HSS India, together with Society for Integrated Developmental Activities, Research and Training (SIDART) conducted trainings where a total of 1187 participants were informed about various subjects like Grama Sabhas; Ward Sabhas and its importance, objective & benefits along with the description on the role of ward members; training of village volunteers.
The last three years of SIDARTs work depicts that the development has taken place in sectors like education, health, sanitation etc. Some of the specific achievements are as follows:
The role played by the Field Coordinators, who are based at Sambhariya only, was very important during the lockdown phase. They carried on the activities of the project with the continuous support and coordination from the SIDART team. As a result, the project was not halted and the villagers were benefitted in certain ways.
Together with Sakhi Women´s Resource Centre, it was possible to set up Gender Resource Centres (GRCs) in Kerala, which function as facilities that actively support women and children in each panchayat. Through the Sakhi-HSS intervention, almost all GRCs in the project area are fully functional, increasing effectiveness of local administration.
All the panchayats in the project area have conducted Women’s Status Study – 90% of the panchayats have conducted the full study while 10% have conducted the basic study. Some of the panchayats have published the Women’s Status Study Reports while the reports of some panchayats were in the final stage of printing till June 2020 (end of the project).
A hand book on Gender Inclusive Disaster Management at Local level was published and the books on methodology on women’s status study and Gender Resource Centre were printed.
A series of 6 online seminars involving 6 South Asian countries i.e. India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar and Philippines was conducted in the name “Asia Federalism Dialogues 2020”. It was based on the current challenges for decentralised governance in Asia with special emphasis on Covid-19 pandemic and the responses by central, intermediate and local level institutions.
The event had attracted hundreds of scholars, practitioners and critiques not only in countries of discussions but also outside the Asian countries. In addition, the topic was timely and very relevant, especially in the context of ongoing pandemic. Governments and governance structures around the world are introducing unique and innovative ideas to deal with the adverse effects of the pandemic, yet their efficacy varies largely. Some believe that the leadership matters more than the governance structure while others argue that institutions and processes of the government are also important.
The Dialogue opened the road to such programs in future which can bring together academicians and practitioners.
A series of 11 online Round Table Discussion and Publication on “Resource Federalism” was held from August to October 2020. The series of discussion touched upon diverse issues i.e. ecological aspect of dam building in the North-East region of India, growing presence of water market, water governance and community participation, gaps in environmental laws, fiscal federalism and decentralization etc. The participants with their experiences from diverse fields i.e. civil society, academia and bureaucracy brought varied insights on the issue.
The publication with the articles of all the participant authors shall be published in 2021.
The program "Water Federalism 2.0 - Publication and Online Seminar Series" was organized by the project partner Asian Confluence, with the aim of preparing a key publication with selected authors and to organise a series of online seminars on the subject of water federalism and linked issues. The publication titled “India’s Water Federalism: New Perspectives for Public Policy” will be an edited volume to be launched in 2021.
There were three web-based conversations held on topics related to Water Federalism:
The conversation dwelled on the policy space and the way forward for economic development and maintaining ecological integrity with reference to water governance in India. Click here to watch.
The conversation made an assessment of the challenges and progress made. The subjects like adaptation and mitigation of climate change, forest policy, wildlife, biodiversity, excessive privatization of ground water etc. were talked upon. Click here to watch.
The conversation shed light on subjects like India-EU Water Partnership, Water Management Techniques to deal with the problem of floods and droughts, role played by civil society and informal groups etc. The total number of views were 1044 in all three conversations. Click here to watch.