Strategies, Barriers and Policies towards Creating a More Inclusive Society

1
Strategies, Barriers and Policies towards
Creating a More Inclusive Society

• Sangeetha Purushothaman, Huairou Commission,
• Best Practices Foundation
• UNESCO Headquarters
• 10-13 September 2007

2
What has exclusion meant in India?

• It has meant historically that several
  communities are unable to participate effectively
  in the process of development, economically,
  socially and politically.

3
Structure of the Presentation

• Situating critical importance of participation of
  local communities in the larger debates,
• Strategies to facilitate participation of
  marginalized communities
• Advantages and limitations of these strategies.
• Gaps that need to be addressed
• Institutional arrangements and capacity building
  measures to improve participation of all sections
  of local communities

4
Situating Participation in the Development Debate
Development with Participation
Development without Participation

5
Situating Participation in the Rights Debate
Democracy without Participation
Democracy with Participation
6
Interventions to Address Multi-Dimensional Nature
of Poverty
Economic Empowerment Social Empowerment Political Empowerment
Community Mobilization Community run microfinance (Mf) institutions and Services Research And Advocacy Livelihood strategies Integrated Livelihood Strategy With Mf Services Linking With Banks For Sustainability. Natural Resource Management Vocational Training. Awareness on economic Programs And Entitlements Advocacy towards greater access to and control over resources Community Mobilization Rights Awareness And Legal Literacy Awareness On Programs and Entitlements (health, education and other social entitlement programmes) Operationalizing and Monitoring Of Social Programmes and Social Indicators Gender Sensitization Gender planning, and budgeting Build womens institutions (federations and Womens courts) Advocacy towards access to social rights Community Mobilization Capacity building of local government Capacity building of local government on participatory planning. Link CBOs and local government Train to contest elections (Pre and Post-election) Train CBOs on local government roles Train CBOs on participation in local assemblies Expose CBOs to Government Departments Leverage public infrastructure investment to complement SHG enterprises. Monitoring delivery of public goods and services Advocacy on good governance
7
Outcomes of Interventions
Economic Empowerment Social Empowerment Political Empowerment
Increased access to and control over resources by the poor and marginalized communities Increased exercise of rights by marginalized populations Increased power and decision making in the hands of marginalized communities
8
Common strategies used by all Approaches

• Community Mobilization
• Capacity Building
• Networking, Justice Delivery Mechanisms and
  Advocacy
• Convergence

9
The Participation Framework Development, Rights
and Sustainability
Goals
Planning
Monitoring and Evaluation
Implementation
Outcomes
10
Questions for Discussion

• Community Mobilization
• What is the role of the State in mobilizing
  communities?
• What types of Linkages are needed between formal
  and informal CBOs?
• What New Institutional Arrangements necessary for
  higher level decision making (Federations)?
• What kinds of Partnerships are needed between
  State and Civil society institutions?

11
Questions for Discussion

• Capacity Building
• How to integrate rights and development
  interventions?
• How to synergise different strategies across
  sectors?
• How to build capacities of government to respond
  to needs of CBOs and each other?

12
Questions for Discussion

• What kinds of Institutional arrangements are
  needed for
• CBOs at various levels to have a voice in
  decision making?
• CBOs and government to partner?
• Convergence?

13
Questions for Discussion

• How to facilitate convergence
• From above and below?
• Across traditional divides (rights/development,
  urban/rural, national/local)

14
Questions for Discussion

• How to centre stage grassroots women?