World Bank Document€¦ · MADHYA PRADESH DISTRICT POVERTY INITIATIVES PROJECT December 30, 2008 Sustainable Development Sector Unit Agriculture and Rural Development Unit India

Document of The World Bank

Report No: ICR00001029

IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT (IDA-34300 TF-53826)

ON A

CREDIT

IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 84.2 MILLION (US$110.1 MILLION EQUIVALENT)

TO THE

REPUBLIC OF INDIA

FOR A

MADHYA PRADESH DISTRICT POVERTY INITIATIVES PROJECT

December 30, 2008

Sustainable Development Sector Unit Agriculture and Rural Development Unit India Country Management Unit South Asia Region

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS

(Exchange Rate Effective March 2000)

Currency Unit = Rs Rs. 1.00 = US$0.23 US$ 1.00 = Rs.44.0

FISCAL YEAR

April 1 – March 31

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRO NYMS ADB Asian Development Bank APP Anti-poverty programs BPL Below Poverty Line CIF Community Investment Fund CIG Common Interest Groups CBO Community Based Organization COM Community Operations Manual CS Country Strategy DFID Department for International Development DPSU District Project Support Unit DPM District Project Manager DPU District Project Unit EFC Employment Facilitation Centers EPCO Environmental Planning & Coordination Office EMF Environmental Management Framework GoI Government of India GoMP Government of Madhya Pradesh GP Gram Panchayat HOD Head of Department IES Impact Evaluation Survey ILP Integrated Livelihood Program M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MP Madhya Pradesh MP-DPIP Madhya Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project MP-SPAI Madhya Pradesh Society for Poverty Alleviation Initiatives MTR Mid-Term Review NABARD National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development NCHSR National Center for Human Settlement and Environment NGO Non-Governmental Organization PIP Project Implementation Plan PFT Project Facilitation Teams PPP People-Private sector Partnerships PO Producer Organization P&RD Panchayat and Rural Development PRI Panchayati Raj Institutions

RGM Rajiv Gandhi Missions ST Schedule Tribe SC Schedule Caste SHG Self-Help Groups SIDBI Small Industries Development Bank of India UC Utilization Certificate VDC Village Development Committees ZPDPIS Zila Parishad District Poverty Initiatives Sub-Committees

Vice President: Isabel M. Guerrero

Country Director: Rachid Benmessaoud

Sector Manager: Adolfo Brizzi

Project Team Leader: Nathan M. Belete

ICR Team Leader: Biswajit Sen

ICR Primary Author Sati Achath

INDIA MADHYA PRADESH DISTRICT POVERTY INITIATIVES PROJECT

CONTENTS Data Sheet A. Basic Information B. Key Dates C. Ratings Summary D. Sector and Theme Codes E. Bank Staff F. Results Framework Analysis G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs H. Restructuring I. Disbursement Graph

1. Project Context, Development Objectives, and Design ..........................................................1

3. Assessment of Outcomes.......................................................................................................13

4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome .....................................................................19

5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance..................................................................20

6. Lessons Learned....................................................................................................................23

7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners .......................25

Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing ......................................................................................27

Annex 2. Outputs by Component ..............................................................................................28

Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis..............................................................................31

Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes .........................33

Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results........................................................................................35

Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results ...............................................................37

Annex 7. Summary of Borrower’s ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR..................................39

Annex 8. List of Supporting Documents...................................................................................49

MAP IBRD No. 30986R ...........................................................................................................50

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A. Basic Information Country: India Project Name:

Madhya Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project

Project ID: P059242 L/C/TF Number(s): IDA-34300,TF-53826 ICR Date: 12/30/2008 ICR Type: Core ICR Lending Instrument: SIL Borrower: INDIA Original Total Commitment:

XDR 84.2M Disbursed Amount: XDR 69.8M

Environmental Category: F Implementing Agencies: MP-DPIP Cofinanciers and Other External Partners: B. Key Dates

Process Date Process Original Date Revised / Actual Date(s)

Concept Review: 05/05/1999 Effectiveness: 02/27/2001 02/27/2001 Appraisal: 06/19/2000 Restructuring(s): Approval: 11/07/2000 Mid-term Review: 04/16/2004 Closing: 06/30/2006 06/30/2008 C. Ratings Summary C.1 Performance Rating by ICR Outcomes: Satisfactory Risk to Development Outcome: Moderate Bank Performance: Satisfactory Borrower Performance: Satisfactory

C.2 Detailed Ratings of Bank and Borrower Performance (by ICR) Bank Ratings Borrower Ratings

Quality at Entry: Satisfactory Government: Satisfactory

Quality of Supervision: Satisfactory Implementing Agency/Agencies: Satisfactory

Overall Bank Performance: Satisfactory Overall Borrower

Performance: Satisfactory

C.3 Quality at Entry and Implementation Performance Indicators

Implementation Performance Indicators QAG Assessments

(if any) Rating

Potential Problem Project No Quality at Entry None

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at any time (Yes/No): (QEA): Problem Project at any time (Yes/No):

No Quality of Supervision (QSA):

None

DO rating before Closing/Inactive status:

Satisfactory

D. Sector and Theme Codes

Original Actual Sector Code (as % of total Bank financing) General agriculture, fishing and forestry sector 35 47 General industry and trade sector 46 Power 15 Roads and highways 25 7 Sub-national government administration 15 Water supply 10

Theme Code (Primary/Secondary) Education for all Secondary Gender Primary Secondary Other rural development Secondary Primary Participation and civic engagement Primary Primary E. Bank Staff

Positions At ICR At Approval Vice President: Isabel M. Guerrero Mieko Nishimizu Country Director: Rachid Benmessaoud Edwin R. Lim Sector Manager: Adolfo Brizzi Ridwan Ali Project Team Leader: Nathan M. Belete Luis F. Constantino ICR Team Leader: Biswajit Sen ICR Primary Author: Sati Achath F. Results Framework Analysis Project Development Objectives (from Project Appraisal Document) The project's DO is to improve opportunities for the poor and vulnerable, especially women, to meet their own social and economic development objectives in the poorest villages of fourteen districts of the state.

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Revised Project Development Objectives (as approved by original approving authority) The objective was not revised. (a) PDO Indicator(s)

Indicator Baseline Value

Original Target Values (from

approval documents)

Formally Revised Target Values

Actual Value Achieved at

Completion or Target Years

Indicator 1 : Increased incomes and assets enjoyed by project beneficiaries as a result of investments supported through matching grants provided by the project.

Value quantitative or Qualitative)

Rupees 6963 Rupees 7026 26.1%

- 8% increase in household expenditures as compared to the baseline. - 5% increase in ownership of household assets as compared to the baseline.

55% increase in real median household income -16% increase in real median household expenditures -183% increase in household savings

Date achieved 06/30/2006 06/30/2006 06/30/2008 Comments (incl. % achievement)

(b) Intermediate Outcome Indicator(s)

Indicator Baseline Value

Original Target Values (from

approval documents)

Formally Revised

Target Values

Actual Value Achieved at

Completion or Target Years

Indicator 1 : Number of subprojects financed by the project Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 12,000 56089


Indicator 2 : Beneficiary population (no. of households) Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 300,000 325724


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Indicator 3 : Participation of tribal groups (% of beneficiary population) Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 6% 26%


Indicator 4 : Participation of women (% of beneficiary population) Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 30% 37%


Indicator 5 : Value of formal bank loans to project beneficiaries (Rs million) Value (quantitative or Qualitative)

0 15 575.33


G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs

No. Date ISR Archived DO IP

Actual Disbursements (USD millions)

1 03/27/2001 Satisfactory Satisfactory 3.50 2 05/17/2001 Satisfactory Satisfactory 3.50 3 10/28/2001 Satisfactory Satisfactory 3.71 4 06/27/2002 Satisfactory Satisfactory 4.43 5 12/26/2002 Satisfactory Satisfactory 6.03 6 06/23/2003 Satisfactory Satisfactory 11.31 7 12/16/2003 Satisfactory Satisfactory 14.56 8 05/24/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 26.50 9 12/27/2004 Satisfactory Satisfactory 38.00

10 06/06/2005 Satisfactory Satisfactory 49.68 11 11/24/2005 Satisfactory Satisfactory 62.62 12 04/14/2006 Satisfactory Satisfactory 78.58 13 10/16/2006 Satisfactory Satisfactory 92.09 14 03/09/2007 Satisfactory Satisfactory 96.23 15 09/07/2007 Satisfactory Satisfactory 99.15 16 04/02/2008 Satisfactory Satisfactory 103.11

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H. Restructuring (if any) Not Applicable

I. Disbursement Profile

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1. PROJECT CONTEXT , DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES, AND DESIGN

1.1 Context at Appraisal Country Background 1. The main sector issue throughout India, including Madhya Pradesh (MP), was: (i) the lack of effectiveness of public expenditures in rural areas, including limited success over many years of public rural development and Anti-Poverty Programs (APPs) to reduce poverty; and (ii) the lack of success in fostering more responsive, accountable, and inclusive rural institutions through rural decentralization, despite the considerable success in establishing elected local governments in rural areas. 2. Since the early 1950s, the Government of India (GOI) and most state governments had been implementing APPs providing wage-employment, productive assets (such as land or animals), credit, and food security to the poor. For the most part, these programs were poorly targeted, inefficiently managed, and highly fragmented. The central and state governments were spending close to 6% of state gross domestic product (GDP) in rural development programs in MP. While this high level of expenditure targeted at rural areas demonstrates the degree of commitment to rural poverty alleviation, there were concerns regarding the effectiveness of these expenditures. The key issues included: (i) proliferation of programs; (ii) tied funds; (iii) supply-driven investments; (iv) high administrative costs; and (v) complex procedures. 3. The Government of Madhya Pradesh (GOMP) had several key rural poverty alleviation programs championed by the Chief Minister since 1995, which tried to address some of the above problems. The Rajiv Gandhi Missions (RGM) focused on three broad areas – education, health, and natural resource management. The RGM addressed some of the problems in earlier rural development programs by: focusing on outcomes (e.g., a school within one kilometer of each child) which helped coordination between programs; improving targeting based on marginalized areas and disadvantaged groups (e.g. women); and lowering administrative costs through community participation. Sector Background

4. The GOMP had identified lack of responsiveness and accountability of institutions as a key deterrent to poverty alleviation and rural development. The core strategy of the government to improve governance and delivery of public services was decentralization but obstacles stood in the way of this process and the emergence of effective and inclusive rural governments. First, the level and process of fiscal transfers was insufficient to allow rural governments to operate. Second, while rural governments, particularly at the village level, were given clear revenue authority few revenues were generated due to lack of capacity of local officials, administrative constraints and unwillingness of taxpayers and service recipients to pay for local public services. Third, administrative decentralization was weak. Fourth, there was little tradition of collective action at the village level. Fifth, there was lack of adequate information of how the system was supposed to operate. The GOMP strategy to deepen decentralization reform

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was based on: (i) community empowerment by strengthening village level institutions, such as the Gram Sabha; (ii) untied grants to the Gram Panchayat (GP) level (village); (iii) improved accountability mechanisms, namely by establishing the people’s right to recall local elected officials; and (iv) devolving state government powers to Zilla Sarkar (District Planning Committee).

Rationale for Bank assistance

5. An important objective of the Bank Group’s assistance to India was to reduce poverty through accelerated economic growth with equity. The Country Strategy1 (CS) of January 15, 1998 and CS progress report of February 18, 1999 highlighted the need to develop well-targeted programs to assist the poor, by promoting decentralization and beneficiary participation in development. The project targeted some of the poorest villages in MP and was to be implemented by communities and local governments. The CS also included a focus on states with a commitment to economic reforms. MP had shown such commitment through far-reaching reforms in the public sector, fiscal management, governance, and decentralization.

6. The GOMP had also taken action to improve access to social services, developed aState Policy on women and passed a series of State Acts intended to protect the interests of Tribals. A third CS objective was to work closely with other partners. GOMP was implementing its program of fiscal and administrative reform with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The program included restructuring of public corporations, control of the fiscal deficit, protecting investment in the social sectors, introducing a value added tax, increasing competition in the power sector and increasing water charges. Madhya Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project’s (MPDPIP’s) dual emphasis on increasing the effectiveness of both existing mechanisms of local governance and poverty alleviation processes complemented these reforms. The GoMP had also initiated discussions with the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) regarding a poverty alleviation and livelihoods project in districts not covered by the project. 7. The Bank brought its global experience on decentralized community driven rural development to India. There was still a great need in India to promote ’alternative’ approaches to rural development and poverty alleviation, and the GoMP specifically requested the project as a means to access the Bank’s international experience. The Bank brought budgetary support for poverty alleviation in a situation of fiscal crisis in the state, thus helping sustain current government efforts at poverty reduction. The Bank support of three District Poverty Initiatives Project’s (DPIP) (MP, AP and Rajasthan) was also envisioned to facilitate the sharing of information and experience among them thereby enhancing the quality of each project, their demonstration impact and total value to India’s development.

