Kingdom of Nepal

T echnical Assistance Consultant’s Final Report

Project Number: 39006 September 2008

Kingdom of Nepal: Technical Assistance to Nepal for Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups in Mainstream Rural Development (Financed by the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund)

Prepared by: Dr. Dwarika Nath Dhungel, Mahendra Sapkota, Kusheswar Mahato, Shankar Aryal, Dr. Vikash Raj Satyal, Manoj Pyakuryal, Tilak Neupane, Kiran Sarkar, Bhupendra Batsa Lamsal, and Arjun Mani Dixit Institute for Integrated Development Studies Mandikhatar, Kathmandu, Nepal

For Department of Women Development, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare

This consultant’s final report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents. (For project preparatory technical assistance: All the views expressed herein may not be incorporated into the proposed project’s design.

Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups in Mainstream Rural Development

(Final Report)

Submitted to:

Asian Development Bank, Manila, the Philippines

Submitted by:

Institute for Integrated Development Studies Mandikhatar, Kathmandu, Nepal

September 2008

Project Team Members

Core Team Members

Dr. Dwarika Nath Dhungel Coordinator Mahendra Sapkota Monitoring and Evaluation Expert Kusheswar Mahato Micro Finance Expert Shankar Aryal Project Manager Dr. Vikash Raj Satyal Statistician

Field Team Members (Field Supervisors)

Manoj Pyakuryal Tilak Neupane Kiran Sarkar Bhupendra Batsa Lamsal

Short-term Consultant

Arjun Mani Dixit Training Expert

Acknowledgements

This study was made possible with the help, support and contributions, direct and indirect, of a number of individuals and institutions. We are thankful to them and would like to acknowledge their help and contributions.

First of all, we would like to express our gratitude to ADB and especially to Marzia M. Mongiorgi, Senior Rural Development Economist, for providing us the opportunity of getting involved in the project.

The IIDS TA team has benefited greatly from the incisive comments from the professionals of Department of Women Development, Government of Nepal. We would like to acknowledge, especially Mr. Ratna Kaji Bajracharya, Director General of the Department of Women Development for his supportive as well as advisory role during the project period. We would also like to extend our special thanks to Mr. Keshav Prasad Regmi, Director and Project Manager, of the departments for his conceptual and programmatic inputs. Similarly, we want to acknowledge the help provided to us by other staff members of the department.

We are deeply indebted to the Women Development Officers and their staff, and staff of the partner NGOs of the Project districts for their assistance and support.

This report would not have been complete without the help and cooperation of the project beneficiaries who gave us their valuable time and shared invaluable information with us. We register our appreciation and gratitude towards them.

Last, but not least, we want thank our colleagues at IIDS for their unflinching help and support for this Project.

We would also like to thank many other people whose names do not appear here but have made a significant contribution to the completion of the Project.

September 2008 TA Team

Contents

Project Team Members i Acknowledgements ii Acronyms vi Executive Summary vii

1. Context 1 2. Action Learning 3 2.1 Action Learning on Project Formulation 3 2.1.1 Household Development Grant 3 2.1.2 Project Duration 3 2.2 Action Learning Implementation Arrangements 4 2.3 Action Learning on Targeting Procedure 5 2.3.1 Selection of the Districts 5 2.3.2 Selection of the VDCs 7 2.3.3 Selection of the Wards 7 2.3.4 Selection of the Target Households 9 2.4 Action Learning on Project Implementation Process 12 2.4.1 Groups and Committees and their Functions 12 2.4.2 The Trainings 14 2.4.3 Steps/Process for HDP Formulation 15 2.4.4 Steps/Process for HDP Approval 17 2.4.5 Steps/Process for Fund Release 18 2.4.6 Distribution of HDG 21 3. Action Learning on the Capacity of the Implementing Agencies 25 3.1 DWDOs 25 3.1.1 Jumla 25 3.1.2 Bajhang 25 3.1.3 Rautahat 26 3.1.4 Mahottari 27 3.2 The NGOs 28 3.2.1 Jumla 28 3.2.2 Bajhang 29 3.2.3 Rautahat 30 3.2.4 Mahottari 31 4. Action Learning on Working Conditions 34 5. Action Learning on Record Keeping, Reporting and Monitoring 35 6. Findings of the Baseline Surveys and HDPs 36 6.1 Findings of the Baseline Surveys 36 6.1.1 Ethnicity of the Beneficiaries (Respondents: 993) 36 6.1.2 Literacy and Education Status (Respondents: 993) 37 6.1.3 Marital Status (Respondents: 992) 37 6.1.4 Religion (Respondents: 993) 37 6.1.5 Household Type (Respondents: 993) 37 6.1.6 Training (Respondents: 993) 37 6.1.7 Membership in Other Groups (Respondents: 993) 38 6.1.8 Hygiene and Sanitation 38 6.1.9 Land and Livestock (Respondents 993) 38 6.1.10 Economic Information ((Respondents 993) 39 6.1.11 Gender and Social Information 41

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6.2 Findings of the HDPs 43 6.2.1 Preparation of the HDP 43 6.2.2 Components of HDPs 43 7. Observations and Replication Strategy for Future 46 7.1 Observations 46 7.2 Replication Strategy 47 7.2.1 Project Formulation 47 7.2.2 Project Duration 47 7.2.3 Implementation Arrangements 47 7.2.4 Targeting Procedure 48 7.2.5 Project Implementation Process 49 7.2.6 Capacity of the Implementing Agencies 51 7.2.7 Record Keeping, Reporting and Monitoring 52 7.3 Evaluation of the Project 52

List of Table

Table 1: Name of the VDCs and Executing Agencies 4 Table 2: Name of the VDCs and Executing Agencies 4 Table :3 Ranking of GEEOW Districts 6 Table 4. Name of the VDCs and Selected Wards 8 Table 5: Number of Beneficiary Household 10 Table 6. Percentage of Beneficiary Households 11 Table 7: Fund Release Modality 18 Table 8: Staff Situation in DWDO, Jumla 25 Table 9: Staff Situation in DWDO, Bajhang 26 Table 10: Staff Situation in WDO, Rautahat 26 Table 11: Staff Situation in WDO, Mahottari 27 Table 12: Staff Situation of Manaviya Sanskriti Vikas Manch 28 Table 13: Staff Situation of Dalit Sewa Sangh 28 Table 14: Executive Committee of Samajik tatha Prabidhik Sewa Samaj 29 Table 15: Executive Committee of Dahabagar Yuva Samaj 15 Table 16: Executive Committee of Gramin Yuva Samaj Sewa Sangh Nepal 30 Table 17: Executive Committee of Mahila Krishi Tatha Bal Bikas Kendra 31 Table 18: Executive Committee of Ratauli Youth Club 32 Table 19: Staff Position in Mahottari District NGO Coordination Committee 33 Table 20: Ethnicity of the Beneficiaries 36 Table 21: Loan Amount and Interest on Loan 39 Table 23: Income Sources and Average Income 40 Table 24: Items of Expenditure and Average Expenditure 40 Table 25: Different Social Activities and Gender Involvement 41 Table 26: Gender Control in Different Social Activities 42 Table 27: Request for Basic Need 44 Table 28: Request for Opportunity Cost 44 Table 29: Request for Livelihood Promotion by number of beneficiaries 45 Maps 53-56 Annexes 57-86

Acronyms

APPSP Agriculture Perspective Plan Support Programme CBS Central Bureau of Statistics DWD Department of Women Development DAO District Administration Office DDCs District Development Committees DPCC District Project Coordination Committee DPSC District Project Steering Committee DWDO District Women Development Office EC Executive Committee GEEOW Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women GoN Government of Nepal HDG Household Development Grant HDP Household Development Plan HHs Households IIDS Integrated Development Studies ICIMOD Integrated Mountain Development NGOs Non-governmental organizations OCI Verall Composite Index PDI Poverty and Deprivation Index PTAR Project Technical Assistance Report SWC Social Welfare Council SEIDI Socio-economic and Infrastructural Development Index TA Technical Assistant HDG The Household Development Grant VDCs Village Development Committee WDO Women Development Office WEI Women Empowerment Index WE World Education

Executive Summary

1. Context

Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided a one-year technical assistance (TA) project, entitled ‘Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups in Mainstream Rural Development’, to the Government of Nepal (GoN) in support of the Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (GEEOW) project, recognizing the need for an additional specific delivery mechanism to reach the most disadvantaged members of society. The project duration was from June 2008 to June 2009.

Reduction of extreme poverty through the integration of the most disadvantaged households (HHs) into development programmes was envisaged as the impact of the TA Project. The project was based on the principle of conditional cash transfer based on the following assumptions that:

• cash transfers help meet the urgent needs of the ultra poor families and • conditions encourage investment in long-term human capital, breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

The two-step approach of the TA project for poverty reduction involved: (a) livelihood protection to reduce the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged HHs; and (b) livelihood promotion to increase their income, productivity and employment opportunities in the long-term through confidence- building and skill development. For this, the beneficiaries were provided with Household Development Grant (HDG) in three categories namely basic needs, opportunity cost and livelihood promotion.

