The Bundelkhand region of Central India comprising of 13 districts in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is projected to face the brunt of climate change impacts as it has been rendered acutely vulnerable by the unsustainable land and water management practices and rapid land use change. Increasing population and the adoption of unsustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns too are contributing to this relentless exploitation of the natural capital base.

There is lack of awareness and sensitivity to the issue of environmental sustainability at the community level and the local government level. This means that the expenditure of public funds in local development too is unmindful of considerations of environmental sustainability. While the processes of local planning and development are required to ensure people’s participation, this is rarely the case in reality owing to a lack of awareness amongst communities on their role in driving local development and the importance of participating in local governance processes. The concerns and needs of many stakeholders, therefore, remain unaddressed and most importantly, the aspects of environmental sustainability are largely ignored in local development plans.

It is in this context that Development Alternatives with the support of Commonwealth Foundation, launched the civil society programme for mainstreaming environmental concerns in local development and fostering knowledge sharing platforms. The initiative has been launched in 20 villages of three districts including Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh and Tikamgarh and Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh.

The programme aims to strengthen people’s participation in local governance and to promote the mainstreaming of environmental concerns in local development and planning processes. Women and youth are the two key target groups being addressed through sensitisation and capacity building activities to lead a campaign for adoption of sustainability actions in lifestyles and local development pathway. For realising its environment mainstreaming objective, the programme also engages closely with the panchayats (village councils) to identify opportunities for convergence with government schemes and integration of environment improvement actions in village level micro-plans.

The initiative has adopted in its implementation methodology and activities, the 4As approach of Assessment, Awareness, Advocacy and Action that is depicted in the info-graphic above.

The initiative has already started demonstrating positive results as evidenced by improvement actions initiated by stakeholders in some villages in response to the assessment findings and subsequent awareness and advocacy campaigns. For example, in five villages, the panchayats have been mobilised to initiate repair of existing drinking water infrastructure. This resulted in at least 1500 households getting access to safe drinking water. Moreover, regular water quality monitoring of these sources are being undertaken by women’s groups in these villages. Over 200 children have been trained on WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) awareness to act as ambassadors for behaviour change in their communities. The action component is being driven by both convergence with existing government schemes and programmes as well as steps taken by stakeholders at the individual and community level.

It is well recognised that no development initiative can be successful if based on a purely supply driven or demand driven mode. For development interventions to be effective and sustainable, there is need for informed dialogue between demand and supply side stakeholders. Thus in this initiative, the capacity of relevant stakeholders is being built to understand the environmental impacts of local development action and participate in and steer the process of local governance and development planning to promote informed and collective decision making and action for the sustainable management of natural resources.   q