Draft for Comments
Format B
Project Proposal
No more than 10 pages and wherever necessary put details in separate appendices.
IKEA Foundation reference:
Partner : Project Title, Ref.
Amount requested from IKEA
Foundation
Applicant organisation
Address
Geographic coverage
Timeframe
Integrated Approach towards Women’s Empowerment –
Sustaining Change for Generations
Replication of the Integrated Women’s Empowerment Model
in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan
Euro 17,343,512
United Nations Development Programme
55, Lodi Estate, New Delhi - 110003
Approximately 10,000 villages covering 7 districts in three States
– Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, India
Project duration
4.5 years
Project start date
April 2012
Project completion date
October 2016
Direct Support:
Of a total of 170,000 members of women’s primary collectives,
the project will provide specialised inputs to:




Beneficiaries




135,000 Women Entrepreneurs/ business women
150,000 existing and potential migrant families
15,000 Women-in-Distress
20,000 Elected Women and Men Representatives of
Local Governing Institutions
30,000 Community Change Agents (women and men)
500 Community Resource Persons
134 Para-legal Women Workers
67 Business Development Service Providers
Indirect Support:
Through the cadre of field functionaries the project will,
 Benefit 1,000,000 women and their family members
with consensus building activities
 1,000,000 women and their families with information on
legal rights and entitlements
1
Draft for Comments
Executive Summary
In the year 2000, the IKEA Foundation supported a Child Rights Project in 500 villages across three
districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh with the goal of sustainable prevention of child labor. The
experience of this project which ended in 2007 underlined poverty as one of the critical factors behind
child labor and drew attention to the inter-linkages between child labor and women’s empowerment,
household indebtedness, education, health and prevalent social issues linked to gender and social
discrimination.
In recognition of this link, in 2009, the IKEA Foundation partnered with UNDP to pilot a Women’s
Empowerment Model (SWAAYAM) in the same 500 villages adopting an integrated approach that
simultaneously addressed four key dimensions of women’s empowerment – social, economic,
political and legal. Field application of this integrated approach has positively impacted the lives of
50,000 women improving both their condition (enhanced income, access to services, health and
education levels) and position (favorable transformation in external power structures and decision
making systems that are the root causes of gender inequality). The pilot project enabled the women
to play a greater role in the local economy through collectivization, promotion of women’s
entrepreneurship and supporting women-led and women-managed economic enterprises. By
investing in leadership development for women through awareness generation on rights and
entitlements, nurturing of grassroots leaders and elected women’s representatives and training of
these leaders on political leadership and legal awareness, the pilot also demonstrated that when,
women become politically empowered, they are able to play a more effective role in finding solutions
to many of the social and economic challenges that they face.
In acknowledgement of the accomplishments of the pilot, the IKEA Foundation and UNDP are joining
forces again to scale up the integrated approach to women’s empowerment not only within Uttar
Pradesh but also across three other states in India – Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, all
associated with areas under cotton production in India. While Gujarat and Maharashtra have vast
areas under cotton cultivation, Rajasthan is a major labor supply corridor for the cotton fields in the
neighboring state of Gujarat.
The project ‘Replication of the Integrated Women’s Empowerment Model in Cotton Growing Areas of
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan (2012-2017)’, will leverage the systems, knowledge, human
resources and partnerships developed and established during the pilot phase. The project will cover
approximately 10,000 villages across seven districts spread over the three states. The districts include
Banaskantha and Patan in Gujarat; Jalna, Wardha and Yavatmal in Maharashtra; and, Dungarpur and
Udaipur in Rajasthan.
Over the past decade, poor cotton farmers in the area have been suffering from high level of
indebtedness caused mainly due to crop failure and declining productivity. Cotton farming has
increasingly become input intensive and high input costs have resulted in low returns for the farmers.
In addition, the cotton procurement process is long winded and delivers minimum returns to the
primary farmers who are the ones most at risk when crops fail and institutional credit is not
forthcoming, or when market fluctuations loom large.
Women are an integral part of cotton cultivation and processing and are adversely impacted either
directly as farmers and farm laborers or indirectly as family members of cotton farmers. Work
participation of women is high as more than 70% of agricultural operations in the Project Districts are
performed by women. Despite this, the status of women’s social, economic and political
empowerment in the area remains low.
2
Draft for Comments
Gender inequality is highly prevalent and women face many kinds of social discrimination and suffer
from lack of exposure, poor access to life’s basic needs and social security entitlements. Economic
exclusion of women is characterized by lack of title to the land that they till, lack of skills and other
livelihood resources, historical indebtedness and poor access to the formal banking system. Politically
and legally, women are ignorant about their human rights, their rights as women, as well as their
rights and responsibilities as citizens and elected representatives. As a result their voice is weak, they
have limited access to their entitlements and are excluded from public decision making processes and
platforms.
In this scenario, the immediate objective of the project is: ‘By 2017, women supported by the project
will be mobilized and capacitated for taking up collective action to realize their rights and
entitlements, undertake economic activities to improve their livelihoods and increasingly participate
in decision making in domestic and public spheres’.
The project will impact the lives of 1 million women and their families through strategies that include
– (i) promoting social inclusion by strengthening and mobilizing 135,000 women into collectives; (ii)
supporting women owned and managed enterprises, building financial and market alliances and
facilitating availability of resources and services to enable sustainable economic activity thereby
augmenting incomes of at least 150,000 women by 20- 30%; (iii) enhancing women’s political
participation in the local governance system by training at least 15,000 elected women’s
representatives on transformational leadership and creating awareness among 900,000 women and
men on voter rights, nominations and electoral processes, (iv) facilitating legal empowerment by
enabling women to access and secure justice through the development of a cadre of 200 para legal
workers who will generate awareness among 1 million women and their families about laws, rights,
entitlements and also facilitate institutional response to human rights violations.
In order to achieve its objective, the project will also invest in the development of a number of other
resources including; more than 67 women empowerment centers at the local level, 500 community
resource persons, 30,000 community change agents, 67 business development service providers and
134 para-legal workers.
The project is designed to contribute to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 1:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and Goal 3: Promoting gender equality and empowering
women. To empower women in a manner that brings about transformational change in their day-today condition as well as their position - both within their household and in the larger community, the
project will ensure sustainability of interventions at three levels – the primary foundation of
sustainability will be the creation of an enabling environment through consensus building that
involves men and boys wherein women become active and resilient change agents; the secondary
foundation of sustainability will be the establishment of strong, dynamic and entrepreneurial
institutions and networks of women that will last beyond the project and the tertiary foundation of
sustainability will be linking project efforts to mainframe national government and state government
programs and private sector interventions to leverage additional resources and reap the benefits of
complementary efforts.
3
Draft for Comments
A.
INTRODUCTION
A.1 Introduction text
The states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan lie in the western region of India. Maharashtra is
India’s second largest state in terms of population and geographical area1. It is also one of the most
industrialized states in the country and contributes about 14.7% to the national GDP. The state
receives a large number of migrants from all around the country- especially cotton growing belts.
The prosperous state of Gujarat is concidered developed across nearly all key parameters of
development 2 . Having some of the largest businesses in India and commercial pockets of
production (for cotton, groundnuts,sugarcane and milk), Gujarat is seen as economically
porgressive. However, both Gujarat and Maharashtra show paradoxes; while on one hand both have
high GDP’s and are considered viable hubs for investment, both have vast numbers of poor,
especially women who are excluded from the development process. Hunger, disempowerment and
exclusion continue to persist pointing to inequitable development. As an example, the India Human
Development Report-20113 indicates that hunger and malnutrition in these states is worse than
some poor states - with Gujarat at a hunger index of 24.7 being the worst performer. Rajasthan is
among the most backward states of India. With 60% of the state topography being desert areas,
the state is overwhelmingly rural with more than three quarters of its 68 million people residing in
villages. The state fares poorly on all gender indicators and points to historical acceptance of
practices such as female feticide, early marriage and intra- household discrimination against
women.
Agriculture is a way of life for a large number of farmers and women labourers in these states who
are involved in the production and processing of crops –especially cotton and participate actively in
animal husbandry, forestry and wage labour operations. While Gujarat and Maharashtra have vast
areas under cotton cultivation4, Southern Rajasthan is a major labour supply corridor to the cotton
growing areas5. Women are an integral part of cotton cultivation and processing and are adversely
impacted either directly as farmers and farm laborers or indirectly as family members of cotton
farmers. Work participation of women is high as more than 70% of agricultural operations in the
Project Districts are performed by women. Across this agrarian landscape, low levels of literacy
among producers, little or no awareness of Government schemes and programs, inadequate
knowledge of rights and entitlements, and negligible participation in local decision-making bodies
is very common. Although 50% seats in rural local bodies are reserved for women, real participation
in local decision making bodies us negligible. The situation is much worse for women who are not
seen producers with equal economic status as their male counterparts, are often involved in the
lower end of the production cycle characterised by long hours, drudgery and lower wages. Women
also have least access or awareness to rights and benefits- whether in the household or in public
places.
In 2009, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in partnership with the IKEA Foundation
initiated a pilot to test an integrated approach to women’s empowerment titled SWAAYAM.
SWAAYAM (meaning self-reliant and empowered), encompassing all dimensions of empowerment1
Maharashtra- state population 11,23,72,972 (2011 census)
Per capital National State Domestic Product, rural poverty headcount, Human Development Index, literacy,
infant and maternal mortality rates.
3
Institute of Applied Manpower Research and Planning Commission, India Human Development Report, 2011
4
Gujarat and Maharashtra together accounted for 69% of the total area under cotton production in 2010-11in
the country. Source: Cotton Corporation of India http://www.cotcorp.gov.in/statistics.asp
5
Khandelwal A, Katiyar S, Vaishnav M (2008), Child Labor in Cottonseed Production, Dakshin Rajasthan
Majdoor Union (DRMU)
2
4
Draft for Comments
social, economic, political and legal was implemented in 500 poor villages of Uttar Pradesh and
reached out to 50,000 women. Experiences from the pilot demonstrated transformational changes
in the lives of women and their families and highlighted numerous examples wherein women
triggered processes of change- at the individual, household and community levels. This pilot project
aptly demonstrated that women can transcend the cycle of poverty when they realize their
potential by organizing themselves, earning incomes and accessing rights.
Successful strategies and prototypes that have been tested in Uttar Pradesh are now ready to be
adapted in other states where IKEA Foundation supported projects on child rights are operational.
Under the proposed intervention, SWAAYAM will be dovetailed to UNICEF’s ongoing child rights
initiatives supported by the IKEA Foundation and will reach out to 1,000,000 women and their
families across approximately 10,000 villages of Banaskantha, Patan (Gujarat), Jalna, Wardha,
Yavatmal (Maharashtra) & Dungarpur and Udaipur (Rajasthan). The concept note approved by
IKEA Foundation forms the basis of this detailed proposal for expansion in these three states (Refer
Annexure I for Concept Note).
This expanded phase of implementing SWAAYAM will leverage UNDP’s comparative advantage
and partnerships with national and state governments on policy, programmatic design and
implementation. These strategic partnerships will allow sharing of successfully tested prototypes
with the government for up-scaling using government’s own resources. Given UNDP’s global focus
on gender equality and women’s empowerment6 both as human rights and as pathways to achieve
MDGs, learning from this project will inform and strengthen UNDP practice on women’s
empowerment at a global level.
This project document has been designed following a three-phase planning process comprising (a)
Situational Analysis and Interim Baseline, (b) Stakeholder Consultation and Validation, and (c)
Logical Framework Planning.
As part of Step (a) Situational Analysis, UNDP conducted an Interim Baseline in the 7 Project
Districts that involved interaction with potential primary stakeholders of the project and a review of
available secondary data on key development challenges and issues in the Project States and
especially the Project Districts. Secondary literature on key areas such as gender, women’s
empowerment, workforce distribution and patterns in cotton cultivation, migration in agricultural
sector, women’s livelihoods and women’s positioning in political spheres and legal awareness
helped define the context and analyse the key problems. It also helped map the existing
interventions for women’s empowerment in the Project Districts. The critical part of the Interim
Baseline was survey and discussions with primary stakeholders –140 interviews with women
producers and labourers, 14 interviews with Elected Women Representatives and Focussed Group
Discussions with 136 Self Help Group women were conducted. Focussed Group Discussions were
also organized with small and medium cotton farmers (males), value chain actors and Elected Male
Representatives to capture their perceptions as well as expectations from women’s empowerment
programmes. Consultations were also held with key development players comprising 32 local NGOs
and Government officials at state, district, and block levels7. The interim baseline fed into
formulation of a situational analysis encompassing women’s condition and position across all
spheres- social, economic, political and legal.
6
For information on UNDP’s Global focus on women’s empowerment visit :
http://www.beta.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/womenempowerment/overview.html
7
Including Block Development Officers, NABARD representatives, bankers, nodal officers for SGSY,
representatives from the State Departments of Women and Child Development, Panchayati Raj, Rural
Development and Labour Welfare.
5
Draft for Comments
Subsequently Step (b) Stakeholder Consultation and Validation Workshops were organized by
UNDP wherein State-specific Situational Analysis (Refer Annexure IV, V and VI for State-wise
Situational Analysis Reports) were shared with various Government Organisations, UN agencies,
NGOs, and community representatives. These workshops enabled validation of findings,
formulation and refinement of problem statements, problem prioritization, root-cause analyses and
generated a potential list of interventions and partnerships that can be operationalised under the
proposed initiative. (Refer Annexure VII for a Consolidated Situational Analysis Report and Annexure
IX for Outputs of Consultation Events).
Under Step (c) Logical Framework Planning, outputs of step (a) and (b) fed into the design of a
detailed Logical Framework and the overall project plan. The proposal presented herein is a
consolidation of these three steps within a framework of optimized results and resources as per the
approved format of the IKEA Foundation.
B.
NATIONAL CONTEXT AND PROBLEM ANALYSIS
B.1 National Context
Inclusive development cannot be attained unless women participate equally in the development
process. India on that count continues to face persistent challenges with respect to gender as a
result of which huge gender inequalities and discrimination continue to exist. Of the 1.2 billion
people who live in India, 50 percent are women. For these women, especially those who are poor,
poverty does not just mean scarcity and want. It means denial of rights and opportunities and
persistent suppression of their voice. Despite the efforts of government, development agencies and
civil society to address inequalities between girls and boys, men and women and targeted initiatives
aimed at enhancing equality, women’s status continues to bear heavy on India’s human
development. The fact file below indicates the severity of the situation.