The TA project activities were implemented in two remote hilly districts namely Jumla and Bajhang and two Terai districts namely Rautahat and Mahottari. In total, the TA project covered 16 Village Development Committee (VDCs), with four VDCs in each district. The TA project included 1,000 of the poorest and most excluded HHs of the community and its activities were primarily focused on the female members of HHs.

The District Women Development Office (DWDO) under the Department of Women Development (DWD) of the GoN and the selected local partner nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were involved in Project implementation. Of the selected four VDCs in a district, the DWDO implemented the project activities in two VDCs and the local partner NGO in two VDCs. Moreover, a national-level NGO, viz. Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), was also involved in facilitating and supporting the project activities, mainly in monitoring and technical backstopping.

2. Action Learning

• The uniqueness of this Project was that it not only provided supports for the livelihood promotion but also for the basic needs of the most disadvantaged households; and passed on the grant directly to the targeted households.

• The shortcoming of the Project was the disbursement of same amount of grant (US$ 350) to both the hill and Terai districts (and the near and remote part of the same district) irrespective of the distance and remoteness of different Project localities.

• The equivalent amount of grant in Nepalese currency was another issue of the grant allocation. It had been mentioned that the equivalent grant allocation in Nepalese currency will be NRs. 24,720 at the exchange rate of NRs. 70.62 per US$. US$ being a floating convertible currency, its exchange rate is not fixed but fluctuating.

• Further, the HDG had also provision of grant in-kind. Needs of different households were not homogenous. As such, procurement, storing and distribution of these commodities in small quantities and keeping step-wise records (from procurement to distribution) of each item for each individual household were actually a complicated task.

• Due to the slow start, the Project duration was reduced to only one year from its initial duration of two years.

• An innovative approach of simultaneously involving the government and non-government agencies for carrying out the project activities was adopted. This practice has been proved to be an effective joint venture between government and non-government agencies.

• In all the districts, the WDOs and NGOs mutually cooperated with each other in the entire project related matters. In some cases, the NGOs have even borne certain project related expenses by themselves.

• The TA Project had selected the two least developed Terai districts but in case of hill districts greater ranking Jumla was selected instead of lowest ranking Mugu.

• The selection of VDCs had largely been good enough as the VDCs were selected based on the analysis of available socio-economic statistics as well as well-defined criteria of VDC classification by the District Project Coordination Committee (DPCC) represented by the officials of local development, agriculture, livestock and forestry. However, the DPCC has failed to include the representation from three important sectoral development agencies namely District Education Office, District Public Health Office and District Drinking Water Office.

• The poor and disadvantaged people were scattered in all the 9 Wards of the VDC but only 250 target households from each district (or 60-65 form a VDC) were to be selected on the basis of specified criteria. This was actually a very difficult task.

• Participatory process including social mapping was used to select the Wards in each VDC. For this, knowledgeable village persons form different sections of the society including women; daits and other disadvantaged persons were gathered.

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• Target HHs were selected from participatory techniques from the mass meetings after prior notice to the residents of the Wards. The criteria used for this selection was the well being ranking of all the households of the selected Wards for which, factors such as social, economical and cultural status of the households were taken into account.

• As the number of household to be selected was low and the number of ultra-poor in the VDCs was high, many equally poor households were excluded.

• The selection of the target HHs was followed by the formation of groups, federated Inter- group Committees and its Executive Committee and Advisory Committee.

• The number of groups and Committees has been large and the size of the groups comparatively small.

• The group members were provided 7-days basic training and 3-days women men co- development training. Formation of groups and trainings has made the group members more aware about the development activities and the role they can play in those activities and has encouraged them to participate in such activities. Moreover, participation in the training programmes has brought the group members as well as their men in close cooperation and they have realized that development can be achieved only through the joint efforts but not acting individually.

• The major outcome of the trainings has been the start of monthly group savings and lending to the members.

• Some changes in their social behaviour were observed in terms of participation in decision- making process and Project activities.

• The saving credit activities by the group members has relieved them form being dependent on the local money lenders for loans with exorbitant interest rates for their emergency cash needs.

• With the lengthy and time taking processes requiring large extent academic exercises, the WDOs/NGOs had tried to collect as much information as possible of the selected household for preparing their household development plan through baseline survey, checklist-based information, observation, four years vision and problem tree. But due to the poor quality of target groups in terms of their literacy status along with time and manpower constraints for data collection, the quality of the gathered information has not been much consequential.

• The HDP approval process was also very much complex and time taking. The main problem to follow the prescribed processes was the organization of meetings of groups, committees and District Project Steering Committee (DPSC) for the discussion and approval of the HDP. The difficulty for conducting the meetings was faced mainly due to the absence of the members. DPSC members, being the government officials of the district level government line agencies were found either very much busy with their own official works, or in attending

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meetings inside or out of station, or participating in programmes, trainings and seminars, or on leave.

• The fund release process was another complicated and time taking exercise and was characterized with the same problems of conducting meetings in each successive step.

• The basic need grant has become very much supportive to the beneficiaries as it has relieved some of their financial burden to meet the urgent household expenses. It has encouraged the parents to enrol their children in the schools along with being more caring about their own and their children’s health and hygiene.

• An encouraging change has been occurred in the social life of the beneficiaries as they have become more exposed and expressive due to the opportunity of participating in training programmes and meetings. Their self-confidence has been built-up and they have become encouraged to participate in the local level development activities.

• The women men co-development training has been instrumental in developing the awareness among males of the group members regarding their responsibility about household chores. Moreover, the training programmes and the group/committee and other meetings have been helpful to develop the feeling of co-existence and cooperation among the group members along with the sense that success can be achieved through mutual efforts.

• In all the districts, except in Mahottari, the livelihood promotion grant was distributed in terms of in-kind grant. Since the amount of the grant was considerable to start a business in the local settings, the beneficiaries were very much hopeful that the grant will be much helpful for their economic development through providing opportunity of income generation and self-employment. They were very encouraged to start their enterprises.

• As the grant for livelihood promotion was distributed in the phasing out stage of the Project, its effects and impacts on the beneficiaries could not be assessed. Although such assessment is quite essential for analysing the positive changes among the beneficiaries by comparing with the baseline data, it could not be possible mainly due to the short project duration.

• WDOs in all the districts were not uniform in terms of both the physical facilities and human resource.

• Jumla and Bajhang, being remote mountain districts, have very difficult working conditions. Some of the selected VDCs in the districts were very far from the district headquarter and needed 2-3 days walk to be reached. Thus, the provision of human resources, particularly field level staff, in these districts was insufficient.

• The human resource in NGOs was relatively adequate and generally experienced. NGOs engaged in the Project implementation had to work hard in very remote VDCs and mostly with illiterate community for one year. Considering all their efforts, difficulty and the engaged human resources, their remuneration of Rs. 100,000 was quite insufficient. Also

considering the topography and the available facilities in the hill and Terai districts the equal amount of fund for the NGOs in the two regions was not justifiable.

• The working condition in the hilly districts i.e., Jumla and Bajhang was very bad mainly due to the bad condition of roads, topography, weather, poor condition of communication and electricity. As a result of which, there was problems in terms of communication, information exchange and supervision of Project activities.

• In the Terai districts i.e., Rautahat and Mahottari, although the roads are better, but due to the heavy flood during the rainy season and the political unrest had adversely affected the implementation of Project activities and field visit.

• Record keeping and reporting of the Projects activities were the weakest part of the Project implementation.

• Committee meetings and progress review meetings, and field monitoring of the Project activities by the officials of DWD and DWDO had been rare mainly due to the limited number but hectic work schedule of the manpower involved in executing the Project activities.

3. Conclusion

The modality of the TA Project differed from most of the conventional rural development programmes in the sense that it took care not only of livelihood promotion but also of basic needs and capacity development of the most disadvantaged households. The other important fact is that the grant allocated in the project was transferred directly to the target households.

The Project was implemented in remote locations during very difficult time. The DWDOs and partner NGOs have done an excellent work to complete the Project activities within the stipulated time even in such an adverse condition.

The total targeting procedure from VDC selection to the selection of beneficiary households had been the most challenging task. The task was hectic as it needed to collect and analyze the data and information required for fitting the criteria of VDC and Ward selection, conduct the VDC/Ward level meetings, orient the people about the TA Project and its activities, and select appropriate VDCs, Wards and households by consensus of the local people within the short period of time in the remote hilly places (Jumla and Bajhang) and during political unrest resulting in restricted mobility due to frequent closures and strikes in Terai (Rautahat and Mahottari).

Even so, in all the districts, all the related persons have praised the selection procedure of the ultra-poor. They think, although many similar HHs are not included, but the Project was able to reach to ultra poor community. They also think the conceptual framework of conditional grant for the basic needs and improvement in the livelihood was very effective.

It is felt essential that this Programme be replicated in wider scale to cover all the ultra-poor of the country. Not only as a single project, this type of programme should also be incorporated as a component of the larger scale projects and programmes funded by ADB as well as other donor agencies.

4. Replication Strategy for Future

An assessment of district situation analysis considering the cost of living of the Project area should be done prior to allocating the grant.

