Women’s political participation in leadership role and governance has been the core of the CSR’s works since its inception. We have been working for almost 30 years to promote and facilitate women’s political empowerment and to overcome the barriers that restrict women’s full and equal participation within governance structures. We do this through research, advocacy, training and capacity building initiatives.
CSR recognises the increasing impact of climate change on rural communities and the marginalisation of women from environmental management. Given the growing concern over water scarcity, Centre for Social Research with the support of Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS), initiated the project, Water Conservation and Climate Change Training of Trainers Program for EWR’s of Rural Rajasthan in the year 2012.
The first Phase of this project was successfully executed in Sanganer (Jaipur district) and Abu Road (Sirohi district) in 2015 with a ready Training Module and Residential Training of Trainers (TOT) programme which focuses towards empowering elected women representatives to take on leadership roles in water conservation within their communities.
The first phase of this program received commendable evaluation feedback along with few suggestions for improvement which we are looking forward to achieve in the Second phase of the program which will be implemented in western Rajasthan.
AIMS OF THE PROJECT
• To increase the understanding of the link between water issues and gender inequality
• To increase knowledge amongst Women Elected Representatives of tools and schemes for water conservation and water management
• To build the capacities of Women Elected Representatives to lead water conservation initiatives at village level
(III) 2016: PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
CSR in the year 2016 is focusing on the two major activities which are as follows:
• Basic trainings based ToT manual in a newly selected district i.e. Jalore in Rajasthan
• Handholding programmes in the project areas of phase-1 i.e. Sirohi Abu Road district and Sanganer Jaipur district
(IV) 2016 – PROGRAMS
The total number of participants of the 5 activities described below 443
(IV.1) PRELIMINARY PLANNING MEETING FOR CLIMATE PROJECT (13.04.16)
This meeting was held at CSR office to discuss and decide on the plan of action for 2016.
• It was shared that the trainer felt the need to make the trainings as non-residential and to finish the agenda of the day by 6 pm
• Further, it was shared that with every Residential Training of Trainers the Training module received appreciation and acceptance along with the innovative IEC material i.e. – Mejbasta, bandhanwars, post cards and badges for all the participants
After sharing of the experience of 2015 Ms. Bhatia shared her experience of evaluation and monitoring which was held in Abu Road & Jaipur by IIEC
• The IIEC team successfully met and interacted with all the stake-holders of the program.
• The team visited the implementation site i.e. The anikat which was built in Nichlagarh after submission of proposal to Gram Sabha by Sharmi Bai after the Training
• Further; it was discussed that after the presentation of the reviews and feedback of the evaluation team, CSR will incorporate their suggestions in the planning of the activities of the Climate Program for 2016.
• For the Safe Cities Program it was discussed that a new program proposal will have to be developed with focus on gender sensitization trainings in Police academies.
Important Suggestion
• The training should be concentrated to Non – Residential training instead of Residential Training
• The innovative IEC material i.e. – Mejbasta, bandhanwars, post cards, badges, bags, and booklets should be made available for all the participants in all the trainings as they act as an interactive and effective sources of reference for the participants
(IV.2.) MEETING MINUTES OF REVIEW & FEED-BACK MEETING HELD AT CSR TO SHARE THE EVALUATION FEEDBACK OF CSR-HSS CLIMATE PROJECT PHASE I (29.04.16)
In the meeting held in CSR office on April 29; 2016 the major stakeholders met in order to receive the feedback of the evaluation team which conducted the evaluation of the Climate Program in Rajasthan after execution of the program in December 2015.
Important Suggestions/Points
• Training program should be for Elected Women Representatives but there should be consideration of either evolving another training module for men or include men in the current trainings as well
• More Activity based Programs are required
• It is necessary to involve advocacy issues related to water conservation and climate change at training level
• It is important to increase the number of Hand-holdings in order to realize the effectiveness of the outreach of the program
• The program must consider collaboration with Government organizations in order to upscale its outreach and recognition
• Hence, this meeting brought all the parties on the same page and helped in giving a direction to the project planning for 2016
(IV.3) FORMULATION OF NEEDS ASSESMENT FOR (MAY)
Needs assessment is an exercise conducted to build understanding on the ground realities. So, CSR climate project team collected available secondary data from various sources of internet mostly research papers along with national and international reports. The analysis of these documents contributed towards building of the ground for the primary data collection at the target area and to formulate the questionnaires for the upcoming needs assessment which was conducted in the month of June.