India’s sex ratio of 940 is lower than that of its neighbours Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan and
Bangladesh8
India’s Gender Inequality Index indicates that Indian women lag significantly behind men in
education, parliamentary representation and labour force participation. India is ranked at 129
out of 146 nations on the Gender Inequality Index.9
There has been a dramatic fall in the labour force participation ratio of women in both rural
areas and urban areas. Less than one in four women now work, down from three in ten10.
When women are reported as part of the labour force; their daily income is estimated at only 53
paise per rupee earned by men in rural areas and 68 paise in urban areas11
Disturbing presence of anemia in 56 per cent of adolescent girls, 59 percent in pregnant women
and 63 percent in lactating women points to discriminatory practices in food consumption, poor
awareness and pregnancy related follow up. 12
Violence against women continues unabated; overall one-third of women aged 15-49 years have
experienced physical violence13.





8
Sex ratio- Bangladesh 978, Nepal 1014, Myanmar 1048 and Pakistan 942
(http://censusmp.gov.in/censusmp/All-PDF/06Gender%20Composition.pdf)
9
UNDP Human Development Report, UNDP (2011)
10
NSS – 66th Round
11
Human Development in India, Challenges for Society in Transition, Oxford University Press, 2010
NFHS-3rd Round (available at http://www.nfhsindia.org/pdf/India.pdf)
13
National Family Health Survey (Series 3, 2005-06) conducted by the International Institute of Population
Sciences (IIPS), 2009
12
6
Draft for Comments