The grant amount should be mentioned only in Nepalese rupees, which the beneficiaries will receive.

For basic needs, single provision of grant in-cash with strict monitoring of grant utilization will make the implementation process much simpler. Nevertheless, the livelihood promotion grant being of substantial amount should not be the cash grant.

The Project duration should not be less than 2 years in view of its distinctiveness, and if the envisaged impact and outcomes from the Project are to be achieved.

The approach of simultaneously involving the government and non-government agencies for carrying out the project activities should be continued to implement the development activities targeting the poor in the rural settings.

For district selection in future, updated indicators of district development would be more relevant, as the indicators used by the TA Project have now been more than 5 years old.

The DPCC should also include representatives from the sectoral offices of education, public health and drinking water, and the VDC selection criteria should be improved to comprise indicators of literacy/education, health and sanitation.

The strategy of Ward selection was quite appropriate and impressive, and hence should be continued in the future too.

Instead of selecting some of the poor households from one or two Wards, all the poor households of the selected Wards should be included. With such provision, all the poor households from one Ward could have been selected instead of some households scattered in different wards. This would save time, efforts and cost for conducting meetings in different wards and also relieved the DWDO and partner NGOs from being involved in settling the controversies regarding the non-selection of other equally poor households. Moreover, selection of households from one Ward would also result in comparatively easier implementation of the project activities

The groups should be comprised of 15-20 (from the current 5-7 members) members and the responsibilities of the Committees should also be given to the groups. However, an EC represented by the Chairperson of the groups could be formed to arrange for the preparation of agendas, implement the decisions, and carry out day-to-day operations. This would ease the burden of the group members to be simultaneously involved both in the activities of group and Committee and also save time, cost and efforts on the part of the implementing agencies.

The basic and women men co-development training programmes should be the main part of the programme. The trainings should be simultaneously conducted in the selected wards with different training schedule (one shift in the morning and another in the afternoon). If it is not practical to conduct the trainings in shift, involvement of different set of trainers would also reduce the training duration.

Professionals should be involved to conduct baseline survey as the information received from such survey is very important to compare with the outcome of the Project. Instead of taking time to follow various steps, more time should be given to conduct the baseline survey so as to make the data and information more consistent and dependable.

The process of HDP preparation should be made short by preparing it immediately after the completion of baseline survey. The preparation of HDP should be done in simple manner by avoiding the four years’ vision, problem tree and preparatory works.

The process of HDP approval and fund release should be made much easier by making arrangement for the submission of the HDPs by the group members directly to the DWDO.for approval. However, the DPSC should be notified by the DWDO about the approved HDPs.

The basic needs grant should be in cash. Nevertheless, the beneficiaries must be strictly followed-up for the utilization of fund with the condition that if the fund is used for any other purposes by any member, her membership and all benefits she is entitled to receive during the programme period should be withheld until and unless she pays the penalty equivalent to the misused amount and commits that she will never be involved in such action in the future.

There is no need of any change in the grant for opportunity cost. However, the grant should be made timely available and the training programmes should be conducted as targeted.

In case of the livelihood promotion, prior to the distribution of the grant, the beneficiaries should be thoroughly oriented about the potential enterprises considering the availability of local resources and market potentiality of the products. After the distribution of the grant, the beneficiaries should also be aptly trained so as to make them capable to run the enterprise in profitable manner. In case of the livestock-keeping enterprises auxiliary support programmes particularly on animal health care should also be provisioned. Moreover, provision of some extra amount should also be made for meeting the unforeseen costs.

Provision of separate human resources, particularly field level staff, should be made to carry out the Project activities.

The amount of Rs. 100,000 to the NGOs should be increased with differing amount for mountain/hill and Terai districts.

The livelihood promotion grant should be distributed at least before 6 months of the termination of the project so as to allow the assessment of outcome and effects of the livelihood grant on the life of the beneficiaries.

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1. Context

Reduction of extreme poverty through the integration of the most disadvantaged households (HHs) into development programmes was envisaged as the impact of the TA project. Similarly, the TA project was aimed at creating an environment for the most disadvantaged HHs to effectively participate in and benefit from the implementation of an innovative package of rural development programmes.

The two-step approach of the TA project for poverty reduction involved: (a) livelihood protection to reduce the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged HHs through the Household Development Grant (HDG); and (b) livelihood promotion to increase their income, productivity and employment opportunities in the long-term through confidence-building and skill development.

The TA project activities were implemented in two remote hilly districts namely Jumla and Bajhang and two Terai districts namely Rautahat and Mahottari (Annex Map of the Project Districts). In total, the TA project covered 16 Village Development Committee (VDCs), with four VDCs in each district. The TA project included 1,000 of the poorest and most excluded HHs of the community and its activities were primarily focused on the female members of HHs. Nevertheless, male members of HHs were also the beneficiaries of certain activities.

The project was based on the principle of conditional cash transfer. With a view to reducing the future as well as the present state of poverty, conditional cash transfer programme was formulated based on the following assumptions that:

• cash transfers help meet the urgent needs of the ultra poor families and • conditions encourage investment in long-term human capital, breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

The District Women Development Office (DWDO) under the Department of Women Development (DWD) of the GoN and the selected local partner nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were involved in Project implementation. Of the selected four VDCs in a district, the DWDO implemented the project activities in two VDCs and the local partner NGO in two VDCs. Thus, the DWDOs and the local partner NGOs each implemented the project activities in eight VDCs. However, the overall responsibility of implementing the project activities was of the WDO. Moreover, a national-level NGO, viz. Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), was also involved in facilitating and supporting the project activities, mainly in monitoring and technical backstopping.

The main objective of this report is to describe and document the experiences gained (action learning) from the implementation of the TA project. This report attempts to illustrate the experiences in terms of both strengths and weaknesses in project formulation, targeting procedure

(selection of districts to selection of beneficiary households), project implementation process (prescribed guidelines) and actual implementation practices at field level.

Similarly, it details out the action learning on the processes of preparation and approval of household development plan (HDP), household development grant (HDG); and fund release, distribution and utilization of HDG, recording and reporting of the transactions, and monitoring of activities.

In addition, this report also draws the findings of the baseline survey conducted prior to the Project implementation; and HDPs that were individually prepared for each project beneficiary for grant distribution.

2. Action Learning

2.1 Action Learning on Project Formulation

2.1.1 Household Development Grant

Cash transfer through the HDG was the most important component of the TA project. The total amount of HDG to a member of the selected HH was US$350 (NRs. 24,720). The HDG was composed of three components: (i) basic needs (25 per cent of the total grant in either cash or kind) for covering expenses of such basic needs as house repair, health care, food, clothing and utensils, etc; (ii) opportunity cost (25 per cent of the total grant) for covering opportunity cost of participating in community activities as well as skill/capacity development training; and (iii) livelihood promotion (50 per cent of the total grant in either cash or kind) for promoting livelihood-based economic activities such as animal husbandry, micro businesses, etc.

Action learning

Thus, the TA project differed from most of the conventional rural development programmes in the sense that it intended to care not only for livelihood promotion but also for basic needs of most disadvantaged households. The other important fact was that the grant allocated in the TA project was directly transferred to the target households.

However, the equivalent allocation of grant amounting to US$350 to both the hill and Terai districts irrespective of the district situation cannot be considered as a fair allocation. Being situated in distant and remote hilly parts of the country without having good road transportation, Bajhang and Jumla districts are far more expensive than Rautahat and Mahottari districts, which are nearer to Kathmandu and are situated in the plains, having easy access to road transport facility. By considering the higher cost of living in Bajhang and Jumla districts, these are categorized as “A” districts and the government staffs in these districts are provided an additional allowance ranging from 60 to 70 per cent of their basic salary.

Moreover, equivalent amount of grant in Nepalese currency was another issue of the grant allocation. It was mentioned by DWD that the equivalent grant allocation in Nepalese currency will be NRs. 24,720 at the exchange rate of NRs. 70.62 per US $. US $ being a floating convertible currency, its exchange rate is not fixed but fluctuating.

Another point to be noted regarding the HDG was its provision of grant in-kind. Household needs of different households were not homogenous and their demand for different commodities was in smaller units. As such, procurement, storing and distribution of these commodities in small numbers and keeping step-wise records (from procurement to distribution) of each item for each individual household were actually a complicated task.

2.1.2 Project Duration

The Project was initially designed for 2 years, which was reduced to only one year. The expected impact of the TA Project was “reduction of extreme poverty and integration of the most disadvantaged households, including those from low-caste and ethnic minority groups, in development programs,” and its envisaged outcome was “to allow the most disadvantaged

households to effectively participate in and benefit from rural development projects, through the implementation of an innovative package of activities aimed at the acceleration of their socio- economic status and the removal of socio-cultural and financial constraints that keep them from participating effectively in these development programs.”

