livelihoods. learning. sharing.

22

MMAANNTTHHAANN iinn

AAccttiioonn

44

CCoommmmuunniittyy

EExxcchhaannggee

66

EEvveenntt SSccaann

July 2014

LIVEwireLIVEwireVol. II No. 2

LLeevveerraaggiinngg IICCTT ffoorr ll iivveell iihhooooddss eedduuccaatt iioonn

on LIVEwireThis Month

President Pranab Mukherjee announced during a joint session of the

Parliament of India that the new Government will strive for a new National

Education Policy and a National Multi­skill Mission. These efforts, he said, will

include virtual classrooms and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

[NDTV.com, 9­June]. It is said that MOOCs could provide more equitable

access to higher and vocational education in India [The Hindu, 1­July]

especially since the country has recorded some of the highest enrolments in

international MOOCs [The Economist, 28­June].

Livelihoods MANTHAN has innovated in providing educational resources

through Information, Communication and Technology (ICT). Xavier Insitute of

Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB) had in March 2014 launched the Online

Knowledge Repository (OKR) as a unique tool to aid academics and

practitioners with over 200 resources for livelihoods education. Within three

months of its launch, the OKR has expanded with knowledge products from

international partners like the International Labour Organization (ILO), United

Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and national organizations like

Vrutti, BAIF and Access Livelihoods Consulting (ALC India). Chaitanya,

another Livelihoods MANTHAN partner, has piloted an e­learning course for

managers of SHG Federations [Refer article on Pg x in this issue]. This effort

has encouraged similar initiatives in partnership with State Rural Livelihood

Missions (SRLMs) across the country.

Others have also entered the livelihoods e­learning sphere in various ways.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has launched

Vikaspedia, a multi­lingual website which covers information under several

verticals like agriculture, education and social welfare. Grameen Gyan Kosh

is a knowledge repository on issues related to rural India, initiated and hosted

by the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). Another emerging

archive of oral and visual history of rural India is the People's Archive of

Rural India which aims to help create educational resources for students

and teachers.

All these initiatives are welcome and encouraging for the cause of sustainable

livelihoods in India. Since these varied efforts are directed towards the same

purpose of serving rural India it would be worthwhile to explore synergies in

collaborating with each other and if possible, create a single platform to reap

the benefits of coordination and synchronization. Such a uniform strategy will

only hasten the process of bringing all the stakeholders together and create a

more vibrant and productive livelihoods ecosystem in India.

- 1 -

MMAANNTTHHAANN iinn AAcctt iioonn

Chaitanya's e­learning course for federationmanagers

Chaitanya has been conducting courses on micro finance

development and management for federations and micro

finance professionals in collaboration with TISS since

2011­12. Based on this and the needs assessment study

conducted by the Livelihoods MANTHAN team in Bihar,

Gujarat and Odisha in 2011­12, Chaitanya developed an

e­learning course for federation managers and

professionals interested in livelihood promotion. The

course involves both classroom modules and field work.

To understand the specific needs of SRLMs for

facilitating this e­learning course Chaitanya conducted a

workshop with another MANTHAN partner ­ EDI,

Ahmadabad in April 2014 with representatives from the

Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat and MP SRLMs offering

suggestions and also expressed interest in scaling up

the course. Details of the course design and framework

can be downloaded here.

National resource persons orientationworkshop in NIRDAvanish Kumar (MDI Gurgaon), KV Gouri (ILRT), Manoj

Mishra (EDI) and Sudha Kothari (Chaitanya) were

among the MANTHAN partners who participated in the

Interactive Orientation Workshop for National Level

Resource Persons at the National Institute of Rural

Development (NIRD), Hyderabad in April 2014. The day

and half long workshop sought inputs from the resource

persons with respect to themes, areas and activities on

livelihoods promotion in India. The partners shared

some of the activities and knowledge products from

Livelihoods MANTHAN which were appreciated and

welcomed with interest by all the participants. The

workshop was also an invitation to all the resource

persons to participate in capacity building at the state,

News updates from the Livelihoods MANTHAN consortium

­ 2 ­

district and block levels. It was also noted that NRLM

is initiating monthly mission visits to the states and is

keen to extend its evolving partnership with NGOs.

International research seminar and policyworkshop on SRIThe National Consortium on System of Rice

Intensification (NCS) in collaboration with the

Wageningen University and Xavier Institute of

Management Bhubaneswar organized an international

research seminar and policy workshop on "Recent

changes in rice production and rural livelihoods: New

Insights on SRI as a socio­technical movement in

India" at New Delhi from June 19th to 21st.

The research seminar shared research findings on SRI

and saw participation from other researchers in India

and the world working on different aspects of SRI.