India’s maternal mortality rate at 21214 is still far from the UN Millennium Goal of 109.
These facts bring out the limitations of piecemeal approaches to women’s empowerment and
point to the need to devise holistic strategies that promote women’s development across multiple
dimensions, ultimately enhancing their capabilities and capacities to address various challenges
they face on a sustained basis.
The three Indian States, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, where the proposed project
interventions will be located, have traditionally fared poorly where gender equality is concerned.
While Gujarat15 and Maharashtra16 are emerging as developed States, Rajasthan is considered a
laggard on standard social and economic parameters. However, even in Maharashtra and Gujarat,
concerns like prevalence of hunger and a weak linkage between income increase and women’s
empowerment in various pockets, remain.
The 7 Project Districts are high poverty concentration areas and are predominantly rural (Refer
Annexure II for Area Maps and Annexure III for State and District Data Sheets). Four out of seven
Project Districts (Udaipur, Dungarpur, Yavatmal and Banaskantha) figure in the Government of
India’s 250 most backward region districts of India. As per the interim baseline study, all the seven
Project Districts have at least 70 percent of their population residing in rural areas and nearly half of
the women in all Project Districts suffer from anemia and malnutrition. The poor sex ratio and child
sex ratio, especially in Gujarat point to sex-selection during birth17.
Gujarat is predominantly an agricultural economy. Women are involved both in the production and
processing of crops and participate actively in horticulture, animal husbandry and wage labour
operations. While women in Gujarat have registered marked improvements in literacy, age of
marriage, sex ratio and access to resources, the underlying issues such as domestic violence, poor
workforce participation and low engagement of women in political spheres point to latent structural
determinants that undermine the positive trajectory of women’s empowerment in the state.
While Maharashtra is one of the most industrialized states of India, development in the state has
been regionally unevenly distributed. Agriculture and allied activities are a major source of
livelihood for more than two-third of the State’s population. However, since 2000, a large number
of farmer suicides have been reported in cotton growing belt of Vidarbha. High levels of
indebtedness, caused mainly due to cotton crop failures, poor productivity and low returns from
increasingly input-intensive farming and high input costs have worsened the plight of distressed
communities in this region. While one third of women in the state work and about a half of them are
literate, the state ranks poor on women’s voice, decision making and incidences of violence against
women. Surprisingly the state sex ratio at 92218 is much lower than the national average.
Poverty in Rajasthan is endemic. In 2000, 8.65 million people in Rajasthan lived below the poverty
line And a larger number were clustered just above the poverty line, making them susceptible to fall
into poverty during distress19. Life Expectancy at Birth for both males and females in Rajasthan is
14
Census 2011
Gujarat - State Human Development Report 2004, available at
http://data.undp.org.in/shdr/gujarat/report.pdf
16
Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2010-11, Government of Maharashtra.
17
Sex ratio of Gujarat is 918 while that of India is 914 as per census 2011
18
Census of India 2011, Government of India
19
Project
Information
DocumentRajasthan
Rural
Livelihoods
Project;
http://wwwwds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2009/02/11/000104615_20090211142934/
Rendered/INDEX/RRLP010PID01PCN0stage1.txt
15
7
Draft for Comments
lower than the country as a whole; this together with a high Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and poor
Sex Ratio reflects an absence of life-supporting environment, especially for the girl-child in
Rajasthan. Recurring droughts, a growing crisis of ground water supply, falling investment rates and
lowered public investment in infrastructure have all contributed to lowering of growth rates and
increasing economic volatility in Rajasthan20. As a result migration is a significant phenomenon in
the region given the paucity of self employment and wage labour options. The state fares very poor
across all parameters of women’s empowerment. Ranging from incidences of female infanticide
and feticide, poor nutrition and historical discrimination to 80% of women of child-bearing age
suffering from anaemia and maternal mortality rates among the highest in the country21, women
and girls are caught in a cycle of disempowerment in the state.
Problem Analysis - Social Sphere:
Baseline studies and situational analysis conducted in the three states indicate poor status of
women in household decision-making and their lack of engagement and participation in the public
sphere. Lack of appreciation and under-valuation of a woman’s work (especially contribution in
home management), unequal opportunities for engagement in the household22 and social
restrictions on mobility, access and participation largely due to dominance of patriarchy restrict
women’s development as human beings in their own right. Although common, domestic violence
is not acknowledged as a household problem either by women or men. Furthermore, most
vulnerable segments within women (single, deserted, divorced, handicapped and elderly) remain
doubly disadvantaged due to their multiple vulnerabilities.
The child sex ratio in Gujarat (918), Maharashtra (925) and Rajasthan (926) are higher than the
national average of 914 (Census, 2011). While the child sex ratio in all the Project Districts except
Patan is higher than the respective State average, although they have improved over the last ten
years. Low levels of female literacy23, maternal and infant mortality24, prevalence of malnutrition
and anaemia among women exhibit strong gender bias against women and the girl child in the
Project Districts and point to a deeper societal malaise concerning the social status of women.
While in Gujarat increase in mean age of marriage (at 19 years) and reduction in the gender literacy
gap (50% and 58% in Project Districts Banaskanta and Patan respectively) indicate increased
awareness and education opportunities, only a 33% of women have land in their own names and
women continue to take up ardours tasks such as collection of drinking water and fuel wood which
is labour intensive and physically taxing. The interim baseline revealed that in the districts of
Maharashtra, while over 50% of women lived in semi-pukka or pukka houses and had access to
private latrines, a major section of respondents complained of malnutrition and anaemia related
weaknesses and highlighted mounting indebtedness and family concerns due to growing
alcoholism (over 90% of women survey respondents in the state indicated alcoholism addiction
among men as a main cause of their suffering). Rajasthan reported the worst progress on gender
indicators with over 56% women respondents being under weight (Project District - Udaipur
reporting female malnutrition levels as high as 65%). Women indicated inadequate control of their
reproductive rights with over 50% women having three children or more and over 75% births taking
place at home. Women indicated poor mobility and awareness and only 2.7% received full anti20
Annual Plan 2010-11 - Rajasthan Government. Jaipur: Government of Rajasthan.
http://www.wellsforindia.org/pdf/empowerment.pdf
22
Rustagi P. (2004). Significance of Gender-related Development Indicators: An Analysis of Indian States.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies. 11-3: 291-343. (Available at
http://www.dise.in/Downloads/Use%20of%20Dise%20Data/Preet%20Rustagi.pdf)
23
Except for Wardha and Yavatmal female literacy rate in all the districts hovers around 50%.
24
IMR and MMR figures in Rajasthan are higher than the national average.
21
8
Draft for Comments
natal care. Southern Rajasthan, where the Project Districts are located is largely tribal, follows a
matriarchal system and women are paid bride price. Herein thousands of cases of men taking loans
from money lenders and big farmers in Gujarat for marriage purposes were reported. Migration is
the most important source of livelihood in the Project Districts and a majority go to Gujarat for
unskilled work in farms. Sexual harassment and Violence against Women emerged as distressing
highlights of the social existence of women and adolescent girls in South Rajasthan (especially
among migrants) and in the rural areas of the Project Districts in Maharashtra. As a result of the
widespread gender bias within the society – especially in Rajasthan, respondents in Dungarpur and
Udaipur shared that women, especially widows are branded as witches and violence against them
is occasionally sanctioned by Caste Panchayats. Otherwise too, polygamy and desertion are all
too common in these areas, and are part of a vicious cycle of marginalization, exploitation and
hardship.
In recent years, positive trends across all Project Districts are evident in women’s engagement
with local SHG’s that are indicative of their enhanced ability to save, seek loans, participate in
meetings - especially in states such as Gujarat and Maharashtra where women respondents did
attribute positive development through SHG’s. Further, all the three state governments have
launched institutional responses to tackle issues of women’s disempowerment. The
Government of Rajasthan has launched a 7 point programme for women’s empowerment and has
proposed 50% reservation of women in local governance bodies. The Government of Maharashtra
has launched special credit packages for the Vidharba region and support services to widows.
Gujarat has launched the Gujarat state Commission for women that is working to ensure women’s
legal rights and is implementing the Mahila Samakhya programme in all districts for women’s
empowerment. These are positive signs that the Government is concerned about women’s issues.
In addition, several civil society initiatives across the three states are operational creating a good
foundation for the launch of SWAAYAM in the proposed districts.
Problem Analysis - Economic Sphere:
While work participation of women in the Project Districts has increased in the last decade,
women’s engagement is restricted to low investment-low output economic activities. More
than 70% of agricultural operations in the Project Districts are performed by women; yet, very few
women own titles to the land. For about 4-5 months in a year, women in Project Districts are
intensely involved in agricultural activities and for the remaining period, report an insecure basket
of livelihood options. High risk livelihoods characterize the livelihood portfolio of the poor in the
Project Districts. Skill-sets of women are inadequate. With their participation remaining mainly in
the unorganized and informal sectors, women are able to access largely low quality and poorly
remunerated employment25.
Financial inclusion remains a distant reality in these Districts despite concerted efforts made by
state governments- especially in Maharashtra. There is a high level of indebtedness among
farmers in all the Project Districts especially in pockets of Banaskantha, Patan and Vidarbha. SHGs
seem to meet their household credit requirements in more than half of the cases and in rest of the
cases loan is taken from moneylenders at a very high rate of interest ranging from 24-120% per
annum. However, this credit from SHGs is not sufficient for making investments in livelihood
options and thus in the absence of adequate equity finance and seed funds, women enterprises
are a non starter. As an example, of the 3556 SHG’s reported in Banaskantha and Patan districts of
Gujarat, only 611 were credit linked. In Maharashtra, impact of the Prime Minister's Package and
25
UNIFEM and Sahr Waru (u.d.). A Resource Directory on Support Services to Counter Violence Against Women
for State of Gujarat. Delhi and Ahmedabad: UNIFEM South Asia Regional Office and Sahr Waru. Available at
http://www.sahrwaruindia.org/pdf/main.pdf
9
Draft for Comments
the Loan Waiver Scheme has on one hand been positive and on the other has not been able to
check occurence of suicides by farmers especially in the cotton belt.. Persistent issues pertaining to
poor access, indebtedness and credit awareness still continue among women. In Rajasthan despite
mass scale distribution of Kisan (Farmer) Credit Cards, the uptake is low. SHG’s are the only local
mechanism of inter-loaning and credit aside from money lenders who charge 2.5-15% rate of
interest per month. Insurance covers related to agriculture and health are also not popular due to
lack of awareness and poor access. As an example, Gujarat reported just 40% coverage of the
National Health Insurance Scheme (or the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana) and negligible
coverage of crop insurance. The picture is the same for Rajasthan wherein only 4 out of 40
respondents reported having an RSBY card. Data from Udaipur (Rajasthan) indicated that just over
10% land holdings were insured for crops.
Cases of migration from the Project Districts for skilled work are few, and most migration is under
distress and is unskilled in nature. Women usually do not migrate but when they do (example, for
sharecropping or when crops fail and other exigencies arise), they are vulnerable to physical,
mental, financial and sexual exploitation, especially at work sites where the whole family is not
engaged together.
Baseline assessments find that in Gujarat, women and girl children from migrant households - who
constituted about 59% of the labour force (mainly tribals from Southern Rajasthan), are intensively
engaged in picking and processing hybrid cottonseeds. They were found to be in heavy debt, often
caught in the contract farming cycle. On the positive side, the situational analysis also indicated
livelihood diversification with women engaged in animal husbandry (milk marketing), forestry and
crafts and examples of successful women’s cooperatives in Banaskantha. In Maharashtra all the
three districts where the project is located are cotton growing and over 80% of respondents
reported growing cotton either on their own land or through share cropping. Women reported
being hired as labourers for harvesting and picking at a wage-rate of INR 100 per day. Men usually
are at the forefront of cotton sales through a middle-man or through the ginning federation. There
are very few farmer’s cooperatives or producer companies and the industry is controlled by private
players. Families just break even with huge variances in prices realised from cotton sales (between
INR 3000 - 7000 per quintal). In fact, introduction of hybrid and Bt cotton seeds has resulted in a
change in traditional farming patterns in the Project Districts. Farmers have moved from growing
sorghum (jowar) and pearl millet (bajra) to mono-cropping just cotton and soybean. As a result of
this, the situational analysis indicates that other livelihood options for women are very limited. In
Southern Rajasthan, the average household income of tribal families is INR 22,621 per annum and
the proportion of rural poor is 48%. Wage labour, agriculture, animal husbandry and forest produce
collection constitutes the entire livelihood basket. Though there is negligible landlessness in the
area, the land is not fertile and farming is largely subsistence oriented. Drought is common and a
large number of families (women, men, and children) migrate for 4-6 months a year, largely to
cotton farms in Gujarat. Individuals or families are contracted on a cash advance basis thereby
restricting their freedom or choices. Women in the area have hardly any non-farm skills and few
livelihood choices.
Problem Analysis - Political and Legal Sphere:
10
Draft for Comments
Political empowerment of women has gained focus with decentralisation of governance and the