Action Learning

Since the Project aimed to create an impact on the most disadvantaged households with an innovative two-step approach of poverty reduction involving firstly livelihood protection and then livelihood promotion, its initially designed implementation duration of 2 years was quite appropriate considering the tasks involved in project implementation and the level of beneficiaries. However, due to the slow start of the project, its duration was later on reduced to only one-year. This had compelled the implementing agencies, to be more focused and make efforts to implement the project activities by completing a long list of formalities before the distribution of HDG (to be explained in the following texts). The WDO and partner NGOs hastily executed the Project activities and completed the task of grant distribution just before the termination of Project. The beneficiaries, DWD, DWDOs and the partner NGOs as well as other elites of the districts have complained that the Project duration has been short. .There was no time left for assessing the envisaged impact and outcomes from the Project.

2.2 Action Learning Implementation Arrangements

As stated by the Project Technical Assistance Report (PTAR), the TA Project was piloted with two implementation models: model A in which WDOs were the social intermediaries and model B, in which NGOs were the social intermediaries. Based on this, both the WDO and partner NGOs as shown in Table 1 implemented the project in the districts. The name of the partner NGOs and the VDCs covered by them are presented in Table 2.

Table 1: Name of the VDCs and Executing Agencies District VDC Executing Agency Jumla Kartikswami and Talium WDO Jumla Badki and Kalikakhetu Partner NGO Bajhang Daulichaur and Kotbhairav WDO Bhajang Gadaraya and Dahabagar Partner NGO Rautahat Sarmujawa and Gedahiguthi WDO Rautahat Tengraha and Basatpur Partner NGO Mahottari Sonaul and Simardahi WDO Mahottari Raghunathpur and Haripur Harinmandi Partner NGO Source: DWDOs/partner NGOs

Table 2: Name of the VDCs and Executing Agencies District Name of the Partner NGO VDC Jumla Dalit Sewa Sangh Badki Manaviya Sanskriti Vikas Manch Kalikakhetu Bajhang Samajik Tatha Prabidhik Sewa Samaj Gadaraya Dahabagar Yuva Samaj Dahabagar Rautahat Gramin Yuva Samaj Sewa Sangh Nepal Tengraha Mahila Krishi Tatha Balbikash Kendra Basatpur Mahottari Mahottari District NGO Coordination Committee Raghunathpur Ratauli Yuva Club Haripur Harinmandi Source: DWDOs/partner NGOs

Action Learning.

An innovative approach of simultaneously involving the government and non-government agencies for carrying out the project activities was adopted to implement the Project activities. This practice has been proved to be an effective joint venture between government and non-government agencies. An important point to note here is that the district based local NGOs instead of national level NGOs have been selected for carrying out the project activities. Since the local NGOs have better knowledge and understanding about the local settings and the attitude, beliefs and values of the local people, their involvement had greatly helped the WDOs to execute the project activities. Although some minor differences between the WDOs and NGOs had also been surfaced from time to time during the implementation of project activities mainly due to their working style e.g., NGOs having flexible working conditions and WDOs having somewhat strict working conditions, such differences had been mutually resolved by WDOs and NGOs. Setting a remarkable example of working in partnership, both the WDOs and the NGOs tirelessly made efforts to successfully complete the execution of the project activities even within the shortened project duration. In all the districts, the WDOs and NGOs had mutually cooperated with each other in the entire project related matters. In some cases, the NGOs had even borne certain project related expenses by themselves.

2.3 Action Learning on Targeting Procedure

2.3.1 Selection of the Districts

As mentioned earlier, the TA Project activities were implemented in 4 of the least developed 15 GEEOW districts namely Achham, Baitadi, Bajahng, Bajura, Bara, Dhanusa, Doti, Jumla, Kalikot, Mahottari, Mugu, Ramechhap, Rautahat, Sarlahi and Sindhuli. Selection of these districts was based on the indicators from Districts of Nepal Indicators of Development Update 2003 prepared jointly by Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Nepal and International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) with support of SNV-Nepal in December 2003. Among these districts the TA Project are implemented in two remote western hilly districts namely Bajhang and Jumla; and two central Terai districts namely Mahottari and Rautahat.

The CBS/ICIMOD ranked districts of Nepal based on an Overall Composite Index (OCI) derived from the aggregation of Poverty and Deprivation Index (PDI), Socio-economic and Infrastructural Development Index (SEIDI) and Women Empowerment Index (WEI) by taking into account 29 aspects of the level of development performance at the district level. For this, 3-stages computation of indices was performed.

In the first stage, (a) Child Deprivation Index was formed by aggregating 3 indicators namely child illiteracy rate, child economic activity rate, and proportion of child marriage; (b) Gender Discrimination Index was formed by aggregating 2 indicators namely adult gender imbalance ratio in literacy status and adult gender imbalance ratio in non-agricultural occupations; (c) Health and Development Index was formed by aggregating 3 indicators namely contraceptive prevalence rate, drinking water coverage and toilet facility; (d) Primary Sector Development Index was formed by aggregating 4 indicators namely agricultural credit, farm size, livestock per farm household and percentage of irrigated area; and (e) Infrastructure Development Index that was formed by aggregating 8 indicators namely road density, bank density, cooperative density, health institutions

density, post office density, percentage of forestry user households, per capita regular budget expenditure and per capita development budget expenditure;

In the second stage, these 5 first stage indices and 9 other primary indicators were combined to develop PDI, SEIDI and PEI. PDI was produced by combining child deprivation and gender discrimination with the indicators for (a) percentage educationally disadvantaged population; (b) percentage of marginal farm household; and (c) per capita food production.

The SEIDI was developed by combining health and development, primary sector development and infrastructure development with the indicators for (a) overall literacy rate; and (b) broad occupational structure.

The WEI was developed by combining (a) percentage share of females in non-agricultural occupations, (b) percentage share of females in literacy, (c) percentage share of female teachers at primary level, and (d) percentage of girls enrolled in primary level.

Finally, the second stage’s 3 indices were aggregated to form the OCI.

Based on this exercise, the GEEOW districts were ranked as depicted in Table 3.

Table :3 Ranking of GEEOW Districts S. No. Districts PDI SEIDI WEI OCI 1. Dhanusa 46 18 59 46 2. Sindhuli 56 58 45 49 3. Ramechhap 53 62 50 51 4. Bara 42 39 67 55 5. Sarlahi 57 46 64 61 6. Baitadi 63 55 60 62 7. Mahottari 61 56 71 65 8. Doti 66 64 61 66 9. Rautahat 68 61 72 68 10. Jumla 67 65 70 69 11. Kalikot 71 63 69 70 12. Bajura 72 70 66 71 13. Achham 74 75 68 72 14. Bajahng 70 74 74 73 15. Mugu 75 73 75 75 Source: Districts of Nepal: Indicators of Development, Update 2003

Action Learning

Thus, the TA Project selected the two most least developed Terai districts having WEI and OCI ranking of 71 and 65 respectively for Mahottari, and 72 and 68 respectively for Rautahat. Accordingly, selection of these districts was fully justified. However, in case of hill districts, although selection of Bajhang having WEI and OCI ranking of 74 and 73 respectively was undoubtedly unquestionable, the logic behind the selection of Jumla having WEI and OCI ranking of 70 and 69 respectively, instead of lowest ranking Mugu with both the WEI and OCI ranking of 75 was difficult to understand. The WEI is emphasized here as the TA Project was exclusively implemented for benefiting the ultra poor women.

2.3.2 Selection of the VDCs

For the selection of VDCs, first of all VDC level demographic as well as social and economic data collected/compiled by the respective District Development Committees (DDCs) were analyzed. Based on this analysis as well as the project implementation guideline of ADB/Manila, the District Project Coordination Committee (DPCC) of the respective districts was to select the deprived VDCs having:

• more than 50 per cent poor population; • more than 60 per cent of the population owning less than 0.5 hectares of agricultural land; • more than 40 per cent of the population of Dalit and low–caste or ethnic minority; • no other agencies implementing the same activities in the area; • proven knowledge about the people and the area; • good working environment even in the conflict situation; and • extreme disparity and imbalance between women and men.

Action Learning

The VDCs of the Project districts were selected by DPCC, which was composed of Local Development Officer as Convener and District Agriculture Development Officer, District Livestock Development Officer and District Forest Officer as members from related district level sectoral agencies, and WDO as member-secretary. Since the DPCC selected the VDCs based on the analysis of available socio-economic statistics as well as well-defined criteria of VDC classification, the selection of VDCs had largely been good enough. However, the DPCC failed to include the representation from three important sectoral development agencies namely District Education Office, District Public Health Office and District Drinking Water Office. Since these sectoral agencies were also related with the activities of the TA Project, their representation in the DPCC would have been more prolific. Similarly, the selection criteria also missed some important social indicators relating to literacy/education, health and sanitation facilities in the VDC as well as literacy, health and sanitation status of the VDC people.

2.3.3 Selection of the Wards

The project’s target beneficiaries were only 250 households from the district i.e., only 60-65 households from the whole VDC. Poor and disadvantaged people lived in almost all the Wards, but in a scattered form. In other words, they were not inhabited in a particular Ward but were scattered in all the villages of different wards of the VDC. As such, 60-65 households from each VDC from among 1-9 Wards, where most of the poor and disadvantaged people live, were to be selected by DWDO. For the selection of Wards, the following participatory processes were followed:

• Briefing about the project to the VDC Secretaries by the DWDO, • Request by DWDO to the VDC Secretary of the selected VDC for organizing a village level meeting, • Information of meeting to all the residents of the VDC for ensuring that they would not later complain about the non-information of the meeting, • Informing the participants that the TA Project is targeted to ultra poor, and • Informing the participants about the working procedures of the TA Project.

