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PREAMBLE
Mixing well-known methods of natural resource management in a novel way, including working bottom-up and top-down at the same time, and engaging local governments in an Indo-Danish Non-Governmental Organisations’ (NGO) partnership has proven to be a powerful cocktail improving the conditions of the poor and marginalized in the eastern state of West Bengal. The partnership between Danish NGO The India Group Funen (IGF) and Indian NGO Loka Kalyan Parishad has since mid 2002 shown how combined competences can lead to innovative approaches in combating poverty and, at the same time, promote and strengthen local participatory democratic processes in the rural areas of West Bengal. The achievements illustrate the potential of NGOs as important contributors of development in both India and Denmark and why they are increasingly recognised as such.
BACKGROUND
Indo-Danish relations go back a long way and, in the field of international development collaboration, has taken place for more than 35 years – since the first development project was initiated in Mysore. Indo-Danish relations have taken many forms and covered many fields (education, health, agricultural development and infrastructure upgradation just to mention a few). Where the partners traditionally were government agencies on both sides, partnerships between NGOs have lately come more to the forefront.
One such partnership emerged in the state of West Bengal where two smaller organisations have been doing dedicated work for the benefit of the poor and marginalized for the last 20 years. As their streams of work crossed each other some 10 years ago, the idea of a joint project focused on food security was conceived, developed and finally submitted to the development arm (Danida) of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for funding. In mid 2002, funds were approved and the project took off. A couple of characteristics are fundamental to understanding the achievements. Firstly, the openness and inclusiveness of the partners, which enjoy the merits of highly experienced and competent project members who nevertheless believe strongly in utilising external resource persons and capabilities in order to continuously enhance skills. Secondly, flexibility is a necessary part of a project that explores unknown territory. Clearly, unforeseen events and developments happen that call for reconsidering outlined plans. Many changes and adjustments have been made, securing a well functioning mode of implementation.
The first phase ended in August 2004 followed by a second phase, which aims to reach about 10,000 families or some 60,000 people in four districts of West Bengal. The food security project has two main aims: a) improvement of food shortages on up to 50% and b) enhancement of local participatory democracy through linking the poor; organised in family based Self Help Groups, via a village level statutory body to the existing local governance system.
THE INNOVATIVE APPROACH
After 35-40 years of experiences with international development assistance and development work, it might seem as a bit of a statement to make the tall claim of being ‘innovative’. For example, to focus on poverty has been central to development efforts ever since the beginning. To take the point of departure at the level of the poor, often termed the target group or beneficiaries, in a so-called bottom-up approach, has been used extensively for many years. Improving the food situation of the poor through kitchen gardening, homestead agro-forestry, common farming and similar activities has also been part of the development menu for years.
The ‘innovation’ here does relate to the particular combination of elements in the project, which each individually is well known. The key elements in the innovative approach are the following five:
1. Using local cultural forms as a key part of the motivation and awareness raising process, which usually kicks off the activities in a particular village. The villagers are gathered for a couple of hour’s performance where issues relating to food security are shown through drama, puppetry, singing and dancing. In many cases, local drama, song and dance groups are established in the villages as a part of the project activities.
2. Seeking to show fast improvements in the harsh conditions of the poor – often experiencing 4-5 months of the year with little or no food – through activities that both secures a supply of food, fruit, fodder for animals, firewood and herbal medicines and/or a potential income through sales of production. The first category of activities can be kitchen gardening, homestead agro-forestry, common farming and fallow land cultivation. The second category of activities is common activities (common farming, cultivation of fallow land and fallow water resources), like production of seedlings for sale, fisheries or roadside plantation. Where individual families often conduct some activities like kitchen gardening, mainly landless families conduct the other activities in groups.
3. Organising the poor in so-called Self Help Groups (SHGs) of 10-15 families as a means of awareness raising, a forum for training and exchange of experiences and as a starting point for micro-savings and credit. This way of organising the poor for their own benefit has been a powerful instrument in Asia, best known from the Grameen Bank initiative started in Bangladesh, and now increasingly been utilised also in Africa and South America.
4. Linking the poor and the SHGs to the established system of local governance – the Panchayati Raj system. In the West Bengal context, an initial informal kind of village level organisation in what is called Sangsads was taken up by the Indian partner LKP. This village level forum has now been promulgated at the state level and is presently being rolled out over the whole state as an officially recognised part of local government. The Gram Unnayan Samities (GUS) now constitute what some have seen as the fourth tier, but in reality it is an organ of the Gram Panchayat that helps it to extend its outreach to the village level and facilitate direct participatory democracy.
