staff together participated in training programmes, which helped to bridge the gap between the two partners and to develop a common Perspective on issues concerning the project. To illustrate, the ten-day training programme on PRA organised at the beginning of the project enabled them to develop a common understanding of participatory planning. Similarly, training inputs on low-cost unconventional technologies for soil and water conservation enabled both the agencies to pursue the work in the same spirit and talk a common language. Impact and Outcomes > On the project * Sustainability of project benefits * Villagers mobilised and motivated to participate in all stages of the project life cycle. * Bottom-up planning process implemented and needs-based plans developed. * Village institutions formed and strengthened. Ownership of the project activities and assets developed among local people. * Social issues like alcoholism and wasteful expense on rituals addressed successfully, helping the target families to invest their additional income raised from the project in productive uses. * Reduction in migration of villagers. * Counter-monitoring by NGO and government of each other’s work, reducing corruption, * Change in community’s attitude about the government, from lack of trust to active participation in and ownership of the government-implemented project. v7 On the NGOs * Empathy developed amongst NGO staff towards government staff’s limitations and their bindings of rules and regulations which disallow flexibility. * Shift in mind-set about GO-NGO partnership, from not workable to successfill partnership. * Capacity building of the staff, especially on technical issues. * Second line of leadership developed; COs now capable of handling projects independently, Cross-leamning amongst NGOs. On the government Developed trust in NGOs. Change in perspective on participatory processes and low cost technology for watershed development. An opportunity to work at the grassroots, Better understanding of gender and poverty issues. The staff motivated to take initiatives. (One of the staff members has done a compilation of medicinal plants and herbs available in the project area and eevee B Innovations in the Watershed Sectortheir use, and is now disseminating information about these and helping the community in identification of these.) Sustainability and Replicati While the concept is replicable, the GO-NGO partnership does not remain after the project, this being an institutional arrangement meant only for the project life. However, the benefits of the project as a result of this partnership will sustain. Sustainable Benefits of the Projects Trained NGOs will continue to work in the project area, perhaps on other issues, and their contact with the community will continue to strengthen the village institutions. * NGOs are replicating the concept in project as well as non-project | areas by mobilising funds from other sources. For example, low cost technology concept is now being implemented in projects supported by CASA, ActionAid and the Rajiv Gandhi Water Mission. * The trained project staff of the government is likely to use their learning in their new posting, post project. They are already involved in training district staff of other government watershed projects on project concepts, especially on low-cost technologies. * The VLWs, who are local people, are sufficiently trained on project concepts and will be able to assist replication. 6.2 APPROPRIATE LOW-COST AND INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGIES In the past, soil conservation and watershed development was based on engineering approaches to erosion control. Conservation technology aimed at controlling erosion through safe disposal of run-off. This technology was costly, complex and had limited acceptability by farmers, as they could not replicate it within their resources. The technological response to land degradation has mainly focused on treatment of symptoms through physical measures. While these indeed curb soil erosion and conser''e water at the lower field boundaries and in the drainage lines, they have a relatively insignificant effect on soil fertility. Since the watershed unit was large (5000-10,000 hectares), only the most problematic flow paths above the gullies were treated. Water reservoirs were generally large single-heading concrete structures, where silting and breaching of embankments were common problems, Recognising these technological limitations, Danida projects promoted low-cost and indigenous technologies, such as cement-free structures made using locally available material that farmers could easily accept and replicate. The projects were successful in identifying and developing such models of low-cost structures, some of which were based on indigenous structures specific to the region, Danida supported watershed development projects have created a good documentation 74 Innovationsbase of these low cost and indigenous technologies. The following list is indicative of these, one or more of which are used depending on their appropriateness to the given situation, Soil Conservation Technologies Introduced to and Promoted in the Project * Boulder checks © Vegetative checks «Filter points | * Rubble checks * Boulder bunds + ‘V' ditches * Rock filleddam Field bunds * Brushed check dams * Earthen check © Catch pits * Vertical trenching Gabion structures L The unit costs of the low-cost soil conservation structures have ranged from Rs.20 to Rs. 2,000, making them affordable even to poor farmers. The acceptance and adoption of most of these technologies