During the village level meeting, social mapping of all nine wards of the VDCs was done with the clear knowledge and participation of the participants. With the facilitation of DWDO/partner NGO, the meeting elected a ward-level 5-7 member key-informants group comprising knowledgeable persons from different sections of the society, women, Daits and other disadvantaged persons. This group helped and facilitated the meeting in preparing the social map of the Wards showing various resources and facilities existing in the Ward. Women from the disadvantaged households were especially encouraged to participate in the meeting.

During the social mapping, the deprived Wards were identified based on the following criteria:

• more than 50 per cent of population under poverty line; • more than 60 per cent of the households having ½ (10 ropani) of land; • more than 40 per cent of the population belonging to Dalit (low caste) or ethnic minority; • absence of any ultra poor targeted programs from any other institution; • circumstances allowing to work even in the difficult working conditions; • extreme disparity and imbalance between women and men; • having more vulnerable households; • low participation of women and ethnic people in decision making process; and • absence of basic facilities such as primary education, health posts or having these facilities for the name’s sake only

Based on this exercise one, two or more Wards having heavy concentration of poor disadvantaged people were selected with the concurrence of the meeting participants. The Ward selection process was finalized only after the decisions were minuted and signed by the participants. Altogether 36 Wards were selected. Information on the selected Wards is presented in Table 4.

Table4. Name of the VDCs and Selected Wards District VDC Ward No. Jumla Kartikswami 1, 2 and 3 Talium 4, 5 and 6 Badki 1 and 2 Kalikakhetu 3, 4 and 9 Bajhang Daulichaur 5 and 6 Kotbhairav 3 and 8 Gadaraya 2 Dahabagar 4 and 6 Rautahat Sarmujawa, 5 and 7 Gedahiguthi 2 and 4 Tengraha 5 and 6 Basatpur 3 and 6 Mahottari Sonaul 1, 7, 8 and 9 Simardahi 3 and 4 Raghunathpur 5 and 7 Haripur Harinmandi 3 and 6 Source: DWDOs/partner NGOs

Action Learning

To select a Ward or Wards by meeting the above criteria was actually a very difficult task since the presence of poor people was found in all the Wards. The DWD and the DWDOs as well as the partner NGOs had been very much sensitive to avoid the controversies and select the appropriate Wards. For this, the above criteria-based participatory social mapping of the Wards adopted by the DWD/DWDOs was possibly the best practice to identify the appropriate Wards. Although minor differences particularly due to the political reasons had surfaced in Ward No.6 of Dahabagar VDC in Bajhang, and Ward Nos. 7 and 8 of Sonaul VDC in Mahottari regarding the Ward selection, these differences were settled by the local people themselves with the assistance of DWDOs and the related partner NGOs of the respective districts.

2.3.4 Selection of the Target Households

After the selection of the Wards, the DWDOs and partner NGOs facilitated to conduct Ward level mass meetings by giving prior notice to the residents of the Wards. In the meeting, the concept and implementation procedure of the project and criteria for selection of the beneficiary HHs were explained in detail to the participants.

In this meeting, the well being ranking of all the households of the selected Wards was done and based on that the targeted households were selected. For the purpose of the well-being ranking, such factors as social, economical and cultural status of the households were taken into account. Well-being ranking was not only judged on the basis of wealth but also on factors such as, food sufficiency, employment status, family structure, power and right, educational status, access and control over the available resources, level of awareness, sociability, and social perspective towards the household. Accordingly, the primary list of the ultra poor households of the Wards was prepared on the basis of the following criteria:

• having less than 3 months of food security from their own production and/or main source of income, • 80 per cent of the income coming from wages by doing low-level jobs; • unemployed or seasonal employment during lean months; • landless or having less than 0.33 hectare of land; • low labor productivity and unimproved socio-economic condition; • high dependency rate; • low literacy level, low awareness of development issues, low skill and capital, low financial and social assets; • deprived of participating in development activities; • no access of basic social services; • dependent on local moneylenders even for small amount of credit; and • constrained by lack of time to participate in the community development activities and raise voices due to workload for subsistence and miserable social status.

After detail discussions on the basis of the said criteria, a preliminary list of beneficiary households was prepared and it is was posted for public notice in the related VDC Office, schools in the Wards, health posts, NGO offices, and other public places for public information.

So as to finalize the identified households, another ward level mass meeting was organized within 2-3 days of posting the preliminary list. In this meeting, the participants were asked whether they have any complaints against the list. If complaints were raised, they were heard, discussed and if found genuine by consensus, necessary adjustments were made in the list. And finally a list of targeted households from each Ward was finalized with the approval of the meeting. The final list was also posted in all the places where the preliminary list was posted for public information. Moreover, the final list was also provided to the District Administration Office, DDC, WDO, District Agriculture Office, District Livestock Service Office, and District Forest Office.

From the finally listed households, the beneficiary member to participate in the project activities was decided by the members of the selected households themselves. Table 5 presents information on VDC/Ward level number of beneficiary households in the districts/Wards.

Table 5: Number of Beneficiary Household District VDC Ward No. Beneficiary Households Kartikswami 1/2/3 16/16/31 Talium 4/5/6 34/14/14 Jumla Badki 1/2 32/30 Kalikakhetu 3/4/9 28/6/29 Sub-total 250 Daulichaur 5/6 39/21 Kotbhairav 3/8 36/31 Bajahng Gadaraya 2 60 Dahabagar 4/6 31/32 Sub-total 250 Sarmujawa 5/7 25/38 Gedahiguthi 2/4 32 Rautahat Tengraha 5/6 31/31 Basatpur 3/6 33/29 Sub-total 250 Sonaul 1/5/7/8/9 10/15/19/6/6/11 Simardahi 3/4 33/32 Mahottari Raghunathpur 5/7 32/33 Haripur Harinmandi 3/6 30/35 Sub-total 250 Total 1,000 Source: DWDOs/partner NGOs and District Supervisors of IIDS

Action Learning

In all the districts, all the related persons praised the selection procedure of the ultra-poor. They think, although many similar households were not included, but the TA Project had been able to reach to ultra poor community. They also think the conceptual framework of conditional grant for the basic needs and improvement in the livelihood will be very effective.

However, in most of the VDCs, the task of selecting the beneficiary households was very tough. It was because, the number of ultra-poor residing in the VDCs was large and households to be selected were limited to a small number. For instance, Table 6 depicts that in total less than 10 per cent households of the selected VDCs have been the beneficiary households with Jumla, Bajhang, Rautahat and Mahottari having 13.68 per cent, 9.45 per cent, 7.93 per cent and 7.40 per cent, respectively.

Table 6. Percentage of Beneficiary Households District VDC Number of VDC Number of % of Beneficiary Households Beneficiary Households Households Jumla Kartikswami 365 63 17.26 Talium 711 62 8.72 Badki 636 62 9.75 Kalikakhetu 115 63 54.78 Sub-total 1,827 250 13.68 Bajhang Daulichaur 624 60 9.62 Kotbhairav 590 67 11.36 Gadaraya 508 60 11.81 Dahabagar 923 63 6.83 Sub-total 2,645 250 9.45 Rautahat Sarmujawa, 1,147 63 5.49 Gedahiguthi 555 63 11.35 Tengraha 732 62 8.47 Basatpur 717 62 8.65 Sub-total 3,151 250 7.93 Mahottari Sonaul 603 55 9.12 Simardahi 809 65 8.03 Raghunathpur 830 65 7.83 Haripur Harinmandi 1,135 65 5.73 Sub-total 3,377 250 7.40 Total 11,000 1,000 9.09 Source: Population Census, 2001, Central Bureau of Statistics and DWDOs/partner NGOs and District Supervisors of IIDS.

In such a situation, to select some beneficiary households that also for cash distribution from among the equally ultra-poor in the places marred by the political influence of different political parties was never an easy task. Particularly, the efforts made by the DWDOs/partner NGOs to make a consensus on the household selection among different political parties as well as to convince the households that failed to be selected were really praiseworthy.

Thus, the total targeting procedure from VDC selection to the selection of beneficiary households had been the most challenging task to the DWDOs and partner NGOs. The task was hectic as it needed to collect and analyze the data and information required for fitting the criteria of VDC and Ward selection, conduct the VDC/Ward level meetings, orient the people about the TA Project and its activities, and select appropriate VDCs, Wards and households by consensus of the local people within the short period of time in the remote hilly places (Jumla and Bajhang) and during political unrest resulting in restricted mobility due to frequent closures and strikes in Terai (Rautahat and Mahottari).

