Revamping SNP Delhi Experience

1
Revamping SNP- Delhi Experience

• Dr. G. Narendra Kumar
• Secretary ,Social Welfare,
• Govt of NCT Delhi

2
Context

• Contractors mobilized by former departmental
  employees monopolized SNP supply for a
  considerably long period of time.
• Complaints about poor quality ,short supply , and
  irregular supply.
• Reports of connections between field
  functionaries and contractors.
• Internal clique to support the contractors.
• Contractors lobby extending to high political
  levels.

3
Departmental Setting

• Department mired in corruption with almost half
  of the officials caught up in vigilance cases.
• Hardly any PCS officer or well-meaning official
  willing to join the department.
• Unfounded press reports fueled by departmental
  power centers and factions fighting each other.
• Interference of courts based on unfounded press
  reports and quite often to take actions for
  pinning the blame for past irregularities.
• No initiative for new work while there are a lot
  of demands for innovative new work.

4
Implementing Supreme Court Directions

• Supreme court passes directions on eliminating
  contractors.
• Affidavit about alternative arrangements not
  filed.
• While those contractors with knowledge of
  departmental functioning survive and do better in
  terms of quality supply new contractors supply
  irregularly on account of blockages in payments.

5
Reconfiguring the SNP System- Objectives

• Provide freshly prepared supplementary nutrition
  for ICDS beneficiaries.
• Involve community ownership in nutrition supply
  through local SHGs.
• Create economic opportunities for women.
• Expand the SHG movement along with the expansion
  of the ICDS scheme.
• Using the modern methods of PPPs to strengthen
  SNP .

6
Reconfiguring the SNP System

• Committee for revamping the SNP system
  constituted with external members , including
  members from FD and NGOs.
• Arrangement to create/ enhance the capacity of
  SHGs for supplying cooked food.
• Each SHG needs to supply food to 12 anganwari
  centers to be viable.
• Decreasing the number of anganwari centers to 5
  per SHG in order to allow other SHGs to develop
  and bring about greater bonding with the
  community.
• Group cohesiveness, a matter of concern in an
  urban setting.

7
Reconfiguring the SNP System(2)

• SHGs members to be local area women.
• Capacity building of SHGs needed for them to
  remain cohesive and successful.
• Quality of SNP supplies a major issue- external
  monitoring agency.
• Need to give sufficient time for SHGs to
  stabilize and to be able to systematically supply
  SNP.

8
Reconfiguring the SNP System(3)

• Different menus for children below 2 years and
  for other beneficiaries.
• External performance evaluation on an annual
  basis.
• One third of the SHGs to be capacitated to
  supply SNP in 9-months .
• Arrangement to continue iteratively.

9
Supply Chain Management and Financial Issues

• Capacity building on SCM to be integral part of
  capacity building efforts.
• NPOs allowed to submit proposals for one or more
  projects.
• Bank gaurantee to safeguard advance to NPOs.
• Indicators developed for assessing the success of
  self-help groups.

10
Keeping the Contractors out

• NPOs with 3 years experience in women and child
  development and nutrition .
• Weightage to those who can provide additional
  services for the well-being of women and
  children(womens empowerment, immunization, etc.)
• Clear mandate to hand over to SHGs in a
  time-bound manner.
• No conflict of interest clause.

11
Process

• 3- Stage Transparent Process
• Preliminary screening process through
  advertisement in papers.
• Detailed proposal submitted by short listed NPOs
  based on scheme.
• Further round of inspections and presentations.
• Selection based on transparent criteria including
  strength in forming SHGs and experience in
  providing nutrition.

12
Process Experience

• 114 organizations applied.
• 60 short listed in first round.
• 41 responded with detailed proposal
• Panel of NPOs drawn up.
• Contractors in the garb of NPOs also found to
  have applied.
• Mix of large and small organizations have
  proposed to supply SNP through SHGs.

13
Bottomline

• A workable system for
• Achieving supplementary nutrition supply through
  SHGs using NPOs to
• condense time ,
• to do it accountably and
• bring together modern management practices
  to SNP supply.

14
Thank You

• Gnk_at_asci.org.in

15
The MCD Experience

• MCD started mid-day meals with 300 odd suppliers.
  
• The number of suppliers reduced initially to 72
  and then to 11 based on quality considerations.
• 11 suppliers with automated kitchens to supply
  mid-day meals to schools.
• Court cases wrt selection , pointing to the
  stickiness of NGOs.
• Can we expect such large suppliers to be SHGs of
  mothers, in conformity with the Supreme Court
  Directions?

16
Other Differences with the MCD Supply

• Attendance at MCD schools taken consistently
  while the attendance at anganwari centers
  fluctuating.
• Both contractors and large NGOs supplying mid-day
  meals.
• Even large NGOs to be distinguished from SHGs.
• Overlap in cooking timings for supply of mid-day
  meals and supply of supplementary nutrition,
  necessitating additional infrastructure.