more recent thrust on reservation of women in all three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)26.
However, women in Project Districts are largely ignorant about the political set-up and their
rights and responsibilities as citizens or leaders. Despite reservation, their participation in gram
sabhas27 is abysmally low, and their voting decisions are influenced to a great extent by men in the
household across all Project Districts (except in Maharashtra). According to a study, participation of
women citizens of the village in gram sabhas was reported to be less than 25 percent highlighting
the lack of effective participation of women in local governance. 28
Proxy-membership is rampant with EWRs being used as proverbial heads to keep seats booked for
men-folk, whenever Panchayat seats are reserved for women under the rotational reservation
system. Although there is a linkage between SHGs and EWRs (with many EWRs being members of
SHGs in their respective villages), this linkage is not organic in the sense that development issues
highlighted and discussed in SHG fora are not carried forward for action to the PRIs which have the
mandate and funds to do so. Poor socio-economic status of women and the patriarchal set-up
ensures that Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) are passed over while sending out
information on PRI meetings and their suggestions ignored during major meetings.
Gujarat has 46,000 elected women representatives (2230 and 1310 in Banaskantha and Patan).
Situational analysis and interim baseline assessments found that over 90% women had voter cards
but a half of them reported casting votes as per advice from husbands. While state data indicates
that 14,221 EWRs have been trained, of the EWRs interviewed, many had been elected unanimously
on reserved seats and only a few had knowledge of their roles as EWR’s. None could recall any
training support extended to them. The state government’s efforts to setup Panchayat Resource
Centres and a policy of 100% training coverage of EWRs has been appreciated by government
officials and EWRs both, however benefits of the same are yet to be realised. In Maharashtra,
during baseline assessments, women interviewed unanimously indicated that they participated
actively in voting and made their own voting choices. However, overall in their assessments, the
Gram Panchayat members were inactive and looking after self interests. Very few women
participated in gram sabhas. EWR’s interviewed were educated (primary schooling) and won
reserved/un-reserved seats and indicated that a growing number of EWRs had reduced the
instances of gambling and alcoholism in the villages. All EWR’s interviewed were broadly aware of
their roles. However, many indicated dependence on son and husbands to carry out duties and that
they did not raise many issues in the Gram Panchayat. Elected Male Representatives interviewed
indicated that meetings were not democratic and that women’s concerns were not at the top of the
planning lists. In Rajasthan, reservation of women has increased from the mandatory 33% to 50%.
Even though the numbers of EWRs has increased, their true participation is still wanting. Caste
dynamics, low literacy, poor exposure lead to poor performance of women in local self government.
Knowledge of governance mechanisms and benefits is poor. 70% women largely cast votes,
through as a matter of social obligation & based on their husbands advice or cash benefits offered
26
The Indian government has decentralized several administrative functions to the local level to Panchayati
Raj Institutions (PRI). The panchayats receive village & community development funds from three sources – (i)
local body grants, as recommended by the Central Finance Commission, (ii) funds for implementation of
centrally-sponsored schemes, and (iii) funds released by the state governments on the recommendations of
the State Finance Commissions. In Rajasthan and Maharashtra there is 50% reservation for women in PRIs. In
Gujarat it is 33%.
27
A Gram Sabha means a body consisting of persons whose names are in listed as electors in the electoral roll
for a Panchayat. The gram sabha meets regularly to discuss village matters.
28
Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Study on EWRs in Panchayati Raj Institutions, 2008
11
Draft for Comments
by contestants. Respondents indicated extremely low participation in the gram sabha (over 70%
denied participating in one). Community feedback indicated that the Panchayat rarely shares
information freely and that women were minimally involved in Panchayat matters.
Women in the Project Districts lack awareness about their legal rights. Poor access of rural
women to legal aid was largely assessed as a demand-side issue. Much of the violence against
women and other kinds of harassment and discrimination in the socio-economic and political
domain is accepted by women as a given. Situational analysis indicated pervasive ignorance about
women’s rights, laws formulated and institutions set up specifically to protect women in the society.
Fatalism and ignorance together result in poor legal-aid-seeking behaviour among women in
the Project Districts.
In Gujarat awareness pertaining to laws related to domestic violence, dowry & harassment,
property, Right to Information, Sex determination etc was found to be low. While overall awareness
of all major schemes (highest knowledge of National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme followed
by National Health Insurance Scheme, Indira Awas Yojana - housing scheme, Public Distribution
System, Integrated Child Development Scheme etc) was about 60%, access was much lower. Over
57% women (NFHS-3) reported it is justified for men to beat women under specific circumstances.
Perhaps that is the reason why only 1/4th of SHG’s interviewed indicated discussing issues of
harassment and violence in group meetings. To address the aforesaid concerns, the government
has opened several Legal Aid centres, counselling centres – however lack of awareness of these and
poor facilitation channels lead to poor utilization of these facilities. In Maharashtra while over 60%
women knew about the major government schemes, over 80% didn’t have access to them. Official
data from NREGS indicates very low expenditure and work created in the three Project Districts.
Primary assessments indicated that women worked a maximum 15 days per year under the scheme.
While awareness regarding dowry act, domestic violence was between the range of 30-40% women
were not aware of the actual recourse mechanisms available to them should they seek help. On acts
such as RTI, women responded negligibly whereas regarding property rights indicated that since
women marry, the property is essentially for men. Several women expressed disdain with the police
and justice system and were not aware of the benefits of legal aid, family courts and role of
protection officers. In Rajasthan, almost all women interviewed showed awareness of NREGS, PDS
and Pension schemes, while fewer knew about Livelihoods, Sanitation and Girl child related
schemes. However a fewer had ever benefitted from the same. Overall feedback from communities
indicated problematic access to any scheme of the government. Problems of domestic violence and
dowry were common and less than 10% women respondents knew of the anti dowry laws and fewer
knew of their rights to property, protection and information. While SLSA’s and District Legal
Service Committees are operational in the area, women and community members interviewed have
not been able to avail of legal aid services. Overall apathy towards women’s rights exists as a matter
of historical acceptance.
In response to the contexts elaborated above, the proposed Integrated Women’s Empowerment
project aims to bring about significant and sustainable improvements in women’s social status,
economic productivity and participation, politico-legal awareness and improved access to
entitlements. Strategies to be implemented have already been tested successfully under
SWAAYAM - the IKEA Foundation supported and UNDP-implemented women’s empowerment
project in Uttar Pradesh. For this project, strategy roll out pathways will draw from experiences in
the UP project as well as take into account local experience and context in the 7 Project Districts of
Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The pathways will ensure that (i) women are mobilized,
capacitated, and organized for collective action to enhance their social and self-wort, and reduce
social inequalities; (ii) women’s capabilities to initiate new economic activities/enterprises or to
strengthen existing ones and to access livelihood infrastructure are enhanced, and their (families’)
12
Draft for Comments
livelihood risks are characterized and covered/reduced; and (iii) women are empowered to resist all
forms of violence and injustice, to participate effectively in local decision-making and to demand
their rights, entitlements and access to quality public services.
The project will adopt an inclusive approach, wherein while the key change agents (as also targets)
will be women, concerted efforts will be made to involve youth, men, and representatives of local
(formal and informal) institutions to ensure societal buy-in of the strategy by various interest
groups. The project will also establish strong linkages with the Government, financial institutions,
private sector, and the civil society to accentuate project gains and sustain project impact.
UNDP had had extensive experience of working in all the three states on issues of human
development, livelihood promotion, empowerment of poor communities- especially women and
tribal groups. In Rajasthan, UNDP has been engaging for more than 10 years on livelihood
promotion; working with a range of local communities and partners in different agro-ecological
contexts. This has culminated in the setting up of the Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods 29
which has supported sectoral interventions in agriculture, livestock, forestry, skill development cum
job placement, migration support services and promotion of tribal and women centred livelihoods
in Southern Rajasthan. UNDP has also supported the state government in building capacities of
elected women representatives to enhance their participation in institutions of local self
governance. In Gujarat, UNDP has collaborated with some of the leading civil society groups on
enhancing livelihoods based on natural resources, crafts and rural tourism. Post the earthquake in
Kutch UNDP supported extensive rehabilitation efforts focussing on most marginalised groups. In
Maharashtra UNDP has supported the state government research and published the Human
Development Report and has worked extensively with civil society partners in demonstrating
environmentally sustainable livelihood models and assessing the impact of HIV and AIDS. UNDP
will leverage its past partnerships, learning’s and experience to contribute to the SWAAYAM
initiative.
B.2 Problem Analysis
The problem analysis is located in the socio-economic and political context described above30 and is
given below: (Please refer to Annexure X for detailed Problem Analysis)
Women are unable to bring transformational change in their lives and in those of their
families because of entrenched gender disparities at all levels, exacerbated by their own
lack of capacities (awareness, knowledge, and skills) in an environment of limited
resources and opportunities.
Theme-wise problem statements across the three domains - social, economic, political and Legal can be identified as given in Figure 1 below.
29
http://rajasthanlivelihoods.org/
30
Detailing of problem statements and cause-and-effect analysis were done through two multi-stakeholder
Consultation events organized during Project formulation.
13
Draft for Comments
PROBLEM STATEMENT
STATUS
SOCIAL
EMPOWERMENT
Reduced Self-Worth &
increased Social Vulnerability
of Women
Gender inequality and discrimination at all levels
manifests in lack of exposure, poor access to life’s
basic needs and social security entitlements
PROBLEM STATEMENT
ECONOMIC
EMPOWERMENT
STATUS
Economic Exclusion of Women
PROBLEM STATEMENT
STATUS
POLITICAL &
LEGAL
EMPOWERMENT
Lack of capacities and resources, poor access to
livelihoods, indebtedness, and rising risks lead to
economic exclusion of women
Women’s Exclusion from
Decision-making Processes
and Platforms
Ignorance about their their rights and
responsibilities as citizens and as EWRs results in
lack of women’s voice, limited access to
entitlements and exclusion of women from
decision-making processes
Under the project, rural women (especially those from poor, vulnerable, and marginalized families
and women-in-distress (hereinafter W-i-Ds), SHG members, the SHG leaders, adolescent girls and
boys and EWRs across 10,000 villages of the Project Districts would constitute the group of Primary
Stakeholders.
Since the socio-cultural, economic and political context also plays a key role in influencing the
extent to which women in the area are in charge of their lives, the project will also work with family
members of the women, Elected Male Representatives (EMR’s) , other Panchayti Raj Institute (PRI)
representatives, community leaders, Government functionaries (at Block, District, and State levels),
lead Banks and NABARD, Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) , Rights Based Networks, and
Business Development Service Agencies (BDSAs) as Secondary Stakeholders. The project will also
work closely with other UN Agencies- especially UNICEF and the IKEA Foundation as significant
secondary stakeholders to enhance cross learning and sharing on the initiative. External
Stakeholders comprising private sector entities and institutions which may include traders and
other market actors along the business value chains, Technical Resource Agencies (TRAs) (will be
reached out to. The strengths and weaknesses of each key stakeholder category have been
presented as Stakeholder Analysis in Annexure XIV.
C.
C.1
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Development Objective
The development objective of the project is “Women in the Project Districts exercise greater say and
control across social, economic, political, and legal spheres, thereby transforming their lives and those
of their families and communities”.
14
Draft for Comments
The project is designed to contribute to achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 1:
Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, and Millennium Development Goal 3: Promoting Gender
Equality and Empowering Women.
The project is an integral part of the ongoing country programme (2008-12) as well as the next
country programme (2013-17) and contributes to the core thrust on just, sustainable human
development with a focus on issues of greater equity, participation and empowerment of
marginalized people (such as dalits, tribal groups, women, population affected by HIV/AIDS,
Muslims, and people with disabilities) to achieve lasting, transformational change. It feeds
into three of the four outcomes of the next country programme related to inclusive and equitable
poverty reduction, democratic governance and advancing women’s social, political and economic
rights.
C.2
The Project’s Immediate Objective
Within the above development objective, the project’s immediate objective is: By the end of the
project, women will be mobilised and capacitated for taking up action to realize their rights and
entitlements, undertake economic activities to improve their livelihoods and increasingly participate in
decision making in domestic and public spheres’’.
Key Performance Indicators
By the end of the project:
 At least 400,000 women and their families access their rights and basket of entitlements under
various Government schemes and programmes
 Sustainable increase by 20-30% in average annual income of at least 150,000 women in the
Project Districts
 At least 30,000 women and youth emerge as change agents and lead collective action at village,
block, and district levels
C.3
Expected Output(s)
OUTPUTS
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
OUTPUT 1