2.4 Action Learning on Project Implementation Process

2.4.1 Groups and Committees and their Functions

(i) Group Formation

As soon as the beneficiary households were selected, a group comprised of 4-7 members, each representing the selected households, was formed with the help of the Facilitator, who in this case was either WDO or NGO official. This group was the basic unit of the TA Project. From among the group members a Chairperson and a Secretary was also elected. At the interface between the Inter-group Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) and the member, the group was intended to perform the following functions:

• coordinate and assist in the process of preparing the household development plan (HDP) of the member and recommend the plan to the Committee for approval; • collect the household development budget application form of the members for implementing the activities included in their approved HDP, and with its recommendation for realizing the funds, initiate the process through the Committee; • take initiative in promoting an understanding between the member and her family member(s) in case of any misunderstanding relating to the preparation of the HDP, utilization of the funds and fulfilment of the conditions; • assist in searching for feasible livelihood opportunities for the member, identifying her capacity development needs in order to exploit such opportunities , and organizing training and other activities; and • cooperate with the Committee and other concerned agencies in performing necessary functions as needed for achieving the objectives of the Project.

(ii) Inter-Group Committee

The Committee was a federated form of the groups covering one or two Wards, which was comprised of the members of the groups affiliated to the Committee. The Committee was the main body in implementing the Project activities. In other words, the Committee had been made responsible to collect the HH development budget application forms of the members and initiate the fund release process, take care about the utilization of grant along with ensuring the compliance of conditions by the members. In other words, the Committee was assumed to provide all the necessary supports to the groups. As such, its responsibilities included:

providing guidance, coordination and support for the preparation of HDP, baseline survey and needs and strengths assessment of the group members; approval of the HDP and budget application form, determination of the form of grant (in cash or kind) and arrangements for procurement of materials for in-kind grant; preparation of capacity development programs for the group members on skill transfer, social mobilization, and access to her need-based markets; preparation of member savings mobilization scheme and its implementation; updating record-keeping of the receipts and payments as well as documents of household development grant, savings, and funds received for capacity development activities;

encouraging to male and other members of the households to participate in the project activities through organizing interaction and orientation programs; supervision of groups and resolution of conflict among the group members; regular reporting of the project activities to the community leaders, local people’s representatives and WDO; public audits of the project activities and financial matters; networking with different service-providers for the group-members’ access to them; and all other functions as deemed necessary for achieving the project objectives.

(iii) Executive Committee (EC)

The EC of the Committee consisted of one elected representative from each group federated into the Committee. The EC consisted of a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary. The EC had been made responsible to arrange for the preparation of agendas, implement the decisions, and carry out day-to-day operations.

(iv) Advisory Committee

The Committee also formed a 3-5 member Advisory Committee for seeking advice on its works, opening up its activities to the community and increasing the stake of the community. The Committee members were nominated from among the local people’s representatives, female community members, social workers, and the like.

Action Learning.

By involving the women to perform the above functions and responsibilities through group dynamism, the Project made efforts to uplift the socio-economic status of the ultra poor women of the least developed rural areas. The group formation was intended to provide the opportunity for the women to work cordially, involve them in making collective decisions, raise their level of awareness and self-confidence for making them know their rights, and provide access to and control over the resources. Moreover, the groups were also expected to work for reducing the social extremism and stabilize the development through self-motivated participation.

However, since the group members being mostly illiterate and unexposed to the group activities and having the compulsion to be involved in wage-earning jobs for sustaining their livelihood, their full participation in the group activities and bearing their responsibilities had not been as expected. Although the WDOs and the partner NGOs had been actively engaged in helping the groups, resource and human constraints had been the limiting factors for their efforts. For instance, the WDOs needed to look after about 22 groups in each district and partner NGOs in these districts required covering 22 and 24 groups scattered in different Ward with the group members being 5-7 in each group. Moreover, they also needed to facilitate and guide the Committees too. But on the other hand, the groups and Committees being in very initial stages, needed help in each and every step of carrying out the activities entrusted upon them. As such, in the absence of continuous facilitation and guidance to make them capable to independently take over their task, the groups have not been able to perform as anticipated.

The main point to be noted here is that the number of groups and Committees had been large. The groups comprised only 5-7 members and were again federated in the Committee making a two-tier

organization for carrying out more or less similar group activities. In view of the short time period and resource constraint, the groups could have been comprised of 10-15 members and the responsibilities of the Committees could also have been given to the groups themselves. This would have eased the burden of the group members to be simultaneously involved both in the activities of group and Committee and also have saved time, cost and efforts on the part of WDOs and partner NGOs.

2.4.2 The Trainings

After the formation of groups and Committees, the group members were provided basic training and women-men co-development training was given to both the group members and their husbands or other male member of the households (in case of the absence of husband).

(i) Basic Training

The basic training was a 7-days training to the group members. The DWDO and partner NGOs in their respective working areas conducted the training. The main aim of the training was to impart basic knowledge about the subsequent activities of the TA project. As such, the contents of the training program included group and Committee and their functions, conflict resolution, saving and its mobilization, household development problem tree, potential income generation activities for livelihood, preparation of HDP, conditions and utilization of household development grant (HDG), communication and its means, leadership development, secured maternity, and record keeping. The training included both the lecture sessions as well as practical sessions. Through this training, the group members were thoroughly oriented about the group dynamism and their role and responsibilities. The training curriculum used for this training is presented in Annex 1.

(ii) Women-Men Co-development Training

This was a 3-days training. The philosophy behind the training was that the HDP was not only of the single member but also of her entire household and equal participation of all the household members in general and of male members in particular is required to prepare and implement the HDP. Accordingly, the co-development training mainly contained the lessons on gender and equality and HDP preparation. Annex 2 presents the training curriculum of this training.

Action Learning

The formation of groups and the trainings have not only made the group members more aware about the development activities and the role they can play in those activities but have also encouraged them to participate in such activities. Moreover, participation in the training programmes has brought the group members as well as their men in close cooperation and they have realized that development can be achieved only through the joint efforts but not acting individually.

The major outcome of the trainings has been the start of monthly group savings and lending to the members. The groups independently decided the amount to be deposited, interest rate for loans and saving mobilization process. They have been found to be enthusiastic after understanding the importance of group savings. Similarly, changes in their social behaviour were observed in terms

of participation, in decision-making process and project activities. The saving credit activities by the group members has relieved them form being dependent on the local money lenders for loans with exorbitant interest rate that is needed to meet their emergency cash needs.

However, the execution of training programme took long time because it was successively conducted to each group in each VDC. Since the number of trainees in one VDC being about 60 in case of basic training and 120 in case of men-women co-development training, the trainees of basic training were grouped in 2 groups and the trainees for the co-development training were grouped in 3-4 groups. The trainers for the trainings were the same persons in both the cases of trainings conducted by WDO and NGOs. As 2 trainings of 7 days and 3-4 trainings of 3 days required about 23-26 days in one VDC it took about one month to complete the training in one VDC. Accordingly, about 2 months were taken by the WDOs and NGOs to complete the training programme in each district.

2.4.3 Steps/Process for HDP Formulation

(i) Baseline Survey

As required by the project implementation guidelines, the Facilitators (DWDO or partner NGOs) needed to conduct the baseline survey to be appropriately aware of the household state of the group members by collecting their household level baseline data, i.e. household possessions, level of education, employment, income sources, training, participation in community organizations, credit, gender wise household chores etc. The baseline survey was also expected to explore the needs of the family. The format used for the baseline survey is presented in Annex 3.

(ii) Checklist based Interaction

After baseline survey, the facilitators also required to conduct an interaction with the group member with the help of checklist mainly to know the expectations of the group member. The interaction was anticipated to acquire subjective information for exploratory analysis. The format used for this interaction is presented in Annex 4.

(iii) Observation

The facilitators also needed to observe the households to verify the information received through the baseline survey or interaction. The observation was to be done either during the time of baseline survey or interaction or separately after conducting the survey and interaction.

(iv) The Problem Tree

The facilitators also needed to help the households to prepare the problem tree with an aim to present the status of the household development. The problem tree of each household was to be prepared to portray the present core problems facing the households of the group member along with its causes and effects. Having discovered the core problem, its causes and effects; an alternative that could possibly be most effective in solving the problem in the given scenario was also to be indicated in the problem tree. An example of the problem tree depicted in the HDP Preparation and Grant Mobilization Guidelines is presented in Annex 5 (A, B and C).

(v) Preparation of the HDP

The HDPs were needed to prepare with the support from the facilitators who had to patiently involve the group members in preparing their HDP. As The HDP was not an individual plan of a group member rather it was a plan of whole family, the facilitators needed to encourage the group members to consult with all family members during HDP preparation. This consultation was emphasized to avoid the disowning of HDP as well as indifference of family members to implement it.

The contents of HDP included the group members’ vision regarding her would-be household situation after 4 years with support and the assurance of efforts to realize them; the sequence of activities; and the amount of money needed for each activity to be executed in the first year. The facilitator needed to make the households clear that the proposed budget must not exceed the specified limit (i.e. basic needs, opportunity cost and livelihood promotion); budget was available for only one year; and the group members needed to carry on the tasks until the vision is realized by mobilizing the received grant. Three copies of the HDP were prepared for the completion of the process. The prescribed format of HDP is presented in Annex 6.

