The Kudumbashree Story

Women Empowerment

PRI-CBO Convergence Project

The PRI-CBO Convergence Project is an attempt to enhance convergence between Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Community Based Organisation (CBO). The project uses centrally sponsored schemes as entry points for strengthening the CBO-PRI interface.

Project Rationale

  • Increasing the efficiency and reach of poor-centric programmes
  • Better participatory planning by panchayats together with the community organisation network
  • Increased capability of CBOs to demand entitlements
  • Democratically conscious community to help strengthen and sustain local government institutions

Project Goals

  • Initiate processes that would ensure that the benefits under various entitlements and schemes accrue to members of SHGs under NRLM
  • Strengthen women’s participation in local self-government processes
  • Contribute towards making the panchayat raj system more responsive towards the needs of the society, particularly women
  • Help develop a cadre of community professionals to work with community institutions and local governments to strengthen capabilities of convergence
  • Women, armed with knowledge on their entitlements and information on the various schemes that they can benefit from, and an awareness on the process of local level planning by PRIs, can influence the PRI system and the way development schemes work.
  • Women’s active participation, as per experience from Kerala, has improved the effectiveness of the local level planning; PRIs and their processes gain strength through the process.

The PRI-CBO convergence project envisages

  • Providing organisational and functional capacity building to the leaders of CBOs and PRIs
  • Strengthening CBOs to engage with PRIs to address the special needs of the poor and the marginalised

NRLM has developed a results framework for assessing the achievements of thePRI-CBO convergence projects taken up by SRLMs with Kudumbashree support.

The Results Framework for Convergence

Project Activity Results

To measure the results in terms of outputs that the key activities seek to deliver

Governance Process Improvement

To measure improvements made in the quality of governance processes related to functioning of the PRI, gram sabha, and CBOs

Household Benefit Results

To measure results accruing due to actual implementation of schemes influencing livelihoods and social security of the poor families

Project Activity Results

  • Number and proportion of PRI representatives trained
  • Number and proportion of elected women representatives trained
  • Number and proportion of SHG members trained
  • Number and proportion of VO leaders trained
  • Number of LRG members trained
  • Proportion of LRG members active at the end of the pilot project
  • Number of new SHGs formed
  • Number of defunct SHGs revived
  • Number of new VOs formed
  • Number of GPs and blocks taken up by SRLM for replication of pilots

Governance Process Improvement

State PolicyGram SabhaCBO Level Processes
State government to come up with policy guidelines and operational frameworks for convergence in tune with the NRLM convergence framework
  •  Promotion of women SHG members among gram sabha attendees
  • Number of SHGs attendinggram sabha with prior preparation on agenda items
  • Number of sub committees of gram sabha meeting regularly and contributing to agenda discussions in gram sabha
  • Number of SHGs incorporating the entitlement agenda into their regular meetings
  • Number of GPs where co-terminus platforms for CBO-PRI linkage formed
  • Number of GPs where co-terminus platforms for CBO-PRI linkage meet regularly
Gram Panchayat    
Incorporation of CBO members into sub committees and their attendance in regular meetings    

 

Household Benefit Results

(Indicative list; to be customised for each State)

MGNREGS

  • Number of SHG families with job cards
  • Number of SHG families that have demanded work
  • Number of SHG families that have obtained work
  • Average number of work days availed by SHG families
  • Number of works implemented of the total demanded by SHGs
  • Unemployment allowance demanded by SHG members
  • Unemployment allowance paid to SHG members
  • Proportion of women among MGNRES workers
  • Community assets demanded in plan, incorporated in plan, and created through implementation of under MGNREGS

NBA/SBA

  • Number of SHG families having built IHHL
  • Number of SHG families using IHHLs built under NBA
  • Number of toilets in anganwadis and schools built under NBA
  • Community toilets – constructed, used and managed

Social Security

  • Number of eligible SHG women / families availing benefits under various social security/ pension schemes (NSAP/RSBY)

ICDS

  • Number of days when anganwadi centre is open and food is provided
  • Enrolment of eligible infants/ children in anganwadi centres and actual attendance
  • Number of anganwadis where operations are monitored by SHG
  • Number of eligible SHG women / family members getting IFA tablets
  • Number of eligible infants covered under immunisation

Convergence Project – Process

CBO-PRI Convergence Projects - States

The project are already well underway in 17 districts in six States; the project has just been initiated in Sikkim.

CBO PRIConvergenctProjects

Support from State Government Departments

  • Overall guidance and support for the projects in pilot blocks
    • Instructions to block level functionaries for participation
    • Instructions to facilitate participation of SHGs and federations in gram sabha
    • Constitution of sub committees of gram panchayats, gram sabha for integration of planning and monitoring jointly with CBO structure
  • Convergence with training plans of SIRD
    • Inclusion of PRI-CBO convergence and a topic for training of PRI representatives and functionaries
    • Use of trained cadre from the project as resource persons at appropriate levels