GEF UNDP Small Grants Programme
Experience sharing Workshop, 28th-29th July, 2009
Nagpur, Maharashtra
Draft Report

GEF UNDP SGP has 18 ongoing and 32 completed projects in Central region i.e in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Goa. These projects are addressing issues from Marine turtle conservation to Forest ecosystem protection, from developing startegies to address POPs in agriculture to promoting organic agriculture, developing seed bank to seed producer companies. Many of them have developed innovative activities, processes, mechanism to address issues related to biodiversity, climate change, land degradation etc.
A partner workshop was organized at Nagpur on 28th and 29th July 2009 with view to promote cross learning and share experiences from projects. Thirteen partner organizations were present for the workshop. Few other organizations working on issues of environment and communities were also invited to understand SGP. These organizations had contacted SGP earlier and expressed their interest to submit the proposal. It was aimed to expose them with ongoing partners so that quality proposals can be developed by them integrating various objectives of SGP.
Shri Prabhjot Sodhi, National Coordinator, GEFUNDP SGP, Shri BMS Rathore, member, National Steering Committee, SGP, Shri Vilas Gore, member, Central Regional Committee, Ms. Nirmala Pandit, Member, Central regional Committee and Shri Satish Awate, Programme Coordinator, CEE Central and RC, SGP Central Region were present during the workshop.

Day 1
Date: 28th July, 2009.
Venue: CNI, Centre for Human Potential Development, Nagpur.
The day started with a presentation by Mr. Satish Awate (RC, SGP Central Region) on the background of SGP in India and the role of host institutions like CEE and other organisations in its implementation. The main focus of the presentation was highlighting the five thrust areas of SGP, namely- biodiversity conservation, phasing out persistent organic pollutants, protection of international waters, climate change mitigation and prevention of land degradation.
This was followed by presentations of the various organisations that have been instrumental in the implementation of SGP in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on a diverse range of issues. The session was chaired by Mr. B. M. S. Rathore (Senior Advisor, Winrock International India).
The day saw presentations on two thrust areas of SGP- Biodiversity Conservation and Prevention of land degradation. The first presentation of the day was by Shri Ajay’Dolke, SRUJAN on their project  Project on Kolam for vulnerable tribes in Maharashtra. The project has tried to address the following three issues:

• Food security
• Restoration of forest
• Advocacy

Relating to the project, questions on marketing of mahua products, making of tea from palash tree and price regulation of mahua products were asked.

The second presentation was by Shri Kaustubh Pandharipande, SAMVEDNA Samaj Vikas Sanstha, Karanjalad, Washim, Maharashtra on Conservation of ‘lesser florican’ through the involvement of Pardhi community. The project had two components:

• Biodiversity conservation
• Strengthening livelihood of Pardhi tribe.

This involved the following:

• Protection of florican habitats- nests (5 active).
• Direct strengthening of alternate livelihood (goat rearing) for 20 Pardhi families.
•  Indirect strengthening of alternate livelihood (improving local forest and grassland resources) of 10 villages.

The question of livelihood has seen activities like animal husbandry and training on sheep and goat rearing being taken up by the organisation, while the question of floricans has seen protection of live nest, identification of nesting sites and self-ban on hunting. The audience inquired about the question of livelihood, declaration of protected area as an option and possibility of partnership with Forest dept. etc. It was also inquired by the chair whether there were incentives in the area for nesting on farmers’ land.

The next presentation was on Livelihood Security of SC, ST Women through Local Natural Resource by Suhas Ajgaonkar, Savitribai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal, Aurangabad, Maharashtra. This was essentially a project on Bibba, i.e. nut processing. This nut has medicinal as well as industrial uses (in paints). The project aims to improve processing of nut and formed institutions for its marketing. The audience was curious to know the locations where these were planted earlier instead of new areas now. The chair suggested few points as well. Firstly, there is a need to increase the productivity of bibba. Secondly, the importance of partnerships was also emphasised. Also the chair felt that we need to know the reasons for new generation’s indifference to such activities.