was quite high; for example the adoption rate of brushwood check-dam was phenomenal in Orissa, where farmers used it in their fields to halt the development of water gullies. “V" ditches and catch pits are also favoured by farmers who report that use of these measures has increase the survival rate of plantations from 70% to 90%. For moisture conservation, projects used technologies aimed at increasing the re- charge of surface water to groundwater aquifers, rather than surface storage of water. Similarly, sunken structures were preferred over heading-type structures, One of the ‘major lessons learnt is that storage of water in the soil or underground, as compared to surface storage where high evaporation reduces total water availability, is more cost-effective and benefits mote farmers. Drainage line treatment with sunken structures, supplemented with dug-out wells along the drainage line, have given impressive increases in the water table and water availability to many farmers even during times of very low rainfall, Advantages of Sunken Recharge Approach over the ] Commonly-adopted Check Dam Comparatively lower cost of construction and maintenance. ‘No danger of embankment breaching during heavy showers. Reduced evaporation due to sub-surface storage. Benefit to marginal farmers located in hilly upper catchment areas, * Simple technology understood and replicable by farmers. In both Orissa and Madhya Pradesh the projects encouraged the farmers to adopt chua, an indigenous water conservation technology. This involves digging a pit of 3 metres diameter at the corner of the plot of land so that water gets collected from the 7s Innovations in the Watershed Sectorsurface as well as the sub-surface soil. Along with the promotion of this technology, the project has also motivated the farmers to take up vegetable cultivation in small plots of half a hectare. Initially, farmers used a manual system of lift irrigation to draw water from the water holes for irrigating their vegetable fields. However the substantial benefits accrued from vegetable cultivation encouraged the farmers to invest in machine pumps. In Madhya Pradesh, the traditional practice of Arsi-Parsi was effectively used in field bunding activity. This is a practice whereby families extend labour support to cach other; in short, they say, “You work in my field and I work in yours” This helps the families to complete the work in a shorter time and save cost on labour, otherwise hired from outside. This dying traditional practice was revived under the project with NGO staff facilitating its use in the watershed activity. This Gramatically reduced the time taken to do field bunding, while giving recognition to valuable local traditions. Two traditional technologies were adapted and institutionalised by the Madhya Pradesh Watershed development project under the low-cost, recharge approach adopted by the project. A doh is an adaptation of a naturally occurring depression located in the beds of rivers and streams, where water is stored and utilised by communities during dry months. The technology was originally demonstrated in Ambachandan village under the NWDPRA, and further improved upon and then institutionalised by the Danida supported project. Odees, another traditional technology, are shallow wells constructed by tribal farmers along stream banks to trap surface and sub-surface flow and to provide protective irrigation to nearby fields. The dohs and odees are most effective when constructed in tandem. A doh is used to trap run-off in the stream and convert it to sub-surface flow, which in turn is tapped in odees downstream, Under the project, the doh was modified from being primarily a water storage structure to a recharge structure. The design of the naturally occurring doh, wherein the gradual upstream and downstream slopes discourage silt deposition, was further improved upon, while the bed of the stream was excavated in order to encourage greater tapping of flow and percolation The cost of these structures ranges between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 25,000 depending upon the size. For a similar capacity check dam the cost is at least four times this. Water Conservation for the Landless | Kanagaon is a small tribal village in Orissa, with a traditional pond located near the high-caste families. Twelve landless families had virtually no source of water in the near vicinity. The project staff and NGO community organisers organised a village meeting to raise the issue and from this there was a consensus that a pond should be constructed on degraded common | land in the village, by the side of the stream in the vicinity of the habitation | 76 Innovationsof the landless. It was emphasised that the families should contribute to digging the pond in the form of labour. The entire village passed a resolution to allow the twelve families to construct and maintain the pond and share the benefits among themselves. These families formed a Self-Help Group and opened a joint bank account with a monthly saving of Rs. 10 per member. The project staff and the NGO helped them to obtain written permission from the revenue department to construct the pond. The project helped to design the pond, with a capacity of 1790 cubic metres and with a common inlet and outlet. The group of 12 families was provided fingerlings worth Rs. 250 for pisciculture. The families suggested 4 modification to broaden the embankment so that they could plant fruit | trees and grow vegetables on it. The embankment was divided into 12 equal portions and each far ly cultivated vegetables on their pi