This case study is based on a concrete experience in the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme (IGWDP), now called the "Sangamner" pattern. It evolved in a place called Sangamner of the Ahmednagar district of the State of Maharashtra, India. The IGWDP is a bilaterally assisted programme funded by the Govt. of Germany and being implemented in the State of Maharashtra by village self-help groups organised and supported by voluntary agencies (NGOs) in their efforts at regenerating the watersheds they live in. It is politically and administratively support by the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) .

This programme is being implemented largely in the dry semi-arid region of the State which comprise as much as 70% of its geographic area. The Ahmednagar district is a semi-arid chronically drought-prone area. The average rain-fall pattern of Sangamner region ranges from 150 mm to 500 mm.

Livelihood systems in these semi-arid regions are rain dependent and with regular crop failure people are forced to either seek employment on Govt.-funded emergency relief works or migrate in search of income. Raising of herds of sheep and goats provides some buffer. Topography is barren and undulating with scrub vegetation which is heavily grazed.

The author is the initiator of the IGWDP and is its Advisor on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Cooperation (BMZ), Govt. of Germany. He has spent over 40 years in rural development especially in the area of natural resources management and self-help group organisation. He established the Social Centre (1968), a leading voluntary agency in the Ahmednagar district and in collaboration with the District Administration as well as financial institutions (Banks), pioneered a collaborative effort at assisting small and marginal farmers to improve and maximise their agricultural potential. In 1989, he brought together the Govt. of Germany (BMZ) and its developmental institutions (KFW and GTZ) on the one hand, and the Govt. of India and its development financial institution NABARD (National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development) as well as voluntary agencies and self-help groups, on the other hand, in a partnership and synergy that is now called the IGWDP. In 1993, he established the Support and Coordinating agency of the IGWDP, namely the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), a voluntary agency also based in Ahmednagar, of which he is the Chairman.

The author by virtue of his long experience in the field, his credibility, as well as the relationships built up over the years, was able to bring together at the local level, namely the Sangamner Region, various NGOs, private institutions, villagers and Govt. Dept. in a collaborative dynamic directed at regenerating watershed along participatory lines. This dynamic is now called the "Sangamner Pattern".

Initially, watershed development activities and measures in this region as well as elsewhere in the State were undertaken primarily by Govt. Depts., namely the Soil and Water Conservation Dept. These treatments were undertaken with hardly any participation or collaboration of the people and followed a standard set pattern. Moreover, they were done in a manner with little regard to local situations or hydrological principles. Follow-up in terms of maintenance was consequently absent.

Thus, instead of enhancing resource conservation, such measures often increased erosion and resulted in siltation of down-stream structures in the area. Moreover due to insufficient quality control as well as lack of protection, large areas that were afforested remained barren and in fact degraded, primarily due to non-closure to grazing.

Some of the reasons for this state of affairs were as follows :

1. Lack of comprehensive and integrated planning and implementation
2. Inability to treat the upper catchment areas (towards the ridge line) as that land was in the possession of the Forest Department which did not allow any other Dept. or agency to work on its land. Moreover their working plans were not necessarily synchronized with the working plans of the Soil Conservation Dept. and there was hardly any coordination between these two Depts.
3. Little on no involvement of the local people and due to standarised technical norms adhered to, local preferences and needs were not easily accomodable.
4. Lack of sufficient awareness amongst the villagers as to the benefits of watershed devp. and consequently, they treated all the Govts. efforts as employment-generating activities rather than as measures that could enhance their own basis of production and livelihood. Since they did not contribute anything towards costs, either by way of voluntary labour or cash, they did not feel it was their own work.
5. Since the villages were not adequately organised or convinced of the need of social discipline they made no efforts to protect the structures raised or the plantation that were made. They felt it was not their work but that of the Govt’s.

The upshot was that the Govt. officers did their job; villagers involved themselves only to the extent they got wage income, and the structures and measures implemented were left to their fates. There was neither a sense of ownership, nor pride in the work done . As a result, measures that were intended to achieve drought-proofing did not fulfill their expectations and were barely distinguishable after a few years .

