SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Civil Society InitiativesChapter VICivil Society InitiativesGirija Srinivasan 1AbstractThe civil society initiatives taken up in this chapter are mostly part of donor-supported programmes, often involvingparticipatory watershed development and wider development goals, which may also include livelihood andmicrofinance. While there are innumerable NGO-led initiatives of value, this chapter covers nine case studiesthat had a) achieved scale b) become established and mature programmes, and c) been innovative. Livelihoodprogrammes initiated by communities themselves have been few. The last case study showcasing, the ‘MyradaExperience’ is a departure from the key issues touched upon in the preceding case studies, exploring as it doesthe institution of the SHG itself as a livelihood strategy. Finally, all the case studies are undertaken in differentcontexts, but are all from rural areas.1. Civil society organisations (CSOs) as facilitatorsThe domain of livelihoods development may be segregated into three parts. The first is the externalenvironment; the second the people and people’s institutions that need to be engaged in planning andimplementing with suitable capacity building and resource support measures; and the third is the externalresource organisation that holds the key to finance, technology and markets. Facilitating institutions,in order to be effective and successful, should be able to mediate and crystallise the positive elements,capacities and potential in all the three interacting parts. The intensity of involvement would depend onthe local needs, the facilitating agency’s domain competence and the strength of demands arising fromparticipation of the people.The facilitating agencies are also much dependent on the (often changing) perceptions, strategies andpriorities of the (external) donor agencies which usually provide much of the funding for NGO activities.Facilitating institutions at times have been driven, in turn, by the donor’s objectives and their owncompetence.The domainof livelihoodsdevelopmentmay besegregated intothe externalenvironment,the peopleand people’sinstitutions andthe externalresourceorganisation.2. Successful CSOs share a few common approachesThe initiatives covered here share several common aspects in their approach. The basic elements noticeablein the different approaches are consultation with the target group, analysing the local context,preparing the people in terms of skills, linking the enterprises with external markets for input and outputand investing in people’s institutions. The differences lie in the intensity of involvement with thefamilies, the level of consultation, time taken to launch the livelihood activity and the kind of people’sorganisations created.1The author would like to thank Ajay Tankha and Santosh Sharma for their invaluable support in developing this paper. Ajay Tankha edited thepaper and provided valuable guidance. Santosh Sharma gave research support for collection of details of livelihood programmes apart from developingtwo cases.2 Footnote millThe basicelementsnoticeable inthe differentapproaches areconsultation withthe target group,analysing thelocal context,preparing thepeople in termsof skills, linkingthe enterpriseswith externalmarkets.131