Misaal Fellowship
1st Quarterly Review & Reflection Meeting
Lucknow, 27-28th July, 2015
Capacity, Advocacy, Knowledge
www.misaal.ngo
www.facebook.com/misaalfellowship
info@misaal.ngo
Supported by
Partners
Digital Empowerment Foundation, New Delhi
Hashiya, New Delhi
Al Khair Trust, Patna
Social Development Foundation, New Delhi
Hassan Educational & Welfare Trust, Madhubani
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1.
Objective
Misaal Fellowship’s 1st Quarterly Review and Reflection meeting was organised from
27-28th July in Lucknow. The purpose was to collectively review the progress made by
fellows and other Misaal constituents, in the course of their work, and reflect on the
lessons learnt, in terms of challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for effective
delivery of the fellowship programme. Output aimed at was action plans, for Misaal as a
whole, and fellows individually, crafted through a consultative process, of discussion
and debate between Misaal constituents. An additional objective of the Review was to
provide training and capacity support on relevant themes to fellows.
2.
Participants
Participants included all fellows; Misaal national team, including volunteers; Action Aid
India, Lucknow office participants, besides local mentoring teams from Shamli, Bareilly,
Banda and Lucknow. Full list of participants at Annex 1.
3.
Programme
The programme was set up as follows:
Time
27-07-15
09:30- 10:00 am
10:00-10:30 am
10:30–01:00 pm
Item
Reporting, review, reflection
Registration
Opening and welcome
Presentation on work of last quarter
01:00-02:00 pm
02:00-05:00 pm
05:00-06:00 pm
28-07-15
10:00–11:00 am
Lunch
Presentations by fellows (contd.)
Focus areas for next quarter, for
workplans
Training and development
Misaal internal communication
11:00-12:30 am
Misaal portal and functionalities
12:30–01:30 am
Local mentors, handholding, and
supervision
Lunch
Media documentation and outreach
01:30-02:30
02:30–03:30 pm
03:30-04:30 pm
04:30–5:30 pm
Focus themes – Minority schemes &
RTI Act.
Closing: Review of workplans &
Thanks
Resource
Misaal NRC
Fellows
Remarks
20 mins of presentation, followed by 10
mins. of discussions.
Fellows
NRC
- doDiscussions and agreement on thrust
areas for action
Misaal NRC
Periodic reviews, reporting by fellows,
and advisories
Using Misaal website and other social
media, for internal communication
Local platforms as capacity resources for
fellows
Satyendra Singh,
DEF
Raja Bhaiyya,
VDS
Shah Alam,
Misaal media
fellow
Salim Baig &
Akram Akhtar, AIF
Misaal and Action
Aid (Rajan Singh)
Training fellows to document, report and
engage with local and non-local media
Quick run through the law and schemes –
and helpful tips for using those.
Note: NRC - Misaal National Resource Centre; Delhi, DEF - Digital Empowerment Foundation, Delhi; VDS Vidhya Dham Samiti, Banda; AIF - Afkar India Foundation, Shamli
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4.
Description of Technical Sessions
4.1
Day 1 (Review Day)
Day one was devoted to fellows presenting a description of their work over the past
months, since launch in April 2015. For those in the initial batch (April 2015), this
included:
(i) an account of the baseline survey they
had conducted of their community, as
well as a summary of its findings;
(ii) reporting on their efforts with
organizing local volunteer teams, success
and challenge therein;
(iii) achievements to report in the course
of their work, and the challenges that lie
ahead
(iv) finally, an account of the fellows’
action plans for the next quarter, to
October 2015.
For fellows that have just started – Aligarh and Fatehpur (in UP) and Darbhanga (Bihar)
– and who had been tasked for the review, only to conduct a quick sample survey of
their focus community, this involved reporting the findings of their sample survey, and a
description of their preliminary plans, going forward.