1 Document numbers: 17241-IN, and R99-12 (IDA/R99-10)

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1.2. Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators (as approved) 8. The Project’s Development Objective (PDO) is to improve opportunities for the poor and vulnerable, especially women, to meet their own social and economic development objectives in the poorest villages of Fourteen districts of the state. To achieve this objective, the project would: (i) create income security opportunities for the rural poor; (ii) empower active groups of disadvantaged people; and (iii) promote more effective, accountable and inclusive district and GPs (district and village governments) and other local support and service organizations through village organizations. 9. Key indicators included: (i) household income by sources; (ii) household expenditures; (iii) household assets; (iv) people’s perceptions of Common Interest Groups (CIGs), Village Development Committees (VDCs), and Zila Parishad District Poverty Initiatives Sub-committees (ZPDPISs); (v) participation of disadvantaged people, particularly women, in subproject activities and decision-making; (vi) community contributions in cash; and (vii) people’s awareness of the community activities, anti-poverty programs, and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) initiatives. 1.3 Revised PDO (as approved by original approving authority) and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification 10. The PDO was not revised. 1.4 Main Beneficiaries 11. The project’s main beneficiaries included socially and economically disadvantaged people in MP. The project sought to improve opportunities for the poor and the vulnerable, especially women by addressing: (i) their capacity to act collectively; and (ii) their ability to effectively use social and economic infrastructure and services. The expected major benefits to the rural poor participating in the project included: (i) increased incomes from greater access to productive assets (infrastructure, skills and resources); (ii) stronger organizations of disadvantaged groups; (iii) and improved ability to pressure village and district governments to become more responsive, accountable, effective and inclusive. 1.5 Original Components (as approved)

12. The DPIP program was implemented in 14 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The project consisted of the following two components: 13. Component I. Community Investment: (US$109 million.) The activities to be financed under this component would be demand-driven sub-projects to be proposed by CIGs either on their own, or through village organizations (VDC, Panchayats). The types of funds available to the beneficiaries were as follows:

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• Sub-Projects (US$97.7 million) would finance demand-driven sub-projects to be proposed by CIGs which would be approved by VDC, or by VDCs or GPs, which would be discussed by ZPDPIS. Both would be ratified by Gram Sabhas as part of the village plan. Based on the social assessments carried out it was expected that CIG subprojects would fall into three categories: (i) skills and organizations (e.g. microenterprises); (ii) infrastructure (e.g. habitation roads); and (iii) livelihood security (e.g. micro-irrigation).

• Village Funds (US$10.3 million) would be established through community cash

contributions and would last beyond the life of the project. They would finance operation and maintenance costs or any investments chosen by the villagers.

• Innovation Funds (US$1 million) would finance small demonstration projects to

be proposed primarily by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). 14. Component II. Institutional and Human Capacity Building: (US$25.70 million). The focus of this component would be to develop self-reliant and self-managed community based organizations. Accordingly, the majority of funds available under this component would be utilized in capacity building of various institutions in the project districts. The focus would be on: (a) project administration; (b) human resource development; (c) communications; (d) formation and strengthening of organization; and (e) monitoring and learning. The majority of funds would be utilized in Technical Assistance (TA) activities.

• Project Administration (US$6.0 million) would focus on: (a) day to day project management activities and (b) supporting the executing agencies at the district and village level.

• Human Resource Development (US$2.5 million) would focus on ensuring that all

project staff and staff of supporting organizations, such as NGOs share in values, objectives and methodology of the project, and have the skills to perform their roles. This would be achieved through recruitment policy, selection process, orientation and training, and a rewards system.

• Communications and Information (US$2.0 million) would: (a) raise awareness,

motivate and engage the poor and disenfranchised people to challenge the existing barriers and adopt participatory behaviors; (b) provide timely and well targeted information and facilitate learning opportunities for the poor to reduce the cost of participation; (c) use peer groups and team building to counsel and motivate, as well as conflict management, mediation and troubleshooting techniques; (d) reinforce their ability to sustain the new behavior through social support systems; and (e) promote a responsive and cooperative environment at the village and district level.

• Formation and Strengthening of Organizations (US$14.3million) would: (a) assist

villagers and in particular the weaker groups to form CIGs; and (b) monitor the quality of participation at the CIG and village level.

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• Monitoring and Learning (US$0.9 million) would: (a) support information gathering and analysis by primary users; (b) link this to decision-making fora; and (c) develop information flows between groups of users and/or decision-makers. Monitoring and learning activities would include: (a) performance tracking; (b) institutional tracking; (c) internal learning; (d) evaluation; and (e) special studies.

1.6 Revised Components 15. The components were not revised.

1.7 Other significant changes 16. While there were no changes in the project’s design, scope and scale, and implementation arrangements, there were changes in the project’s schedule and funding allocation, which are described below.

17. Project Schedule: The GOMP had requested a two-year extension of the closing date from June 30, 2006 to June 30, 2008. Although the Bank had agreed in principle to this request, it was decided to provide the extension in two steps of one year each. Accordingly, the project closing date was extended first by one year from June 30, 2006 to June 30, 2007, and then by one more year until June 30, 2008. The objective of the extensions was to allow the project team to bring the sub-project portfolio to an orderly closure, put in place conditions for sustainability, and to ensure a smooth transition to the second phase of the project. 18. Funding Allocations: During implementation, the Development Credit Agreement was amended twice to reallocate funds. First, by the end of May 2005 the disbursement rate was about 23%, which was low four years into the project. It was estimated that the project would not be able to use the undisbursed balance of about $75 million within the remaining one year of implementation, so $20 million was re-allocated to Tsunami emergency reconstruction project. The second reallocation aimed to increase the allocation under the incremental operating cost expenditure category and accordingly reduce the allocation under the goods expenditure category. The need to do so reflected a decision that was taken early in the project to rent rather than purchase vehicles as originally envisaged. Also the decision to extend the closing date of the project from June 30, 2006 to June 30, 2008 implied higher than originally envisaged incremental operating costs. The credit amount was fully disbursed at the time of project closing. 2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes 2.1 Project Preparation, Design, and Quality at Entry 19. During preparation, the project design took into account lessons learned from several ongoing and completed Bank-financed rural development projects in India. Further, lessons were also learned from many large scale community development

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programs in South Asia. The design considered the risk factors and appropriate measures were adopted to mitigate them. 20. Lessons Learned from Previous Bank-assisted Projects. The key lessons incorporated in the project design were the following: (i) put the community in the driver’s seat through control over funds and investment decisions to achieve efficiency and sustainability; (ii) communities can contribute towards investment and operational costs if they are assured of good service; (iii) it is not enough to mobilize communities for social action—they want economic opportunities and need investments to be made in these, alongside social mobilization; (iv) where there is an ongoing process of decentralization and local governments are emerging, it is important to work through these institutions to reflect local needs, expedite decision making and ensure the institutional sustainability of the programs; (v) to ensure speedy implementation through the development of streamlined procurement and disbursement rules and regulations, detailed operational manuals, computerized MIS, standardized financial management procedures, regular and rigorous auditing, and quantitative monitoring and evaluation; and (vi) create competitive employment conditions for the project management staff to attract and retain competent and motivated individuals. 21. Risks and their mitigation: The project faced the following High and Substantial risks and the measures mentioned below were taken to mitigate them:

Risk Risk Rating Mitigating measure

Bureaucratic interference with devolution of decision-making

High Very clear and transparent institutional arrangements and allocation of decision-making powers; appropriate recruitment and selection procedures for project personal to ensure their commitment to project objectives; adequate incentives to reward good performance.

Limited number and/or NGOs in project districts

High Use good NGOs as umbrella organization, to organize, supervise and train PTFs made of community members and government officials

Slow flow of funds to the district level

High Channeling funds through a State Society to the District to avoid constraints on state budgets from current fiscal crisis.

Beneficiaries are unable or inadequately organized to contribute to costs of implementation or O&M in cash,

High This would be closely monitored and reviewed after one year.

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Risk Risk Rating Mitigating measure

kind, labor and/or participation Inability to form strong CIGs of poor and develop capacity for collective action

Substantial Give top project priority to the formation and strengthening of organizations by creating capacity to do this in NGOs and PTFs, and closely monitoring the quality of participation in groups.

Inability to create an opportunity space in formal local structures for the poor to voice their demands and have them acted upon

Substantial Careful design of institutional arrangements and processes and monitoring of their implementation to ensure participation of the representatives of the poor in decision-making and priority given to communications and the ample flow of and accessibility of information.

Inability to influence state and GOI anti-poverty programs

Substantial Invest in close monitoring and evaluation and dissemination of project success and failures, and carry out specific studies evaluating the full range of anti-poverty programs.

22. In addition, the risks deemed moderate were also taken into account and appropriate measures to mitigate them were incorporated into the project design. 23. Adequacy of participatory processes: Consultations were held during project preparation with a broad cross-section of poor communities, a number of NGOs and Panchayat bodies. These continued during the project to further develop project modalities and procedures, as well as to expand an interested and supportive constituency for the project. NGOs also conducted the social assessments, the district capacity assessments and participated in the preparation of project strategy and plans.

2.2 Implementation 24. The project was not restructured and it was never at risk during implementation. The Bank conducted a mid-term review (MTR) of the project in April 2004, and assessed the progress to date on all project components, the current issues, and the actions to be taken to ensure the successful completion of the project. The following factors affected project implementation: Factors outside control of government or implementation agency 25. Positive Factors: The flexibility built into the project design enabled the project to use new information and learning to adapt the implementation to make them more

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effective in addressing problems faced by the poor, women, tribal and the marginal communities.

26. Negative Factors. The serious drought situation in many districts in the Bundelkand region from 2001 to 2004 reduced the capacity of communities to mobilize their cash contributions and also led to distress migration of people from villages to cities. This delayed implementation in the affected villages. In addition, heavy rain and flood in 2005 in Damoh, Chattarpur and Pannah districts led to loss of livestock and affected many beneficiaries. Factors subject to control of government or implementation agency 27. Positive Factors: The following positive factors contributed to implementation of the project:

• Direct transfer of funds to beneficiaries from the district office without layers of clearances or intermediaries.

• Proper identification of the poor in the project villages through a participatory wealth ranking process.

• Creation of assets through a demand-based system ensuring that the assets were put to productive use.

• Aggregation of base level groups—CIGs—into producer companies and cooperatives that ensured the supply of a variety of services to make assets more productive in a sustainable manner, such as marketing services.

• Quality leadership and its continuity provided by the project directors throughout the project, without frequent changes in project directorship.

• Communities did more with less money than originally expected for several types of works; and communities effectively pulled together their contributions, often exceeding the 15% required, and raised resources from other sources, such as MLA, and district and Panchayat funds.

• Direct access of the implementing agency (the DPIP-Project Management Unit (DPIP-PMU)), to highest authorities of the State, including the Chief Minister as the head of the Governing Body2 and the Principal Secretaries as the members of this Body. This direct access gave opportunities for the agency to present implementation difficulties and get support from the Governing Body to resolve problems and issues expeditiously. Similarly, the Executive Committee3 consisting of the Chief Secretary and the Head of

2 Governing Body is the main policy-making committee of the project. This body is in charge of giving overall policy guidance and direction to the project. It approves the Annual Plan, and also ensures the pro-poor policies of the government. 3 Executive Committee is the implementing body, responsible for project implementation and the achievement of performance indicators. It coordinates with various departments and agencies on behalf of the project.

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Departments (HODs) supported the agency in resolving coordination problems with various departments and in convergence.

28. Negative Factors: The factors that had affected the project implementation adversely were:

• The initial absence of a broad based social capital in the state on which to build the groups, leading to a greater focus on asset creation than group formation.

• Complex procedures of sanctioning subprojects and their certification leading to delays in both the transfer of funds to the beneficiaries and the closure of sub-projects after completion.

• Elections to the Union Parliament, State Assembly, and local body elections in 2003-2004 affected normal project activities, especially welfare activities, which came to a standstill during this period.

