Fwd: {xissalmunibihar} strategies for implementation of NULM
Amit Sinha
From: Dhruv J Sengupta <dhru...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 12, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: {xissalmunibihar} strategies for implementation of NULM
To: Amit Sinha <amit...@gmail.com>
Cc: "xissb...@googlegroups.com" <xissb...@googlegroups.com>
http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=41711
National Mission Manager
Aajeevika - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)
--Dear Members,
Let me first congratulate Mr. Agarwal and his ministry (HUPA) for initiating NULM!
Our organization, APMAS, has been working with the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA),Government of Andhra Pradesh for more than six years now. APMAS has been deeply involved in promoting & strengthening women SHGs and SHG federations in urban areas since 2005. In collaboration with MEPMA, we have piloted initiatives like promotion of urban SHG federations at the slum and town level to take up financial inclusion, livelihoods promotion & social agenda. With funding support from Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) supporting these slum level & town level federations (SLFs & TLFs) to take up community projects like managing RO Water Plants to provide safe drinking water for slum dwellers at nominal cost, building of individual toilets for the households, improving drainage systems and effective management of the garbage. Over the years, we have also developed user-friendly book keeping systems for the urban SHGs and SHG federations, a video film on a step by step approach in promoting SHG federations in municipal areas, a video film on community managed water & sanitation in slum areas and livelihoods mapping tools to identify & support suitable livelihoods options for the urban poor. In partnership with MEPMA, APMAS is supporting nearly 20,000 urban SHGs, 1,000 Slum Level Federations (SLFs) and 50 Town Level Federations (SLFs). We are currently supporting 12 RO Water Plants managed by the Slum Level Federations in an effective manner. Nearly 2,5000 individual toilets were built for the SHG members with 50% funds from MSDF and the remaining 50% cost borne by the SHG member. Social mobilization, building institutions of the poor in the form of SHGs and SHG federations has been the main focus. MEPMA and APMAS worked together in implementing a community managed water & sanitation program through the urban SHG federations. Promoting a system of self regulation (audit, grading, elections, financial literacy and internal controls) for SHGs and SHG federations through a cadre of community professional has been successfully implemented. For more details about APMAS experience in urban poverty reduction, particularly working with SHGs and SHG federations, read our report.
Just to give you a quick brief about MEPMA: The state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) has long been a model in India for implementing innovative poverty alleviation programmes in both rural and urban areas. In September 2000 the Andhra Pradesh Urban Services for the Poor (APUSP) was initiated as a partnership between the government of Andhra Pradesh and the Department for International Development (DFID), UK with a comprehensive agenda aimed at achieving a sustained reduction in the vulnerability and poverty of the urban poor of AP. The APUSP project ended in March 2008 and to institutionalize the experience and learning, a comprehensive strategy with a Mission Mode was grounded across all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of AP to address urban poverty issues through social mobilisation, community organisation, and enabling the poor to access various government services. The Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) was launched by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, UPA Chairperson on 1 September 2007 to implement the community-driven programmes of the ‘Indira Kranthi Patham – Urban’. Since 2007, MEPMA has reached out to over 34 lakh individuals to improve their socio-economic conditions through institution building, capacity building, livelihood promotion, addressing social issues and bank linkage programmes across Andhra Pradesh. There are more than 300,000 urban SHGs having membership in nearly 1,000 Slum Level Federations (SFLs) and 225 Town Level Federations (TLFs). MEPMA is focusing on a number of initiatives like organizing persons with disability (PwDs) into SHGs, playing a major role in promoting SHG Bank linkage with more than 90% of the existing urban SHGs having access to bank loans and in support the SHGs with a number of social security initiatives. Many of these urban SHGs & their federations are facilitating the process of their members accessing urban basic services and a number of other schemes meant for the urban poor. MEPMA is supporting street vendors, taking up social agenda addressing gender issues and health problems and many other issues through the institutions of the poor. In almost all the municipalities, the Town Level Federations have
The following are specific responses for the issues raised by you:
· National and international experiences on livelihood promotion for the urban poor
India has a number of successful experiences in livelihoods promotion for the urban poor. SEWA, Ahmedabad, EDA Rural Systems, Kudumbhashree, Kerala and many other organizations have successful models and considerable experience in promoting urban livelihoods.