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Fellow
Salim
Ansari
2
Arshi Khan
3
Asma
Ansari
4
Mohd. Azaz
District
Shamli
(Un block) ,
Uttar
Pradesh
MCD
Fatehpur
Town, Uttar
Pradesh
MCT
Aligarh
Town, Uttar
Pradesh
MCT
Bareilly
(Nawabganj
block), UP
MCD
1st Q focus
Education;
PDS
Services for
urban poor
Services for
urban poor;
women
empowerme
n; health
Eployment;
education
Process
Community
meetings,
SHG, RTI Act;
volunteer
mobilisers;
mentor team
Volunteer
mobilisers;
SHG;RTI Act;
mentor team
Outputs to show
Helped get 112 voter
cards made; 34
students enrolled; 80
students admitted in
Anganwadi.
Focus for 2nd Q
Education; women
empowerment; MGNREGS; MSDP
Helped get handicraft
workers registered, and
hastshilp cards made
Volunteer
mobilisers;
mentoring
team
Baseline survey of 100
households conducted;
local volunteer team
formed
Employment and skill
development;
women rights and
empowerment;
Education
Education; income
activities or women;
services for the
urban poor
Community
meeting;
mentor team
Baseline survey
conducted of focus
village
3
Education; MGNREGS
5
Majida
Parveen
Banda, Uttar
Pradesh
Womens
empowerme
nt; health
6
Mohd.
Mahmood
Bhagalpur /
Banka
(Hassanpur
block), Bihar.
MCD
Education;
NREGS;
pensions
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Najmul
Hafiz
Madhubani
(Kaluahi
block), Bihar.
MCB
Education;
Pension;
Sanitation
Volunteer
mobilisers;
community
meetings;
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Meraj Ali
Phulwari
sharif, Patna
town, Bihar
Services for
urban poor;
Education
Community
meetings;
mentor team
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Nukkar sabha/
rallies and
campigns;
mentor team
Volunteer
mobilisers;
community
meeitngs;
nukkad sabha;
mentor team
Conducted women’s
empowerment
campaigns
Women legal rights;
SHG and income
activities; Education
Entitlements survey of
12 resettlement sites
conducted. Appliactions
for NREGS job card,
widow/old age pension
made; volunteer team
formed
Baseline survey of 525
families conducted;
helped enrol 50
students; volunteer
team formed
Baseline survey
conducted; awareness
programmes
conducted; free tution
provided to children.
Rapid summary
mapping of communtiy
conducted
MG-NREGS; social
justice schemes; PDS;
and peace and
communal amity
Education; pension;
sanitation scheme
Admitting out of
school children in
schools; housing
rights; Water and
MCT
sanitation
Sarfaraz
Darbanga
Education;
Community
Education;
Ahmad
Town, Bihar
Services for
meeting;
citizenship rights for
MCT
urban poor
excluded Nat group;
rights of unorganised
workers
Anzar
Araria
Pension;
Nukkar sabha; Helped obtain job cards Sanitation; MGBhajanpuri (Forbesganj
Sanitation;
volunteer
of some 150 community NREGS;
block), Bihar. employment mobilisers;
members; created
MCD
community
awareness; and prior
partners
work on mobilisation of
victims of Police firing
for legal rights and
compensation.
Note: MCD – Minority Concentrated District; MCB – Minority Concentrated Block; MCT – Minority
Concentrated Town
4.2
Day 2 (Training and Development Day)
The second day was devoted to Organisational Development issues, including training of
fellows and other Misaal actors, whilst developing, through mutual consultations,
systems and processes required for fellows and Misaal NRC to deliver on the agreed
action plans. The objective was to arrive at a commonly agreed set of SOPs, that would
have the buy in of fellows, local mentor teams and NRC, facilitating performance,
Individual sessions included:
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i.
Internal communication
This included discussions on periodic guidance and mentoring support by NRC to
fellows; that between NRC and state/regional/local mentoring teams; and monitoring
and reporting system of fellows’ performance. The following was agreed:
 Fellows submit monthly reports of
performance, on agreed workplan.
 These reports should provide
information at various levels –
activity level, to include efforts
made, and results obtained on
those. But along with that , the
reports also provide opportunity
for fellows to reflect on their own
work, the challenges and
opportunities that exist, and their
capacity development needs.
