for Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions in ... - PRI Resources

Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions in Jharkhand1. PREAMBLEConstitutional Amendments 73 and 74 ushered in Panchayati Raj in India. Its guiding principles includestrengthening people’s ownership and participation in local governance and decisions affecting theirlives, following rights-based approaches, and transparency in public administration. Despite attempts bystakeholders at the central and the state levels to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), they stillhave a long way to go before they become strong, inclusive, and democratic institutions in the spirit of theconstitutional amendments due to various systemic and social constraints.In such a scenario, the capacity development (CD) of elected representatives (ERs) and Panchayat supportfunctionaries (PSFs) is perhaps the only transformational tool available to achieve the aims of 73rd and74th amendments and making PRIs true pillars of democracy. This was recognized in the seventh roundtable conference on Training & Capacity Development (CB&T) held in December 2004. Subsequently,the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) launched a National Capacity Building Framework (NCBF) inJuly 2006 as a guiding document for CB&T of PRI functionaries. Towards the broader goal of capacitydevelopment, besides several other initiatives, MoPR is currently implementing the Capacity Developmentfor Local Governance (CDLG) Project with support from UNDP in the seven focus states of Bihar,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh). Another UNDP projectCapacity Development for District Planning (CDDP) supports the Planning Commission’s mandateon improved capacities in integrated inclusive district planning at the national, state, and district levels.Together, the two projects aim to contribute towards the larger goal of ensuring effective governance andparticipatory planning.The CDLG Project is aligned with the goals and objectives of NCBF, and aims to strengthen institutionsand processes at various levels, which bring about a behavioural change through increased motivation,joint decision-making, the provision of resources (that is, networks, resource persons/institutions, trainingcourses/material, information, innovative solutions, and methods), and personal empowerment.Under the CDLG Project the UNDP-RCB (Regional Centre of Bangkok) team under took a mission toChhattisgarh in August 2009 to assess the capacities of the state to implement NCBF and to undertakedistrict planning. Experts from select national level institutions were invited to accompany the UNDP-RCB team during the mission to ensure exchange of views and techniques.As a follow up of this, MoPR decided to assess the capacities of other focus states for implementingNCBF and for developing capabilities of PRIs towards the larger goal of promoting effective decentralizedgovernance and participatory planning.A two-day preparatory workshop was organized by MoPR in Hyderabad on 13–14 May 2010 to discussthe scope of work, expected deliverables, duration of the assignment, confirmation of expert teams, andother terms of engagement. Based on the discussions during the workshop and after a follow up discussionat MoPR, it was decided to assign a four-member expert team to each of the states to undertake theassignment. The teams were asked to undertake the assignment as per the Terms of Reference (ToR).9