Kudumbashree NRO’s model revolves around the idea of working with rural communities, especially women, by fostering and strengthening their capacities through effective participation and self-organization. The focus is also on helping states develop interventions in a contextualized manner taking into consideration the remoteness and potentials of these communities. While doing so Kudumbashree NRO also aims at supporting the State Mission Management Units in scaling up the interventions beyond the pilot stage.
NRO primarily works with women as they are seen as capable agents for driving the development process in their communities. This is done by fostering and strengthening their capacities for self-organization so that they are able to address challenges related to accessing of basic services and improving their livelihoods.
Our strategy
KS NRO works on developing pilots in different states and the partner states are expected to take these forward based on experiences of the pilots. The work will also entail putting in place an exit strategy with an emphasis on having an ecosystem within the community that can be replicated for scaling up in other parts of the state.
The following can be summed up as major steps while working with partner states
- Developing proof of concept
- Creating local capabilities
- Building sustainable mechanisms
- Support by trained professionals and experienced mentors
Developing proof of concept
KS-NRO believes that each location requires interventions suited to its particular context. The idea is to have diversified approach for diverse locations including GP/Block/District specific interventions within the broader framework of convergence and enterprise domain. KS NRO initially works at pilot locations in partner states that may include a combination of varied geographic and socioeconomic contexts, intensive, non-intensive and resource blocks as well as blocks coming under fifth schedule.
Creating local capabilities
Building local resource pools for carrying out the work within the community is an integral component of KS NRO’s work. This is being done by enhancing local capabilities and developing local leadership under both the domains through process oriented training programs. The community cadre which are being developed are gradually emerging as leaders capable of providing solutions to local issues.
Building sustainable mechanisms
Kudumbashree NRO recognizes the importance of putting in place mechanisms focusing on sustainable solutions for participatory governance, social inclusion and opportunities for livelihood. Under convergence domain, institutional platforms like VOCC (Village Organization Coordination Committee) and GPCC (Gram Panchayat Coordination Committee) are formed for strengthening interaction and liasoning between PRI and CBO. Under Enterprise domain, monitoring mechanisms like IT enabled Performance Tracking System (PTS) and MEC firms for providing technical support to enterprises within the community have been put in place.
Support by trained professionals and experienced mentors
Kudumbashree NRO provides support by combining the experience of resource persons from Kerala and trained professionals from reputed educational institutions. Mentors who are experienced resource persons from Kerala have rich experiential base of working within the institutional structure of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and Community Based Organization (CBO). The idea behind using them as a resource for driving the project is to take the advantage of their insight into various development programs and their ability to make on-field judgements. The experience of these mentors are supplemented by the knowledge and skill of trained professionals who are recruited from reputed institutions across the country.