At least 1,000,000 women belonging to poor, vulnerable, and
marginalised families identified and reached through community
consensus building activities

At least 67 Women Empowerment Centres (WECs) established to
provide training, advisory and support services on social, political
and legal aspects to women from approximately 10,000 villages

At least 170,000 women SHG and other women collective members
strengthened/ mobilised

At least 7 SHG and other women collective Federations established
and/ or strengthened

At least 30,000 leaders of women’s collectives and local Youth
mobilised at village level as community change agents (CCAs)

At least 150,000 existing and potential migrant families benefit from
awareness on migrant rights
SOCIAL
EMPOWERMENT
By end of the project,
women in Project
Districts mobilised and
capacitated for
individual and organized
action to address
persistent exclusion and
violence, access
entitlements and
exercise greater
ownership over
resources
15
Draft for Comments
OUTPUT 2

ECONOMIC
EMPOWERMENT
At least 10 livelihood sub-sectors which have special relevance to
women identified

At least 150,000 women trained in sector-specific skills, enterprise
management and financial literacy

At least 150,000 women benefiting from involvement at various
levels of the value chain

At least 67 Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs)
supported in providing business and technical services to women
entrepreneurs

At least 10 successful, women-centred livelihood prototypes
demonstrated for up-scaling
OUTPUT 3

POLITICAL And Legal
EMPOWERMENT
At least 900,000 women and their families made aware of voter’s
rights and responsibilities, nominations and electoral processes

At least 15,000 EWRs trained on their roles and responsibilities,
political system and structure, and leadership development

At least 20,000 members of elected local bodies(women and men)
sensitized on engendering governance

At least 30,000 women and change agents mobilised as pressure
groups/ vigilance committees

At least 7000 women part of the project spell out their rights and
entitlements under major government schemes

At least 67 networks of EWRs established and / or strengthened

At least 1,000,000 women and their families informed about
entitlements and laws related to women

At least 134 Para-Legal Women Workers (PLWs) trained on legal
issues faced by women
By end of the project,
women in Project
Districts diversify their
livelihoods, own and
operate sustainable
enterprises and increase
household incomes
By end of project,
women in Project
Districts participate
effectively in local selfgovernance, demand
quality public services
and access justice and
grievance redressal
mechanisms to realize
their rights and
entitlements
A detailed representation of Outcomes, Inputs Required, Outputs, Activities, Output Indicators,
Means of Verification, and Risks and Assumptions is available as the Project Log Frame in Annexure
XIII.
C.4 Project Implementation Strategy
The Integrated Women Empowerment Framework (see Figure 3 below) implemented successfully
as SWAAYAM in Uttar Pradesh forms the core approach for this initiative. A strong need based
approach with an eye for improved targeting and integrated planning and roll-out forms the basis of
the project strategy. Herein social, economic, legal and political streams of women’s empowerment
will be interwoven and rolled out based on need; thereby creating an overall environment for
engendered development. The initiative will be rolled out across all 67 blocks of 7 districts. However
since variances in vulnerability, severity of depravation and consequent needs are expected,
interventions will also be tailored based on clustering of needs and in cases where pockets of
extreme poverty exist- interventions will be intensified to maximise benefits to the most vulnerable.
16
Draft for Comments
The primary strategy of the project will be to strengthen existing & organise women’s collectives
(such as SHGs, Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), producer groups, Farmers Interest Groups (FIGs), Cooperatives) for economic activities of thrift/ credit and income generation. These groups will also be
strengthened across social, political and legal lines through capacity building, campaigns and handholding support, thereby enhancing the overall self-reliance and strength of women.
Mobilisation and strengthening of women’s groups will serve as the primary social base. Secondary
level organisation of such groups into networks, federations and cooperatives/ companies will serve
as the institutional base for women to take up sector specific activities. Building of such
institutional coherence among women is expected to give them the chance to enhance their selfworth and incomes at the individual level and multiply the benefits through enhanced voice,
representation and acceptance at the community level. Together, the project’s strategy aims to
bring out transformational change in women’s ‘condition’ and ‘position’ across all domains of
empowerment.
Figure 2: Women’s Empowerment Framework
SWAAYAM- Transforming Women for Lasting Change
Processes
Dimensions
Transformation of Power Relations
Economic, Social, Political & Legal
Individual, Household & Community
ECONOMIC:
Increasing capacity
and opportunities of
women and their
households for secure
& enhanced income
and greater access
and control over
- Interventions designed to impinge
on structural issues of gender,
caste, religion and class
- Enhance local organisational
capacity through social
mobilisation
- Work towards greater inclusion
and participation
- Strengthen leadership and
negotiating power
Levels
SOCIAL:
Supporting a conducive
environment for
addressing social issues
and promoting positive
relationships among
women and men and
within communities
POLITICAL &
LEGAL:
Strengthening
processes and
greater
participation,
voice and decisionmaking role in
local development
UNDP will implement this project under the direct implementation modality. To this end,
managerial and technical oversight will be provided by the UNDP Country Office (for management
arrangement, see section D1). Project implementation in 7 Project Districts across the three project
States will be undertaken by two Project Management Teams (PMTs). At the District level,
implementation of activities will be undertaken by 7, carefully selected and reputed Mother NGOs
(MNGOs). These MNGO’s will work directly with Community Resource Persons (CRPs) linked to
Women’s Empowerment Centres (WEC’s) at the Block level. To enhance last mile outreach, the
CRPs will in turn develop a strong base of women leaders and youth groups (referred to as
Community Change Agents - CCAs) in the villages who will also work as vigilance/ pressure groups
on various issues concerning women in the project area. In addition, the project will partner with
17
Draft for Comments
national and state level Technical Resource Agencies (TRA) mandated to provide specialised
support to the different domains of empowerment. Specifically, for rolling out the economic
empowerment component of the project, three Business Development Service Agencies (BDSAs)
will be contracted – one for each State31 to provide high end business, equity, skill development and
market support to women on an end to end basis.
Documentation of good practices and results of project experiences (under each component) will
be an ongoing endeavour. . Specific attention on knowledge sharing and management as a key
component of the project will be operationalised through a two way knowledge management
strategy wherein a regular inflow and outflow of knowledge products will be maintained. These
products will not only be for the benefit of the project team and allied stakeholders but also for a
wider audience seeking solutions to gender equity and women’s empowerment issues. (see Annexure
XII for detailed project strategy).
Specific strategies to be adopted for operationalising the three components of this project, aimed
at Social, Economic, and Political and Legal Empowerment of Women in the Project Districts,
respectively, have been described below.
SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY
Key dimensions of social empowerment strategy and operationalisation are given below (see
Annexure XIII for details).
The key components of Social Empowerment Strategy of this project can be summarised as
follows:







Strengthening/ organization of women at primary and secondary level through strengthening
of existing and creation of need based women’s groups and institutions
Improved targeting through vulnerability mapping for visibility, characterisation of the
vulnerabilities of women especially W-i-Ds and identification and application of specialised
interventions
Enhancement of social capital at the village level through CRP and CCA cadres, for
sustainability of social change processes and social action
Engagement of men and boys in the empowerment process
Convergence and linkages with existing/ ongoing development initiatives aimed at social
empowerment of women
Behavioural Change Communication for mass scale awareness building
Support to migrant families involving services both at destination in Gujarat as well as at
source in Rajasthan
A comprehensive social empowerment strategy successfully tested by UNDP in Uttar Pradesh will
be adapted to Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Its three tenants relate to a) building capacities
of women on social issues, b) creating and strengthening community change agents, and c) creating
a positive external environment for overall change.
The project will work with women, starting from pre-existing women’s groups such as SHGs, JLGs,
FIGs and other primary collectives at the village level. While the project will primarily work with pre
constituted groups, in the event where marginalized women are left out from collectives, they will
be mobilized and capacitated. These primary groups will be aggregated into secondary level
organizations such as federations or consortiums and strengthened to emerge as a point of contact
for individual women groups for various social, economic, political and legal issues and to ensure
31
The role of a BDSA is given in section D1.
18
Draft for Comments
post-project sustainability of interventions. The collectives/ federations will function as apex
institutions that will support women members in demanding rights and entitlements and escalating
concerns of women with government and civil society stakeholders. Keeping in view sustainability
of the project, an umbrella organization of secondary level institutions (a SWAAYAM consortium)
will be established to create a self-sustaining institution that will backstop all institutions developed
under the initiative.
Social mobilization of women and mass scale consensus building around women empowerment
issues will be initialized with a focus of enhancing women’s voice at household and community level
and creation an enabling external environment. Special efforts will be made to reach out to Women
in Distress (WIDs). Such women will be identified and targeted for specific social empowerment
interventions such as counselling, wellbeing monitoring, linkages, access to services.
A Behavioral Change Communication Strategy using mass scale social awareness as a medium
will be adopted in the Project Districts to share information, ideas and values relooking and reprioritisinfg women’s issues in the Project Districts. Extensive work with men and boys aimed at
building their buy in and ownership towards women’s empowerment issues will be undertaken and
several of them will be brought into the project mileau as CRP’s, CCA’s and champions of women’s
rights and issues.
Targeted interventions will be designed for reducing vulnerabilities of migrant families. UNDP will
leverage its current work in Rajasthan with migrants and support/strengthen provision of migrant
support service to migrants at destination (Gujarat) as well as to their families left behind at source
(Rajasthan). Such services include access to health services, remittance transfer, access to food
grains through the public distribution and also involve capacity building of migrant families to
access their rights as well as deal with instances of exploitation that range from issues of wage, child
labour and sexual exploitation.
Specialised services will be provided to women through the Women’s Empowerment Centres.
Counselling and support services will operate through the women’s empowerment centres
32
These WEC’s operational at the Block level and/ or for every cluster of Villages/Panchayats will
serve as a single-window advisory for servicing women’s empowerment across all domains. WECs
will be linked to CRPs, who will serve as the primary link workers for the project and will be selected
from the local community and trained intensively. CRPs, in turn will mobilize the CCA. The CCAs will
assist in operationalization of empowerment activities with and for women at the village and
household levels in Project Villages. CRPs along with CCAs will form the backbone of the project
and will be engaged in the social change process beyond the duration of the project.
32
The WEC’s will house a resource centre with updated information on social, economic, political and legal dimensions of
relevance to women and their families. Each WEC will house one para-legal worker, one business development service
provider and support staff from the MNGO’s.
19
Draft for Comments











Linkages and advocacy with State
government and private sector players
Taking up functions of the PMU beyond the
project duration
SWAAYAM Consortium
Linkages and advocacy with Block/District
Headquarter and other stakeholders
Auditing of women’s collectives
Aggregation of SHG and other collective
based functions
7 collectives/ Federations
Serving a single-window link with women
supported under the project
Decentralised advisory services across
social, economic, political and legal
domains of empowerment with special
reference to social mobilization and
cohesion
Social mobilization by MNGOs; CRPs as
village level change agents
Participatory process for SHG formation
SHG based thrift and credit activities
Social action and advocacy for social
issues at village level
Block / Cluster Level women Associations
Primary collectives of 150,000 Women Members
Figure 3: Social Mobilization Strategy
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY
The key components of the Economic Empowerment Strategy of the project can be summarised as
below (see annexure XII for details of project strategy):