• Slow disbursements caused by the effort and time needed to create the project organization, recruit staff, and establish credibility and trust with villagers was underestimated, slowing disbursements in the first two years. Project implementation capacity was affected by the high number of vacant positions, representing about 10% of all sanctioned posts. This problem was mainly due to demand for experienced staff from other projects elsewhere in MP, and also from the private sector which was offering attractive salaries.

2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation, and Utilization (a) M&E design and implementation 29. Monitoring covered: (i) inputs, outputs, and outcomes; (ii) performance of project organizations; (iii) project processes; and (iv) project impacts. Monitoring for supervision focused on: (a) quality and quantity of participation of different social and economic groups in the CIG and VDC; and 30. Monitoring of CIGs was the responsibility of VDC and Process Facilitation Teams (PFTs) while monitoring of VDCs was the responsibility of PFTs. Monitoring for learning was undertaken by different levels of stakeholders—both for their own decision-making purposes and to improve management's understanding of project processes. 31. Performance tracking monitored several indicators such as: (i) number of CIGs and VDCs projected/formed; (ii) percentage of CIG members belonging to poor and vulnerable groups; (iii) number of CIG members receiving training by type of training; (iv) participation in CIG and VDC activities and decision-making; and (v) purpose and amount of sub-projects: submitted, approved, and implemented. 32. Institutional Tracking monitored: ( i) Overall institutional maturity score of CIGs, VDCs, and GPDPU; (ii) Inclusiveness rank of CIGs, VDCs, GPDPUs; and (iii) Autonomy rank of CIGs, VDCs, and GPDPUs.

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Internal learning monitored indicators generated by group self assessments and exchange visits. The objective of groups self assessments and exchange visits was generation of information about processes and cause-effect relations. Group self assessment took place at regular intervals throughout the project.

33. Exchange visits were used for cross-group learning. These involved experience sharing and learning from groups with similar interests—e.g., CIGs formed around the same activity, VDCs addressing similar issues, DPUs managing particular project components.

Evaluation comprised three activities: peer reviews, development audit and impact evaluation. 34. Baseline survey. At the inception of the project, a baseline survey was conducted in 2001 covering sampled villages in the 14 project districts. The aim of the survey was to identify and study the then existing economic base and social equations at the village level. Upon the completion of four years of operation, DPIP sponsored an impact evaluation survey (IES) in the same project villages to assess the impact of CIGs over the lives of people and the changes that were expected to have taken place at the grass-root level. It also included a survey of the control villages covered in 2001, where the project was not implemented. (b) M&E utilization 35. Outcomes of the monitoring and learning (M&L) analysis regularly informed decision-making processes at all levels. At the district level, an M&L committee headed by the District Project Manager (DPM), analyzed data and used data to make decisions and maintain the direction of the project. These decisions and actions were shared by the PFTs with the CIGs. At the state level, data were analyzed on physical, financial, activity-wise, sector-wise, and gender-wise categories. The information collected and analyzed was also used to update the side-letter with key performance indicators. Monthly M&L reports were also shared with concerned stakeholders on demand. This was considered as a good practice in terms of ensuring transparency, effective follow up, and accountability.

2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance 36. There were no significant deviations or waivers from the Bank’s fiduciary policies and procedures during the implementation of the project. However, in the initial stages, environmental safeguards compliance was deemed moderately unsatisfactory as screening procedures for sub-project preparation and implementation, and corresponding mitigation measures were not systematically followed. This was mainly because of the slow start by Environmental Planning & Coordination (EPCO), an autonomous registered agency sponsored by the Housing & Environment Department. 2.5 Post-completion Operation/Next Phase

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(a) Transition arrangements

37. The project has put appropriate transition arrangements in place related to organizational, economic, financial, and policy issues as described below. 38. Organizational Sustainability: CIGs that have been functioning during implementation will continue as responsible local institutions that can sustain beyond the project period.

• Village Development Committees (VDCs). The VDCs will continue as service-providers to their members, managing the Village Funds (Apna Kosh), assisting new CIGs, monitoring existing ones, bookkeeping, procuring inputs, trading and marketing services, etc. Out of the 2,900 villages in which project work is ongoing, 2,650 VDCs have been registered and $8.32 million in Village Funds (Apna Kosh), funds have been transferred to VDCs. VDCs have also initiated microfinance activities in their villages.

• Activity-based federations. These will continue to provide three types of services: (i)

market linkages, consisting of input procurement and marketing produces; (ii) bank linkages, currently for production loans and insurance; and (iii) knowledge linkages with universities, private companies, scientists for getting new technology, training for producers and staff. They also pool equipment banks such as tractors, crushers, generation sets, pump sets and other equipment. For details, see below under Government Policies.

• Producer Companies. The CIGs are functioning as production units and federated as primary producers of 17 district based producer companies. These producer companies have an active membership base of 62,000 shareholders with a share capital base of approximately $155,000. They supply quality inputs to their members and link them with the market for better prices.

• All assets created by the project, such as internal roads, dams, and ponds which are public utility social infrastructure assets for the villages, have already been handed over to Gram Panchayats. They have been registered with Patwari records and panchayats. User groups working as subcommittees of VDCs will maintain these assets.

39. Financial Sustainability: The major factors affecting financial sustainability in the project are the following:

• The Internal Corpus consists of: (a) member savings; (b) community investment fund (CIF)—i.e., project funds; (c) funds/grants from various government sponsored programs; and (d) the Village Fund (Apna Kosh), which is formed from contributions by CIGs as ten percent of their sanctioned project grants. This amount, deposited in a bank account, will be used for the maintenance of the assets created and other development activities.

• External Funds include loans from commercial banks that have been leveraged using the

internal corpus at the CIG and VDC levels. The total credit flow from commercial banks to these groups since 2,000 has grown to Rs. 46.61 crores, through 25,906 Kisan credit cards and Rs. 10.62 crore through direct linkages by 8124 CIGs.

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40. Economic Sustainability: The various tiers of institutions have developed business and management skills, making them viable economic institutions with public, private and cooperative partners. The line departments/government agencies have come to recognize CIGs and their federations as representatives of the poor and have established very productive partnerships to facilitate delivery of economic and social services. Similarly, commercial organizations acknowledge the low cost and efficient distribution and service delivery channels offered by the Community Based Organizations (CBOs). 41. Government Policies

a. Integrated Livelihood Program. GOMP has adopted an Integrated Livelihood Program, under which all the livelihood schemes, which were approved by the Gram Sabhas, will be integrated and implemented under the Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD). Later on, other departments may join willingly this delivery system.

b. SHG Development Policy. Under this policy, activity-based self-help groups (SHGs) are

federated as activity-based organizations similar to Producer Companies or cooperatives. The 50% cost incurred during the formation of an SHG federation will be reimbursed by the government, limited to the maximum of US$2,500. The federation will hire the services of specialist organizations for handholding support (initial three years) for the operation, development of business plan, development of linkages etc.

c. Activity-based federations registered as Producers’ Companies and/or MP Autonomous Co-operative Societies will be recognized and benefit as a co-operative society registered under MP Cooperative Act. These would be members of the state level federation of co-operative institutions—like marketing federations and milk federations.

d. Employment-oriented training policy. According to the existing demand of market, industries,

tourism, hotel, construction etc., unemployed youth will be trained and placed in various service sectors. Educated and uneducated, skilled and unskilled members will be registered at the village level through the GP. The resulting database will track youth according to the educational qualification, skill, age, experience, etc.

(b) Follow-on projects 42. The GOI has approved the Concept Note by the GoMP for a follow-on project. Negotiations for this project is expected to be held in early 2009 and effectiveness is expected by summer 2009. The project directly supports the GoMP’s Eleventh Five Year Plan in reducing poverty through effective implementation of various government schemes and externally assisted projects. The GOMP aims at reducing the poverty rate to 25% by the end of 2012. The proposed project is well aligned with the current Country Strategy (CS) that seeks to scale-up improvement of rural livelihoods using a community empowerment approach. It is also in line with the strategy adopted under the CS that seeks to enhance the involvement of the Bank in those states of India where the incidence of poverty, both in terms of absolute number of people and percentage of population, is high. The project will also support the MDGs in the following specific areas: (i) improving incomes of the poorest - reducing the proportion of the people living on less than $1 per day (Goal 1, Target 1); (ii) promoting gender equality and empowering women (Goal 3, Target 4); and (iii) development and implementation of strategies for decent and productive work for youth (Goal 8, Target 45).

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(c) Future impact evaluation 43. The recommendation is that a panel of experts from various fields conducts an independent external evaluation in 2011 to evaluate the project.

3. ASSESSMENT OF OUTCOMES

3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation 44. The objective of MPDPIP is in consonance with MP’s social and economic development agenda. The current poverty reduction strategy of the GOMP is built around empowerment of women CIGs and increased resources have been allocated in the State Budget to provide financial support to the approach. In addition, many government programs envisage an important for the organizations of the poor in delivery of services and managing social welfare programs. In many respects, the project design and implementation have become more relevant in the current policy environment. It is still relevant and appropriate to the needs of the State. The project is also consistent with the Bank's CS4 (September 15, 2004) for India. According to the CS, one of the key pillars is investing in people and empowering communities. The CS also promotes scaling up support to improved rural livelihoods through state level interactions and investment operations using a community-driven development approach. Since the project was initiated, six new operations using similar approaches have been initiated in India and four others are in the pipeline.

3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives 45. Satisfactory. The project was successful in achieving its objectives. The following achievements demonstrate that there is a direct linkage between the project’s outputs and outcomes:

• The project’s interventions have enabled the poor and poorest households to acquire assets (especially livestock) and shift from wage employment to self employment.

• The poor and the poorest households have brought their fallow land under cultivation. There is a reduction in distress and contract migration, especially for women and children

• There is also a reduction in debt burden and dependence on moneylenders. • CIGs have become a major credit supply institution with increased access to finance from

commercial banks. The poor households are now perceived as clients by commercial banks.

Thriving organizations of the poor, social mobilization and institution building 46. The project’s core investment was to support the formation CIGs of the poor and to help them become self-managed, self-reliant, and sustainable institutions. This institutional arrangement has enabled the poor to access a range of services, resources and expertise from both public and private sector.

4 Document number: 29374-IN

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47. By the end of June 2008, the project had reached more than 325,724 households (108% of completion target) in 2,817 villages (115% of completion target). A total of 47197 CIGs have been organized (467% of completion target). By the end of June 2008, 2650 VDCs have been registered and received Village funds (apna kosh) totaling almost US$8.3 million from CIGs to sustain activities after the project. Communities contributed US$6.2 million equivalent in cash towards sub-project costs. 48. Keeping in line with the gender empowerment strategy and tribal development strategy, the project has been able to organize 16,093 (29%) sub-projects for women and 14,357 (26%) sub-projects for Scheduled Tribes. 49. A total of 3882 village infrastructure projects were set-up, which meant that the project met its target to set-up on average at least one such investment in every village covered by the project. Participation of tribal groups significantly exceeded the stated completion target of 6%.