Wells located in the vicinity re-charged, increasing crop production and the availability of drinking water. ‘The 12 families now have vegetables for home consumption and eam extra income from pisciculture and brick making. They also use the pond for washing and cleaning. Learning from this success story, a similar initiative has been taken in other project villages. Lessons Learnt Importance of involving farmers in the site-selection and implementation. Important to identify actual users discuss with them in the planning stage regarding utilisation of water, with a view to encourage their ownership, facilitate maintenance and avoids disputes later on. It is advisable to make a series of smaller structures rather than a few large structures in order to better distribute benefits and maintenance load. Impact The combination of the doh/odee technology has been implemented extensively in all three watershed areas, and has had a visible impact over the project life. Water levels in these structures and also neighbouring wells have risen significantly even after only brief rainy spells, enabling farmers to give protective irrigation to their crops. Sustainability The low-cost appropriate technology approach makes the intervention sustainable. The sunken water recharge approach is being adopted by other projects implemented by people’s Panchayats and departments in the project districts. The project hi begun collaboration with World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), to document and share these technologies at the state, national and international levels. 7 Innovations in the Watershed Sector6.3 THE VILLAGE HAMLET AS A UNIT In the initial phases, projects worked on the basis of watershed boundaries, which normally comprised of more than one village. Therefore, often only part of some villages, which fell under the watershed, was treated and a large part of the community was left out of project activity and benefits. Learning from this, Danida projects initially shifted to village based planning to ensure that each and every household and plot was assessed for developing village based watershed development plans. Although this enhanced the outreach, equity issues were still not fully addressed as hamlets were often left out of the planning process. The poorest families usually inhabit hamlets. These families often live closer to the common lands and their dependence on such land resources, for livelihood support, is far greater than their counterparts in the main village. Therefore, in the last few years, in both Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, the planning exercise was initiated at the hamlet level. For this, in Orissa, the collaborating NGOs appointed additional village youth facilitators from the hamlets. Thus, village watershed development plans finally addressed the concerns of the hamlets and became far more comprehensive 6.4 SELE “TION OF AND SUPPORT TO THE TEN POOREST HOUSEHOLDS Poverty reduction has been an important focus of all project interventions, priority being given to those interventions that benefit the poor. To ensure that the project benefited the poorest of the poor, and to analyse the extent of this benefit, the watershed development project in Orissa since 2000 attempted to identify the ten poorest households among the target group. The objective of this was to ensure that the needs of the poorest families were addressed by the project and that they were mainstreamed into village development. 78Aninnovative methodology was adopted for the identification of the poorest families. A wealth ranking was carried out in each village by the project staff, for which the village was divided into four or five reference groups, as per geographical proximity of households, Each group was asked to rank the families in the village from richest to poorest. The ranking of all the groups in a village were then compared. In this exercise the names of the lowest-ranked households were often the same, but to build a consensus on the 10 poorest households, a village meeting was then held wherein the selection of the ten poorest families was ratified by the village community and then approved by the village watershed development committee. Assistance During the development of the village action plan for the year 2000-2001, it was agreed that the implementation strategy for the year would focus on reaching project benefits to the selected poorest households. To rapidly impact the condition of vulnerable groups affected by poverty, the following was taken up * Interaction workshops — Recognising the fact that the poorest in the village were, in most cases, not able to articulate their needs and thus remain deprived of the benefits of most of the development schemes, the project organised special workshops only for these families. Thirty families from 3 villages comprised | batch. The watershed team facilitated the workshops, but in most cases the PMU staff was also involved so that they became sensitised to poverty issues. The workshops facilitated a dialogue between the poorest families and the government. The poor were encouraged to voice thei problems, needs, and how best the project could address the same. They were also oriented on the different ways the project and other development schemes of the government could benefit them. * Income generating activities - Eight hundred and fifty of the poorest families were assisted to take up various income-generating skills, according to their needs. Building on local knowledge, skills and needs was the most efficient way to initiate this process. Individuals