The third day saw a policy workshop with several

stakeholders ­ civil society organisations, researchers,

supporting agencies, livelihood missions, etc.

discussing the policy implications of SRI in India. The

abstracts, presentations and other details of the

workshop can be accessed here.

XIMB at ACCESS' value chain casewriteshopACCESS Development Services in partnership with

International Institution for Rural Reconstruction

(IRRI) organized a writeshop to cases around the

theme of agri­value chains and financial services. The

writeshop was organized in New Delhi from June 16th

to 18th. Joseph Satish from XIMB was one of the

participants in the writeshop. The draft cases were

reviewed by Dr. Sankar Datta and Ms. Shreemoyee

(of Lucid Solutions), the facilitators of the writeshop.

The authors then revised the cases based on peer and

LIVEwire July 2014

MMAANNTTHHAANN iinn AAcctt iioonn

expert reviews with a focus on identifying the success

factors for replicating the value chain experience in

different regional/international contexts. With the

submission of the final drafts completed, ACCESS plans

to soon launch a compilation of the revised cases.

ILRT's Training of Trainers on LivelihoodMapping in Mozambique

Institute of Livelihood Research and Training (ILRT –

earlier The Livelihood School), India, and International

Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) are together

involved in the Virtual Livelihood School ­ Africa (VLSA)

intervention which seeks to address the cross­cutting

livelihood challenges in the three southern Africa

countries of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In this background, IIRR and ILRT organized and carried

out Training of Trainers (ToTs) on the Livelihood

Mapping Process and the BASIX Livelihood Triad

framework/Value Chain Development. More than 20

livelihoods promoters from Mozambique, South Africa,

Zimbabwe and Kenya participated in this ToT from June

30 to July 14 2014 at Maputo, Mozambique.

The training, which was facilitated in Portuguese, had a

fully equipped ‘simultaneous interpretation’ to and from

English to Portuguese – both in the classroom and in the

field visits. The main facilitators for the two ToTs were

Dr SS Tabrez Nasar, Vice Dean, ILRT; Mr. G. Swamy,

Senior Faculty, ILRT and Mr. Joseph Nyangi Irungu,

Program Officer, Food Security & Wealth Creation

Program, IIRR, Kenya.

XIMB and GIZ organize roadshow on financialcapability in BhubaneswarDuring May 2014, GIZ organized a series of road shows

in different cities in India to sensitize people regarding

News updates from the Livelihoods MANTHAN consortium

­ 3 ­

the concept of financial capability, which is a people­

centered approach to rethink financial inclusion. As

part of this effort, Prof. Shridhar Dash of XIMB helped

organize the the roadshow for the Eastern region in

Bhubaneswar on 20th May. Earlier another MANTHAN

partner, Chaitanya along with YASHADA had

organized the roadshow for the Western region in

Pune on 13th May. The roadshows saw several LLG

members participating and discussing GIZ’s research

study on ‘How Rural Low­Income Households Perceive

Financial Capability’. The report, details of the road

shows and other Financial Capability Tools can be

found on the website: http://finance4impact.in/

Bidding farewell to Ajit Kanitkar,Welcoming Srini IyerAjit Kanitkar completed his tenure of 8 plus years as

Program Officer with the Ford Foundation on June 30,

2014. At a special event to honour the contributions

of Ajit Kanitkar and his colleague Mr. Vasant

Saberwal, Ford Foundation and its partners including

Livelihoods MANTHAN, fondly remembered their many

contributions to livelihoods promotion and rural

development over the years.

Subsequently, Srinivasan (‘Srini’) Iyer has taken over

the mantle as Program Officer for the Expanding

Livelihood Opportunities for Poor Households initiative

in India. Srini was recently with the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) India and has

worked for more than 25 years on development and

poverty reduction. He has worked in several states in

India and in Nigeria, with extensive experience in

policy and projects advancing the goals of sustainable

livelihoods, natural resource management, access to

clean energy, and climate resilience.

LIVEwire July 2014

­ 4 ­LIVEwire July 2014

CCoommmmuunnii ttyy EExxcchhaannggeeDialogue in the Livelihoods Learning e-Group

Forum for extending comprehensive supportto producer organizations

Mr. MV Ashok, Chief General Manager, Department of

Economic Analysis & Research (NABARD) proposed to

build a forum of organizations to support farmers and

others involved in promoting producer organizations.

This support has been of various forms including equity

support, management support, financial support,

capacity building and training support, technological

support for undertaking activities, and marketing

support for the commodity. He invited organizations

involved in extending such services to initiate

meaningful dialogue to support agriculture in India. Mr.