 The monthly reports, also provide opportunity for local mentoring teams to review
fellows’ work and the challenges of delivery, to suggest capacity development
ii.
Local mentoring platforms
This session, taken by Raja Bhaiyya of VDS, and supported by Action Aid
representatives, was aimed at understanding, collectively, how a good local mentoring
and handholding platform for fellows could be set up; what specific tasks it should
performs; and what systems should govern the paltform’s engagment with both its
designated fellow, as well as Misaal NRC.
The following was agreed in this context:
For Uttar Pradesh fellows:


Afkar India (for Shamli fellow), Sakar (for Bareilly fellow) and VDS (for Fatehpur
and Banda fellows), all supported by Action Aid UP; would use their existing
system of programme monitoring and supervision for their respective fellows. A
similar system would be set up for Aligarh fellow.
Action Aid UP and their aforementioned partners also agreed to include
respective fellows in their ongoing capacity development programmes, based on
ongoing review of fellows’ capacities.
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For Bihar fellows:



iii.
Misaal will set up a monitoring and review system for Bihar fellows, on the lines
of those set up/in practice in UP. This will require NRC to devote resources for
the same, beyond that for UP fellows.
In the absence of any institutional capacity support to Misaal in Bihar, effort
would be made to reach out to state –level development actors in the state, for
adopting individual fellows, for mentoring and capacity support.
Bihar fellows would also be included on periodic training/capacity building
programmes organised outside the state, but these would entail costs to Misaal.
Misaal Portal and functionalities
This session, taken by Satendra Singh of Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), was
aimed at introducing Misaal website/portal (www.misaal.ngo) to Misaal actors (fellows
and others); demonstrating use of the portal for internal communication and other
purposes; and obtaining feedback from participants for improving website quality. DEF
is Misaal’s digital partner.
It was agreed that the website would be further developed to enable Misaal key actors fellows, mentors and NRC - to use Misaal for internal communication (sharing periodic
reports, guidance notes and communiques among others). Also that each fellow would
be provided a profile page on the webspage. These would be linked to blogsites each
fellow would be helped to create, for putting out news and stories. NRC would also
explore possibility of obtaining from DEF, Misaal webmail accounts for all fellows, and
key Misaal personnel. Finally, Misaal on0line donation functionality would be fianlised,
and integration of PayUmoney gateway on the website completed.
iv.
Focus themes for 2nd Quarter: RTI and Minority programmes
This session, on use of RTI for information
collection and its advocacy use for minority
programmes, was taken by Salim Baig, RTI
activist and Akram Akhtar, of Afkar India
Foundation. The resource persons talked
about the various schemes of central and state
governments for Minority development, and
how RTI could aid in their better working.
They spoke of their experience with use of
RTI, and the challenges and opportunities
there for promoting minority rights. The
attempt was to provide practical how-tos and
guides, for fellows to plan use of RTI on
minoirty (and universal) programmes.
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The session concluded with agreement on the outlines of an action plan, for NRC to
support fellows use RTIs actively in their work, and for Misaal to partner with state level
RTI partners, both in UP and Bihar, to this end.
iv.
Media documentation and oureach
The final session of the event, led by Shah
Alam, Misaal Media Fellow, was aimed at
providing fellows and others, a taste of the
possibilities that existed for engaging with
media, to communicate their work to the
wider world, locally as well as at state and
national levels. The focus was on
providing practical tips to writing short
news and commentary pieces; quality
checking those; getting them published
using multiple media; and for using media
engagment for wider advocacy on issues at
hand.
It was decided that fellows would, at first, begin writing regular blog pieces on their
blogsites, supported by NRC; and then
5.
Conclusion and Next Steps:

The review event concluded with a finalisation of the focus areas of each fellow;
and an agreement on next steps, for realisation of the goals and objectives. Next
Sreps Action Plan at Box below.