Action Learning

With the above lengthy and time taking processes requiring large extent academic exercises, the WDOs/NGOs had tried to collect and verify as much information as possible of the selected household. However, it seems that the Project authorities had not been able to consider the quality of target groups in terms of their literacy status, limited number of manpower involved in collecting data and information along with their competence in such works, remoteness of the area, and the time constraint associated with the project implementation. Because, the successive steps to be followed for the collection of data and information and formats used for this purpose needed literate respondents, ample number of qualified surveyors and sufficient time, if the collection of data and information were to be meaningful.

The main point to be noted is that there were too many fields of most of the information sought in the baseline survey which were complex to understand and thereby response. Moreover, most of the information sought in the baseline survey was again repeated in the checklist-based interaction. This had unnecessarily elongated the time of data and information collection and had also created confusion and impatience among the target groups. The analysis of the baseline data shows neither consistency nor dependability in the responses. Different responses were received for the same question in the baseline survey and checklist based interaction. It seems that the inquirers did not make any effort to verify the responses. This was mainly due to the lack of time and lack of competency of the inquirers. It is also to be mentioned here that a different baseline survey format had been used in Mahottari with new fields of inquiry, resulting in the difficulty in analyzing the baseline information and comparing with the information received from other districts.

Similarly, the concept of the problem tree and its preparation was very complicated and difficult to understand even to the educated people, let alone the illiterate and dejected ultra poor women. Furthermore, the preparation of HDP with all those four years’ vision and preparatory works had also been tough task on the part of the selected households mainly due to their lack of

comprehension. In Jumla, it took almost 2 days to prepare one HDP. It was because the targeted HHs being illiterate could not understand the questions and/or language of the questionnaire. Both WDO and NGO had opined that preparation of the HDP was very difficult and time consuming. On the whole, the steps to be followed for the preparation of the HDP and the paper works required to be accomplished had been very difficult exercise both on the part of the respondents and inquirers. Accordingly, in most cases these requirements had been fulfilled but only as a formality. Finally, in all the districts, NGOs and WDOs think that the Nepali language used in the Household Development Plan Preparation and Grant Mobilization Guideline was difficult to understand and hence sometime created misunderstanding.

As a matter of fact, the process could have been made short by avoiding some steps. For example, the HDP could have been prepared immediately after the completion of baseline survey by avoiding the checklist based interaction, observation and preparation of problem tree. The baseline survey is a must for gathering the pre-project household level basic data for comparing them with the post-project household status to determine the effects and outcomes of the Project. Accordingly, instead of taking time to follow various steps, more time should have been devoted for the baseline survey to make the data and information more consistent and dependable. A revised baseline survey format with some modifications is presented in Annex 7. The preparation of HDP also could have been done in simple manner by avoiding the four years’ vision and preparatory works. Because, it is difficult to understand the logic behind involving the households in these exercises as the Project was for only one year. There is no any mechanism mentioned in the Project document to follow-up whether the households have been complying with what they have said in the four years’ vision after the termination of the Project.

2.4.4 Steps/Process for HDP Approval

According to the prescribed guidelines, the process of HDP approval started from the recommendation of the HDP of each group member by the facilitator prior to submitting to the group. The group, after receiving the HDPs, needed to consider them in the meeting. The Chairperson, on behalf of the group, then required to send it to the Committee along with her recommendation.

The Committee, which was vested with the authority of approving the HDP, required discussing the submitted HDPs in the presence of the Advisory Committee. The Committee then had to approved the HDP and send one copy of it to the WDO for concurrence by retaining 2 copies by itself.

The WDO, after verification, had to present them to the District Project Steering Committee (DPSC) for the final approval. The DPSC was composed of the Local Development Officer as the Coordinator; District Agriculture Development Officer, District Veterinary Officer and District Forest Officer as members; and DWDO as the member-secretary. If the DPSC found anything containing contrary to the Project document and/or guidelines in any HDP, it needed to return such HDPs to the Committees for revision. After revision, the HDPs were needed to be resubmitted to the WDO for concurrence and approval of the DPSC. Once approved, the Committee was then to be informed about it. One copy of the approved HDP was needed to give to the concerned group member by retaining one copy at the Committee.

If any activity or the budget amount of the approved HDP of any group member needed to be changed due to some valid reasons, the group members were needed to submit an application to the Committee with the recommendation of the facilitator through the group. Such application(s) required to be discussed in the group meeting and as decided by the meeting, were to be forwarded to the Committee with the recommendation. The Committee needed to consider such application(s) by inviting the Convener and other members of the Advisory Committee and send it to the WDO for its consent. Before granting its consent, the WDO should had submitted the revised HDP to the DPSC, and based on the decision of the DPSC, needed to give its concurrence to the Committee to approve the revised HDP.

Action Learning

Similar to the process/steps for HDP formulation, the HDP approval process was also very much complex and time taking. The main problem to follow the prescribed processes was the organization of meetings of groups, committees and DPSC for the discussion and approval of the HDP. The difficulty for conducting the meetings had been faced mainly due to the absence of the members. Although the group members being the beneficiaries of the grant, did attend the meetings; it was not so easy to assemble the Committee members and members of the Advisory Committees and more difficult to bring together the members of the DPSC. The Advisory Committee members, not being the recipient of the Project benefits, were somewhat indifferent towards attending the meetings. DPSC members, being the government officials of the district level government line agencies had been either very much busy with their own official works, or in attending meetings inside or out of station, or participating in programmes, trainings and seminars, or on leave. Accordingly, the DPSC meetings in the districts had seldom been organized. This suggests that if the process prescribed by the guidelines were to be followed, it obviously would take a long time for the approval of HDPs.

2.4.5 Steps/Process for Fund Release

The group members were needed to request for receiving grants for basic needs (Rs. 6,180) and livelihood promotion (Rs. 12,360) but no such request was required in case of the opportunity cost (Rs. 6,180). The groups could normally make request in four instalments as depicted in Table 7.

Table 7: Fund Release Modality Instalments Time Percent Amount Form of grant First After approval of HDP 50% of basic Rs. 3,090 In cash or kind but needs usually in kind Second After the submission of report on 50% of basic Rs. 3,090 In cash or kind but resource utilization and needs usually in cash compliance with conditions of the first instalment. Third After the submission of report on 50% of Rs. 6,180 In cash or in kind but resource utilization and livelihood usually in kind compliance with conditions of the promotion second instalment. Fourth After the submission of report on 50% of Rs. 6,180 In cash or kind but resource utilization and livelihood usually in cash compliance with conditions of the promotion third instalment. Source: Household Development Plan Preparation and Grant Mobilization Guidelines, DWD.

Nevertheless, if any business could not be started for livelihood promotion without a given sum of money which comes to be in excess of the first instalment of the of the livelihood promotion component, the group member could also make request for the total of the third and fourth instalments. But, the first and second instalments of the basic needs component could not be requested together.

In order to receive the grant, the group was required to make request at the Committee through the group by filling out the form as shown in Annex 8 in triplicate with the recommendation of the facilitator. While requesting the budget, the report on resource utilization and compliance with conditions was also needed to attach to each of the budget request forms. Prior to recommending the budget request, the facilitator particularly required taking into account the following aspects:

• whether the activity for which budget was requested was in accordance to the approved HDP; • whether the requested budget, including the amount released earlier, was within the limit of the components proposed in the approved HDP; and • whether the group member had completed the preparatory work, utilized the resources received earlier and complied with the conditions as specified in the approved HDP.

Not only the facilitator, but the group also were required to consider the above aspects every time while recommending the budget request form of the members. Based on the group decision, the group Chairperson along with her recommendation was required to forward the budget request form to the Committee. The Committee, after deliberations on the forms in the presence of Convener and the members of the Advisory Committee, required approving the budget request with or without revision or may refuse to approve.

Finally, a list of all budget request forms approved by the Committee needed to be prepared as depicted in Annex 9, certified by the Committee Chairperson as well as the facilitator, and forwarded to the DWDO for releasing the funds by keeping in a file copy of all such budget request forms (along with the report on resource utilization and compliance with conditions).

Even though the amount for opportunity cost (community participation and capacity development) needed not to be stated in the budget request form of the group member, the Committee needed to include that amount as well while requesting the funds at the DWDO. For this, the estimated amount of the opportunity cost for the coming two months was needed to be calculated in view of the planned village level training events as well as meetings, and added to the details of the requested amount.

The DWDO, after receiving the budget request forms, needed to scrutinize them along with the resource utilization and compliance report of each of the group member. Sample-based field verification was also needed to confirm the request. The scrutiny result and verification report as well as the state of the funds were needed to present to the DPSC for its approval.

Finally the grant amount both “in cash” and “in kind” had to be added up and the total amount had to be transferred to the Bank account of the Committee. The approved HDG, whether in cash or

kind, was required to be transferred to the group member on signing a receipt with the signature of two witnesses, either Chairperson or a member of any group, if not of the same group; and the husband or any other member of the group member’s family.

The cash or kind transfer needed to be made transparent by arranging a function at the community level by inviting local people’s representatives, social workers, and other sympathizers as well as the Convener and the members of the Advisory Committee.