Manoj Mishra of EDI added that the services should

include the development of a robust business cum

perspective plan to take care of marketing, financial,

technological and also the capacity building and training

support. He also suggested the importance of an

operational model that takes a cyclic view of supply

chain processes to help define process ownership and

objectives. To round up this discussion, Kalpana Pant of

Chaitanya shared that learning from varied experiences

would be a boost to the promotion of producer

companies. She also shared the documentation of such

experiences as a part of the Livelihoods MANTHAN

network which has been provided online in the

Livelihood Journal (available here).

Relief to hailstorm affected families

Ved Arya of SRIJAN had, in the e­group, shared

information on the extent of damage due to hailstorm in

Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra. While 11.5 lakh

hectare of crops were affected in in 51 districts of MP,

crops across 17.7 lakh hectare in Maharashtra's 28

districts were left damaged by untimely rains and

hailstorms. As part of its livelihood reconstruction

efforts, SRIJAN was able to secure support from the

state government for ensuring relief to the hailstorm

affected families including from the Chief Minister's

Office. SRIJAN’s plan includes working with the

government on the one hand and the affected people in

26 villages of three districts (Sagar, Raisen,

Chhindwara), on the other with an aim of bringing relief

to some 4000 farming households. SRIJAN has

established field teams to (i) bring about awareness

about the GoMP's Relief Guidelines among affected

families, and among elected representatives of the

villages, especially the village Sarpanches; they could

then seek redressal if they have grievances; (ii) assist

those in need to start demanding wage employment

under MGNREGA; and (iii) to put together a technical

assistance package for the upcoming kharif package,

which would be a pilot on climate smart sustainable

agriculture, albeit at a small scale.

Welcoming new members to the LivelihoodsLearning e­Group

The ever growing Livelihoods Learning e­Group currently

has more than 120 members. We are happy to welcome

the following new members and look forward to more

lively and productive dialogue from new and existing

members:

1. Ashis Panda, Sambhaav Trust

2. Debaraj Behera, Consultant, NRLM

3. Jeemol Unni, Director, IRMA

4. Manoj Agarwal, Rajasthan SRLM

5. N Madhu Murthy, Programme Director, ALC India

6. Narasingha Panigrahi, Director, SDRC

7. Nemani Chandrasekhar, Information Officer, WASSAN

8. Shyam Singh, Assistant Professor, IRMA

9. Sibabrata Choudhury, State Director, RDI Landesa

10. Srinivasan Iyer, Program Officer, Ford Foundation

11. Vikram Bhambhu, NRM livelihoods coordinator (UP)12. Warisha Yunus, Resource Person, ILO

13. Zulfiquar S Haider, CEO, Bharat Rural Livelihoods

Foundation

AAcccceessss aanndd ssuubbmmiitt rreessoouurrcceess oonn lliivveelliihhooooddss,, vviissiitthhttttpp::////kknnoowwlleeddggee..lliivveelliihhooooddss­­mmaanntthhaann..nneett//

Do you have events, research or publications to share in this newsletter?Are you looking to collaborate with others?Would you like to be part of the Livelihoods Learning e-Group?

Email us at manthanlive@ximb.ac. in

If you have any comments or feedback on this newsletter, please email us; we would behappy to refine and innovate in future editions of LIVEwire.

Editorial TeamJoseph Satish VC Shambu Prasad

Produced byXavier Institute of Management,

Xavier Square,Bhubaneswar - 751 013

Odisha, INDIAPh: + 91 -674-6647 720

Email: manthanlive@ximb.ac.inWeb: http://livelihoods-manthan.net/

Eleventh Biennial Conference onEntrepreneurship at EDI ­ February 2015The Eleventh Biennial Conference on Entrepreneurship

testifies to Entrepreneurship Development Institute's

(EDI) pursuit of excellence within India and

internationally. EDI invites researchers, educators and

practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship to

participate in and contribute to the Eleventh Biennial

Conference on Entrepreneurship to be held during

February 18­20, 2015 at EDI, Ahmedabad. researchers

are invited to contribute papers and reports that bear

upon and enfold the field of entrepreneurship theory and

practice.

Download conference brochure here

Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration atXLRI ­ September 2014The Fr. Arrupe Centre for Ecology and Sustainability

(FACES), XLRI plans to initiate the Dr Verghese

Kurien Memorial Oration on Sustainable Development

on September 9th, 2014 at 6 PM in XLRI,

Jamshedpur. The inaugural oration will be delivered

by Dr Harsh K Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD on Dr

Kurien’s Anniversary.

EEvveenntt SSccaannUpcoming livelihoods events across the nation

­ 5 ­LIVEwire July 2014

LLIIVVEEwwiirree NNeewwsslleetttteerrVVooll.. IIII,, NNoo.. 22,, JJuullyy 22001144

­ 6 ­LIVEwire July 2014