One of the important functions of programme officers in the Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland, India has been to build and maintain relationships between SDC and its partners. In Development Alternatives (DA), many programme officers have played this interface role.

Building this interface has been governed by SDC’s successive country programmes in India anchored in poverty reduction, and DA’s vision of creating sustainable livelihood options in large numbers. However, the colleagues involved from DA and SDC and the projects they designed and implemented gave actual shape and the character to this interface. The relationship began with a small project and rested on the trust that normally exists in a friendship, in this case between Dr Urs Heierli (SDC coordinator) and Dr Ashok Khosla (Chairman, DA). Dr Arun Kumar, George Varughese from DA and Kurt Voegele and François Binder from SDC have led this process over the years with great openness and the necessary flexibility.

Right from developing the micro-concrete roofing (MCR) technology to presenting a proposal to the Government of India on the rural habitat policy, it has been a long journey in many collaborative forms across numerous projects and organisations in which SDC was an active partner with DA. In the MCR project, DA was a member of an international network project supported by SDC through SKAT, a Swiss NGO rooted in development and promotion of appropriate technology. As SDC developed its action lines for energy projects, the MCR project led by Shrashtant Patara evolved into a building materials project to create affordable and energy efficient building materials. More partners were added and DA’s competence became the backbone of several initiatives, including TARA’s technology marketing strategy. As SDC’s country programme became more focused, the result was direct actions that contributed to poverty reduction. SDC formulated a rural housing project with a number of partners in many states of India. SDC was then looking for a partner to host a learning platform on issues of rural housing. The basin-South Asia regional knowledge platform was a forthcoming and a natural choice as SDC was one of the sponsors of this international network. Zeenat and Mona from DA championed and implemented the rural habitat policy formulation process with inputs from 3000 individuals and agencies. This is an example of DA’s ability to innovate on any process and product and implement it with rigour. I am sure that my SDC colleagues Werner Hunziker, Laurence Von Schulthess, and Subhash Jalora will draw a lot of professional satisfaction from being a part of this programme.

Finding partners who will carry the mantle of bringing about a change on the ground has always been a challenge in SDC. Without a partner like DA and colleagues like Geeta Vaidyanathan, Mr Lakhmikantan, Jean-Bernard Dubois and Soumen Maity, SDC would not have been able to bring VSBK technology to India. The process of technology transfer and further development involved a large number of experts from different backgrounds, professionally and culturally, who would stay in Datia frequently and over extended durations. Hosting such teams was feasible only through hard work, with a lot of patience and being on the foot all the time - another aspect of DA’s personality that SDC learnt to value over time. DA built the VSBK service centre with partial support from SDC.

The changing focus of SDC’s India programme posed new challenges by making demands on the team to enter into areas such as fighting discrimination, for which there was no previous record. This also required each organisation to reflect on its basic orientation and hold its own views. DA continued on its path of entrepreneur focus and developed the first project under the carbon development community fund. SDC DA has championed the VSBK technology in India as suitable under today’s carbon constrained world and has also helped in spreading it in many areas. This behaviour has been at the core of building this interface - being ready to support each other even if there were differences. DA, by going beyond the initial support of SDC, has demonstrated its commitment to sustainable development. SDC, on its part, feels satisfied at initiating a change process in a sector which has seen very few external interventions.

The development of institutional partnership anchored in enabling the partner institution to pursue its vision and mission was a new exercise for both organisations. This concept was new to both SDC and DA. Hansreudi Peiffer and Rina Tagore nurtured this idea with the DA team. Right from the beginning, the quality of dialogue was frank and open. It also was characterised by a multilevel and multi dimensional dialogue. The SDC team participated in DA’s internal review meetings, and DA participated in SDC’s planning and reflection meetings. This ability to test and to experiment with ‘donor ideas’ without being threatened by each other has been a hallmark of the DA-SDC partnership.

Today, DA continues to be SDC’s key dialogue partner. SDC looks forward to implementing a path-breaking project in Bundelkhand – DA’s Karmabhoomi – in which knowledge, dialogue and capacity building measures amongst farmers, women’s groups and artisans will lead to community based strategies for adaptation to climate change and enhanced eco-security.

Lastly, we remember the discussions on the risks regarding continuity in leadership of the organisation. SDC went ahead and took that risk and one can say that it was a risk well taken from seeing where DA stands today on the occasion of its Silver Jubilee - ready to take off into the next orbit, i.e., the challenge of creating sustainable livelihoods in large numbers. q

Veena Joshi
and Avni Malhotra
veena.joshi@sdc.net
avni.malhotra@sdc.net

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