IKEA FOUNDATION – END OF PLANNING GRANT REPORT
Reporting Agency:
United Nations Development Programme, India Country Office
No. and title:
2011.052/UND/IN – Integrated Women’s Empowerment – Sustaining
Change for Generations. Replication of the Integrated Women’s
Empowerment Model in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan
Reporting period:
October 1st, 2011 – February 29th, 2012
I. PURPOSE
The United Nations Development
empowerment as a human right and
Development Goals and sustainable
partnership recognizes that women hold
living in poverty.
Programme (UNDP) emphasizes women’s
as a pathway to achieving the Millennium
development. The UNDP-IKEA Foundation
the promise for a better tomorrow for millions
In a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a private sector conglomerate and the United
Nations Development Programme; the UNDP India Country Office in 2009 partnered with
the IKEA Foundation to launch a pilot to test an integrated approach to women’s
empowerment called SWAAYAM (meaning self empowered). The approach strengthened
all dimensions of women’s empowerment, social, economic political and legal, across 500
villages of Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Sant Ravidas Nagar Districts of Uttar Pradesh. Activities
herein reached out to 50,000 poor women and results to date have been encouraging.
Newly elected women belonging to Self Help Groups (SHG’s) took on leadership roles in
institutions of local self governance and demonstrated enhanced responsiveness towards
the needs of Self Help group women on issues such as domestic violence and child
marriage. Women’s economic collectives were organized into producer groups to enable
them to interact directly with market value chains. Overall, the pilot experiences
demonstrated that when women begin to get empowered a multiplier effect takes place in
their own lives and those of their children, families and communities.
Based on these positive outcomes of implementing SWAAYAM in Uttar Padesh, a Concept
Note-Format A (Refer Annexure I for Concept Note) was submitted to the IKEA Foundation,
proposing replication of the Uttar Pradesh women’s empowerment pilot across
approximately 10,016 villages and seven districts in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and
Rajasthan. Upon approval of the concept note, IKEA Foundation approved and sanctioned
a planning grant – Format D (Refer Annexure II for Planning Phase Proposal) to develop a
detailed project proposal for replicating the Integrated Women’s Empowerment Model in
the three new states and a detailed women’s empowerment strategy plan drawing on a
range of primary and secondary sources and in consultation with key stakeholders from
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
II. RESOURCES
IKEA Social Initiative provided a planning grant of Euro 100,000 (USD 136, 426 approx).
The funds were received by UNDP in November 2011.
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III. RESULTS
Activities Supported under the Planning Grant:
The Planning Grant was used for detailed project proposal development and this included
three major steps as per the approved methodology proposed in the planning phase
proposal to the IKEA Foundation (see Figure 1 below for a diagrammatic representation).
Figure 1
(A) Situational
Analysis & Interim
Baselines



Secondary Data
Research & Primary
Studies
Stakeholder Interviews
State-level Situational
Analysis Reports
(B) Stakeholder
Consultations & Validation

2 State Consultations:
Problem identification and
prioritization; Root cause
analysis; Identification of
Interventions;
Partnerships

