The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative
Case Received: February 5, 1998
Author: V. Tagat
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Email: wotr.anagar@gems.vsnl.net.in
tagat@bom4.vsnl.net.in
BUILDING CAPACITIES AND FACILITATING SCALING UP IN THE INDO-GERMAN WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (MAHARASHTRA, INDIA): THE ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT AND CATALYTIC ORGANIZATIONS -- THE WATERSHED ORGANIZATION TRUST (WOTR)
IDENTIFICATION OF THE CASE
Ecology, environment and poverty are closely interwoven and inversely related. Ecological degradation is accompanied by an erosion both in the quality and substance of life of the community living with in the ecospace. An ecologically vibrant environment maximises productive potential of the community leading to livelihood security and income stability. Natural Resource mobilisation along watershed lines involving the local community so that they own and identify themselves with the efforts indicates the direction towards sustainable and equitable development. These have been the learnings from successful participatory watershed development projects since the micro-watershed is not only a naturally occurring spatial and ecological unit but also the sustenance base of the community living within it.
The Indo-German Watershed Development Programme is a bilaterally assisted programme being implemented through NGOs in Maharashtra involving village self help groups for integrated natural resources management on a watershed basis. There are two distinct phases of the programme namely Capacity Building and Full Implementation phase which are administered and managed by WOTR (Watershed Organisation Trust) and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) respectively with the support of the Government of Maharashtra and the financial support of the GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) and the KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) respectively. The principal concerns for launching a programme was that the various measures tried by different agencies including the government and non governmental level all pointed in the direction of the natural resources management on the watershed basis for a sustainable development of the drought prone regions of the state. The situation was worsened by the fact that due to regular occurrence of drought like conditions, most of the measures undertaken by the Government and NGOs were of emergency relief in nature and did not necessarily involve the entire village community. The authors were a part of the team which has been associated with the initiation process of the programme, dialogue with the stakeholders, design of the programme and coordination and promotion of the programme in both the phases.
The drought prone regions of the state of Maharashtra was the focus of attention after the famine of 1972 in the state. Though many emergency relief measures were undertaken to mitigate its effects by both the Governmental and Non-Governmental Agencies, the approach was based on exploitation of natural resources like water which led to further dependence o outside resources rather than conservation per se. It was after the results of the first watershed project undertaken by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the early eighties that the agencies started looking at the experiences in detail. Despite the promise held out by the new approach, initial response to the same was slow and ill-coordinated at the state level. However, it was at the insistence of Fr. Hermann Bacher, founder and initiator of the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme, that the NGOs started meeting often to discuss the various issues involved including the financial support needed for launching such a programme.
After the bilateral negotiations were concluded and the Programme officially launched with an allocation of DM 12 Million expected to cover ten projects of about 10,000 ha., it was realized that only a handful of NGOs were either technically competent or managerial able to participate in the watershed development programme. Therefore after the initial euphoria, large areas of the region were not the focus of attention as about 16,000 ha was covered under the programme to be implemented by 9 NGOs. In 1994, after visiting one of the successful projects, the German Minister for Economic Cooperation, Mr. Carl Spranger announced that an additional grant of DM 25 million will be available under the programme.
One of the basic objectives of the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme was to facilitate the arising and unfolding of a people's movement for sustainable economic development along watershed lines. It became increasingly clear that unless more and more village communities and NGOs get involved in the programme, the successful projects would remain as islands of prosperity. This led to launching of the Capacity Building Phase and setting up of the catalytic development support agency -Watershed Organization Trust in December 1993.
THE CHANGE PROCESS
The initiative for setting up of the development support agency came from the founder and initiator of the IGWDP, Fr. Bacher when it was realized that the dream of up scaling individual successful projects to a large scale programme calls for special efforts in technical, social and managerial skills to be imparted to a larger body of village communities and grass-root NGOs. The Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR) was established primarily to respond to the needs arising from the programme especially from the NGOs and village communities. It seeks to provide timely, on-the-spot guidance, support in terms of technology, management organizational and human resource development and flexible financing.
It was also the basis for launching the participatory Capacity Building Phase to build the institutional capacities of grass-root NGOs but also to primarily build up the capacities of the village communities to regenerate and manage their environment on a sustainable basis.
Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR) also functions as the institutional base of the Programme Coordinator of the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme. It acts as a link between the Capacity Building Phase and the Full Implementation Phase of the Programme.
WOTR also seeks to facilitate in collaboration with its partners and key framework actors, the people's movement for natural resources management on a watershed basis.
After nearly three years of the launching of the Capacity Building Phase of the Programme and the establishment of Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR), the programme now actively involves assistance to 81 village communities and 53 NGOs to undertake participatory watershed development potentially covering an area of approximately 100,000 ha. in the drought-prone regions of the Maharashtra State. The Capacity Building Phase was launched in 1993. Since then within a period of 4 years the Programme has expanded 8 times in terms of number of projects and 10 times in terms of area covered. Some of the key institutional and managerial changes that have been brought about by the establishment of the development support agency, WOTR are :
a) a participatory operational pedagogy for Capacity building of NGOs and Village communities in the natural resources management programme on a watershed basis.
b) increased the programme and project level capabilities with emphasis on improving the administrative and managerial response of the NGOs for participatory watershed development
c) development of training aids including publicity material, operation manuals, newsletters in close collaboration with its partners and end-users.
d) Action research studies to address the needs of the communities for constant review and reflection.
e) Coordination and liaison with the local, regional and state level government agencies for effective implementation of the collaborative efforts towards the objective of achieving the natural resources management on a watershed basis.
f) net area planning practice where detailed assessment of the farmers plot characteristics along with the appropriate treatments to de-mystify the traditional land use planning method using contour maps .
g) development of situation specific training approaches involving a combination of the structured and non-formal methods designed for village communities and NGO staff
Some of the lessons that can be drawn from the role of building capacities, playing a catalytic role and providing support services by Watershed Organization Trust are briefly mentioned below :
a) The emphasis is on participatory skills development of the watershed communities by introduction of appropriate technical skills from outside to support the indigenous knowledge and practices.
b) The need for a development support organization to coordinate and liaise with various stakeholders like the government agencies, NABARD, NGOs, external funding partners and Village Self Help Groups is one of the important aspects of the intervention.
c) The ability of the programme partners to understand and respond to the field situations needs to be highlighted as many developmental projects suffer from predetermined structure and form based on already identified solutions.
d) Up scaling individual projects to a large scale programme depends upon the ability to manage the various actors and respond to the local situations.
e) Coordination with the Government Agencies which have greater stake in the development of the area/region holds the key to successful capacity building and support services provided by WOTR.
CONCLUSION
The uniqueness of the capacities built and development support provided constitutes a permanent improvement of the rural poor deriving livelihoods in natural resources management on watershed basis. The escort services available to the village communities and the NGOs during the various stages of the capacity building, project preparation and the implementation phases of the programme are necessary foundations for creating institutional arrangements and awareness amongst key actors for replicability and sustenance of any natural resource management programme.
Based on the response and initial feedback obtained the programme has attracted the attention of the neighbouring states/regions and with the active support of the Government and NGOs, the German funding partners have already approved replication of the programme with an initial allocation of DM 35 million. Realising the need for building capacities right from the beginning, the legal project holders on the Indian side, NABARD and WOTR have entered into a joint agreement for building capacities of the local NGOs and the village communities along with development support services in three states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.