Livelihood Diversification, Assets, Income and Consumption Expenditure 50. Linkages. In terms of increase in irrigated land, and concomitantly, increase in value of agricultural productivity (Rs. per acre). The CIG households have reaped the maximum benefit as a consequence of project interventions. Although the differential of the increase in value of agricultural productivity over increase in irrigated land is roughly 50 percent across all households, the actual increase in productivity (149%) is much higher for CIG households because of the high order of increase in irrigated land (27%) as compared to non-CIG and non-project households. 51. Changes in occupation pattern. As a result of project activities in the state, there has been a significant all-round increase in the proportion of people engaged in agriculture as their main occupation. As a result of excellent performance of CIG households in agriculture, primarily due to the facilities provided by the project, the order of increase has been highest for CIG households (from 26% to 60%), which in actual numbers become even steeper (about 64%) in terms of actual numbers, given the 30 percent increase in the number of households in the category in the impact survey period. 52. Ability to earn. The real incomes of project beneficiaries (CIG households) have increased by 53% over the project implementation period as compared to non beneficiaries in project villages whose incomes increased by 24%; the real income growth of households in non-project villages was only 15%. 53. Ability to spend. On average, CIG households have seen an 18 percent increase in average expenditure levels. Non-CIG households have registered a drop of one percent while non-project households curtailed their expenditures by up to nine percent. Since there has been a uniform increase in mean incomes across income quintiles in the case of CIG households, it is logical that the expenditure levels have increased at a higher rate for lower income quintiles (15 to 28%), while for the highest quintiles, there has

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actually been a decline in average expenditure levels of the order of three percent. Similar trends are to be observed in the expenditure patterns of non-CIG and non-project households across quintiles, with the exception that average expenditure has actually declined in the top quintiles of these two categories of households. 54. As far as the expenditure trends are concerned, CIG households, with an average 65 percent increase in incomes and 18 per cent in expenditure, are spending 56 per cent more on education, followed by food (30%) and house maintenance (27%). 55. Savings. The effect of project initiatives in the state is evident in the savings behavior of households. Even as households have realized savings across the board, the trend in savings is the most consistent for project, and especially for CIG households. In CIG households, the increase in amount of savings realized by the lower income quintiles is much higher than those in the other categories, especially in comparison to non-project households. 56. Assets. Trends in household asset formation reveal an increased trend towards ownership of cycles and radios, mainly in the case of project households—both CIG and non-CIG. The number of households owning assets has gone down in the non-project household category. 57. Asset formation patterns clearly demonstrate the influence of project interventions. Even as the level of ownership of household assets in the state increases across the board from baseline to the impact survey period, the order of increase is appreciably higher for CIG households as compared to the others, with non-CIG households following. 58. Livestock holdings have come down across all households in the state. CIG households are the only category to have increased their livestock holdings (by 3%). Non-CIG households’ livestock holdings have declined by 12 percent, while those of non-project households are down by 18 per cent. 59. Vulnerability and Coping . As in the case of savings, the pattern of borrowings also demonstrates the extent of facilitation accomplished by project initiatives in the case of CIG households, especially in the lower income quintiles, directly affecting the level of vulnerability and the ability to cope with crises on the part of project households in the lower income quintiles, while non-CIG and non-project households’ borrowings have been largely unaffected in the impact survey period, in case of CIG households, borrowings by the lower quintiles too show a drop of 6 to 10 percent. 60. Project initiatives have facilitated the highest level of decrease in vulnerability for CIG households – both for normal as well as shock period borrowings. 61. Distress Migration. Improved food security through the project interventions and other livelihood impacts has significantly reduced distress migration which was a common feature in drought prone areas. In CIG households, distress migration was reduced from 30 percent to 14 percent.

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62. Market Access. The project made excellent progress in developing the Producer Company model for establishing market linkages for CIG investments, which converts such investments into a sustainable livelihood stream for the beneficiaries. All CIG members participating in these producer companies, were made shareholders of these companies and provided first call in getting the services provided by these companies. This made the initial investment made through the CIF both more productive and sustainable. The producer companies are also benefiting the CIG members through timely and quality input supply, like seeds, at a lower than market rate, and providing an assured market for their produce. Hence the social benefits of these producer companies are much higher than what their own profitability shows. The project promoted 16 such Producer Companies in the different districts covered by the project. While a majority of these producer companies are involved in agricultural commodities, a selected few have also been formed in the non-farm sector, such as for poultry and milk marketing. 63. Jobs. The project supported rural youth belonging to CIG member households with skills development, training, market scan and placement support in partnership with many private sector organizations and employers. About 1,350 youths have been selected for placement in various spinning mills, and 850 members have been trained and placed as security guards. 3.3 Efficiency 64. Given the diversity and demand-driven nature of the sub-project, no ex ante economic analysis was conducted in the PAD. By the completion of the project, 53,078 income generation sub-projects under the Community Investment Component had been implemented in 2906 villages of 53 blocks in 14 districts of Madhya Pradesh with the support of 122 PFTs. An ex post economic analysis of MP-DPIP sub-projects was carried out by the National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment (NCHSE) in early 2008. The study selected a sample of 323 sub-projects represented by 2169 beneficiaries in all the 14 districts and estimated the overall project economic rate of return (ERR) at 42%. 65. The ex post financial analysis was also conducted by NCHSE to the selected 323

livelihood activities. The analysis is based on physical verification and interaction with 2169 sample beneficiaries. The analysis reveals that more than 80% of the selected 323 livelihood activities sub projects are functional and have by category reported high financial rate of return (FRR). For further details, see Annex 3

66. The project as a whole is economically viable and robust, and financially profitable to the beneficiaries. 3.4 Justification of Overall Outcome Rating Rating: Satisfactory

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67. The project has exceeded the performance targets envisaged at appraisal and MTR under most indicators. It has also covered a significantly larger geographical area and higher number of households, and has been efficient in delivering outcomes. For details see Sections 3.2, 3.3, and 4.

3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts (a) Poverty Impacts, Gender Aspects, and Social Development 68. Poverty impact has been described in Section 3.2. 69. Gender and Social Development Aspects: Economic Empowerment

• Out of all CIGs, 30 percent were exclusively women based. This has given them access to economic empowerment that both, the activity and group actions bring.

• The access to resources through the project has enabled a large portion of women to

pursue independent economic activities right from agriculture and dairy to glass beads, shops, trading etc. Women have chosen various self-employment opportunities and are now in a position to make significant contribution to family income. They are also playing a major role in family decision making matters.

• Women of these groups have learned to manage different aspects of the economic

activity that has exposed them to market and traders and developed their understanding of the rural market and improved their knowledge, negotiation and bargaining skills.

• Women’s activity-based CIGs have also federated and registered under cooperatives for

scaling up and linkages.

• Microfinance/credits through VDCs are supporting women members in meeting out their small credit and emergency needs, thus making them less vulnerable to crisis and financially backed for small working capital needs.

• VDCs have majority of women in their executive working committees which manage the

village fund in microfinance. This has resulted in a two way gains: firstly, women decide the use of the funds and secondly, by doing so they are learning financial planning in personal lives too.

70. Gender and Social Development Aspects: Social Empowerment

� Project resources were thoughtfully allocated to support actions such as exchange visits between women’s groups during the capacity building process. Federating women’s group (VDC) has given them higher platform for expression and assisted them to develop their understanding of the link between their behaviors, everyday activities and strategic rights.

� Activities of immediate interest to women such as better access to drinking water,

fuel etc were the key focus area in the village infrastructure work done under ’Z’

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category and activities like savings and credit, group health etc were the primary activities taken up by VDCs. This has also eliminated moneylenders from the credit chain to a great extent.

� Women are managing the day-to-day business of the VDC in every project

village, giving them an authority to manage the ’Apna kosh’ village fund in microfinance. This has led to an increase in respect for women by the community members and women themselves. They are also taking up leadership roles and demonstrating management skills. For example, women are chairperson in about 95% of VDCs and 80% of VDCs have all women in their executive committees.

(b) Institutional Change/Strengthening 71. The project resulted in a substantial institutional development impact at the community level as demonstrated by the following:

� Development of CIGs, VDCs, Activity-based Federations, and Producer Companies is described in Section 3.2.

� Development of skills and capacity at the community level. Local resource persons at the village level have taken over many responsibilities with respect to social mobilization, group building, and strengthening processes. The project’s efforts have resulted in availability of a cadre of functionaries trained in social mobilization, value addition, business and enterprise development, logistics management at the village level. The project has created social and human capital on a large scale.

� Development of grass root level social accountability mechanisms. These

mechanisms have been a key factor in ensuring a high loan repayment rate and greater convertibility of loan into assets. The federations and their functionaries are operating as franchises for public and private sector institutions due to high level of trust built between banks and the local functionaries.

� Government Policy and Programs are discussed in Section 3.2.

(c) Other Unintended Outcomes and Impacts (positive or negative) 72. Positive

• While the Village Fund (Apna kosh) was originally envisioned only for the maintenance of the community infrastructure created within the project, gradually its focus has shifted to microfinance, and this development has contributed in eliminating money lenders to a great extent.

• Because of the social awareness created by the project, villagers have started

taking active part in local elections, Janpath, block panchayats, and many have been elected to these institutions.

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• Many government departments have started using CIGs to deliver services to villagers in areas such as health, education, and sanitation.

• Project has created better opportunities and better options to villagers than

originally envisioned. For example, because of the availability of tubewells and electric pumps, the number of crops per year has increased to two or even three. This has resulted in increased income to villagers. Likewise, the project has also facilitated villagers to change occupations from farming to business, trading, and other professions in the secondary and tertiary sectors. Unemployed youth in villages are now trying to shift to service sector as drivers, security guards, hotel management, and construction workers.

• The willingness and openness of the banks to finance CIGs has grown

exponentially. This kind of enthusiastic response of the banking system to help CIGs and the high level of credit flows to the poor was not originally expected.

• The project’s engagement with the private sector has produced remarkable

outputs. The project was able to tap the resources of private sector companies such as Hindustan Lever and ITC.

73. Negative

• The project has created social tension between project and non-project communities. For example, targeting system has created divisions within villages, because in an economy like MP, there is a thin line between poor and not poor. So when community chooses one as poor and others as not poor, it creates tension among them.

74. 3.6 Summary of Findings of Beneficiary Survey and/or Stakeholder Workshops Provided in Annex 5. 4. ASSESSMENT OF RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME

Rating: Moderate 75. The project has significantly surpassed all expectations in terms of its outcomes, as demonstrated by the results presented in Section 3.2. In addition, following trends point to high likelihood of achieving development outcomes:

• Federations and public- private partnership in the project. NGOs have taken long-term partnership agreements with federations of producer companies. The business plans of the producer companies envisage lowering of input cost for the producers and maximizing the output cost by having direct linkages with the big buyers and procurement agencies.

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• Financial Linkages. Following the agreement reached with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) that CIGs are officially accepted as a type of SHG that is eligible for group loaning, the project is reporting a sharp increase in the number of CIGs that are accessing banks, which stood at 4,165 in September 2006.

• Village funds (Apna kosh). Communities contributed US$5.2 million equivalents in cash towards sub-project costs and have deposited about US$6.5 million equivalent in apna kosh that will sustain activities after the project life.

On the other hand: • The wider network of insurance may not be available to villagers after project

closing, so it may be difficult for them to get insurance on their assets. • There is no good coverage on crop insurance, and as a result, the poor will have

only a low capacity of risk mitigation, and it will be difficult for them to cope with natural calamities and remain productive.

5. ASSESSMENT OF BANK AND BORROWER PERFORMANCE

5.1 Bank Performance 76. (a) Bank Performance in Ensuring Quality at Entry Rating: Satisfactory

� The Bank’s performance in the identification, preparation, and appraisal of the project was satisfactory. The project’s objective was consistent with the government’s development priorities and the Bank’s CS. During preparation and appraisal, the Bank took into account all major relevant aspects. The project design reflected lessons learned from several on-going and completed Bank-financed rural development projects in India. In addition, major risk factors were considered and appropriate mitigating measures were incorporated into the project design.

� The project was amongst the first DPIPs in India, and at the time of preparation there was comparatively less experience in designing the community driven procurement. The procurement procedures for the project were designed on the basis of experience of similar projects in countries such as Brazil, internal discussions within the team and with the Borrower.

77. (b) Quality of Supervision Rating: Satisfactory

• The Bank's performance during the implementation of the project was satisfactory. The Bank provided technical assistance on a variety of activities – institution building, development of financial products, facilitating market

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linkages, monitoring and evaluation. It played the role of a catalytic investor in partnership with the GOMP in experimenting and learning from various livelihood interventions.

• Adequate resources in terms of budget and staff were allocated. The task team

carried out intensive supervision through a multi-sectoral team. The ratings in the Implementation Status Reports (ISRs) on the performance of the project both in terms of achievement of development objectives and project implementation were realistic. Selection of consultants was reviewed by the Bank in accordance with the provisions stipulated in the Credit Agreement and the Bank’s Guidelines for Selection and Employment of Consultants. The task team carried out the MTR in February 2004. The Review assessed progress to date on all project components, the implementation issues and the actions to be taken to ensure the successful completion of the project. The Bank also organized thematic supervision workshops to facilitate cross-learning among the livelihoods projects in India.

• Procurement under the project mainly consisted of demand-driven community

development sub projects. The review of procurement of goods was also in accordance with the provisions stipulated in the Credit Agreement and the Bank’s Guidelines for Procurement. As part of the MTR process, the Bank conducted an independent review of the financial management and procurement arrangements of the CIF subcomponent. The objective of the assignment was to provide key inputs to the Bank to consider the MP DPIP need for restructuring, enhancements or improvements to the processes in the post-MTR implementation arrangements.

78. (c) Justification of Rating for Overall Bank Performance Rating: Satisfactory

• Based on the Bank performance during lending phase and supervision as discussed above, the overall performance is rated as Satisfactory.