(C) Logical Framework
Planning &
Proposal Development


Define the project goal,
outcomes, activities,
annual targets, outputs
Proposal Writing
Compiled Situational
Analysis
Timeline: 70 Days; Area Covered: 7 Districts, 14 Villages; Stakeholders Covered: Representatives from
Government, Civil Society, Academic Institutions, UN Agencies, Private Sector, Banks, local leaders and
290 Women from project area
The process of situational analysis and proposal development was initiated in October 2011
through an advertisement to identify and select an agency to lead the proposal
development process. Natural Resource Management Consulting based in Delhi, Uttar
Pradesh was selected through a rigorous selection process for the assignment.
As part of Step (A) Situational Analysis and Interim Baseline Assessment, in-depth
studies across social, economic, political and legal dimensions in the 7 identified project
districts were conducted. Available secondary data on key development challenges across
social, economic, political and legal dimensions faced by women were also researched.
Extensive literature reviews were undertaken in all three states on issues pertaining to gender, women empowerment, women’s workforce in cotton cultivation, migration in
agricultural sector, livelihoods, status and positioning of women in governance and legal
awareness.
This process helped refine the context, informed the problem analysis and highlighted the
existing civil society initiatives already underway that support empowerment of poor
women in the social, economic, political and legal domain in the seven districts.
An interim baseline was conducted in 14 villages of the 7 project districts and involved 140
questionnaire-based interviews with women and migrant families. In addition, 14
interviews with Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) and Focus Group Discussions
(FGDs) with 136 women from 14 Self Help Groups were conducted. FGDs were also
conducted with secondary stakeholders, like small and medium cotton farmers (males),
value chain actors in the agriculture and non-farm sectors and Elected Male
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Representatives (EMRs) to harness their perceptions of the different dimensions of women
empowerment and their expectations from women’s empowerment programs.
Consultations were held with tertiary stakeholders comprising 32 local NGOs (working with
cotton farmers, migrant labourers, and women’s SHGs), Government officials at the State,
District, and Block levels (viz. Block Development Officers, National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural Development representatives and Bankers, Nodal officers for SGSY1 and
representatives from the State Departments of Women and Child Development, Rural
Development, and Labour, Panchayati Raj and Justice). These activities together
generated a comprehensive understanding of the social, economic, political and legal
context in which the rural poor (especially families of cotton producers and labourers)
operate and also helped to identify the key problems contributing to continued socioeconomic poverty and politico-legal disempowerment of women in the area.
Under Step (B) Stakeholder Consultation and Validation, key findings of situational
analysis studies were shared with various Government Organisations, NGOs, UN agencies
and individual stakeholders through two Stakeholders’ Consultation Workshops organized
in October 2011; one in Ahmadabad (on 10-11 October 2011, with stakeholders from
Gujarat and Rajasthan), and the other in Pune (on 13 October 2011, with stakeholders from
Maharashtra). Over 200 stakeholders participated in these workshops wherein
participatory sessions enabled validation of findings of Situational Analysis studies, joint
development of problem statements, problem prioritization, root cause analyses and
generated a basket of interventions that can be taken up under the project. The workshops
also served as a forum to identify potential partnerships that could be established to
achieve the project objectives. These events also helped achieve necessary buy-in and
provided a forum to share and assess the applicability of SWAAYAM in these new areas.
Overall, stakeholders were very positive about the integrated women’s empowerment
model and validated its applicability in the project districts.
As part of Step (C) Logical Framework and Project Planning, the outputs of these
workshops fed into the design of a detailed Logical Framework and Project Plan with
project activities, output indicators, envisaged outputs and outcomes, and means of
verification. This Logical Framework was shared with selected stakeholders and thematic
experts during a Project Planning Workshop organized in Delhi on 10 January 2012, and
subsequently finalized.
An internal technical group (UNDP staff and officers from UN Solutions Exchange)
comprised specialists in poverty reduction, financial literacy, livelihood development,
gender, inclusion, governance, legal empowerment M&E and project management closely
reviewed all components of the project framework, key performance indicators, strategy,
activities and budgets and provided detailed strategy feedback, identified key areas of
interventions and suggested strategic collaborative partnerships, all of which fed into
proposal finalization (Refer Annexure III and IV for Proposal (Format B) and Budget (Format
C). The proposal is now final and is under review by the IKEA Foundation for comments.
Upon due approval, UNDP through the Replication of the Integrated Women’s
Empowerment Approach will reach out to over 1 million women and their families in the
three new states. SWAAYAM implemented here will aim to bring transformational change
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Swaranajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana i.e the National Rural Livelihood Mission aims to reduce poverty among rural
BPL households by promoting diversified and gainful self-employment and wage employment opportunities which lead
to an appreciable increase in income on a sustainable basis.
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addressing both women’s condition– and bring improvements in their income, health,
nutrition and education levels as also women’s position – bringing favorable
transformation in external power structures and decision making systems.
IV. FUTURE WORK PLAN
The project proposal and budget (Format B and C) have been developed and submitted to
the IKEA Foundation for review.
V. INTERIM FINANCIAL STATEMENT
Planning Grant:
Euro 100,000
Start Date:
01 October, 2011
End Date:
29 February, 2012
Figures in USD
Activities
Situational Analysis and Interim
Baseline prepared.
Project Design / Strategy
Formulated.
LFA Planning Workshop and
detailing of implementation.
Project Management & Monitoring
Total
*equivalent to Euro 100,000
Budget
81,036
Expenditure
23,572
Balance
57,464
33,752
22,891
10,861
12,715
3,482
9,233
8,923
136,426*
3,496
53,441
5,427
82,985
VI. ANNEXURES
Annexure I:
Annexure II:
Annexure III:
Annexure IV:
Format A - Concept Note
Format D - Planning Phase Proposal
Format B – Final Project Proposal
Format C – Final Budget
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