ANNUAL REPORT 2015 Delhi
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ANNUAL REPORT 2015 Delhi I N D I A Rajasthan Uttarpradesh Patna Bihar Gujarat Bhopal Jharkhand Ahmedabad Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh Maharashtra THIS IS AN INDICATIVE MAP /ARTIST’S REPRESENTATION - NOT TO SCALE PROGRAMME AREAS OF AKRSP (INDIA) GUJARAT BHARUCH, SURAT, NARMADA, TAPI, NAVSARI and DANG districts are some of the poorest areas in the state of Gujarat. A very poor tribal community lives on undulating and degraded land that was once heavily forested. Dangs has one of the highest tribal populations (98%) of any district. JUNAGADH, PORBANDAR, JAMNAGAR, GIR SOMNATH and DEVBHOOMI DWARKA districts face problems of groundwater depletion and salinity ingress on the coast; these adversely affects livelihoods and health with poor drinking water quality. Multi-caste and multi-religious communities are struggling to sustain their livelihoods. SURENDRANAGAR, RAJKOT and MORBI districts are amongst the most drought-prone districts of Gujarat. Most of the villages in these districts face an acute scarcity of water. MADHYA PRADESH KHANDWA, BARWANI, BURHANPUR, KHARGONE and DHAR districts in Madhya Pradesh are home to marginalized tribal populations who live in poverty because of a degrading natural base. BIHAR MUZAFFARPUR and SAMASTIPUR districts in flood-prone Bihar are low in Human Development Indices (HDI), have very low literacy rates. Migration to the urban areas is a key source of livelihood. PARTNERS IN OUR ENDEAVOUR IN 2015 • Aga Khan Foundation Research Partners • American Indian Foundation • Arghyam Trust • Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) • Australian Consulate-General • Centre for Integrated Development (CFID) • Axis Bank Foundation • Development Support Centre (DSC) • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation • Global Fund for Community Foundations, South • Canadian International Development Agency Africa (CIDA) • Gujarat Institute of Development Research • Coca-Cola Foundation • Collectives of Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (GIDR) (CInI) • Indian Natural Resource Economics • C&A Foundation Management Foundation (INREM) • CottonConnect • Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) • European Commission • International Water Management Institute (IWMI) • Gruh Finance Limited • Vrutti - Livelihood Resource Centre • Hans Foundation • Research in Rain Fed Areas, RRA Network • Heifer International • TERI University • Hilton Foundation • Society For Promoting Participative Ecosystem • Hivos International Management (SOPPECOM) • Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUVF) • John Deere Foundation • Marshall Foundation Network Partners • Microsoft Corporation • NABARD (Gujarat ,Madhya Pradesh and Bihar) • Aga Khan Development Network • Quest Alliance • Sajjata Sangh • Rizwan Adatia Foundation • Pravah • Tata Trusts • Working Group For Women and Land • United Phosphorus Limited Ownership • Water Aid • Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell (CSPC) • Departments/ Units of the Government* of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar Communication Partner • Tribal Development • Rural Development Department • Charkha • Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) • Irrigation Department • Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation • Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited(SSNL) • Gujarat Green Revolution Company • Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company (The Gujarat unit of the National Rural Livelihood Mission) • Agriculture Department • Forest Department • Tourism Department • Ministry of Non-Conventional And Energy Sources (MNES) • Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium * Most government funding is from Government of (SFAC) India schemes which are co funded by the state • South Asia Pro-Poor Livestock Promotion government Programme(SAPPLPP)(an NDDB-FAO initiative) CONTENTS VISION "AKRSP (India) can contribute in India to the creation of an enabling environment in which rural people can identify their needs and priorities and with professional support, organize themselves to improve the quality of their lives" - His Highness the Aga Khan MISSION AKRSP (India) exists to enable the empowerment of rural communities and roups, particularly the underprivileged and women, to take control over their lives and manage their environment, to create a better and more equitable society VALUES • Empowerment • Equity • Transparency • Collaboration • Professional Excellence • Responsive to Change GOVERNANCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Nasser M Munjee Chairperson Ashish Merchant Director Bakul Virani Director Isher J Ahluwalia Director Kasim Ali F Merchant Director Madhu Sarin Director Pradip Khandwalla Director S B Ravi Pandit Director Venu Srinivasan Director* Wajahat Habibullah Director Tom Austin Ex-officio Director Apoorva Oza Secretary AUDIT COMMITTEE Ashish Merchant Chairman Bakul Virani Member Bhupinder Gupta Member Apoorva Oza Member Alok Krishna Secretary AUDITORS Statutory Auditors M/s Haribhakti & Co Mumbai Internal Auditors M/s Talati & Talati Ahmedabad Todi Tulsyan & Co. (For Bihar) BANKERS State Bank of India, Navrangpura Branch, Ahmedabad State Bank of India, Vadaj Branch, Ahmedabad Axis Bank, C.G.Road, Ahmedabad * completed his term in August 2015 07 AKRSPI(India) Annual Report 2015 / GOVERNANCE FOREWORD (Excerpts taken from the speech delivered by the Chairman on the was a real support and an intellectual source in terms occasion commemorating AKRSP (India)’s 30th anniversary) of development. Their influence was very large and we are very grateful to them for what they did. It is such a pleasure to be here on an occasion like And finally I need to thank His highness, the Aga this. It is also nostalgic; I would like to call it AKRSP Khan for creating AKRSP (India) on his 25th (India) 30 years on. It’s not old, it’s young. We are anniversary as a leader of the Ismali community. growing. I would like to use this occasion as a tribute to our first CEO, Mr. Anil Shah, because I think we I welcome you all to the 30 years of AKRSP (India). owe him a huge debt of gratitude for having sown the This tribute is to all of you because you have made seeds of a culture, of a method, of a team and of a AKRSP (I). It is not us, its’ not me not the Board. We programme, the essence of which still remains. I think sit and we think, we guide but the work is done by the he did a wonderful job. extraordinary talents of all of you. I have seen this in the field, the dedication, the sort of efforts that go into It is also a good time to acknowledge our previous the field and more important than anything else is Chairmen, Dr. Kurein and Dr. I.G. Patel, who had passion. I can feel the passion you feel for the those values which have been amply illustrated in community that you work with. That is the critical terms of what AKRSP (India) is all about, as these element, the emotional bond. You are doing have very much become a part of us. When Dr. I G something of great significance. I am very proud of Patel took over the board from Dr. Kurien, he brought each one of you. You are really part of fabric of a different flavor to the board but it was progressive AKRSP (India) and you are what it is all about. The and we saw a massive transformation during that culture that has been built within AKRSP (India) is time. Our board member Dr. Kamla Chaudary and Mr. profound and I think the culture has to be nurtured, Anil Agarwal were also giants in their field and has to be built and its occasions like this that help to contributed greatly towards the development of the build that culture of AKRSP (India) as a family. We are organization in the initial years. The board has all One. We all work in different geographies but we evolved since then and now you are seeing faces on all have same principles of operations, principles of our board which are keeping AKRSP (India) relevant integrity, principles with which we operate that what’s to the times in which we live. very crucial. It is that fabric that keeps AKRSP (India) Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) also did a huge service together. So again my very warm congratulations to to us during the first ten years of our development. It all of you for having got this far and we have got much further to go. level of happiness can actually be equivalent. For many years we were an organization which had What is of importance therefore is that at the end of small budgets. Our key areas of work were Rural the day, how we are leaving communities in terms of Livelihoods, Water Resource Development, Natural capability and not only in terms of income or Resource Management, Joint Forestry Management, resources. Tribal Development and Coastal Salinity problems. AKRSP (India) needs to examine carefully the The focus on gender sensitivity came in later when we philosophical underpinnings of what we are doing started involving women much more in our work in now and what might be done as we move forward to terms of village level institutions and ground level the next 10 years. AKRSP (India) needs to be institutions. transformative in order to achieve speed and scale. In the 2000 decade, we expanded to Madhya We have to now find a way in which the work that we Pradesh as it was much poorer than Gujarat and then are doing can actually can be expanded and in Bihar as it was much worse than anywhere else. So packaged in a way that is simple, scalable and it can it is these harder areas that AKRSP (India) got into be done with speed. We have to think of new and emboldened by the sort of support it got from its innovative ways to scale up our work. We need to donors. continuously reinvent and rethink in order to improve AKRSP (India) has grown from a small single state upon our existing methods, to make them better, to organization with smaller funds to a large multi-state make them simpler. We need to be passionate while organization with huge funds in the past 30 years. We dealing with our own staff in the same way that we are have learnt a lot of lessons all the way as AKRSP while dealing with communities. We need to have a (India) is a learning organization.