Recent Event - 14th November

The need to improve conditions of people living in Indian villages has been accepted by Indian governments since Independence. Massive government programs have been directed towards this end. Many civil society organizations have been engaged. Lately many corporate trusts and foundations have also become engaged.
India Backbone Implementation Network belief is that the success of such programs must be founded on an engagement of the village citizens themselves as agents of change, not merely beneficiaries of change. Moreover, if the capacity of these agents of change can be enhanced by providing them methods for managing the change in their environment in partnership with others motivated to help them viz. government agencies, NGOs, and corporate/CSR initiatives, the results are likely to be better and sustainable. IbIn wished to explore methods of engaging with village communities used by government/NGOs/corporates to distill the principles of effective practice and methods that could be disseminated for wider application.

To meet this objective, IbIn in collaboration with UNDP organized a National Consultation on ‘Simple Systems of Effective Participatory Planning’, for Rural Development. This workshop was held on the 14th November 2014 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi and was attended by a good mix of practitioners, multi-lateral organizations, CSR foundations, technical experts and Government representatives, amongst others.

Ms. Lise Grande, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, India inaugurated the workshop with her Keynote Address. It was followed by context setting by Mr. Arun Maira, Former Member, Planning Commission of India and Chief Mentor, IbIn.

The focus of the first session was ‘Achieving Multi-stakeholder Engagement, Convergence and Better Performance’.
The sub-areas for discussion were
(1) Building up collaboration through change management
(2) Facilitating inter-departmental convergence
(3) Using technological tools like GIS, mobile and Mass media for planning, monitoring and better information dissemination.
The focus of the second session was ‘Facilitating Community Participation and Panchayat Leadership’. The sub-areas for discussion were
(1) Social Mobilization and Community building
(2) Strengthening PRI’s role in planning
(3) Resource mapping for better prioritization and targeting. Each group had a very interesting discussion and shared their experiences, challenges and possible solutions.

As a way forward, the group decided to create a network to enable the learning process to continue and more people to become part of it. The group expressed interest in sharing tools, processes & methodologies of SSEPP; methods to codify/document the techniques; and developing the capacity to train facilitators.

Overall, the workshop was a success and IbIn looks forward to future endeavors in this area.