It was also decided to organise next Misaal review-cum-training conclave,
tentatively in early October 2015, in Banda/Uttar Pradesh, with Vidhya Dham
Samiti, Atarra. Also that the forum would be used to review and reflect on the
performance of fellows, besides the resilience of systems and processes put in
place, for effectove management and oversight of the work of Misaal fellows, and
Misaal fellowship as a whole.

Misaal Fellowship Next Steps Action Plan
Fellows’ workplans and project management
1.
NRC to finalise fellows' focus areas of work that emerged at Lucknow review.
Develop these into workplans, with timelines and indicators, and communicate to
fellows within 15th August 2015.
2.
NRC to develop monitoring & reporting templates against above workplans +
guidance notes (based on Action Aid models), and communicate to fellows. Monthly
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reports of fellows, due by 5th of the following month. First report expected on 5th Sept.
3.
NRC to obtain sample RTI questions from Salim Baig/Akram Akhtar, RTI
activists, and use that to develop an RTI plan (on minority related programs), and
guidance notes for fellows to follow.
4.
NRC to coordinate with Shah Alam/media fellow for a model template on media
reporting, and develop a media plan and associated guidance for fellows to implement,
including for their blog pages.
Fellows’ capacity building
5.
NRC to finalise Misaal Training manual, and share copies in soft as well as hard
form, with all fellows within August 2015.
6.
NRC to develop models for rural and urban service delivery, drawing upon
elements of central and state minority development programmes, that fellows would
implement in the course of their work
7.
NRC to develop a proposal for capacity building of fellows, through training
programmess and study/exposure visits, and approach suitable funding agencies for
support.
Regional mentoring platforms
8.
In the context of efforts for setting up state level platform on Minority rights,
both in Lucknow and Patna (on 29th July and 1st August 2015, respectively), NRC would
set up group mail for UP and Bihar Misaal platforms, and support establishment of
systems and procedures, including local anchor team and interactions with Misaal NRC,
and Misaal fellows in the state.
Misaal Website
9.
NRC to coordinate with DEF to further develop Misaal website, based on Review
meet feedback, including creating fellows' accounts and profile and district pages;
besides finalise integration of PayUmoney gateway on website. Explore possibility of
obtaining from DEF, Misaal webmail accounts for all fellows, and key Misaal personnel.
Capacity, Advocacy, Knowledge
www.misaal.ngo
info@misaal.ngo
C/o Centre for Equity Studies
105/6 A, Adhchini, Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi – 110 017, India
August 2015
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Annex 1
List of participants at Misaal Fellowship 1st Quarterly Review & Reflection meet
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Name
Salim Ansari
Arshi Khan
Asma Ansari
Mohd. Azaz
Majida Parveen
Md. Mahmood
Meraj Ali
Sarfaraz Ahmad
Najmul Hafiz
Anzar Bhajanpuri
Shah Alam
Mujahida
Raja Bhaiyya
Akram Akhtar
Shilpi
Saleem Baig
Satendra Singh
Rajan Singh
Ajay Sharma
Farhat Salim
Reena Cherian
Ovais Sultan Khan
Sajjad Hassan
Organisation/Affiliation
Misaal Fellow, Shamli district, UP
Misaal Fellow, Fatehpur, UP
Misaal Fellow, Aligarh, UP
Misaal Fellow, Bareilly, UP
Misaal Fellow, Banda, UP
Misaal Fellow, Bhagalpur – Banka, Bihar
Misaal Fellow, Patna, Bihar
Misaal Fellow, Darbhanga, Bihar
Misaal Fellow, Madhubani, Bihar
Misaal Fellow, Araria, Bihar
Misaal Media Fellow
Dept. of Education, AMU, Aligarh
Secretary, Vidhya Dham Samiti, Banda
Lead, Afkar India Foundation, Shamli
Lead, Sakar, Bareilly
RTI activist, Moradabad
Digital Empowerment Foundation, New Delhi
Programme Officer, Action Aid India, Lucknow
Peoples’ Advocacy Forum/Action Aid India, Lucknow
Misaal National Resource Centre (NRC) volunteer
Misaal NRC volunteer
Misaal NRC Coordinator
Misaal NRC volunteer
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