Promotion of women entrepreneurship and enterprise development
Development of a local cadre of Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs) to serve as
business advisory for inputs as well as linkage requirements of women entrepreneurs in the long
run
Promotion of producers’ groups and economic collectives of women
Mainstreaming women’s livelihoods with government and markets
Building business linkages with suppliers and markets
Introducing inclusive livelihood promotion approaches
Specialised focus on WIDs and adolescent girls
Economic inclusion of women by improving the quality of their economic engagements is critical to
women’s empowerment. The strategy for expanding economic opportunities for women spins off
from the social mobilisation process initiated under social empowerment. Going by UNDP’s
20
Draft for Comments
Growing Inclusive Markets (GIM)33 approach, the strategy for economic inclusion and subsequent
empowerment of women will be holistic in nature and will include options for self-employment,
wage or job employment, enhancing skills and up-scaling of enterprises , run and managed by poor
women. The project will extensively focus on demonstrating as well as incubating innovations in the
livelihoods domain.
For operationalising the economic empowerment strategy, the project will partner with competent
Business Development Service Agencies (BDSAs) – one in each State to augment business
opportunities for women by working closely with producers on one hand and institutional players
(CSOs, market, banks) on the other. The BDSAs will also keep track of innovations in various
sectors34. BDSA’s will (a) classify and segment women based on economic potential and detail
strategies for each economic segment (b) anchor skill and financial enterprise trainings (c) work
closely with women from migrant households to strengthen their livelihoods and mitigate risks; (d)
build capacities of women linked to value chains to benefit economically and sustainably from the
same, (e) scout, develop, host, and mentor a cadre of local Business Development Service Providers
(BDSPs) (one BDSP/Block) in the Project Districts (f) link with national level sub-sector agencies and
innovation banks for highest level technical support, (g) document good practices and develop subsectoral knowledge products. The services of the BDSP’s will be linked to women through the
WEC’s. Specialised sub-sector agencies will be hired to provide technical backstopping to BDSAs
and the enterprises of poor women. These agencies will in particular support in designing livelihood
prototypes, conduct sector analysis and monitoring; help the BDSA’s make explicit choices and
highlight possible trade-offs in executing different livelihood activities. They will also help to
identify constraints and the means of overcoming these.
The capacities of all women part of economic empowerment activities supported by the project –
both individual and institutional will be identified and developed with the aim to enhance their
productivity and long-term engagement in businesses. While the triad of sector-specific skills,
enterprise management and entrepreneurship capacities, financial literacy and counselling will
be the focus for individual producers, organisational development to promote producers’ groups
and collectives will be the next level of endeavour. The project will also strengthen linkages with
institutional actors (markets, financial institutions, other value chain actors) to harness
opportunities for women producers. In specific, the project will support linking women in accessing
financial services such as credit, insurance, pension, remittances, micro-leasing and savings.
Overall, specifically under the economic empowerment portfolio, project inputs (budgeted at
around 9 million USD) are expected to generate a minimum of 24 million USD worth of35 incomes
for 150,000 women producers. For this (given that wages comprise ¼ of the product value), the
local economy will to be energised with product diversification/development to the level of 100
million USD. To achieve the above, the project will roll out a partnership strategy and leverage
resources from government flagship programmes, banks, private sector other development
agencies etc.
In addition to interventions aimed at augmenting women’s roles in market oriented value chains,
the project will work with some special groups to improve their economic potential and position, In
particular Women in Distress (WID’s).
33 Please refer www.growinginclusivemarkets.org; in India the GIM approach has been adopted in various sectors like
health, water, rural energy, and farm/ off-farm enterprises (http://cases.growinginclusivemarkets.org/countries/95)
34
National Innovation Foundation, National Design Centers are some institutions that document innovations
in various sectors.
35
Assuming an annual income of Rs 40000, a 20% increase in annual income of a household amounts to an
annual increase of Rs 8000
21
Draft for Comments
POLITICAL AND LEGAL EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY
The key components of the Political and Legal Empowerment Strategy of this project can be
summarised as below (see annexure XII for details of project strategy):







Building women’s Political Leadership through EWRs and Leaders of women collectives
Sensitizing Elected Leaders (men and women) on governance issues
Building EWR Networks and Alliances
Creating an enabling environment for good governance through voter awareness and
strengthening of gram sabhas
Building a cadre of Community Change Agents as Vigilance Committees
Building a cadre of women PLWs
Creating legal awareness
The project will adopt an integrated strategy for political empowerment covering intensive
capacity building of Elected Women Representatives (EWRs), Self-help Group leaders and other
women leaders. Special emphasis will be paid on building capacities of Elected Men
Representatives (EMRs) to respond to women’s concerns. Capacities of Elected Women
Representatives will be developed through trainings on transformational leadership, exposure
visits, networking and hand-holding support. EWR networks will be formed at the district level to
serve as a strong political constituency to negotiate better services and access formal governance
structures. Further, to ensure that local self-government institutions are accountable to
communities, Pressure Groups/ Vigilance Committees will be initiated in each project village with
CCA representatives as its primary members. Capacities of these CCAs will be developed to activate
Gram Sabhas and to function as Pressure Groups on issues of concern. In addition, mass-scale voter
awareness campaigns will be initiated to educate women and their families on political processes
and their citizen rights and duties. Where possible, linkages will be forged with existing
programmes of the Government and developmental agencies that are working in the Project
Districts to ensure a synergistic and complementary approach to capacity development efforts.
22
Draft for Comments
District level Advisory Groups will serve as a forum to address systemic challenges in
implementation of relevant Government schemes and access to entitlements.
The strategy for legal empowerment will accentuate a culture of rights within communities. This
will involve developing and building capacity of a cadre of Para-legal workers who will support
women and their families access formal justice mechanisms and enable better access to
entitlements of women and their families. As a mechanism of operationalizing the legal
empowerment strategy, PLWs will be the first point of contact for legal awareness and aid and will
facilitate access to redressal mechanisms through WECs. PLWs will perform advisory and support
roles in supporting women and their families, access rights and entitlements. Linkage of the PLWs
with existing mechanisms and institutions of justice delivery (like District Legal Services Authority
(DLSA), Tanta-Mukti Samities in Maharashtra, legal aid cells run by NGOs, local groups of lawyers
and social activists, etc.) will be established to contribute to the sustainability of project. The PLWs
will work closely with CCAs, EWRs and CRPs in taking up issues for redressal through strategic
engagement with the Judiciary, local self-government, CSOs and Government functionaries at the
Panchayat and Block levels. A clear partnership strategy will be developed and rolled out with
NALSA/DLSAs including to ensure widest outreach and benefits.
23
Draft for Comments
State Panchayati Raj
Department
State Institute of
Rural Development
Networks
of EWR’s
Panchayat, Block &
District
Administration
State Legal Service
Authorities
State Commissions
•
Serve
cons
servi
Facili
supp
•
Federatio
n of
Women
District Legal Service
Authorities
•
•
•
EWR’s &
SHG
Leaders in
PLW’s at
WEC’s in
each block
SHG Women in
Gram Sabha
Figure 5: Strategy for Political and Legal
Empowerment of Women
•
•
•
C.5
Sustainability
Under the project strategy several institutions of the poor will be strengthened/ setup. These
women-owned and member-based institutions are expected to draw resources and strength from
the surrounding local environment as a means to sustain themselves beyond the project duration.
A post-project structure of the inter-linked primary, secondary and tertiary level institutions of poor
women from Project Districts is envisaged as the primary strategy for post project sustainability. An
apex SWAAYAM consortium (possibly inter-state where UNDP implements the SWAAYAM
24
PL
se
EW
wo
sy
Bo
Fa
se
fo
tra
Pa
Draft for Comments
approach) will act as the apex body assisting and advising federations of SHGs and other women
economic collectives on various operational, policy and programmatic issues. Further, cadres of
CRPs, BDSPs, EWR’s and PLW’s developed at the field level are expected to keep the agenda of
integrated women empowerment including women’s rights and entitlements alive at the
grassroots. Long-term and effective functioning of these community groups and institutions will be
aided further by the linkages established and tested during the project phase, between them and
the Government Organisations (GOs), Technical Support Agencies (TSAs) and NGOs (see Figure 7
below)
Possible SWAAYAM Consortium
(Not for Profit Entity)
Apex body / Consortium
Federation of cooperatives
and producer companies
Federation of SHGs
Networks of EWR’s
and PLW’s
Possible Aggregation of women’s needs at State level
Area
Federations
Producer
Groups
Cooperative
Societies
Networks of
PLW’s
Networks of
EWR’s
Provide services of saving and credit, value chain support, production
aggregation, advocacy, support to greviances and access to rights &
entitlements etc.
Primary Members
Figure 6 - Proposed Post-Project Struture of Consortium Partners
Other sustainability factors that inherent and dovetailed in the project strategy include:



Linking women and their families with Central and State flagship developmental programs as a
means to ensure and bring to them mainframe benefits.
Create provisions of risk coverage and/or mitigation measures as a safety net and means of
sustainability to women’s livelihoods.
Setup economic entities and help them become financially viable and capacitated to negotiate
with the market and local value chain actors on beneficial terms. Linked to this will be the
existence of a strong cadre of local and trained human resources BDSPs, CCA’s. PLW’s, CRP’s
who enhance post project sustainability.
25
Draft for Comments


