SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter V4.Bilateral Donors and Livelihood ProjectsDFID hasemerged inrecent years asthe predominantbilateraldonor operatingin India.4.1 Department for International Development (DFID) 15DFID has emerged in recent years as the predominant bilateral donor operating in India. DFID’s rurallivelihoods programmes in the country work with the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, MadhyaPradesh (MP) and West Bengal. These programmes have the primary objective of increasing the sustainabilityof poor people’s livelihoods by promoting (and enabling promotion of):• improved access to high-quality education, information, technologies and training and better nutritionand health;• a more supportive and cohesive social environment;• more secure access to, and better management of, natural resources;• better access to basic and facilitating infrastructure;• more secure access to financial resources; and• a policy and institutional environment that supports multiple livelihood strategies and promotesequitable access to competitive markets for all 16DFID’s current rural livelihoods portfolio comprises rainfed farming projects, watershed-based developmentprogrammes and rural livelihoods programmes based on Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) oradministrative units.`Peoplecenteredness’rather thanfocus onresources reflectsthe thinkingof developmentpractitionersworldwide overthe past twodecadesDuring the period 1998-2002 DFID placed considerable emphasis on the development and rolling outof sustainable livelihoods (SL) approaches. The process of giving meaning and substance to SL wasboth challenging and inclusive. It reinvigorated the rural development cadre within DFID and broughtsignificant influence throughout the wider development community. During the late 1990s, DFID’s mainfocus was on the rainfed farming projects in eastern and western India, the next generation focusedon the watershed based development programmes of the government of India. Adopting a ‘watershedplus’ approach, DFID has helped transform the watershed based development programs of the Governmentof India from natural resource programs, focusing on physical conservation works and primarilybenefiting larger, mostly male, landowners, to people centred programs. The latter are, inclusive of allthe residents of the watersheds and pay particular attention to landless, women and other vulnerablegroups. The ‘plus’ includes components for productivity enhancement and micro-enterprise promotionwithin the overall approach of enhanced participation, capacity building and innovation. Emphasis ondecentralization of government through elected PRIs prompted different variants of the rural livelihoodsmodel in MP and West Bengal.There are several such projects in India but the major ones are:1. Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Programme (APRLP) (Completed)2. Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP)3. Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project (WORLP)4. West Bengal Strengthening Rural Decentralisation Program (SRD)5. Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme (OTELP)6. Eastern India and Western India Rainfed Farming Projects (EIRFP) - (completed)While APRLP and WORLP are watershed-based development projects, MPRLP, West Bengal SRD andOTELP are rural livelihoods programmes based on PRIs and administrative units.12415Cases developed by Ramesh S Arunachalam16Source: Quoted with adaptation from DFID Official Website and related resources