|
Integrated Village
Development Programme R ural communities in low-income countries, most of them isolated from mainstream national economy suffer numerous deprivations that impact the quality of life of their inhabitants. Poor infrastructure, degraded local natural resources and inadequate linkages to markets combine to create a poverty trap from which village economies usually find it difficult to escape. While there are probably no simple interventions to enable rural communities to break out of the asystemic traps of poverty and deprivation, it is possible to devise relatively simple packages of processes and practices that can promote triple bottom wellbeing for a small initial investment and can set the village economy onto a new trajectory of socio-economic development that can sustain itself in the future.
Development Alternative Group’s Village Development Programme – Hamara Gaon (an etymology that emphasises people’s right to decide their development pathway as informed and empowered communities) targets issues related to the economy, environment and society systemically, as a whole, helping communities realise the benefits of integrated development. This is catalysed through the creation of people-oriented institutions, dissemination of knowledge and appropriate technologies, strengthening local governance systems and enabling access to credit and finance. Hamara Gaon is operationalised on the principle of "Haryali, Udyamita aur Sampanata" – Environment Wellbeing, Economic Development and Social Prosperity and has the following objectives: • Promoting Environment Wellbeing through optimising the productive potential of the local natural resource base using land and water management, climate resilient farming, community led environment management for sustained development.• Stimulating Economic Development by fostering financial inclusion of women and the creation of diverse enterprises and livelihood models that invigorate the local economy.• Enabling Social Wellbeing by facilitating access to basic needs, improved governance systems and quality of life and promoting a culture of shared benefits in the community.The approach attempts to seize on opportunities that arise when cross-sector interventions lower costs and enhance systems to improve development effectiveness. It introduces a holistic package of interventions to transform lives of the marginalised and vulnerable through establishment of infrastructure and institutions that enable social and economic prosperity for all in harmony with nature. Capacities of local institutions are strengthened to plan and implement a range of integrated village development measures by accessing available government schemes. These include: • Integrated watershed management.• Infrastructure development such as roads, drains, housing, water supply, sanitation and electrification.• Literacy and livelihood initiatives.• Savings and credit services.• Farm and off farm enterprises identified on the basis of resource and market assessments, communication and information.Led through local institutions and engagement with local government such that public schemes and development programmes can be leveraged, the programme also brings in wherever possible, private investments and partnerships of the private sector with community groups to leverage resources and instill sustainability in development. It guides communities to prioritise actions based on their own needs and goals and helps them create new lifestyle choices and opportunities for exercising them. More importantly, it helps them meet multiple needs and cope with changing circumstances such as those imposed by changes in the economy, climate – or even aspirations. Hamara Gaon Programme – Guiding Principles At the core, lie the guiding principles that are crucial to ensure sustainability of the programme - sustainability in terms of the integrated environmental, social and economic wellbeing and one that is also indigenously self-sustaining. These principles have been developed from the learning and experiences of Development Alternatives in its work at the grassroots and from the engagement with our local, regional and global partners. The core principles of the Hamara Gaon initiative are described below: • Ensuring People’s Participation: Community level infrastructure and common property resources get sustainably managed in the long term only when they are truly owned by the people. Same is true for any successful development intervention. It must be ‘owned’ by the stakeholders it seeks to benefit. Effective participatory processes have to be devised that enable stakeholders to design their own development pathways and take ownership of the changes.• Fostering Equity – putting the last first: Both for ethical and practical reasons, development interventions must be designed to ensure benefits for all stakeholders in an equitable manner. Putting the marginalised and disempowered at the centre of the process most effectively leads to overall development that will be sustained into the future.• Mainstreaming for Sustainable Impact and Replicability: Development interventions cannot be standalone initiatives but rather must be integrated with the mainstream development systems in order to remain relevant and viable in the long term. Convergence with local development actors and factors allows additional resources to be leveraged from national and local development funds thus increasing the total value of the intervention and permitting replication elsewhere.Hamara Gaon Programme in Bundelkhand
Bundelkhand is a semi-arid region in Central India characterised by poor human development indicators and degraded status of natural resources. Around 70-80% of the population in this drought prone and climate sensitive region depends on agriculture and related activities for a livelihood. 75% of this agriculture is rain-fed and thus susceptible to climate change impacts. Land degradation and increasing water scarcity over the years has led to declining agricultural productivity and increasing poverty. Given the state of the economy, local resources and society, an integrated triple bottom line approach of development upholding the pillars of sustainability – economic, social and environmental well-being - is critical in designing a better future for this region. The Hamara Gaon Programme reaches out to 18 villages across 4 districts in Bundelkhand. A few case studies of the Hamara Gaon programme are shared below. The feasibility of such models could be applicable on a large scale in a wide variety of socio-economic-ecological contexts. In our evolving world of resource depletion, climate change and economic stagnation, some of the basic lessons from this programme particularly regarding the key roles of livelihoods and of rational management of resources may well be applicable to more geographies across the world. q Chitrangna Dewan |