Important Suggestions/Point(s)
• MOST OF THE DATA AVAILABLE ONLINE PRESSED UPON THE SCENARIO OF WATER SCARCITY IN THE TARGET AREA
• IT ALSO INDICATED THAT WOMEN HAVE TO TRAVEL TO SEVERAL KILOMETERS TO FETCH WATER
• THE AVAILABLE NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORTS CONTRIBUTED TOWARDS FORMULATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRES USED FOR CONDUCTING THE SITUATION ANALYSIS
(IV.4) CONDUCTED NEEDS ASSESMENT IN JALORE (June 7 to 10; 2016)
Needs assessment exercise contributed largely in building our understanding on the ground realities. The field visit focused on meeting the various stakeholders i.e. Government officials, Elected women representatives (Sarpanch & Ward-Panch), Aanganwadi Workers, General Villagers (household survey). The visit covered Bhinmal (Lunawas) and Raniwada (Dhanol) of Jalore. The methods adopted for conducting needs assessment were one on one discussion & interviews, focused group discussions (FGD), House-hold Surveys.
Important Suggestions/Points
• MEETING WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS:
• Limited participation of women in political decision making
• Not large number of capacity building trainings are conducted for women on gender, water and governance in Jalore
• The age of marriage of girls is 18 years and above
• The government is trying to implement Jal Svavlambhan Yojana through its training programs
• FOCUSED GROUP DISCUSSION WITH SARPANCH, WARD-PANCH AND AANGANWADI WORKERS:
• Limited understanding on the term “gender” itself
• Few participants marked 18 years and above as the age of marriage and others cleared that the girls gain education only till 10th or 12th standard due to the burden of house-hold work along with distance of schools and poor sanitation or no sanitation facilities in the schools discouraging women to withdraw from schools
• No or limited number of capacity building trainings were conducted on gender or gender, water & governance
• Capacity building trainings of 3 to 4 days by the medium of videos, pictures and activities will be interesting
• HOUSE-HOLD SURVEYS: This survey contributed largely towards validation of the findings of the one on one interviews and focused group discussions:
• No understanding on the concept of “gender”
• Most of the respondents stated that girls take education till 5th or 8th standard which is 15 or 16 years of age and get married between 14 to 18 years of age
• No or limited understanding on the available government scheme i.e. Jal Svavlambhan Yojana
• Had never visited any capacity building training either on gender or gender, water & governance
Hence, the needs assesment contributed towards building our understanding that this area requires training on gender, water and governance and our existing training module is adequate for conducting the trainings. In case there arises an area based revision then that can be catered to after analysing the first training of trainers.
(IV.5) HAND-HOLDINGS IN ABU ROAD & JAIPUR (June)
It was observed that continuous handholding of the trainers would enable them to practice and perform better as trainers as well as leaders in their areas. This point was validated in the evaluation report of International Institute of Energy Conservation (IIEC) of the HSS-CSR Climate Project Phase-01. Based on this suggestion it was decided to increase the number of onsite hand-holdings both in Sanganer (Jaipur) and Abu Road (Sirohi).
(V) CONCLUSION:
(a) The Review and Feedback meeting with the evaluation team contributed largely towards giving shape to the improvisation of the suggestions of improvement in the plan for 2016
(b) Conducting needs assessment contributed towards building grounds for the need to address the Gender, water and governance issue in western Rajasthan through our TOT program
(c) The increased number of hand-holdings has contributed towards an increase in the direct outreach but has also increased the indirect outreach
LOG-FRAME ANALYSIS FOR CLIMATE PROJECT: 2016
Project Objectives: 2016
(1) Conduct Three Basic trainings based on ToT manual in a newly selected district i.e. Jalore in Rajasthan
(2) Conduct 30 Hand-Holding programs in the project areas of phase 1 Sirohi Abu Road district and Sanganer Jaipur district.
Recommendation:
1. The surprise visit to Hand-Holding sites should be made.
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