Sangata Sahbhagi Grmin Vikas Sanstha’s presentation was on their project called ‘Conserving Biodiversity in Surguja district through Community Participation, Chhattisgarh’. Shri Bhupendra Singh, Secretary Sangata Sahbhagi Grmin Vikas Sanstha, Sarguja, Chhattisgarh gave the presentation. This project involved both biodiversity and livelihood issues. Activities like making biodiversity register of local issues and wildlife, micro-plan for harnessing NREGA for water conservation and improvement of Rice Production through SRI (Madagascar technique adapted in local terms) have also been undertaken. Question on the number of days required for sowing of rice saplings was asked and it was felt that there is an urgent need to quantitatively show the data elaborated by the organisation. Chair suggested documentation of local changes made by organization in SRI could be important learning in long term to promote this activity.

The next presentation was by Ratan Umare, Dalit Sangh, Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh on their work with the Pardhi community in Hoshangabad district, Madhya Pradesh. The project aims to provide alternate livelihood to pardhi communities who are involved in poaching etc. It highlighted that of late the community has gained confidence to an extent and the organisation is attempting to bring them into the mainstream. Attempts have also been made to establish contacts with Forest and Police departments.
 Shri BMS Rathore summarised the whole discussion and highlighted point of linking communities directly with conservation and decision making in the activities. He also stressed upon documentation of activities and careful study before setting up any of the business enterprises at local level. Chair suggested that three subgroup should be made to discuss specific issues of the theme and share their experiences collectively with larger group on second day. Three groups formed were - Pardhi community and their role, Agro-biodiversity conservation and NTFP issues.
 
The post-lunch session saw presentations on the second thrust area of SGP- prevention of land degradation. Shri Vilas Gore chaired the session.

Dr. Gajanan Dange, Hedgewar Seva Samiti, Nandurbar, Maharashtra gave a presentation on Promoting Sustainable Livelihood and Nutritional Security in Nandurbar, Maharashtra. Organization is taking integrated livelihood approach improving agriculture as well as NTFP processing. It was inquired that how malnourishment has been tackled by the organisation.

Lokpanchayat’s presentation was on Conservation of local crop varieties through market linkages. This is upscaling project and aims to form seed Producer Company who produces traditional crop seeds and market it locally. In the first phase, organization has demonstrated organic farming practices for various crops and formed a seed bank. In this phase, they have identified 12 crop varieties for multiplication and marketing. Organization has started a Shop in Sangmaner to sell organic produces.

Shri Prabhjot Sodhi, NC, SGP India discussed about sustainability of the programmes and projects. He initiated a dialogue with audience on issues of sustainability and various points were emerged on the topic. He stressed that sustainability is key to SGP project and most important aspect of the project. Various factors responsible for sustainability are
1. Capacity building of institutions developed as well as NGOs,
2. Addressing needs of communities by identifying their needs by participatory methods like PRAs,
3. Change in roles - NGOs should develop their role more as facilitator rather than project implementing agency. Handholding of communities is a dynamic process and should be evolved over the period in organization as well as with community. This will help in bringing more involvement of local communities in the programme. 
4. Local skill-building is an important activity as this will improve traditional skills of people as well as bring in new skills. Organizations should take proactive steps to identify opportunities and resources to develop skills. 
5. Linking traditional and modern information and knowledge will be tipping point in success of the project.
6. Effective Market linkages and efforts for the same are inevitable in current scenario and bring in economic sustainability to the programmes.
7. Gender issues - While developing programmes and implementing them, issues of both women and men needs to taken into consideration other wise their might be new issues emerged in the process.
8. Networking with various ongoing initiatives in the region and outside region will bring in cross sharing and learning within organization and with communities and help to undertake small innovation.
10. Many projects are addressing some of the very fundamental issues of communities and environment and has high linkages with policy changes at local, state and national level. Organization should identify such issues and try to link it with policy initiatives. This will help in promoting incremental benefits of projects to larger community. 
11. While developing the programmes, organizations should critically evaluate institutional capability they have to address the project. This will help in developing the programmes as well as in networking and capacity building measures.
12. Dissemination of success and integrating into larger govt. system is very necessary for upscaling of the programmes and providing incremental benefits to larger community. Organization should proactively meet DCs and other officials to share their experiences and link them with ongoing programmes of governments.
13. Optimal utilization of local natural resources,
14. Technical aspects->linkage of technical and financial institutions, equity, legal aspects, etc.