5. Finally, in contrast to earlier days of hostile attitudes between government and non-government actors, the project views government as a key actor in supporting the activities on the ground. Furthermore, local government is viewed as the long-term, legitimate project owner and – importantly – the responsible institution in securing the long-term sustainability of the activities and improving the poverty situation among the poor. Accordingly, considerable time and effort is spent on engaging all levels of local government and the existing State level bodies present in the project activities. Gram Panchayats are asked to provide lease of common land to the SHGs, and in some cases to negotiate the lease of privately owned land to the same groups. The Block Development Officer is informed about and involved in the activities and is asked to facilitate participation of other line departments of the State, for example, with expertise in agriculture, fisheries who through the instituted grassroots institutional framework, are coming to field and sharing their knowledge with the poor.
So, crudely speaking, there is nothing new under the sun and then yet again, the unique way of combining the mentioned – and well-known – elements is certainly making a difference. Over the last 4 years, significant improvements have materialised for the poor, and major changes have taken place regarding the way local participatory democracy is unfolding in the project areas. We will give a few illustrative examples in the following section.
A NEW BEGINNING
In situation of harsh poverty and lack of food supplies for 4-5 months per year, the obvious starting point of any endeavour aimed to benefit the poor is to secure more food and/or some income. A majority of the poor does have a bit of land around their huts. The land often is unutilised, perceived as bare and unproductive, but is on the contrary an important asset for kitchen gardening and homestead agro-forestry. A variety of vegetables, herbs and small bushes and trees can be cultivated, or so-called natural resource management techniques applied. Based on initial inputs from the project, the poor families learn how to manage their plots, secure seeds for future harvest and maybe even produce a few crops for sale.
Depending on the size of the plot, the abilities of the families and the contribution from other activities, this has provided food and other supplies (for example, fodder for animals and fire wood) to an extent that the period of food shortage has decreased to about 2-2 ˝ months or half of what it was before the project took off.
In addition to the individual efforts – and we shall return to what is done for the landless families, which lack the mentioned opportunities – the SHGs are a vehicle of improvement too. First of all, the groups function as a forum for exchange of experiences – good ideas – among the 10-15 women representatives. Second, the group initiate saving, which after reaching a certain level is topped by project funds. Each family representative gets a savings book and the groups decide on terms and conditions for lending funds to the members. The loans enable a family to buy a couple of hens, or a goat or materials to produce, for example, saris for sales – all examples of assets that help to decrease the food shortage.
In spite of these impressive developments, the challenges of securing the poorest of the poor remain. Approx. 25% of the participants belong to the group of landless families, not having any land at all and accordingly no options for large kitchen gardens, etc. Here, the project has had to work hard to come up with sufficient activities (common farming, fallow land cultivation, food for work) in order to allow the poorest to produce food supplies and/or secure additional income from sales of various products. In the first phase of the project, this nevertheless only secured these groups a 25% improvement of their situation compared to around 50% among the other 75% of the participants.
THE FRUITS OF THE JOINT EFFORTS
Over time, other significant developments have taken place as a result of the saving initiatives. One is the steady increase in savings and hence funds to disburse among the members. Accordingly, the size of the loans has risen, and the possibilities of acquiring new assets have changed. Now, a pig or a cow is within reach or even the first instalment for a bicycle to transport goods. New worlds are opening up and the result is an increasing level of confidence among the participants. Second is that the banking sector has – suddenly – realised that actually these poor segments constitute a potential customer group of interest. Where the banks and credit institutions traditionally have perceived the poor as an unreliable, time consuming and not-profitable segment, the steadily increasing amounts of funds belonging to SHGs has altered this, brought the poor participants into the circles of conventional credit opportunities and hence expanded their investment options.
Another major step forward that the project has experienced concerns collaboration with local government. Many development efforts have been unsuccessful due to government and non-government sectors duplicating each other’s activities, competing for attention without proper considerations of the effort on the poor and lacking mutual trust. Obviously, it has not – and is not – always easy to cross into unknown territory. Still, the project has seen a huge amount of highly encouraging examples of local government (Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities and Zilla Parishads) making a bold step embracing the approaches outlined and buying into the development path outlined. This has to be seen in the context of the state government taking similar steps and working to roll out a major development effort across the state, supported, in particular, by British development agency Dfid. Hence, the political environment has been favourable and conducive to the Indo-Danish NGO partnership project.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, the necessary institutional structures and processes for local government to function at the village level have been established and embodied in the form of the Gram Unnayan Samiti (GUS). The new institution will potentially give a new voice to the poor, and the engagement of many persons in meetings, committee work and so is hoped to bring new dynamics to the present Panchayat Raj institutions, adding vibrancy to the statutory biannual meetings of all villagers from 250 – 350 families. However, a major task of informing all interested parties in the roles and responsibilities of the GUS is ahead and asks for the joint efforts of government and non-government forces to be realised.
While the project can be proud of the achievements to date, a lot of hard work and many challenges are ahead. The humble hope is that the achievements and the innovative approach can inspire others.
On behalf of the LKP-IGF collaboration
Soeren Jeppesen
IGF Project Administrator
Copenhagen, Denmark
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