Ensuring increased role of EWRs and CCA cadre in helping women demand their rights,
entitlements and public services is expected to create a strong culture of rights which is
sustained even in the post-project phase.
Successful models will be adequately researched, documented and shared with Central and
State Governments to create possibilities for wider adaptation and up-scaling.
C.6 Activities
The project will be implemented over a period of four and a half years (2012-2016). The list of Main
Activities Proposed has been provided as Annexure XI.
C.7
Target Group and Participants
The primary direct target group for the project includes rural women from disadvantaged
communities and migrant families, members of SHGs and other women collectives, Elected
Women and Men Representatives, and local youth in 7 Project Districts. While 170,000 women
would be the direct beneficiaries of this project, 1,000,000 women and their families will benefit
indirectly through social and political empowerment interventions. Segment-specific interventions,
efforts will also be made to strengthen the livelihoods of 15,000 W-i-Ds and women and at-risk
households and 15,000 Elected Women Representatives trained to strengthen governance systems.
As secondary stakeholders, men in the households of target women and local development
agencies will be provided information on the project, its purpose and component activities will be
provided and buy-in obtained from GO functionaries, PRI representatives, and private actors in the
value chains of relevance for women, within the first year itself. Thereafter, regular interface with
project beneficiaries and other stakeholders will be maintained.
C.8 Input
Please refer to Section D2 of this Proposal for human resource inputs and Monitoring and
Evaluation.
C.9 Assumptions & Risks
Assumptions:
 Social, economic, and political structures and policies in the project area are conducive and
responsive to women's empowerment processes and their needs and priorities.
 Project efforts and its main actors, i.e. women, receive support from the larger community,
local development stakeholders, including PRIs, GO functionaries and men folk from the
households and communities to which the target women belong.
 Credible MNGO’s and experienced BDSAs are available for project implementation.
 There are at least 10,000 (or 60%) pre-existing SHGs, JLGs, FIGs in project villages, which are
amenable for strengthening.
 Project actors will be able to leverage approval, space, and basic linkages for establishing WECs
in locations accessible to women.
 TSAs are available (preferably, within the project States) for contracting and/or sourcing
technical expertise and resource materials as per project requirements.
26
Draft for Comments
 There is no major natural calamity or man-made disaster during the project term which would
hamper community mobilisation efforts.
 Enterprising youth and other individuals are available for serving (with/without training) as
BDSPs in the identified value chains / sub-sector.
 Local Government functionaries co-operate in the roll-out of project activities and facilitate
linkages with existing Government programs and mechanisms that provide legal aid and
protection to women.
Risks that may hinder achievement of the project’s objectives or delay implementation significantly
are estimated as below:
 There could be resistance and backlash from existing power structures at household, village,
and larger community level as the project progresses and is able to generate the envisaged
impact with respect to empowerment of women.
 Social customs (including deeply rooted patriarchy) and local politics may make it difficult to
sustain project processes of women’s empowerment.
 Difficulty in establishing adequate convergence of activities and interventions with Government
Departments, Programmes, and Schemes may hamper sustainability of project impact.
 Markets may not respond favourably (during/within the project term) to products and services
of women's groups.
 The composition of EWRs in a District may change due to unforeseen incidents like elections,
etc.
 Adverse climate and weather conditions may lead to less production in relevant sectors such as
agriculture.
 Adverse exchange rate fluctuations may reduce the fund available for project activities.
A detailed description of assumptions, risks and mitigation for the overall project implementation
as well as for specific activities are indicated in Annexure XIII.
C.10 Action Plan
A detailed list of indicative activities to be undertaken during the project period and their year-wise
phasing has been presented as part of the Project Log Frame in Annexure XI and XIII.
D. Project Organisation and Management
D.1 Management and Co-ordination
The project will be implemented by UNDP with full responsibility and accountability for delivering
the agreed outputs and outcomes. The UNDP Country Office will be responsible for all financial
management, reporting, procurement and recruitment services. The project will strive to promote
gender balance in the Project Management Agency/Team as well as in the field teams. The project’s
Management and Co-ordination Structure has been presented in Figure 8 below.
27
Draft for Comments
Project Steering Committee
State Advisory Group
State GO-DC, UNDP,
UNICEF, Representatives of
MNGO & BDSAs, Leaders of
SHGs
District Advisory Group
Collector, Representatives of
GOs, PRIs, SHGs, CRPs, CSOs
& members of Civil Society
Technical Resource
Agencies
Project Team at UNDP Country Office
Project Officer (1), Project Associates (2)
Project Assurance, Compliance, Controls, Donor Reporting
Project Office for Maharashtra
Project Manager, Specialists (3),
Associates (2) – Admin & Finance
Project Office for Guj and Raj
Project Manager, Specialists (3), State Focal
Point (1), Associates (2) – Admin, &
Finance
Project Planning & Implementation, Monitoring, Review, Reporting, Technical Support
to CSOs & Field Oversight
7 District Level MNGOs
3 State level BDSA
Social Mobilization, Field-level Implementation, Anchoring & Advisory Services to WECs,
Managing & Mentoring CRP/BDSP/PLW/CCA’s, Reporting & Village-level monitoring
Women Empowerment Centres (WECs) at block level
WECs are single-window advisory for women
CRPs and CCAs at Village and
Panchayat Level
Districts- Banaskantha, Dungarpur, Jalna, Patan, Udaipur, Wardha and Yavatmal
Under the Government of India (GOI)-UNDP Country Programme (2008-12), Country Programme
Management Board (CPMB) has been set up to provide oversight to the country programme. The
CPMB is jointly chaired by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of
India and UNDP and meets twice a year. In addition, Programme Management Boards (PMBs)
have been set up to provide guidance and oversight to the different programme areas. As this
project contributes to, both, the Poverty Reduction and Democratic Governance programmes, it
will also be reviewed at the PMB meetings of both these programmes. A Project Steering
Committee (PSC) comprising UNDP and IKEA Foundation will be set up and will meet at least biannually to provide overall guidance and direction to the project, ensuring its business case remains
within the specified and approved parameters. The PSC will also review progress and serve as a
forum to agree on possible management actions to address specific project risks and will assess and
decide on project changes through revisions, if deemed necessary. The PSC will make
recommendation for follow-on actions to be submitted for review in the following PSC.
For operationalising project strategies across the project area, pre-existing linkages with
Government Administration at the District level will be further strengthened by the District
Advisory Committees (DACs) anchored by the District Collector with representation from key line
departments, women’s groups and civil society members. The DACs will serve as a platform to build
project synergy, ensure knowledge sharing and interlink women’s empowerment efforts at the
District level. A State Advisory Group (SAG) comprising senior officers of key line departments,
UNICEF, board members from women’s collectives and CSOs will be constituted for knowledge
sharing and to ensure coordinated action on issues of women’s empowerment. Inputs from State
and District level Advisory Groups will be shared at the PSC meetings and in the project reports. At
the Country Office level a fully functional Technical Group that has since 2009 backstopped the
development of effective project strategies will continue to provide advisory and strategy planning
guidance to the project.
28
Draft for Comments
Project implementation at the field level will be undertaken by Project Management Teams (PMT)
to be set up in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Each PMT will be led by a Project Manager (SB5 level)
who will have a team of four Specialists (SB4 level) (on Social Empowerment, Economic
Empowerment, Political & Legal Empowerment and Monitoring and Evaluation) and two Project
Associates (for Administration (SB2 level) and Finance (SB3 level)). Besides, for Rajasthan, there will
be a State Focal Point (SB4 level), who will either be based in Ahmadabad PMT with extensive travel
to Project Districts in Rajasthan or operate from one of the districts in Rajasthan. The Project
Manager will run the project on a day-to-day basis within the requirements laid down in the project
document and will have the prime responsibility of ensuring that the project produces the results
specified in the project document, to the required standard of quality and within the specified
constraints of time and budget. S/he will present annual budgets and work plans for approval by the
office management and will review budgets and work plans thereby bringing to attention of the
Country Office proposed changes and risks. S/he will also prepare annual procurement and
recruitment plans for the project and overall monitor project delivery based on the multiple plans
developed. At the UNDP Country Office, a designated National Officer level Programme Analyst
will perform the assurance and compliance functions and monitor project activities and expenditure
in line with the project’s annual work plan, outputs and outcomes. S/he will be assisted in this task
by one Project Officer (SB4 level) and one Project Associate – Admin (SB3 level) and will manage
the project in accordance with UNDP’s financial management procedures and guidelines and donor
requirements.
In addition to the above and under UNDP’s policy of cost recovery, specialised oversight and
management support is provided to the project. On the technical side, these include, thematic
backstopping of different project components by an in-house technical group and through regional
bureaus. On the operational side this includes provision of system management services,
infrastructure, branding, recruitment, clearances, procurement and financial compliance support.
The project will be implemented through a decentralised approach towards community outreach
and management compliance. The key stakeholders in activity implementation comprise the
following:
Primary
Women and their families who will benefit from project intervention
Stakeholder:
Project
Facilitators
Community
Change
Agents:
CRPs, BDSAs and Para-Legal Workers will function as project facilitators along
with EWR’s. CRPs who are women and men from villages/ clusters mandated to
serve as the link between women and the project and are the primary bearer of
project messages, advisory and local support/change management. CRPs will
primarily function in rolling out social, economic and political and Legal
empowerment strategies at the ground level.
The BDSP will be a person recruited from the field area and a key person for
successful operation and sustainability of women-based businesses established
as part of economic empowerment component of the Project.
The PLW will be a local person and key to operationalization of legal
empowerment activities with and for women in the selected Project Villages.
CRPs will identify and train women leaders, especially EWR’s . Interested youth
will be formed into an informal youth group and along with the women leaders
from the village, will be trained as CCAs by the CRPs.
29
Draft for Comments
Facilitating
Agency:
Technical
Agency:
Monitors:
District level MNGO’s will be mandated to anchor the WECs, and will undertake
social mobilisation and campaigns, build local capacities, report on agreed result
indicators and provide human resources to manage field level operations up to
the village level.
BDSAs at the State level will build capacities of women in the project in livelihood
aspects, roll out livelihood prototypes and anchor support to W-i-Ds. BDSAs will
engage local youth/ value chain actors as BDSPs, train them and mentor them to
provide their services independently of the project.
The WEC will be managed by one of the selected MNGOs or BDSAs in the area
and will be an umbrella for CRPs, CCAs, BDSAs and PLWs. WECs will serve to
provide support to women from the project area on social, economic, political
and legal livelihood aspects of empowerment.
Specialized agencies in livelihoods (specialised sub-sector agencies), political and
legal aspects providing need based and high level technical backstopping and
solutions on different aspects of women’s empowerment to the BDSAs, MNGO,
WECs, CRPs or directly to the PMT.
Level 1 monitors will be women themselves who through institutionalised
mechanisms will be requested to grade project progress bi-annually/annually.
Level 2 monitors will be designated officers and associates from UNDP who will
undertake programmatic, systems or financial reviews on a quarterly and annual
basis. Level 3 monitors will be externally mandated agencies who will undertake
concurrent monitoring on monthly/ quarterly basis and conduct baseline, midterm and end line evaluations. The external agency will also undertake the
process documentation aspect. UNDP may also commission need-based reviews
and evaluations from time to time.
UNDP will also build synergies with existing UNDP and other UN agency supported programmes in
the three project States and key Government Programmes like the National Rural Livelihood
Mission, Programme for Empowerment of Women Farmers, National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme, National Women’s Empowerment Mission, Backward Region Grant Fund and state
government schemes for EWR’s, legal aid, key social protection and food security schemes to
ensure a holistic response to women empowerment challenges as well as to promote the integrated
women’s empowerment model nationally.
D.2 Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation
The Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (ML&E) systems of the project will be as per UNDP’s
policies and procedures, with adherence to the IKEA Foundation’s reporting requirements. As the
project will be operational in 7 Districts across three States, a common Monitoring, learning and
Evaluation (ML&E) framework and a corresponding Management Information System (MIS) will be
set up. Effort will be made to harmonise reporting & produce standardized analysis on a quarterly
basis on process, adaptation of strategies and learning’s.
The project will be monitored at three levels. At the first level, women and their collectives (SHGs,
JLGs, FIGs, EWR’s, PLW’s etc.) will engage in Monitoring & Evaluation at their village, block and
federation level. This monitoring will mostly be half-yearly with different Blocks/ Districts
30
Draft for Comments
monitoring at different time periods. Participatory M&E tools like Most Significant Change36,
Community Score Card37, etc will be used.
At the second level, the MNGOs, BDSA’s and TSAs will prepare an MIS that will report on the
outputs emerging from the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as approved in the Project Log
Frame besides reporting on physical and financial inputs and outputs. This MIS (anchored within
the MNGO) will have a complete database of 170,000 target women. The state offices will
specifically work to develop, update, report and share key data related to project progress (to the
UNDP Country Office for strategic action) based on quarterly project monitoring reports. A project
Monitoring Schedule will be set up and will be adhered to rigorously for tracking progress towards
planned results.
At the third level, services of an external ML&E agency having expertise in the M&E domain and
understanding of Women’s Empowerment will be engaged across the programme (in the proposed
three States). The external ML&E Agency will design the Performance Management Framework
and Evaluation Framework38 and assist in the overall ML&E of the programme by conducting
periodic field assessments of the MIS information (on output indicators of the KPIs), facilitating
participatory ML&E processes described above, support internal ML&E activities of the PMT and
the UNDP Country Office and conducting baseline, mid-term and end-term evaluation of the
project.
The key components of ML&E will include:
 Two baseline studies will be conducted during the initial stage of the project. One baseline will
be conducted by the MNGO in their respective Districts to map existing women’s collectives on
their management, functionalities and thrift and credit and to identify the target women and
define their socio-economic and livelihood profile. This will feed into the project MIS
maintained at the MNGO level. The second baseline will be done as a part of overall ML&E
design by an external M&E agency to set the formal baseline for tracking.
 To track the progress against planned activities, a progress monitoring system will be
established which will be based on monthly progress reports, MIS data and report cards
generated from the community level. Progress review meetings will held at Block, District and
PMT levels on a monthly basis by UNDP. A computerized ML&E system will be part of the
integrated progress monitoring design. Designated Country Office Personnel will conduct
performance and process monitoring on the KPIs and annual work plans on a quarterly basis.
 Annual participatory monitoring and process documentation will be conducted by the external
ML&E agency. Updating of issues, risks and lessons learnt through this will ensure that major
project learnings are tracked in a timely manner and issues are addressed expeditiously. The
agency will also conduct a mid-term evaluation and an end-term evaluation.
 Quarterly Progress Reports and quality assessments will capture feedback from the
beneficiary perspective and their feedback on timeliness and resource usage. This will be first
completed by the Project Manager (at PMT level) and shared with the designated Programme
Officer and the PSC. The project will also be part of the periodic programme portfolio reviews at
UNDP and feed into the bi-annual Country Programme Management Board meetings cochaired by UNDP and Department of External Affairs (DEA).
36
The process involves the collection of significant change stories emanating from the field level, and the systematic selection of the most
significant of these stories by panels of designated community members or staff.
37
The Community Scorecard (CSC) process is a hybrid of the techniques of social audit, community monitoring and citizen report cards.
38
Performance Management Framework will entail development of output indicators that will be periodically monitored against the
reporting frequencies and responsibilities whereas the Evaluation Framework will detail outcome indicators which will be assessed in
baseline and periodic evaluations.
31
Draft for Comments