In 1981 the Govt. of Maharashtra launched COWDEP (Comprehensive Watershed Development Programme) to address the issue of the recurrent drought and crop failures. The emergency relief scheme called EGS (Employment Guarantee Scheme) was drawn upon to fund this effort. It was a large-scale effort and though a lot was achieved, it was disappointing in terms of drought-proofing and stabilisation of agricultural production.

Some of the reasons, amongst others, for this situation have been outlined above . It became increasingly evident and acknowledged as such, by both Govt., NGOs and concerned private Institutions, that unless people were involved and adequately supported in terms of timely technical, financial and managerial inputs, watershed development as an effective strategy for drought-proofing would not be realised either at the local (micro-level) or the regional level (macro-state level). This coincided with the growing realisation in the public sector of the limits of its competencies as well as its interventions. Simultaneous to this, was the growing acceptance of the potential and achievements of the private sector, the recognition of the strengths of group organisation and the willingness to collaborate in areas of mutual concern.

At this point the IGWDP was launched by Fr. Hermann Bacher which brought together these various streams and processes into a dynamic partnership stretching from the grassroots’ level through the regional and state level upto the national level. He recognised that drought could be combated and poverty mitigated in rural areas primarily through regeneration along watershed lines of the eco-space in which people lived. For this, the people would have to be catalyzed and mobilised. This could be only done by those in close contact with them and enjoying their confidence, a role largely fulfilled by the voluntary sector (NGOs). Nevertheless if significant results as well as scale were to be achieved, both locally and at the state level, then the involvement of framework actors like Govt., the political establishment and financial institutions was a sine qua non.

At the State and the Programme level and institutional framework, which drew upon the competencies of both the private and public sector as well as reduced their inherent limitations, to the extent possible, was evolved by all the actors involved. To ensure financial accountability as well as to fulfill legal requirements, the bilateral funds were routed through a Govt. of India, financial institution called NABARD, which is the apex refinance agricultural bank in India. To ensure GOM support, the highest civil authority (Secretary) of 3 Depts., namely Soil and Water Conservation, Forest and Agriculture, were represented on the state level sanctioning committee which is actually the highest Policy, Sanctioning and Review Body of the Programme. To ensure ownership of the project, building of capacities as well as accountability, project funds were routed directly to an account operated jointly by the watershed dwellers and the NGO accompanying them. The autonomy and the freedom of the NGO was assured as administrative and management funds were routed directly to it.

At the local level (village and regional) it was expected that such a partnership would be realised operationally by the corresponding local actors both in the private and public sectors. To facilitate this, the GOM passed several enabling orders mandating such cooperation and extending developmental support in those areas not covered by the Programme. Thus, real partnership in terms of both the Revenue as well as Developmental Depts. of the GOM on one hand, and the people and their supporting institutions on the other, was envisaged.

This was realised satisfactorily at Sangamner under the leadership of the local political and administrative establishment, facilitated by Fr. Hermann Bacher. Regularly the various concerned Govt. Depts., NGOs and village self-help groups together with their political representatives would meet to plan, implement and review measures and activities.

This resulted not only in diminishing of mutual suspicions but also led to an increase in mutual appreciation and respect. The outcome was that all that benefited - people were enthused to come together because they were felt they were part of something bigger than themselves; Govt. officers gave of their best as they could see their efforts bearing fruit in term of appreciation and impacts ; NGOs and private institutions got linked into the local institutional network and felt a sense of belonging and appreciation. This resulted in the creation of goodwill and a favorable climate for the expansion of the IGWDP in other parts of Maharashtra. Moreover this approach, now popularly the Sangamner Pattern, is being adopted in a neighboring region (Akola taluka of Ahmednagar district) with discernible results in terms of all round cooperation and goodwill.

The cardinal lesson learned is that nothing succeeds like success. But success in the area of natural resource management is not possible unless all stake holders (and in this case they stretch from not only the villager and his neighborhood but also through the local political, institutional milieu upto the state level administrative and political level, since land and water management on a large scale is both a social and political issue), are involved. Such an involvement becomes feasible only if the right ambiance, attitudes, legal and administrative arrangements occur. Such arrangements are necessarily of the type that respects the autonomy and freedom of the various actors, while at the same time premises success only on effective cooperation amongst them, the possibility and impetus for which arises from the confluence of primary interests of each of these actors.