MYRADA collaborates with the Government because it recognises that this is a strategic link in its efforts to upscale in terms of programmes as well as to initiate policy change arising from experience in the field especially in programmes where Government and NGOs work together. Several innovations arise in programmes where MYRADA does not collaborate officially with Government. These innovations are often brushed aside as occasional efforts of NGOs and are not recognised as appropriate evidence for policy or strategy change in major government programmes. MYRADA therefore endeavours to work with Government in some programmes. Innovations that arise in these programmes have far greater potential in influencing official policy and strategy. MYRADA worked with Government in resettling the Tibetan Refugees and Sri Lankan Repatriates in the 70s and early 80s and with displaced families from the Upper Krishna project in the mid 80s. Then came the Watershed Management project in Gulbarga, which was the first watershed project in the country where Government and NGOs worked in a formal partnership.
MYRADA has on-going formal collaborations with: i) The Women Development Corporations of Karnataka (in the Devadasi Programme, and Swashakti) and Tamilnadu (in Mahilar Thittam, the successor of the IFAD supported project for women’s empowerment). ii) The Karnataka Forest Department in the Western Ghats Project (supported by DFID-UK). iii) The Agricultural Engineering Department of Tamilnadu in Kattery Watershed Project, an Indo German Bilateral Initiative, iv) The Andhra Pradesh Government in Anantapur District under a UNDP sponsored rural poverty alleviation programme, and in Chittoor District under the APRLP watershed Project. v) The Government of Karnataka (RD&PR) in DDP, DPAP and NWDPRA, in the SUJALA Watershed Project supported by the World Bank and with the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project supported by ADB. vi) The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in a Krishi Vigyan Kendra based in Talavadi, Erode District, Tamilnadu, vii) The Karnataka Watershed Development Society (KAWAD) supported by DFID-UK and the Government of Karnataka in a watershed programme in Molakalamuru, Chitradurga District, Karnataka. viii) The Mewat Development Agency, Haryana where it has deputed staff ix) NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) in several innovative initiatives in the micro finance sector over a period of 16 years starting with NABARD’s support under R&D in 1987 to promote Self-Help Affinity Groups and policy change related to SAGs. The related training and exposure programmes have so far covered 3650 Bank officers. NABARD is also involved with MYRADA in developing a District Strategy by bringing in RRBs and DCCBs to promote SAG Districts.
MYRADA is also involved with the RBI, several State Governments and Multilateral/Bilateral development organisations to evolve frameworks for policy change in micro finance, watershed management, social policy and in setting up supporting structures for development programmes.
Programmes Abroad: MYRADA has been actively involved in promoting the SAG and watershed strategies in other countries, notably in Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia. Our staff visit these countries to train local people in implementing poverty alleviation strategies like the self-help affinity group approach and to assist in strategic planning. These projects have been supported to modify strategies to suit local conditions as well as design training materials in local languages. MYRADA has arranged visits of these teams to India to interact with various development actors like NGOs, Government functionaries, bankers and CBOs and to understand ways in which collaboration can be built for development in their own countries.
Aloysius P. Fernandez
Executive Director
MYRADA |