5.2 Borrower Performance (a) Government Performance Rating: Satisfactory

� The government’s commitment to the project was initially demonstrated by its persistent request for Bank assistance for a project focused on poverty reduction and by including all necessary budgetary resources in its plans and budgets. During 1995, following agreement with the Bank, GOMP identified 10 project districts on the basis of poverty indicators. Four additional districts were added in 1999. The state had conducted extensive Social Assessments and detailed District Capacity Assessments (Institutional Assessments) in the selected districts with the help of field Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). It had prepared a State Project Implementation Plan (PIP) and Operations Manual. The government had

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initiated pilot activities in five districts with financing from an Australian Trust Fund supporting the project. These activities were carried out jointly by government officials, NGOs, other private institutions and local people, including potential beneficiaries of the project.

� The government established a DPIP Project Management Unit well ahead of time

and had maintained it despite the delay in project preparation. It established project units in five districts where the project was expected to start and it had staffed some positions in the SPU. It had already identified NGOs in the state and districts to undertake start-up activities for the project, such as community mobilization, group formation, and training. It had established a state Society which would play an important role in project implementation.

� During implementation, the government was committed to ensure that the project

succeeded, and this was reflected by an excellent project team, full budgetary resources and strict adherence to project rules. The government appointed top officials to the project, was committed to keeping staff turnover limited, and was willing to relax some of its administrative rules to improve conditions for project success, including following a very strict and challenging process for recruitment and training of project staff. The project’s counterpart team was quite responsive in addressing the concerns raised by the Bank’s task team during supervision missions.

(b) Implementing Agency or Agencies Performance Rating: Satisfactory 79. The performance of the DPIP-PMU was satisfactory, as demonstrated by the

following:

• DPIP-PMU designed and implemented various strategies for enhancing the managerial capacities of these institutions like capacity building through regular facilitation, developing linkages with commercial banks, developing market linkages, convergence with line departments and establishment of both internal and external rating systems. The organization’s autonomous status enabled it to select highly committed professionals on fixed-term appointments to implement the project. It was very effective in carrying out all aspects of project management, such as financial management, procurement arrangements, reporting activities, and disbursements.

• The overall financial management arrangement was satisfactory. The manual

accounting and reporting arrangements at the State, District and PFT level were adequate and provided regular and timely information on the financial progress. Withdrawal claims were submitted on a timely basis. Procurement of all works, goods and technical services under the project followed the Procurement Guidelines “Procurement under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits”. The procurement aspects of the project in relation to CIF sub-projects were managed in a

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satisfactory manner by the PMU. The systems and procedures concerning the procurement function in CIF projects, including compliance with cost benchmarks and recording of purchases in the minutes were adequate to provide a reasonable degree of fiduciary assurance regarding use of funds. The PMU submitted all required quarterly and annual reports in a timely manner. These reports were informative, and provided valuable feedback on the project’s progress.

• The PMU staff showed a high level of commitment, competence and enthusiasm.

They were willing to experiment, innovate, go the extra mile and take the needed risks because they were confident that they had the backing of their superiors. Equally importantly, they conducted themselves in a manner that inspired confidence and trust in the people, especially the poor.

• Follow-up on agreed actions concerning environmental management was

somewhat disappointing. To some degree this was due to the fact that project management did not have direct control over the operational aspects of environmental management (in line with the original project design) as it was outsourced to Environmental Planning & Coordination (EPCO), an external agency.

(c) Justification of Rating for Overall Borrower Performance Rating: Satisfactory

• In light of the government and implementing agencies’ performance as discussed above, the overall performance of the Borrower was satisfactory.

6. LESSONS LEARNED

83. This section describes the factors that have been important to the success of the project.

� Strong political commitment and continuity of project leadership are essential for the success of a project. In addition, flexibility built into the project design would enable the project to use new information and learning to adapt the implementation to make them more effective in addressing problems faced by the poor, women, tribal and the marginal communities.

•

• To achieve better results and outcomes, a better alternative would be to enhance the focus on market linkages that provide income opportunities for beneficiaries. With this focus, the following steps should be pursued: (i) identify the partners and the products they need to buy; (ii) develop agreements with the partners; (iii) identify the skill gaps and give training to beneficiaries to fill up these gaps, and give them the right kind of materials; and (iv) go for the production process with the help of partners, and sell the produces to the partners.

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• Instead of operating stand-alone projects, it is better to make them as part and parcel of mainstream schemes so that the government can avail of all available resources.

• High standards in service—such as, administrative sanctions by Gram Sabha and

technical sanction by PFT or districts, quick turn around of subproject approvals, and quick release of funds to community bank accounts helped establish the credibility of the government and DPIP.

84. Project Design

� A poverty reduction project should focus more on building the capacity of rural communities rather than the capacity of the government. This could be done, for example, by designing the project in terms of giving more responsibility to community members and community organizations from the very beginning.

�� For a state like MP which has a limited capacity in natural resources, a project

such as DPIP should be designed with a focus more on people and on creating opportunities for them to develop skills and professions, than on natural resources and agriculture.

� The role of private sector in playing an active role as a partner in Bank projects on

livelihood and poverty alleviation needs to be looked into for future projects.

� Lack of access to different kinds of markets is a major reason for the poor to continue remaining in poverty. To overcome this constraint, several layers of group formation from the neighborhood level common interest groups to higher level aggregation, such as producer companies, are necessary if the full benefits of the productive assets with the poor are to be realized in a sustainable manner through linkage with input and output markets. This vertical integration of community models is also essential to achieve scale and realize opportunities lying in the modern market economy.

� The wealth ranking process—i.e., allowing villagers in a Gram Sabha to decide

who are the poorest among them—worked very well and did not lead to conflict or controversy. The project also consistently targeted districts, blocks, and villages in line with its poverty objectives.

8.5 Implementation • It is not realistic to expect a poverty reduction project such as MPDPIP to achieve its

objectives within a five year time frame. Such projects should rather be implemented over a long-term horizon, say 10-15 years, so that the government can adopt a programmatic approach towards planning such programs.

• Enhancing the capacity and skills of project coordinators to manage projects through

relevant training and exchange programs is important for effective project

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implementation. It will be important to provide them opportunities for platform for sharing and cross-learning from the experience of other projects in the country.

• All manual and guidelines should be prepared at the beginning of the project itself

and not after the project has started. • A well written community operational manual which also describes the procurement

rules and safeguards helps in ensuring smooth and efficient implementation and at the same time provides comfort level on fiduciary aspects.

• Capacity building should be given very high priority. Implementation of sub projects

should start only after sufficient capacity building is achieved. Any attempt to fast track without proper foundation can result in manipulation and diluting project objectives.

It is important to fill up vacant positions without too much delay, so that implementation will not be affected due to shortage of staff. 7. COMMENTS ON ISSUES RAISED BY BORROWER/IMPLEMENTING AGENCIES/PARTNERS

(a) Borrower/implementing agencies See Annex 7 (b) Co-financiers N/A (c) Other partners and stakeholders N/A

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ANNEX 1. PROJECT COSTS AND FINANCING

(a) Project Cost by Component (in USD Million equivalent)

Components Appraisal Estimate

(USD millions)

Actual/Latest Estimate (USD

millions) Percentage of

Appraisal (1) Community Investments:

(A) Sub-Projects For Infrastructure, Livelihood Security And Skills and Organization; (B) Village Funds;

107.50 91.65

(2) Institutional and Human Capacity Building:

(A) Project Administration; (B) Human Resource Development; and (C) Communications

25.20 25.70

Total Baseline Cost 132.70 117.35 Physical Contingencies 0.30 0.00 Price Contingencies 1.70 0.00

Total Project Costs 134.70 117.35 Front-end fee PPF 0.00 0.00 Front-end fee IBRD 0.00 0.00

Total Financing Required 134.70 117.35

(b) Financing

Source of Funds Type of Co-financing

Appraisal Estimate

(USD millions)

Actual/Latest Estimate

(USD millions)Percentage of

Appraisal Borrower 9.30 8.76 Local Communities 15.30 4.71 International Development Association (IDA)

110.10 103.88

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ANNEX 2. OUTPUTS BY COMPONENT

Original Components and Activities Undertaken The project had two components: 1. Community Investments - US$109.00 million or 80.9% of the base costs at PAD, (INR 4429.565 million or 80% of the actual costs). The types of funds available to the beneficiaries are as follows: Sub-Projects and innovation funds (US$98.7 million disbursed and US$5 million of community contributions by category of sub-Projects at PAD, 92.340 million US$ or 78.7% of actual costs at closure) through support to (a) group based demand-driven income generating investment proposals, small infrastructure and livelihood security proposed by CIGs; and (b) small demonstration/innovative projects Under this component, the project supported the following activities: • Group based income generating investment activities for land improvement,

development of irrigation source, procurement of progressive agriculture instrument, crop-cultivation, horticulture, household dairy, sheep/goat raring, poultry, small manufacturing industries, small business, petty trade, and other micro-enterprises.

• Provision of infrastructure likes approaching road, internal road, water harvesting

structures, drinking water supply, sanitation, community buildings, collection centers, electrification etc. to support and sustain the livelihood activities.

• Provision of support for adoption of new skills and activities through trainings and

capacity building, leading to wage-employment, self-employment and salaried jobs. • Promotion of collective activities, which bring additional benefits and/or value

addition to the poor, such as collective procurement and marketing of commodities. • Demonstrations of innovative ideas to enhance the livelihood opportunities like

introduction of new crop practices, introduction of new seed variety, progressive farming of wheat, soybean and vegetable cropping, effective and efficient irrigation practices, supportive activities like providing support to poultry growers ,women society by means of providing seed money and a cage fitted vehicle for the marketing of the poultries.

Village Funds (US$10.30 million as per PAD, US$7.45 million actual at closure) established through community cash contributions and would last beyond the life of the project. Under this component: • An account in the name of "Apna Kosh village………. (Name of village)" was

opened in each village. CIGs deposited money (10% of the cost of sub project) in this separately opened Apna Kosh in the village. Money received from CIG is to be

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immediately put in a 3-year fixed deposit scheme. All such FDRs created by the CIGs in villages matured on a same date. FDR instrument will be kept in the office of the District Unit and its record will be kept by the PFT.

• For the effective management of "Apna Kosh" Village Development Committees

(VDCs) have been formed in each project village. It is a community organization of all Groups of Common Interest at village level. The aim of which is to increase the participation in implementation of the project and to provide permanence for eradicating poverty even after the expiry of the project. VDC is also responsible to provide consumer loans on demand from revolving fund of the ’Apna Kosh’ and arrangement of small loans from the banks by linkage system.

• After proper training and capacity building of VDCs and appointing the trained

village resource person (VRP), total deposited amount kept as FDRs in DPSUs have been transferred to VDCs.