· Strategies for building community institutions, livelihood promotion, micro financing for urban poor, including shelter for urban homeless under National Urban Livelihood Mission
Urban poor must be organized into institutions which are owned, managed, controlled and used by them. Promotion of SHGs and SHG federations in urban areas has been successful in many parts of the country. In addition to promoting informal SHGs and their federations as formal bodies, there is a possibility of promoting organizing the street vendors into cooperatives and promoting a number of cooperatives based on the need and to achieve specific objectives. All the domestic workers could be organized into their own cooperatives. Similarly, all construction workers could be organized into unions / cooperatives. Having strong institutions of the urban poor (both women & men) would be a critical for them to realize their dreams and aspirations. Specific strategies could be:
· Building a cadre of community professionals (women identified from SHGs / Federations to provide animation & mentoring support to SHGs) to support in training, capacity building, accounting & book keeping, bank linkages, enterprise promotion, etc. These community professionals are called “Nagara Deepikas” or “Jankars” or “Animators” or “Community Activists” or “Community Auditors”or “Bank Saathis” more broadly called as the “social capital”. Having a large cadre of well-trained and motivated community professionals will ensure that the SHGs / Federations and other forms of organizations are supported to become self-reliant and sustainable organizations of the poor.
· Training and capacity building: the staff of NULM and also the community professionals must be provided continuous training and capacity building. As part of their orientation & immersion, they must be exposed to the best practice SHGs and SHG federations. It may be useful to develop decentralized training facilities for training a large social capital in the form of book keepers, animators, auditors, enterprise promoters, gender activists, etc. In each of the municipality or city, necessary infrastructure should be provided for this purpose.
· Financial Literacy for Livelihood Promotion: The women members of the SHGs should be provided financial literacy and economic education through a participatory approach. Emphasis must be on savings, including voluntary savings, as there is tremendous potential for savings in the urban poor households.
· Innovative financial products to suit the needs of the urban poor: Compared to the rural areas, urban poor require diverse financial products to suit their livelihood strategies. Urban poor require daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly savings products. Special savings products for education, health, etc., will have to be offered and effectively managed. As these products require sophistication, SHGs many not be able to handle such products. Either SHG federations which are registered or cooperatives will be most suited. Insurance & pension products will be most needed by the urban poor, particularly the health insurance
· Community managed water & sanitation: One of the major problems for the poverty in urban areas is drinking unsafe water resulting in high incidence of diseases. Not having individual sanitary latrine and mis-managed garbage collection all contribute to ill-health and resulting in loss of productive-person days and also huge expenses for health. SHG federations can be trained and supported for managing safe water systems and also garbage collection and processing. Providing individual tap connections to the home of the poor will go a long way. The municipal authorities can assign the responsibility of sanitation in slum areas to the SHG federations.
· Promotion of livelihoods organizations: Almost all the urban poor are economically active. However, they are exploited by many middle men. Organizing them into formal organizations to have effective linkages to improve their livelihoods would be necessary. To promote livelihood organizations, building on the platform of SHGs and SHG federations, a systematic livelihoods mapping will have to be undertaken. APMAS has developed comprehensive urban livelihoods mapping tool kit. The same can be shared with NULM and other interested stakeholders.
· Partnership with NGOs and other Civil Society Organizations: To effectively implement NULM, partnerships with credible NGOs that have been engaged with a number innovative initiatives in address urban poverty, will be one of the most important strategies that can be perused. Under NRLM, detailed NGO partnership guidelines have been developed. NULM can review those and appropriately adopt those for partnering with NGOs in addressing urban poverty.
· Partnership with Private Sector: A number of corporate sector agencies have been engaged in supporting NGOs working in slum areas. Many corporations are directly involved with poverty reduction initiatives thru their foundations. For skill building, for promoting innovative micro-enterprises and for placement-linked training, partnership with private sector will be an important strategy.
· Names of institutions that have effectively demonstrated successful models and pathways for ameliorating urban poverty
UNDP solution exchange can compile the list of successful models and organizations addressing urban poverty and the same can be shared with MHUPA.
APMAS will be happy to share with NULM all the training modules and other resource materials available with us. We can provide training of trainers and technical support based on our experience of working with urban poor in Andhra Pradesh. Based on our experience, we are conducting a 5-day Training cum Exposure Programme on Urban SHGs and SHG federations during 10th to 14th December 2013. State Governments, NGOs and other organizations interested in this program may send their nominations.
Best
C S Reddy
APMAS, Hyderabad
Regards,Amit SinhaPM- Skills & PlacementJharkhand State Rural Livelihood MissionDept of Rural Development,Govt. of JharkhandRanchiTel: +91 9431089396Skype ID:- amit8oneEmail ID:- amit...@gmail.com
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