All these points have emerged with active participation of participation.

Shri Kapil Sahasrabuddhe shared administrative and financial issues with partner organizations at the end of the day. He stressed on timely reporting and proper documentation of activities. Various issues like fund disbursements, account statements, FCRA requirnment, planning for last 20 % of budget were discussed.

The day was over with vote of thanks by Shri Kapil Sahasrabuddhe.

In the evening, a discussion was organized with new organizations who are interested in applying for SGP. Shri BMS Rathore, MS. Mirmala Pandit, Shri Satish Awate and Shri Kapil Sahasrabuddhe were present for the meeting along with other 10 organizations. All the organizations shared their experiences working with communities in their respective areas. Organizations also shared ideas on

which they wood like to apply for SGP and mentioned satisfaction that funding organizations are organizing such innovative and participatory meetings to develop local level programmes.

Day 2
Date: 29th July, 2009
Venue: CNI, Centre for Human Potential Development, Nagpur.

The second day of the workshop started with the two group meetings – organizations working with pardhi communities and organization working on agricultural diversity.
Shri Kaustubh Pandhripande, Samvedana, Maharashtra from Pardhi group shared their views on involvement of pardhi’s in conservation and related issues. The discussion was revolved around settlement of pardhis and hunting for self and for sale. The group felt that there is need to involve pardhi’s in decision making about anything which affects their traditional lifestyle and proactive steps from government are necessary. Pardhi’s have their own conservation practices which need to be accepted and promoted as part of work. Settlement should be voluntary and their nomadic nature need to be preserve. (Shri Sanjay Thakur, WWF Seoni and member of group opposed this idea and advocated for compulsory settlement).
Shri BMS Rathore moderated the discussion and agreed to write a note on this discussion.

Shri Balnath Sonawane, Lokpanchyat, Sangmaner shared discussion of agriculture group. The group discussed about conservation of traditional seeds. The group felt that adivasis’s and other marginalized people should not be forced for this conservation in the name of their lifestyle, varieties etc. These people are recently started getting benefits of modernization etc and development/conservation groups should respect their right to use modern lifestyle. On the other hand, group stressed that Protection of Plan Varieties and Farmers Rights Act need to be implemented and NGO’s should voluntarily register varieties of local crops with the PPVFRA. Necessity of organic farming is stressed by the group as important area in conservation of traditional seeds.
Two presentations were irganized from outside expert on Use of Bamboo and Linkages with CSR groups. Dr. Nirmala Pandit chaired the session.
In recent times, a number of corporate as part of their CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility) have involved themselves in development sector, especially in rural India. One of these- ITC- has also been active on this front and it was invited to throw some light on some of its initiatives in rural India. Its representative- Mr.Akhilesh Yadav highlighted company’s initiatives like e-chaupal in rural areas. This has enabled the farmers to bridge the information gap and in knowing the right prices sitting in their villages. Besides, they have also been benefited as the company uses effective tools to determine the quality to give them fair price for the products they sell to the company. Other aspects like management of water resources, etc have also been initiated by it. However, the gathering was a little sceptical of the corporate’s role in development sector, especially in rural India. Questions regarding the company’s role in particular areas only, its linkages with rural resources like land, water were asked from the representative.
The last presentation of the day was by Mr. Sunil Deshpande from Sampoorna Bamboo Kendra, who has been active on this issue for more than two decades. He highlighted a number of issues like recognizing local variants of bamboo, its propagation, mobilization of rural people for highlighting its beneficial aspects, learning from places like Arunachal Pradesh which abound in bamboo and its products, etc.

As the visit to Lad College for seeing mahua processing and its products couldn’t be worked out, Mr. Ajay Dholke showed a short documentary on the issue. It highlighted the mahua tree, its flowers, fruit, and its products. In the documentary, the audience also saw communities associated with mahua tree and in the making of various products from it. Lastly, the audience was also given few samples of mahua products like mahua chikki, mahua syrup, etc to taste and get some feel of it

Shri Kapil Sahasrabuddhe thanked all the participants for their participation.

Experience Sharing Workshop
28th and 29th July 2009
Nagpur
28th July 2009

29th July 2009

List of Participants

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