Institution and Human Capacity Building (US$25.70 million) or 19.10 % of the base costs at PAD; (US$20.82 million or 21.90 % of actual costs at closure) the focus of this component was to develop self-reliant and self-managed community based organizations. Accordingly, the majority of funds available under this component proposed to be utilized in capacity building of various institutions in the project districts. The focus was on (a) project administration; (b) human resource development; (c) communications; (d) formation and strengthening of organization; and (e) monitoring and learning. The following key activities were undertaken under the component during the project period: Project Administration The implementation arrangements made for the project mark a watershed in the management of rural development projects in India. An autonomous Society for Poverty Alleviation Initiative (SPAI) has been created with the Chief Minister as the President. The organizational structure (MPSPAI), Executive Committee, SPMU, DPMU, PFT etc. provided for necessary flexibility, innovation and effective management. The SPMU headed by the Project Coordinator and the 14 DPMUs supported by 121 multi-functional project facilitation teams (PFTs) facilitated implementation of the project with common interest group (CIGs) of the poor playing a key role in planning, implementation and monitoring. Established NGOs having experience and presence in-group based activities collaborated with the Project as PFTs. MSOs have been selected from the local NGOs and appointed to organize women and people from other weaker sections of the village and cluster level. Human Resource Development Project adopted an innovative recruitment and selection procedure for selecting project staff. The 2-days selection procedure assesses candidates on parameters like – temperament, social maturity, ability to work in a team, and attitude. This selection procedure has ensured that the Project staffs have the right commitment and are comfortable in the role of facilitators, working with communities and had internalized the core values of the Project. A major emphasis since, the project beginning, has been given on the capacity building of project personnel through Basic Trainings (Orientation, Start-up, Group formation, Exposures, Cross Learning etc.). Other areas of Capacity Building for project staff were Sectoral (Lift Irrigation, Animal Husbandry,

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Environment etc.) & OD (Team Building, Communication, Moderation, Vision, Peer Review, Best Practices etc). Community training on different sectoral issues (dairy, goatary, brick making, centering, poultry, piggery etc were organized for communities. Communications and Information An internal Newsletter "EKMAT" is being published bi-monthly to spread the internal learning’s of the DPIP to all the project staff and other stakeholders. The initial issues dealt with success stories, new innovations and rules of the game. The newsletter is disseminating information regarding gender, environmental, sustainability and experiences of the CIGs. The newsletter focuses on various themes. Members from the media are being sent to meet CIGs to get a first hand experience above the implementation of the project. Their experiences published as an assessment report AAKALAN (Assessment) apart from the articles which were published in the leading dailies like national level weekly "Outlook". Project is also being highlighted in the media so that a larger audience would be able to know about the project. Assessment of the project through media is a regular feature of DPIP. Formation and Strengthening of Organizations Small NGOs having local presence have been short listed and selected to mobilize the community. The workers of these NGOs known as Mobilization Support Organization (MSO) have been given extensive training and are now working for sanitation, health and mobilizing the women. Services of professionally trained women worker have also been taken. Monitoring and Learning An excel spread sheet is being used by the State Project Unit (SPU) for the Management Information System in which a sizable data for all project districts and measurable out put indicators of the project by component are being collected and documented. At the district level, PFTs are responsible for the collection and reporting of M&L data. They are using formats developed for this purpose by the SPU. Data have been entered manually for each CIGs activity and submitted to the DPU for data entry. The DPU submits electronic project implantation progress (EPIP) reports monthly to the SPU. Once all data is compiled, computation for any component or element of the project is done with relative ease. Outcomes of the M&L analysis are regularly used for informed decision making processes at all levels. For the purpose of Internal learning and proper information flow among the districts about the functioning of the project meetings of District Monitoring and Learning Coordinators are held regularly and cross learning Workshops of District Officials and PFTs are also organized. In these workshops and through exchange visits, the learning of the Project Processes e.g. what works and what does not, success and failures of particular activities- how and why things are happening are discussed and shared. A single register has been developed for CIGs to maintain their physical and financial transactions. This register records the minutes of the internal meetings of CIGs. The register also helps PFTs in follow up and monitoring of CIGs activities. Each group (CIG, PFT, DPU) is reviewed regularly by their peer. Peer Review approach was based on the community scorecard system where community evaluated the performance of the project. In addition, Base Line Survey, review and Follow up Studies have been conducted.

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ANNEX 3. ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Economic Analysis: The project addresses improvements in rural livelihoods in MP in a holistic way with an integrated set of interventions under individual components and activities being mutually re-enforcing. The main project benefits will be derived from (1) increased agricultural productivity; (2) diversification and increase of income sources of households engaged in livelihoods activities; (3) improved market integration; (4) sustainable business institutions owned by the rural poor; and (5) viable new linkages for job and self employment. However, apart from those generated under Community Investment Component (CIC), the benefits are mainly related to social, institutional, capacity building and human resource development, which are mostly long term and not easily quantifiable. Even for the sub-projects under CIC, given the diversity and demand driven nature of the productive activities, no ex ante economic analysis was conducted in the PAD. By the completion of the project, 53,078 income generation sub-projects under the Community Investment Component had been implemented in 2906 villages of 53 blocks in 14 districts of Madhya Pradesh with the support of 122 PFTs. An ex post economic analysis of MP-DPIP I sub-projects was carried out by National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment (NCHSE) in early2008. The study selected a sample of 323 sub-projects represented by 2169 beneficiaries in all the 14 districts. Based on the aggregated costs (including apportioned training and project management costs) and benefits flows of the selected subprojects, the overall project economic rate of return (ERR) was estimated at 42%.5

Financial analysis: Based on the results of the ex post financial analysis for DPIP-I prepared by National Center for Human Settlement and Environment (NCHSR). The analysis reveals that more than 80% of the selected 323 livelihood activities sub projects are functional and have by category reported high financial international rate of return (IRR). The summary of analysis results is listed below with detailed calculations in the project file. WOW! Table1: IRRs of Selected MP-DPIP Sub-projects

Category of sub- project Number of sub-projects

IRR range across districts (%)

Average IRR (%)

1. Irrigation 50 14.67 –373.83 98.602. Check dam (stop dam,

pond) 20 13.42 – 287.18 63.01

3. Dairy 25 20.32 - 204.03 80.17 4. Hand pump 9 26.41 – 176.73 67.50 5. Road (CC road, WBM

road) 15 7.40 – 41.75 23.16

6. Fish farming 12 19.26 – 483.88 188.96 7. Progressive farming 24 19.34 – 565.83 199.13 8. Livestock 19 39.64 – 188.77 52.25 9. Trading 37 13.45- 256.90 94.48

5 Detailed assumptions and calculations are contained in the project file.

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Category of sub- project Number of sub-projects

IRR range across districts (%)

Average IRR (%)

10. Rental services 27 5.24 –156.65 58.3411. Utility services 31 16.34 – 215.65 84.48 12. Processing & value

addition 36 18.26 – 309.62 96.56

13. Miscellaneous 18 9.44 – 181.74 69.14

It should be noted that as financial indicators are based on complete costs and benefits of the investment, the actually net benefit for the beneficiaries would be even higher since major part of the investments would be provided as grant to the beneficiaries. Fiscal Impact: The government has provided sufficient financial contribution to cover the incremental operating costs (mainly project staff and seconded government staff salaries). The project has generated the positive fiscal impact from expanded corporate tax bases in commercial farming and increased personal income tax returns from youth employment and other job opportunities generated by the project. No increases in recurrent expenditures of state government are expected after the post-project period. All the recurrent expenditures of sub-projects would be met by community contributions.

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ANNEX 4. BANK LENDING AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT/SUPERVISION PROCESSES

a) Task Team members

Names Title Unit Responsibility/Specialty

Lending Luis Constantino Sector Manager MNSSD TTL Geeta Sethi Lead Economist SASDU Economist Arpana Agarwal Micro Finance Zoubida Allaoua Sector Manager MNSED Economist Ruth Alsop Social Scientist D. J. Baxi Procurement Specialist Procurement Meera Chatterjee Sr. Social Development Specialist DELWB Social Scientist Luis Coirolo Consultant SASDA Community

Development Sara Gonzalez Flavell Sr. Counsel LEGEM Lawyer Mauricio Guadagni Sr. Rural Development Specialist ECSSD Agriculturist (peer

reviewer) David Marsden Social Scientist Social Scientist Paul Jonathan Martin Sr. Environmental Specialist FIHWB Economist Yoshiko Masuyama Program Assistant SASDO Project Assistant Jaques Toureille Micro Finance (peer reviewer) Financial

Management P.C. Mohan Chair, Staff Association WBGSA Communication

specialist Rajat Narula Sr. Financial Management Specialist EAPCO Financial

Management Beatrice Renzi Communication Specialist Communication

Specialist Parmesh Shah Lead Rural Development Specialist SASDA Community

Development (peer reviewer)

Jayashree Shahria Program Assistant SASDA Project Assistant

Supervision/ICR

Luis F. Constantino Sector Manager MNSSDTTL Martien Van Nieuwkoop Program Coordinator AFTARTTL

Nathan Belete Sr. Rural Development Economist

SASDA TTL

Papia Bhatachaarji Sr Financial Management SpeciaSARFMFinancial Management

Mam Chand Consultant SASFP Procurement Deepal Fernando Senior Procurement Specialist SARPS Procurement

Reena Gupta Natural Resources Mgmt. Specialist

SASDA

Natasha Hayward Senior Rural Development Specialist

SASDA Livelihood

Vijayasekar Kalavakonda Senior Insurance Specialist GCMNBMicro Finance

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Names Title Unit Responsibility/Specialty

A. K. Kalesh Kumar Sr. Procurement Specialist SARPS Procurement

Priti Kumar Sr Environmental Specialist SASDI Environmental Specialist

Assaye Legesse Senior Agriculture Economist AFTARMonitoring & Evaluation

Shankar Narayanan Senior Social Development SpecSASDI Social Development

Ranjan Samantaray Sr Natural Resources Mgmt. SpeSASDARural Development

Salimah Haiderali Samji Consultant SASDI Biswajit Sen Senior Rural Development SpeciSASDA Livelihood Geeta Sethi Lead Economist SASDUEconomist

(b) Staff Time and Cost Staff Time and Cost (Bank Budget Only)

Stage of Project Cycle No. of staff weeks USD Thousands (including

travel and consultant costs) Lending FY99 23.05 FY00 84 399.33 FY01 28 93.30 FY02 0.00 FY03 0.00 FY04 0.00 FY05 0.00 FY06 0.00 FY07 0.00 FY08 0.00 Total: 112 515.68 Supervision/ICR FY99 0.00 FY00 0.00 FY01 14 94.86 FY02 21 116.54 FY03 14 86.25 FY04 25 135.84 FY05 22 83.42 FY06 36 122.78 FY07 27 93.12 FY08 36 148.62 FY09 13 0.00 Total: 208 881.43

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ANNEX 5. BENEFICIARY SURVEY RESULTS

Key Findings • CIG incomes at constant prices [53%] have recorded a higher percentage change than

Non-CIG [24%] and Non-Project households [15%] going from Baseline period to the Impact Survey.

• CIG households have recorded a 52 percent increase in incomes from agriculture production compared to Non-CIG households (10%) and Non-Project (-10%). Income from Animal Husbandry has recorded a substantial increase across all three household categories.

• As incomes have increased for CIG households, they also seem to be in a better position to spend [at constant prices]; CIG households [Table 14] register a 9 percent change when compared to a decrease of -9 and -16 percent for Non-CIG and Non-Project households respectively.

• Calculated at constant prices CIG Households have been able to preserve their lifestyle, as reflected by the positive percentage change in expenditure at constant prices; whereas, Non-CIG Households and Non-Project Households have suffered erosion in their quality of life.

• Between the baseline and the impact survey periods, there has been a 15 percent increase in total irrigated land in the state, which has resulted in a 93 percent increase in value of agricultural production in terms of Rs per acre. Of this, the lion’s share is attributable to project households. The efficacy of project initiatives is evident from the 149 percent increase in value of agricultural production for CIG households with a 27 percent increase in irrigated land.

• In the baseline period, about 42 percent of CIG households and more than 41 percent of non-CIG households had access to wholesale markets for their produce. This proportion has increased to about 288 more CIG households and to more 326 households for non-CIG households by the impact survey period as a consequence of the facilities provided by the project. The numbers in case of non-project households remain insignificant.

• Asset formation – whether agricultural (tube wells etc) or household (cycle, radio, etc) is the highest in magnitude for CIG households. Non-CIG households also show improvement in their household asset holdings. However, the asset holding status of non-project households has actually declined between the baseline and impact survey periods.

• Livestock holdings have come down across all households in the state. CIG households are the only category to have increased their livestock holdings (by 3%). Non-CIG households’ livestock holdings have declined by 12 percent, while those of non-project households are down by 18 percent.

• Calculated at constant prices, in terms of savings as well, CIG Households have done much better with a percentage change of 183 percent, compared to a mere 33 percent change that Non-CIG Households saw. The Project Households have done far better than the Non-Project Households who registered a -22 percent change in terms of average savings in rupees. At the same time, it noted that Non-Project households had a higher base at the time of the baseline.

• Among CIG households, at constant prices when it comes to average amounts borrowed, there is a slight decline among CIG & Non-CIG households and a marked

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decline among Non-Project households. Quintile wise analysis [Table 12] does not seem to reflect any definite pattern.

• Distress migration has come down from 30 per cent to 14 percent for CIG households. In actual numbers, 194 CIG households were resorting to distress migration at baseline time as against 36 at impact survey period. The percentage decrease for non-CIG is 23 to 10 percent and for non-project households-26-19 percent.

• Project Funds helped to initiate specific activities for CIG households. Of all the activities, irrigation emerges as the most lucrative with an 82 percent increase in income and a 54 percent increase in savings [calculated at constant prices]. Followed by infrastructure activities and dairying where both incomes and savings have increased.