with traditional skills like blacksmiths, carpenters, rope makers and bamboo crafts people were assisted with improved equipment and raw materials. In the absence of any traditional skills and resources with some families, they were helped to buy livestock, with most of the families preferring goats and sheep. As per needs, training inputs were also given on the related activity; for example, better management practices for livestock and information on low cost technologies. The project had a provision of up to Rs.3,000 per family, which was given in kind and not essentially in one g0, the amount being released as per requirement. * Labour for physical works under the project ~ For all the physical works requiring additional labour, the project involved the 10 poorest families. Thus, these people benefited by getting work right in their village. * Water requirement —The project placed special focus on the needs of this group, and ensured that the water conservation activities benefit them. * User groups ~ Wherever possible, the project tried to involve these families to manage the assets developed on common lands, since these families have a higher dependence on the common property resources. * Linking with other development schemes — The project also attempted to facilitate linkages between these families and Panchayat institutions, and with 79 Innovations in the Watershed Sectorthe existing village institutions formed under the project, so that they cont to get the benefits of the village development activities. Increased Income to Sukri Palam Sukti Palam, a 65-year-old tribal woman belongs to a very poor family in village Tola in Orissa. She has a family of five, with her daughter and daughter-in-law, both widows, and their two children. Though she owns half an acre of agriculture land, there has been no proper use of the same. The family’s total annual income of Rs.4,800 comes from four sources ie. agriculture, labour, minor forest products and making puffed rice. With only this income it has been very difficult for her to sustain her family. She was using earthen pots for making puffed rice, which have been breaking often, causing frequent losses to her. She is engaged in this work for five ‘months in a year and could eam only Rs.300 from it, She had to take loans of Rs,600 to Rs.1,000 from the moneylenders with 10% interest per month. The Danida project provided her assistance worth Rs.500 in the form of an aluminium pot and 50 kilograms of paddy. She is now able to earn Rs.900.as_| extra income annually from this activity, and is free from indebtedness, and the extra income has enabled her to open a small savings account. ‘Tracking Progress Socio-economic data for each family was collected annually, including project-related information such as benefits obtained from the project, most liked project activity, and future aspirations from the project. This served as base line and monitoring data. Benefits ‘The data for two years indicated significant improvement in the annual income and reduction in migration. The families began to feel that they are a part of the development process. ‘The government agencies involved in the project and the community itself become more sensitive to the needs of the poorest families and ways to address the same. Project staif’s capacity was built on the methodology of selecting the poorest families using participatory processes. 80 Innovations7. INNOVATIONS IN THE ENVIRONMENT, RENEWABLE ENERGY AND TOOL ROOM SECTORS SECTOR CONTEXT Danish support to the environment, renewable energy and industry sector has been through the establishment of Environmental Training Institutes in Tamil Nadu and Kamataka, wind energy demonstration projects, the Wind Turbine Testing Centre in Tamil Nadu and six tool rooms under the National Tool Room Programme. Environment Growing population, increasing industrialisation, urbanisation and a high level of poverty are all resulting in excessive pressure on India’s environment. India’s cities are characterised by a high level of vehicular pollution, and untreated domestic and institutional waste and sewage. India has very progressive laws for environment protection, and stringent laws are in place to control pollution caused by industries. The Central and State Pollution Control Boards are responsible for enforcing the Water and Air Act, which specify norms for waste discharge, but enforcement has often been passive. As a result most of the country’s water resources become polluted due to discharge of partially treated or untreated waste from industry, domestic sewage and fertiliser and pesticide run-off from agricultural fields. Wind Energy ‘The installed power generation capacity in India has risen significantly from approximately 1,500 MW in the late 1940s, to 100,000 MW today. However, despite the huge increases in installed capacity, power generation has not been able to keep pace with the growth in demand. 