An Annual Review Report will be prepared by the Project Manager and shared with the
designated Programme Officer and the PSC.
An Annual Project Review will be conducted together with the IKEA Foundation and the
UNDP Country Office to assess the annual performance of the project as per the Annual Work
Plan (AWP). In the last year, this review will be a final assessment.
D.3 Impact Table
The expected impact of the project on its target group over the project term has been summarized
below; it reflects the “After Picture” of the project.
N
o.
Indicators
Estimated Target (cumulative)
Yr 1
Yr 2
Yr 3
Yr 4
Yr 4.5
Social Empowerment
1
Number of women
belonging to poor,
vulnerable, and
marginalised families
identified and reached
through community
consensus building
activities
2
Number of women
collective members
mobilised/strengthened
3
Number of Federations of
women collectives
established
4
5
6
Number of leaders of
women’s collectives and
local Youth mobilised at
village level as community
change agents
Number of Women
Empowerment Centres
(WECs) established to
provide training, advisory
and support services on
social, political and legal
aspects to women
Number of existing and
potential migrant families
Overall:
1,000,000
Gujarat:
300,000
Maharashtra
: 400,000
Rajasthan:
300,000
Overall:
170,000
Gujarat:
60,000
Maharashtra
: 70,000
Rajasthan:
50,000
Overall: 7
Gujarat: 2
Maharashtra
:3
Rajasthan: 2
Overall:
30,000
Gujarat:
10,000
Maharashtra
: 12,000
Rajasthan:
8,000
Overall: 67
Gujarat: TBD
Maharashtra
: TBD
Rajasthan:
TBD
50,000
200,000
500,000
700,000
1,000,000
-
100,000
135,000
170,000
-
-
-
2
6
7
3,000
15,000
24,000
27,000
30,000
-
10
50
67
-
-
50,000
100,000
-
-
Overall:
150,000
32
Draft for Comments
N
o.
Indicators
Estimated Target (cumulative)
Yr 1
benefit from awareness on
migrant rights
Yr 2
Yr 3
Yr 4
Yr 4.5
Gujarat:
50,000
Maharashtra
: 30,000
Rajasthan:
70,000
Economic Empowerment
1
Number of livelihood subsectors identified which
have special relevance to
women
2
Number of women
trained in sector-specific
skills, enterprise
management, and
financial literacy
3
Number of successful,
women-centred
livelihood prototypes
demonstrated for upscaling
4
Number of BDSPs
supplying business and
technical services to
women entrepreneurs
5
Number of women
benefiting from
involvement at various
levels of the value chain
1
Number of women and
their families made aware
of voter’s rights and
responsibilities,
nominations and electoral
processes
2
Number of Elected
Women Representatives
(EWRs) trained on their
roles and responsibilities,
Overall: 10
Overall:
150,000
Gujarat:
50,000
Maharashtra
: 50,000
Rajasthan:
50,000
Overall: 10
Gujarat: 3
Maharashtra
:4
Rajasthan: 3
5
10
-
-
-
5,000
60,000
135,000
150,000
-
-
5
8
10
-
15
67
67
67
-
-
50,000
100,000
150,000
-
700,000
900,000
-
15,000
15,000
15,000
Overall: 67
Gujarat: TBD
Maharashtra
: TBD
Rajasthan:
TBD
Overall:
150,000
Gujarat:
50,000
Maharashtra
: 50,000
Rajasthan:
50,000
Political and Legal Empowerment
Overall:
- 200,000
900,000
Gujarat:
300,000
Maharashtra:
300,000
Rajasthan:
300,000
Overall:
1500
10,000
15,000
Gujarat: 3,500
Maharashtra:
33
Draft for Comments
N
o.
Indicators
Estimated Target (cumulative)
Yr 1
political system and
structure, and leadership
development
3
Number of networks of
EWRs established
4
Number of CCAs
(members of SHGs and
local Youth) mobilised at
village level as pressure
groups/vigilance
committees
5
Number of members of
elected local bodies
sensitized on engendering
governance
6
Number of Para-Legal
Workers (PLWs) trained in
legal issues faced by
women
7
Number of women & their
families informed about
entitlements and laws
related to women
8
Number of women part of
the project spell out their
rights and entitlements
under major government
schemes
Yr 2
Yr 3
Yr 4
Yr 4.5
28
49
67
-
-
15000
30,000
30,000
-
-
8,000
12,000
18,000
20,000
-
67
134
134
-
5000
500,000
700,000
900,000
1,000,000
-
-
2000
5000
7000
6,500
Rajasthan:
5,000
Overall: 67
Gujarat: 19
Maharashtra:
32
Rajasthan: 16
Overall:
30,000
Gujarat:
10,000
Maharashtra:
12,000
Rajasthan:
8,000
Overall:
20,000
Gujarat: 7,000
Maharashtra:
8,000
Rajasthan:
5,000
Overall: 134
Gujarat: TBD
Maharashtra:
TBD
Rajasthan:
TBD
Overall:
1,000,000
Gujarat:
300,000
Maharashtra:
400,000
Rajasthan:
300,000
Overall: 7000
Gujarat: TBD
Maharashtra:
TBD
Rajasthan:
TBD
-
34
Draft for Comments
Budget Summary and Significant Input
(all figures are in Euro)
Particulars
Total
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 4.5
a. Opening
Balance
Secured income:
IKEA Foundation
Other Sources
Non-secured
income:
IKEA Foundation
Other sources
Total income
b. Programme
Costs
(i) Output 1 Social
Empowerment
(ii) Output 2 Economic
Empowerment
(iii) Output 3 Political
Empowerment
(iv) M&E;
Reporting &
Process
Documentation
c. Programme
Management
Costs (@ 3%)
(i) Project
Management Unit
Establishment &
Operational Costs
(ii) Project Staff at
PMT
(iii) Travel
(Outstation, local,
project locations)
3,787,219
535,547
1,039,932
909,536
884,712
417,493
8,010,089
297,390
3,453,438
2,899,285
1,141,562
218,413
3,810,220
983,183
1,171,892
1,242,444
309,041
103,660
173,633
261,488
86,817
d. Sub-Total
16,129,466
(b+c)
e. Recovery Costs 1,214,046
@ 7%
f. Total Costs
17,343,512
(d+e)
Exchange Rate: 1 EURO = 62.2 INR
38,585
38,585
38,585
38,585
19,293
53,515
55,656
59,349
61,665
31,303
19,292
19,292
19,294
19,293
9645
1,927,512
145,082
5,778,795
434,963
5,168,493
389,026
2,454,858
184,774
799,807
60,201
2,072,594
6,213,758
5,557,519
2,639,632
860,008
(Refer Annexure XV for Detailed Project Budget)
35
Draft for Comments
D.4 Other relevant information concerning the project
Annexure
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
Annexure Title
Concept Note
Area Maps
State and District Data Sheets
Situation Analysis Report – Gujarat
Situation Analysis Report – Maharashtra
Situation Analysis Report – Rajasthan
Compiled Situation Analysis Report
Women’s Empowerment initiatives by non state actors
Outputs of Consultation Events
Problem, Cause and Effect Analysis
Main Activities Proposed
Detailed Strategies
Project Log-Frame Analysis
Stakeholder Analysis
Budget - Format C
36