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ANNEX 6. STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP REPORT AND RESULTS

Empowerment and related issues: Vignettes While the project has been providing direct inputs and assisting the CIG households, the intention is also to promote access to information, transparency, better participation in local governance, and enhance women’s capacity in decision making, etc. Households in the sample were asked direct and subjective questions on these aspects and also exposed to situations or stories using vignettes. These were based on six themes. An analysis of the outcomes where there were significant differences between responses to the direct question and those to the vignettes are provided below: Vignette 1: Access to information. Thirty-eight percent respondents felt that they do not have access to information about the development activities and programs in their areas. 39 percent felt that they have ‘some’ information, while 23 percent said that they have adequate information about the issue. The proportion of CIG, non-CIG and non-project households in the three categories of responses are almost equal, with CIG households scoring slightly higher [68%] when a little and a lot of information is taken together. Vignette 2: Confidence. This question was to ascertain whether the people of the state feel more confident about articulating their needs and problems in Gram Sabhas and other public fora.

Increased Confidence

0

20

40

60

80

100

%H

ouse

hold

s

All HHs 28 37 35

Yes, on their own Yes with support Not at all

[N: CIG=1558, Non-CIG=2912, Non-Project=417] Around 28 percent respondents in the entire state expressed increased confidence about articulating their needs and problems at public fora. 37 percent qualified their affirmative with a ‘with support’ and about 35 percent denied any increased confidence. In the case of increased confidence, the number of affirmatives was greater and the negatives from CIG households were slightly less than those from non-CIG and non-project households. Vignette 3: Access to assets. This question was posed only to project households [CIG and Non-CIG] as it referred to group assets or community level assets as a result of project intervention. The outcome was nearly unanimous, with almost all households (94%) declaring that project interventions have definitely enables universal access to group and community level assets for all Of the household categories, 94 CIG households

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are agreed upon the fact that they have all use/access to assets, while 85 percent non-CIG households assert that all have use/access. Vignette 4: Household decision-making. Whether the project has empowered women to participate more effectively in decision making at home was the next issue tackled. Here too, the response was near unanimous across all categories. Eight-two respondents attested that women’s participation in household decision-making has increased to a great extent. Only about 12 per cent in all categories feel that women’s participation in household decision-making is quite limited. Vignette 5: Participation in Gram Sabha. In order to further assess empowerment, the question asked was whether men and women feel that their voices are heard in the village sabha and whether they feel that action is taken on issues/demands raised. Participation was low (18%), in terms of those who attend regularly. There was a large percentage over three-fourths across all three categories who never participated in a Gram Sabha, because they felt that they would not be listened to. The lowest percentage was however among CIG households. Vignette 6: Transparency. This question and vignette specifically referred to DPIP activities [and therefore not asked of non-project households] and whether signboards related to activities were put up and the respondents were aware of all the activities being carried out under the project in their village. Nearly 69 percent households had knowledge of project activities – 32 percent through signboards and 36 percent through word of mouth. From among the household categories, for CIG household’s 42 percent people were aware through word of mouth and 44 percent through signboards, while for non-CIG households 42 percent people were not aware of the project activities as against 14 among non-CIG.

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ANNEX 7. SUMMARY OF BORROWER’S ICR AND/OR COMMENTS ON DRAFT ICR The GoMP has identified lack of responsiveness and accountability of institutions as a key deterrent to poverty alleviation and rural development. Therefore there was a specific need to develop well-targeted programs to assist the poor by promoting decentralization and beneficiary participation in development. The proposed project initially targeted 2,000 poorest villages spread over 14 districts in northern and northwestern MP. The GOMP launched the MPDPIP to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor of 2000 villages in 47 poorest blocks of Chhatarpur, Damoh, Guna, Narsingpur, Panna, Raisen, Rajgarh, Rewa, Sagar, Shajapur, Sidhi, Shivpuri, Tikamgarh and Vidisha districts in March 2001. The project was progressively scaled-up to cover 2900 villages of 53 rural blocks in the existing 14 project districts. The learning’s of this project could then be used to expand and draw in other poverty alleviation programs. The financial pattern of the project cost as per PAD was IDA Credit US$110.10 million and GOMP share of US$9.30 million and the community contribution equivalent to US$15.30 million. The total revised cost of the project in rupees terms now stands at 5.21 billion including the share of GOMP and the US$5.00 million of beneficiary contribution by category of sub project. The component-wise allocation of the revised cost is: institutional and human capacity building-20.00%, CIF-80.00%. The project period was extended by two years and it actually closed on June. 31, 2006. The project was managed by Madhya Pradesh Society for Poverty Alleviation Initiative (MPSPAI), an autonomous society specially created for this purpose by the GOMP. The SPMU headed by the Project Coordinator and the 14 DPMUs supported by 121 multi-functional project facilitation teams (PFTs) facilitated implementation of the project with common interest group (CIGs) of the poor playing a key role in planning, implementation and monitoring. The project’s development objective is to improve opportunities for the poor and vulnerable, especially women, to meet their own social and economic development needs. The project investment components include: (i) Institutional and Human Capacity Building; and (ii) CIF. The PDO was relevant to the project area, which were among the poorest in the state, was in consonance with the development priorities of the GOMP’s Ninth and Tenth Five Year Plans (1997-2008). The project adopted a realistic system of targeting CIGs and had made appropriate institutional arrangements for continuation and sustainability. The project components were organically linked to the PDO. The PDO and the components were not revised at MTR, although several innovative strategic mid-course corrections were made. The quality at entry was very high. The project area was fully prepared for implementing community centered participatory strategy. The project reached out to about 85% of the poor and Poorest of Poor rural households in the fourteen districts (70% of total rural households) and supported mobilization of 3.26 lakh rural poor into 56,089 CIGs and 2,650 Village Development Committees (VDCs) at the village level. The project interventions individually attained their specific outcomes and thus, helped in the overall achievement of the PDO. The impact assessment study (2006) clearly

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indicates that the PDO is fully achieved. In about six years, the livelihoods of the poor in the 14 districts had undergone a transition in terms of employment, asset base, income, household consumption expenditure and investment behavior. � Income: -CIG incomes at constant prices [53%] have recorded a higher percentage change than Non-CIG [24%] and Non-Project households [15%] going from Baseline period to the Impact Survey. CIG households have recorded a 52 percent increase in incomes from agriculture production compared to Non-CIG households (10%) and Non-Project (-10%). Income from Animal Husbandry has recorded a substantial increase across all three household categories. � Household consumption expenditure: -As incomes have increased for CIG households, they also seem to be in a better position to spend [at constant prices]; CIG households register a 9 percent change when compared to a decrease of -9 and -16 percent for Non-CIG and Non-Project households respectively. Calculated at constant prices CIG Households have been able to preserve their life style, as reflected by the positive percentage change in expenditure at constant prices; whereas, Non-CIG Households and Non-Project Households have suffered erosion in their quality of life. � Agriculture development: - Between the baseline and the impact survey periods, there has been a 15 percent increase in total irrigated land in the state, which has resulted in a 93 percent increase in value of agricultural production in terms of Rs per acre. Of this, the lion’s share is attributable to project households. The efficacy of project initiatives is evident from the 149 percent increase in value of agricultural production for CIG households with a 27 percent increase in irrigated land. � Market Access: - In the baseline period, about 42 percent of CIG households and more than 41 per cent of non-CIG households had access to wholesale markets for their produce. This proportion has increased to about 288 more CIG households and to more 326 households for non-CIG households by the impact survey period as a consequence of the facilities provided by the project. The numbers in case of non-project households remain insignificant. � Asset formation: - whether agricultural (tube wells etc) or household (cycle, radio, etc) is the highest in magnitude for CIG households. Non-CIG households also show improvement in their household asset holdings. However, the asset holding status of non-project households has actually declined between the baseline and impact survey periods. � Livestock: - Livestock holdings have come down across all households in the state. CIG households are the only category to have increased their livestock holdings (by 3%). Non-CIG households’ livestock holdings have declined by 12 percent, while those of non-project households are down by 18 percent. � Household Saving: - At constant prices, in terms of savings as well, CIG Households have done much better with a percentage change of 183 percent, compared to amere 33 percent change that Non-CIG Households saw. The Project Households have done far better than the Non-Project Households who registered a -22 percent change in

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terms of average savings in rupees. At the same time, it noted that Non-Project households had a higher base at the time of the baseline. � Borrowing during shock period: - Among CIG households, at constant prices when it comes to average amounts borrowed, there is a slight decline among CIG & Non-CIG households and a marked decline among Non-Project households. � Migration: - Distress migration has come down from 30 percent to 14 percent for CIG households. In actual numbers, 194 CIG households were resorting to distress migration at baseline time as against 36 at impact survey period. The percentage decrease for non-CIG is 23 to 10 percent and for non-project households-26-19 percent. � Infrastructure development: - Project Funds helped to initiate specific activities for CIG households. Of all the activities, irrigation emerges as the most lucrative with an 82 percent increase in income and a 54 percent increase in savings. Followed by infrastructure activities and dairying where both incomes and savings have increased. � Women Empowerment: - 37% of the project member beneficiaries of women. A Major share of the project outlay has gone to these 37% women beneficiaries and offered awide range of economic opportunities to them. Women have opted for different self-employment and are contributing a substantial share in the family income and gaining participation in household decision making too. The impact survey revealed that eighty-two respondents attested that women’s participation in household decision-making has increased to a great extent. Only about 12 percent in all categories feel that women’s participation in household decision-making is quite limited. Women under the project have shown their leadership ability and management skills. In more than 94% VDCs where women are leading as chairperson and 80% VDCs have all women member in executive committee. � Self -reliant and self-managed Community Based Organization: - The project has been able to mobilize 3.26 lakh poor and poorest of the poor beneficiaries into 56,089 CIGs, 2,650 VDCs in 53 Blocks in the 14 project districts. The CIGs are also functioning as production units and their members are federated as primary producers of 17 producer companies and 28 cooperatives. These Producer companies/cooperatives have active membership base of 62,000 shareholders with share capital base of approximately Rs 6.2 millions. These companies are supplying quality inputs to the members and linking them with market for better prices. The Project has been very inclusive in terms of mobilizing CIGs members from vulnerable communities STs, SCs, and disabled persons. With the formation of these CBOs, the project has been able to mobilize external resources in the form of Bank Loans to the CIGs and to the CBOs. A Total of Rs. 57.23 Crore was mobilized as bank loans during the last six years. � Power Relations in Larger Perspective: A vast majority of VDC transcended to taking various activities like social agenda, working with PRIs, and working with line departments, etc. Village Development Committees are planning to take up multiple roles in collective marketing, food security, insurance, employment guarantee schemes, helping the banks in recovery of loans, and effective use of community resource persons,

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etc. All these activities had a favorable impact on power relations and the poor. Most of the members from the target families participated in the last Gram Panchayat Election held on 2004, in which 918 Panch, 126 Sarpanch, 23 Janpad member and 2 Janpad President have been elected. This increased the interface of the PRIs with the CIGs. � Project Management, Monitoring and Learning: The project has successfully managed 14 district project support units (DPSU), 121 project facilitation teams (PFTs) in addition to extending a helping hand to Village Development Committees, Common Interest Groups and CIG members. A comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation system is established in the form of (a) Input and Output Monitoring System, (b) Process Monitoring and (c) Impact Evaluation and Review Systems. A simple MIS system is introduced in the Project Districts wherein information on key indicators of the project was collected from the districts. Data have been entered manually for each CIGs activity and submitted to the DPSU for data entry. The DPSU submits electronic project implementation progress (EPIP) reports monthly to the SPU. Once all data is compiled, computation for any component or element of the project is done with relative ease. Outcomes of the M&L analysis are regularly used for informed decision making processes at all levels. The development of MIS also included Financial Management System, which is fully developed and is in operation in the Project Districts. Process Monitoring has been undertaken regularly. For the purpose of Internal learning and proper information flow among the districts about the functioning of the project meetings of District Monitoring and Learning Coordinators are held regularly and cross learning Workshops of District Officials and PFTs are also organized. In these workshops and through exchange visits, the learning of the Project Processes e.g. what works and what does not, success and failures of particular activities- how and why things are happening are discussed and shared. The register maintained by the CIGs also helps PFTs in follow up and monitoring of CIGs activities. Peer reviews combine cross group learning with evaluation. Each group (CIG, PFT, DPU) is reviewed regularly by their peer. Peer Review approach was based on the community scorecard system where community evaluated the performance of the project. In addition, Base Line Survey, review and Follow up Studies have been conducted. Factors Facilitating the Implementation of MPDPIP Continued Support of GOMP to the Project: The creation of MPSPAI as a fairly autonomous organization has facilitated smooth management of the project. The project enjoyed continued support of the GOMP, despite the change of the government in 2003. The GOMP’s support to introduce decentralized planning, management and funds flow arrangement in the project is excellent. Important policy initiatives of the government have ensured continued support to the CBOs even beyond the project period. In addition, the GOMP’s support to the top management of the project facilitated the smooth implementation of the project. Support from Line Departments: The line departments not only recognized the CIGs/CBOs as representative collectives of the poor, but also used them to deliver certain services and activities.