60% of the installed capacity is owned and operated by the State Electricity Board, but the present state of State Electricity Boards is not good due to subsidised tariffs for agriculture, high transmission and distribution losses and poor billing and collection efficiency. At the end of the Ninth Five Year Plan Period (2001), energy deficiency was 7.5% and peaking shortage was 12.6%. An estimated 80,000 villages still had to be electrified in the country, of which 20,000 were so remote that this could not be done through the national grid. India’s primary energy resources are coal, gas, biomass, hydroelectricity and nuclear power. Approximately 70% of power generation is coal-fired, 25% is hydro electric and the remaining 5% is a combination of other sources. In the future, supply of electricity will become more diversified. Although national coal reserves are adequate, the quality is low, with an ash content of up to 50%. Oil and gas reserves are limited. Hydroelectric power still needs to be developed on a large scale. The Government of India is therefore keen to develop renewable sources of energy, including wind energy. The Wind Power Programme in India was initiated with Danida support in 1986 with several demonstration programmes. This was followed with a number of fiscal incentives by the Government to encourage private entrepreneurs. Today, India ranks sixth in the world in wind energy production, with a total capacity of 1,700 MW, way below its potential of 45,000 MW. al Innovations in the Environment, Renewable Energy and Tool Room SectorsTool Rooms Prior to 1971, the Government of India had identified the tool room sector as an essential element in the small industries development strategy. It was felt that as it was unviable for small-scale industries to set up their own tool rooms, it was necessary for the Government to support this sector by establishing tool rooms for them. There are 18 externally aided tool rooms in the country, including the six Danish tool rooms. Economic reforms in the country have led to increasing competition in the industry and a growing demand for both skilled manpower and high-quality tools and moulds. The market for tools in India is estimated at over Rs. 20 billion annually. The tools and gauge manufacturers claim that the tool-room industry has grown at 10% annually till 1998, after which it experienced a slowdown due to overall recession in the Indian economic environment. In order to meet the huge demand for tools the number of tool-rooms increased substantially over the years, converting it froma seller’s to a buyer's market. DANIDA’S SUPPORT TO THE SECTOR Overview of Danida’s Support to the Sector | Projects ] States Duration/ | Phase | Implementing | Danish Years Authority Grant Environmental | Tamil | July _ [Tamil Nadu | DKK 9.96 Training Nadu and | 1993- Pollution million Institute Kamataka | March Control in Tail 2002 Board and | Nadu yrs.) Government | DKK | of Tamil Nadu, | 9.96 and Kamataka million in | State Pollution | Karnataka Control Board, DFEE and Government of Karnataka Wind Turbine | Tamil 1999 Ministry Test Station | Nadu 2004 of Non DKK 15.9 (5 yrs.) Conventional | million Energy Sources, India Danida- Karnataka, | 1971- 1 | Ministry of | DKK assisted West 1989 | Small Scale | 157.4 National Bengal, | (I8yrs.) | I | and Agro-rural_| million Tool Room | Delhi, Industries, Programme | Orissa and | 1989- Government of | Jharkhand | 2001 India (2 yrs.) The following pages give details of project innovations. 82 Innovations7.1 ETIs — AN INNOVATIVE INSTITUTIONAL MODEL The Government of Denmark supported the Government of India to establish two Environmental Training Institutes (ETIs) — 1 each in the Tamil Nadu and Kamataka Pollution Control Boards. The long-term developmental objective of the ETIs was “reduced pollution by industries and municipalities’ in the respective States The immediate objectives were: * The Pollution Control Board staff will be capable of controlling and advising the industries and municipalities on pollution treatment and prevention techniques suitable to their needs * Executive senior staff and operators from industries and municipalities as well as NGO representatives will have the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to initiate strategies for pollution prevention and treatment measures. The above objectives were to be achieved through providing needs based and demand driven training programmes to the target group. Apart from Environmental Pollution Training and Research Institute, a Swedish Industrial Development Agency (SIDA) funded institute based in Hyderabad, the Danish-supported ETIs are the only two institutes in the country devoted entirely to training in the environment sector. Danida support to the project included: * Provision of state-of-the-art training facilities and equipment. + Technicalassistance for training needs assessment, identification and preparation. of relevant training packages. + Technicalassistance fordevelopingandestablishing management, administrative and training systems in the institution. * Technical assistance for training of trainers. * Fellowships and study tours. The ETIs are now well established within the respective states, and provide good quality relevant training programmes. Over the period 1996-2002, the ETIs in Tamil Nadu and Kamataka had trained a total of 3,863 and 3,907 persons respectively. The target group wise break up for the training conducted during the period 1996- 2002 is provided in the diagram below. ETI Tamil Nadu Karnataka —————_ 1 Pollution Contol 37% oat Board fal 26% | Industry 18% 4 1 Municipalities local 3 121 bodies) 3% 22% 1 Government 25% gq, 0% organisations NGOs B Innovations in the Environment, Renewable Energy and Tool Room SectorsThe ETls have proved to be a very innovative institutional model. Organisationally, the ETIs were planned to be wings of the State Pollution Control Boards, and it was envisaged that they should try to achieve financial self-sustainability, and perhaps later become independent organisations. To achieve this the overheads of the institution were consciously kept low. As such the ETIs have only 3 full-time professional staff members, namely a Director, an Administrative Manager and a Training Manager. The