Around 585 civil society organisations (CSOs) supported by the programme are working in this area. While the programme is focussed on rural poverty, it has made some efforts to tackle urban poverty as well.

The PACS Programme has a rights-based approach with two basic aims:

n Strengthening the capacities of CSOs associated with the programme so that they can have better long-term impact in remote and underdeveloped areas, where they usually have better reach than government or market forces.

PACS-Programme-supported CSOs, known as programme partners, are engaged in a variety of strategic interventions including:

n Increasing the capacity of the poor, especially the most marginalised sections, to make their voice heard through panchayati raj institutions.

n Mobilising the poor and increasing their awareness so that they get due benefits under various social welfare and anti-poverty governments programmes like land distribution programmes, the public distribution system, Antayoda and Mid-Day Meal schemes.

n Making women aware of their rights and capacities, particularly in relation to income-generation and decision-making in the family and the village.

n Catalysing changes in thinking and behaviour to reduce discriminatory practices against Dalits, women, children and people with disability.

n Working on advocacy efforts for fine tuning and proper implementation of policies in favour of the poor.

n Initiating and supporting sustainable alternative livelihood efforts, especially among women, landless labourers and people with disability.

n Promoting the emergence of new, socially committed leaders.

n Developing community efforts to combat drought and floods.

Supported by the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), the PACS Programme techno-financial management is done by a consortium of Development Alternatives (DA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (P) Ltd.

The programme is currently spread over 503 blocks and 19781 villages in 91 poorest districts marked by poor indicators related to health, education, governance, income and production*. These districts (84% of identified 108 districts) score high on lack of infrastructure, lack (and poor quality) of government services and exploitation. Overall the programme is working in 13% of villages in the blocks reached.

In the last six years, the programme has made enormous efforts to reach out to the poorest sections of society in the most remote and backward areas. The programme is working with extremely marginalized communities such as Pardhi and Komals in Maharashtra; Paharias in Jharkhand; Sahariya, Pardo in Chhattisgarh and Begais, Bharia, and Kamars in MP and Musahars in UP.

Till December 2006 the programme’s projects selection committee had sanctioned 178 CSO (Civil Society Organisation) projects (89 network and 89 individual projects). Of these, 42 projects have closed and 36 projects have received an extension. At present, 172 projects are running, wherein 585 CSOs are involved.

Projects were categorised in terms of their size / budgets. ‘A’ category projects are those with budget size greater than Rs. 150 lakhs; B - budget size Rs.50 - 150 lakhs; C - budget size Rs. 20 - 50 lakhs and D - budget size less than Rs.20 lakhs. It is significant that 58% of the projects belong to categories ‘C’ and ‘D’. That is, the programme has made a major effort to support small and upcoming CSOs. Total investments made by the programme on projects are Rs. 125.1 crores. Hence, the average size of a PACS Programme project is Rs. 58.46 lakhs and average expenditure allotted per village is Rs. 63,250 for a period of three to four years.

The total PACS Programme staff strength at CSO level is 4193 of which 36% are women. The proportion of women staff at CSOs is 18% at top management level, 30% at middle management level and 42% at field level; 35 projects are headed by women chief functionaries.

Long-term sustainability of the programme’s efforts is ensured through a large number of community based organisations (CBOs). Approximately 3.76 lakh persons are part of 35226 CBOs started and/or supported by the programme. In effect, the programme has the potential to improve the quality of life of roughly 20 lakh families. Of the CBOs, 69% are SHGs, 10% are village level groups, 23% are other type of groups and 1% are federations.

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning System (MEAL) has been a major achievement. MEAL was devised to enable PACS programme partners to reflect, plan, and implement the project activities with a result based approach.

MEAL is a unique learning system that systematically draws knowledge inputs from four quarters:

n Monitoring: Relates to information about the progress of approved CSO projects on parameters of inputs, activities and processes, and information on achievement of stated outputs and purposes.

n Evaluation: Relates to information about CSOs’ organisational capacities, capacity building requirements for organisational development, impact of CSO projects on target community as perceived by the community, PACS Programme performance at state/national levels and performance of programme support organisations.

n Research: Relates to information about socio-political situations in programme areas; programme thematic issues; approaches, ideas and successful development models from outside the programme; studies and reviews at state and national level.

n Innovation: Relates to information about new approaches and strategies used in the programme for addressing challenging issues in difficult circumstances; innovative development models successfully implemented by programme partners; demonstration pilots initiated by partners on specific issues and innovations on programme thematic areas made by organisations outside the programme.

MEAL captures information from the above four areas and enables usage of this information by all stakeholders in their decision-making processes. MEAL follows five strategies to achieve the intended purpose of "learning" and "aid to decision making":

n Improving quality of information generated through the above process at CSO, state and national levels in the programme.

n Strengthening, consolidation, analysis and synthesis of this information.

n Providing take off points for communication within the programme and to wider stakeholders.

n Systematising learning processes at all levels through learning forums and knowledge management.

n Strengthening the process of ensuring translation of learning into action, through tracking and support at all levels.

MEAL is implemented at the CSO, state and national levels through well-defined mechanisms and procedures, supported by manuals, initiation workshops and training programmes.

Out of 178 projects in the PACS Programme, MEAL phase-1 (meaning input activity, process and output monitoring systems) has been rolled out in 165 projects (93%). A quick study done internally on MEAL effectiveness in 102 projects has revealed that MEAL has been applied well and projects and organisation involved have gained immensely in 26% of PACS projects. At the programme level, MEAL has made significant contribution in improving information and knowledge management.

The programme has laid emphasis on communication and advocacy at the local, state and national levels since inception. Several programme CSOs have effectively used local and regional vernacular print and electronic media to highlight pressing problems faced in particular areas and move authorities concerned to take action. The use of media has usually been timed with submissions of petitions, padyatras and demonstrations. The process has been facilitated and strengthened by appointment of communication agencies in each states. These agencies train CSO staff in media management, help CSOs liase with media, organise press visits and coordinate media publicity for programme initiatives. At the national level, the programme organised press visits by journalists from leading English language publications on the eve of the "Empowering Livelihoods: State Policy, Private Initiatives and Civil Society Action" consultation organised in New Delhi in October 2005. A major communication effort to increase the visibility of the programme at the national and state levels in 2007 is being finalised.

On the advocacy front, there are several initiatives:

n Supporting the Right to Food Campaign-India through field surveys

n Monitoring implementation of the National Rural Health Mission - through a study

n Fostering debate from the grassroots to the state levels for preparing a national rural habitat policy

n Enhancing the knowledge base and sensitivity for action of NGOs on discrimination based on untouchability

n Facilitating the creation of a broad based civil society forum to eradicate drought in Vidharbha and Marathwada (Maharashtra)

n Ensuring better implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

n Influencing Maharashtra state government policy and action on trafficking of women and girls.

Many state level CSO forums (Maharashtra Drought Forum, Jharkhand Swasashan Manch etc.) have been promoted and supported by the programme. The relevance of such platforms was especially seen in the run up to the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where pre-election voter awareness campaigns conducted in a massive, coordinated manner resulted in thousands of CBO members getting elected to panchayat bodies.

PACS Programme partners are now participating in Bharat Nirman Abhiyan Campaign of the Government of India to bridge the information gap between rural poor and government programmes and schemes. The capacity of partners has been increased in important areas such as governance and fund raising. Many other diverse initiatives are happening across different states. Clearly, a broader civil society movement in India’s poorest district has emerged as a result of the PACS Programme’s efforts.