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Costs and Financing: Project costs at appraisal were US$134.70 million. In Rupee terms it was equal to 6061.500 million due to deduction for relief assistance for TSUNAMI victims there were changes in the budget in terms of SDRs. An amount of 13,264,000 SDR has been deducted for this purpose. Because of deduction in the budget and change of exchange rate between SDR and US$ on one hand and US$ and INR on the other hand, the revised IDA share were estimated at INR 4616.296 million instead of the original budget of INR 4954.500 millions. Accordingly the revised share of GOMP estimated at INR 389.600 millions instead of the original budget of 418.500 millions and beneficiaries’ contribution by category of sub projects estimated at INR 209.600 millions instead of the original budget of 225.00 millions. Therefore the total revised cost of the project now stands at INR 5215.496 millions instead of the original cost of 5598.000 millions. This cost exclude the village fund (10.30 million US$) proposed to create by the communities. Factors Adversely Affecting Implementation and Outcomes Elections: The conduct of elections to the Union Parliament, the State Assembly and later to the PRIs resulted in temporary suspension of certain key project activities including funding of income generating activities. Lack of Adequate Viable Livelihood Opportunities Outside Agriculture and Livestock: The other factor that had the effect of limiting the livelihood outcomes of the project was the relative lack of livelihood opportunities outside agriculture and livestock development in the rural areas. Seasonal migration: The opportunity migration of the project beneficiaries' affects the formation of CIGs and timely implementation of activities. Contribution: Due to inability of depositing the requisite contribution by the ultra poor beneficiaries, the delay in coverage was unavoidable. Institutional Sustainability Self reliant and Self-Managed CBOs: The project has been able to mobilize 3.26 lakh poor and poorest of the poor beneficiaries into 56,089 CIGs, 2650 VDCs in 53 Blocks in the 14 project districts, which, in course of project implementation, have acquired self-management and self-governing skills, required of grassroots democratic institutions. These institutions have also emerged as fairly efficient micro-finance institutions and fund managers with reasonable degree of book keeping skills. The CIGs are also functioning as production units and federated as primary producers of 17 district based producer companies and 28 cooperatives. These Producer companies/cooperatives have active membership base of 62,000 shareholders with share capital base of approximately Rs 6.2 millions. These companies are supplying quality inputs to the members and linking them with market for better prices. They have acquired the business management skills, having implemented collective economic, food security and marketing activities very efficiently. More importantly, most of the CBOs, having participated in livelihood assessment and micro-planning exercises, acquired generic skills of planning, demand

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representation and monitoring. The substantial amount of CIF provided to the CIGs is an important factor contributing to their sustainability. Corpus of CBOs: The total corpus amounting to Rs. 33.29 Crores has been generated by the CIGs by contributing the 10% of the subproject cost as an Apna Kosh that is village level fund. The expanding corpus of the CIGs facilitated by regular savings, internal lending through VDCs, and the transparent financial management and accountability systems promoted through regular book-keeping, identification and training of book-keepers/Village Resource Person and collective financial decision-making is yet another factor that contributes to the sustainability of the CIGs. Community Recognizing CBOs as Socially and Economically Useful Institutions: Because of their role in the delivery of certain line department services and identification of beneficiaries, the CIGs and their federations are viewed as very useful, pro-poor and women-friendly institutions. Expanding Knowledge, Skills and Competencies of the CBO Functionaries for Self- Management, Business Management, Dispute Resolution and Intermediation: The sustained capacity building efforts of the project through training, exposure/cross-learning, nurturing support of the frontline staff and resource persons and activists on the one hand and the democratic and financial systems instituted on the other have contributed to the knowledge, skills and capabilities of the leaders. A large number of leaders have successfully handled micro finance management, dispute resolution and intermediation, procurement and marketing management and book-keeping. It is the vast reservoir of the trained leaders and activists and community resource persons that are most likely to sustain the institutions. Bank Performance The Bank: The Bank provided valuable inputs in developing the community demand driven strategy, which is central to the project. The Bank provides a productive support for project implementation and development of CBOs. The Supervision Missions: The Bank Supervision Missions worked closely and intensively with MPSPAI to implement the project. The successive Supervision Missions provided very useful technical inputs and international best practices on social mobilization, institution building, and development of financial services and establishment of CIF. The Missions spent lot of time with all the stakeholders in the project and provided useful inputs in each mission. The Missions facilitated several private sector partnerships and forays into new areas of collective marketing. The workshop organized around MTR and emerging issues provided a very useful forum for cross learning and reevaluation of the strategies. The Borrower: The GOMP has consistently provided strong support for the project. The Department of Rural Development provided the necessary coordination and support for the project. The GOMP encouraged other line departments to adopt institutions and practices promoted by the project for delivering their services.

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MPSPAI: The MPSPAI has been extremely dedicated and innovative in the implementation of the project. A remarkable aspect of the implementation is the extent which the project top management internalized the values, approach and methods of community demand-driven development. The attitudes and behavior of the project staff at all levels was a key factor in the success of the project, especially in promoting institution development and community participation in planning and implementation of the project activities. The top project management provided very effective over sight, guidance and sustained support to the District project units. The DPSUs enjoyed excellent working relationships with the front line staff, PFTs, resource persons and activists. The Project Coordinator and DPMs provided close support supervision to the project functionaries and CBOs. Lessons Learned from MPDPIP The six-year long project affords a number of lessons for development projects in general and poverty alleviation initiatives in particular. Some of the key lessons emerging from the project are briefly summarized in the following: � Autonomous Project Management: The implementation arrangements made for the project mark a watershed in the management of rural development projects in India. An autonomous Society for Poverty Alleviation Initiative (SPAI) has been created with the Chief Minister as the President. The organizational structure (MPSPAI), Executive Committee, SPMU, DPMU, PFT etc.,) provided for necessary flexibility, innovation and effective management. The CBOs were effectively involved in planning, implementation and monitoring of the project.

� Unique recruitment and selection process: MP-DPIP adopted an innovative recruitment and selection procedure for selecting Government functionaries on deputation into the project. The 2-day selection procedure assesses candidates on parameters like – temperament, social maturity, ability to work in a team, and attitude. This selection procedure has ensured that the Project staffs have the right commitment and are comfortable in the role of facilitators, working with communities and had internalized the core values of the Project.

� Multi sectoral project facilitation team: Professional with background of rural management, engineering, veterinary and agriculture has been recruited as PFTs in tackling multi-sectoral activities that communities demand. At initial stage, the PFTs felt a slight hitch in rapport building with women. To rectify this situation MP-DPIP has introduced the concept of Mobilization Support Organization (MSO). This is a novel experiment where a team comprising of Government functionaries works in close coordination with a NGO. � Importance of Early Social Mobilization and Capacity Building: The project experience shows that social mobilization and capacity building is process oriented, and therefore, takes time to start-up but produce good results when matured. It implies that project planning should emphasize social mobilization as early in the project cycle as possible.

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� Wealth Ranking tool for Identification of beneficiaries: "Wealth Ranking" is used as a tool to identify the poorest and the most vulnerable in the village. The families so identified are then listed and the approval is done in the Gram Sabha. Communities has accepted wealth ranking as a true indicator of judging the poverty of an individual through their own perspective.

� Demand driven approach: The activities were selected by the group members. The group members were selected on the principle of self-selection. PFT did not decide about the activities or about the composition of the groups, but in turn guided the groups. This approach provides more space to beneficiaries and thus leads the empowerment. � Activity based CIGs: The CIG identifies the activity, which they would like to implement, and then start saving to get their contribution together. Implementation of the activity increased the capacity of the communities to negotiate the best deal in purchase and procure the assets or materials. There are numerous examples where community negotiated not only for the best price and quality of the material, but also for the periodic maintenance and training to run the equipments. The assets have been created by groups at rates, which are some times only three-fourth the costs with better quality norms.

� Fund Flow mechanism: The sub-project submitted by the CIGs was funded in a very transparent and time bound manner. Drafts are given to CIGs in front of villagers at acommon meeting place. A provision is made in the project that 95% amount of the total cost of the Sub-project will be deposited in the account of the CIG in single tranche. This procedure has established credibility of the Project on the one hand and has ensured that the groups are able to implement their sub projects in time.

� Importance of Facilitation and Capacity Building: Facilitation and capacity building support to the CBOs is a critical input that helps community sustain ably address their livelihood concerns.

� Importance of Social Capital: A significant output of the MPDPIP is the creation of a vast resource of Animators, service providers and Resource Persons drawn from the poor and POP households. The valuable resource stock could be used for enhancing implementation efficiency of development programs of the line departments. The MPDPIP has successfully demonstrated that the well-trained and experienced community resource persons perform the project activities as efficiently as the project staff at economical rates.

� Activity based federation: The CIGs are functioning as production units and federated as primary producers of 17 district based producer companies. These Producer companies have active membership base of 62,000 shareholders with share capital base of approximately Rs 6.2 millions. Their business plans have been approved by commercial banks as viable project. These companies are supplying quality inputs to the members and linking them with market for better prices. These producers’ companies are now defining concept of aggregated production and contract marketing by handling huge production volumes. This intervention has shown positive impact on life of beneficiaries.

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A large part of investment in land and agriculture related activity has not only strengthened basic production infrastructure but also propelled incremental income of households.

� Collective Marketing Activities: The CBOs have successfully demonstrated their ability to undertake collective procurement of agricultural inputs, agri-output and market them for the benefit of the small and marginal farmers. These operations are very favorable impact on the overall market prices.

� Multiplier Effect of Skill Development Intervention: The training of youth from poor households and placing them in decent salary employment demonstrated the importance of the private partnerships fostered by the project. � Convergence with Line Departments: Despite the progress in the convergence efforts of the project, there is great scope for promoting coordination with the PRIs and other line departments such as health, education, forest and revenue at the GP, Janpad and district level. Tasks Ahead and Future Plans � Strengthening of CBOs (CIG/VDC/Producer Company/Cooperatives) � Second Line Leadership Development � Strengthening the linkages with financial institutions � Strengthening the market and knowledge linkages

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ANNEX 8. ADDITIONAL LESSONS

Community Participation, Social mobilization and Institution Building

� It is important to develop good linkage with permanent institutions such as banks, academic institutions, public and private companies, local traders, and all the market forces, from the beginning of a project, and make them partners in project implementation.

� Hand-holding support is important for the poorest of the poor even after the

project closes.

� Targeting the poor within a village, based on wealth ranking and villages based on poverty cluster is essential for poverty reduction in an unequal village society. At the same time, the line between the ‘poor’ and ‘not poor’ is very thin, so it is important to take adequate measures to ensure that no social tension is created between project and non-project communities.

� Capacity building of the PFTs and Community is a major requirement under any

CDD project.

� The high level of community contributions will ensure a high degree of ownership in a grant-based program.

Livelihoods and Service Delivery • A demand-driven project should expose villagers to emerging opportunities, for

example, in job markets, thereby creating awareness, so that they can demand them. • For sustainable livelihood, DPIP kind of projects should give human resource-centric.

Such projects should create opportunities to villagers to select the best livelihood options. After they have chosen their options, they should be given the facilities to make the best use of these options and raise their incomes. It is also important to analyze the available resources, and determine how many people could be utilized in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, create appropriate opportunities in each sector, and develop the employability of villagers.

• Asset creation at the household level, through a mix of grants and own contribution,

directly transferred to the group of poor at the community level, is essential for livelihood creation as the project is dealing with very resource poor households.

Focusing on agricultural productivity increase in different forms is necessary as a majority of the poor in MP are marginal land holding agriculturalists.

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ANNEX 9. LIST OF SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

• Project Implementation Plan

• Project Appraisal Document for India: Madhya Pradesh District Poverty Initiative Project (MPDPIP) dated October 5, 2000 (Report No: 21020-IN)

• Aide Memoirs, Back-to-Office Reports, and Implementation Status Reports.

• Project Progress Reports.

• Borrower’s Evaluation Report dated November 2007 • Ex-post economic and financial analysis • Impact assessment

*including electronic files

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INDIADISTRICT POVERTY INITIATIVES PROJECT

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This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other informationshown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World BankGroup, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or anyendorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.

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