trainers are all part-time, and are sourced from the State Pollution Control Boards, independent consultants, industries, NGOs and other government organisations Having part time trainers has the following important advantages. * The overheads are kept low, which is very essential for sustainability of a training institute. * The trainers are actually working on environmental issues in their current jobs, making their training inputs relevant and current. The entire approach to training becomes more practical and problem-solving rather than theoretical and academic. * Amix of trainers from different environment fields ensures that the trainees get benefits of diverse experience. During the project period, with the technical assistance provided by Danida, the ETIs had identified and developed a panel of part-time trainers, all of who were provided both pedagogical and technical training on the courses that they were to conduct. In addition they were supported with manuals and a training package, which provide comprehensive information on the relevant subject matter. The quality of the trainers’ work was and is ensured by carefully getting feedback from the participants, after the training programme. The trainers are given fees as per the market rates, in addition to travelling and other expenses. This approach has so far worked quite well. However, sometimes there were problems in co-ordinating dates with the trained part time trainer, as they have thei own organisational priorities. To overcome this, the ETIs further developed contacts with a core team of consultants who are more readily available at shorter notice A combination of these two approaches of external consultants and operational managers in the environment sector as trainers was therefore adopted by the ETIs, and now works well. Steering Committee and Advisory Council In October 1998, as the Danish assistance was soon to come to an end, the Project Manager prepared a paper to examine the issues relating to sustainability of the ETI. Subsequently Danida appointed a consultant to recommend possible institutional arrangements for a sustainable ETI. Based on these recommendations, it was felt that it was critical to encourage more active participation by industries and other stakeholders in the ETI. Accordingly for each ETI, the Steering Committee was restructured and an Advisory Council was set up. Representatives of industries, industry associations, educational and training institutes, local bodies and specialists have been included in the steering committee and advisory council to ensure their involvement in the ETI. The Advisory Council renders advice to the steering committee on all training related activities and 84 Innovationsenhancement of the ETIs’ professional competence, and the steering committee lays down policies and programmes for them. These efforts have significantly improved participation by industry and other stakeholders in the ETIs” training and awareness building activities in the environment field. 7.2 WIND TURBINE TEST STATION, TAMIL NADU Danida has supported the wind energy programme in India since 1982, when the Danish State Research Institute on Renewable Energy, RIS@, carried out a ‘Wind Resource Assessment’ study. The first substantial investment by Danida was however, in 1987, when Danida supported the establishment of a 20 MW wind farm demonstration project. This project involved a 10 MW wind farm in Gujarat, and two (4MW and 6 MW) plants in Tamil Nadu, This was the first demonstration Project of this magnitude in the country and it established technical, economical and organisational feasibility of wind farms. These demonstration plants helped to move wind power generation in India from demonstration stage to commercialisation. When the technical viability of these projectshad been demonstrated, the Government of India tried to attract entrepreneurs in the private sector by offering various fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, tax holiday, soft loans, customs and excise duty relief, and liberal foreign investment procedures. This impetus from the Government led to a number of industries coming forward to establish wind farms, a majority of which were for captive use. These entrepreneurs forged alliances and tie-ups with a number of foreign, including Danish, manufacturers. However, there were no quality standards in the sector, and it was observed that in some cases sub- standard or old equipment for wind power generation was employed in the filed. In 1995-1996 the Government of India issued guidelines setting out best practices, and stipulated that it was mandatory for all farms to be tested and certified by competent thorities. This stipulation created hurdles for the Indian entrepreneurs, as there was no testing and certifying agency in the country, and obtaining cert abroad was expensive. ion from To overcome this and at the request of the Government, in 1999 Danida supported the establishment of a National Wind Turbine Test station, within the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET). C-WET is a newly formed autonomous organisation, based in Chennai, under the Ministry of Non Conventional Energy Resources. Objectives of Centre for Wind Energy Technology To establish facilities and capabilities for: + Testing of wind turbines * Certification of wind turbines | © Preparation of national standards and certification rules for wind turbines * Monitoring the technical performance of wind turbines * Dissemination of information on wind energy 85 Innovations in the Environment, Renewable Energy and Tool Room Sectors