Action Learning

As in the previous cases of HDP preparation and approval, the fund release process was another complicated and time taking exercise. The process starting from the preparation of budget request forms of each group member to their approval by the DPSC was similar to the approval of the HDP and was characterized with the same problems of conducting meetings in each successive step.

To conclude, the above account of the processes starting from the formation of groups to the release of fund need to pursue the following 28 steps:

1. Group formation 2. Committee formation 3. Executive committee formation 4. Advisory committee formation 5. Basic training 6. Men women co-development training 7. Baseline survey 8. Checklist based interaction 9. Observation 10. Preparation of the problem tree 11. Preparation of the HDP 12. Group meeting for reviewing the HDPs 13. Submission of HDPs to the Committee 14. Deliberations on the HDPs in the Committee and approval of HDPs 15. Submission of the HDPs by the Committee to the DWDO 16. Verification of the HDPs by the DWDO 17. Submission of the HDPs to the DPSC by the DWDO 18. Meeting of the DPSC for approval of the HDPs (if the HDP needs any revision, the steps from the group meeting needs again to be repeated) 19. Filling of budget request form by the group members 20. Group meeting for reviewing the budget request forms 21. Submission of the budget request forms to the Committee 22. Committee meeting for approval or refuse of the budget request forms 23. Submission of the approved budget request forms to the DWDO 24. Scrutiny and sample-based verification of the budget request by the DWDO 25. Submission of the scrutiny result and verification report to the DPSC 26. Approval of the budget request by the DPSC

27. Transfer of grant to the Committee bank account 28. Transfer of grant to the group member

Thus, since a long list of formalities/steps needed to be completed for the formulation of HDP and its implementation, it had been quite difficult to exactly follow these steps if the Project activities were to be completed within the stipulated period of one year. Furthermore, due to the highest percentage of illiteracy prevailing among this segment of the households, it had been difficult for them to comprehend all these prescribed processes.

2.4.6 Distribution of HDG

(i) Basic Needs

The grant allocated for basic needs (Rs. 6,180) had been disbursed to the group members in all four districts. The grant was distributed both in terms of cash and kind in Jumla, Bajahng and Rautahat. In Jumla and Rautahat, major portion of the grant was distributed in-kind. In Bajhang, the first instalment of the grant was distributed in cash. But due to the use of grant for some other purposes rather than for requested ones by some of the beneficiaries and failing to control them by the group/inter-group committees, the second instalment was distributed all in-kind. The in-kind grant included such household items as house repair, food grains, kitchen utensils, cloths for adults, school dress, copies and pens for children, blanket, beds, cot, mosquito net etc.

So as to maintain the transparency in purchasing the items demanded by the beneficiaries, different approaches were applied in different districts and within the same district. In Jumla, Procurement Committees involving the beneficiaries’ representatives were formed in the VDCs operated by the WDO and the items were purchased in their presence. The purchased items were distributed to the beneficiaries in the premises of WDO. Even though the items were purchased in the presence of the Procurement Committee, some of the beneficiaries later strongly complained that the quality and quantity of the items were much lower than what was shown to them earlier. The beneficiaries suspected that some fraudulent practices might have been occurred during the procurement. But such allegations were unacceptable to the WDO and its officials involved in procurement. To avoid such controversy, the NGOs in Jumla applied different approach and each individual beneficiary was given opportunity to purchase the items they needed by themselves. As such, there was no complain from the beneficiaries and they were totally satisfied. However, no such complaints were made in Bajhang and Rautahat.

Contrary to this, in Mahottari, the grant was distributed completely in cash. WDO’s logic/argument regarding this kind of arrangement was that if the grant is distributed in-kind, WDO, Partner NGO and the Committee members would be suspected and blamed by the beneficiary households for misappropriation of the grant amount. For that matter, procurement Committee was not formed in any VDC of Mahottari district.

It was reported from all the districts that most of the beneficiaries have presented the report complying with the conditions that the children of primary school going age of member households be enrolled in the schools and under-five children be immunized as prescribed for their age. In Rautahat and Mahottari, WDO and partner NGOs had also made inspections to the member households of their respective VDCs to get conformed about fulfilment of conditions and use of

the grant for the planned purposes. It was reported that the WDO in Mahottari was strict on the proper use of the grant. Accordingly, more emphasis was given in spot inspection of the commodities purchased from the grant rather than trusting merely on purchase bills and receipts. But no such inspections were done in Jumla and Bajhang, and the authenticity of the condition compliance report was not verified. However, it was stated that the beneficiaries in all the districts used the grant for most urgent basic needs as stated in their HDPs.

Action Learning

The basic need grant has become very much supportive to the beneficiaries as it has relieved some of their financial burden to meet the urgent household expenses. The school going children have been provided with the necessary books, copies and pencils along with the school dress. It has encouraged the parents to enrol their children in the schools along with being more caring also about their own and their children’s health and hygiene. It was also found that some members did group farming in leased land out of their grant amount of basic needs in Mahottari (Simardahi and Hariharpur Harinmadi VDCs).

Regarding the modality of providing the grant both in-cash and in-kind, it seems that the grant in- cash is more appropriate compared to the grant in-kind in view of the possibility of discontent of the beneficiaries regarding the quality and quantity of the goods and also to spare the DWDOs from being blamed for misappropriation of fund.

(ii) Opportunity Cost

As in the case of basic needs, the grant amount (Rs. 6,180) allocated for opportunity cost has also been distributed to the beneficiaries. This grant was provided to the group members for participating in trainings and community meetings. In Jumla, Bajhang, and Mahottari where the stipulated training programmes could not be implemented mainly due to the late disbursement of fund from the DWD by the DWDOs, the surplus amount of the grant was also distributed to the group members for attending the group/committee meetings which in fact was contrary to the project implementation guidelines. However, in Mahottari, the group members have been paid only in case of their attendance for longer hours in group/committee/executive committee meetings and the payment for opportunity cost was made equivalent to daily wages of agricultural labour. In Rautahat, each member has been paid NRs 5,780 for participating in training and different meetings during the project period. The remaining amount was spent for purchasing essential stationary, furniture, box etc required for group/ committee meeting and keeping the records and documents safely.

Prior to the implementation of the Project, as majority of the group members were being involved in one or other local level community groups such as forest user groups, water user groups and the like, majority of them complied with the condition to be the member of such group.

Action Learning

An encouraging change has been occurred in the social life of the beneficiaries as they have become more exposed and expressive due to the opportunity of participating in training

programmes and meetings. Their self-confidence has been built-up and they have become encouraged to participate in the local level development activities.

In all the districts, the group meetings have been regular once in a month and all group members were taking part in the group meetings except in the case of other urgency. They also organized meetings as and when needed particularly to make decision for grant demand and distribution and reviewing the use of grants by each member. Not only in the group/committee meetings, the group members were actively participating in the meetings and activities of such other community level groups as community forest user group, saving credit group etc. The group members in Jumla (Kartikswami and Talium VDCs) have also purchased share of the Women Saving and Credit Cooperative from the amount of Opportunity Cost as a result of their enhanced awareness that benefits could be accrued through investment.

The gender equality training has been instrumental in developing the awareness among males of the group members regarding their responsibility about household chores. The traditional feeling that only the women are liable to look after all the household works has been changed. Consequently, males of the member HHs have also been equally participating in the household chores with the recognition that the household chores are the responsibility of both. Moreover, the training programmes and the group/committee and other meetings have been helpful to develop the feeling of co-existence and cooperation among the group members along with the sense that success can be achieved through mutual efforts.

(iii) Livelihood Promotion

In all districts, the grant amount (Rs. 12,360) allocated for livelihood promotion has also been distributed to the group members. This amount was distributed to the members to undertake the enterprise stated in their approved HDP. In Jumla and Bajhang the grant was distributed in kind and in single instalment whereas in Rautahat the allocated grant has been disbursed generally in two instalments. Before disbursing the first instalment of the grant under this head, WDO and partner NGOs made spot visit to check whether all the beneficiaries have properly used both the instalments of the basic needs for their planned activities or not. Similarly, the second instalment was disbursed after making conformation of use of the first instalment in the planned economic activity. The group/committee members were also vigilant on how the first instalment of the grant was being used by other members. If any of the beneficiaries was found using the first instalment of the grant for other purposes, other group members build pressure on her in order to compel her for using the grant in approved enterprise. The grant was also disbursed in single instalment to those members who had to undertake the enterprise for which dividing the grant into two instalments was not practicable. In general, the major portion of the grant was disbursed in kind. However, if the activity demanded, a small amount had also been given in cash.

In Mahottari, contrary to the above districts, the entire grant was distributed in cash as in the case of basic needs with the same logic of avoiding oneself from being blamed for misappropriation of grant. The grant to the group members was distributed in the presence of Advisory Committee and Group/Committee members and WDO representative. Grant was not distributed to all the group members at a time. The group members were divided in two groups, and at first the grant was made available to only the first group. The second group received the grant only after submission of grant utilization report from the first group. If any member of the first group was found not

properly using the grant amount, grant distribution to the second group was withheld. By this arrangement inter and intra-group pressure was built up for meaningful use of the grant. WDO in the district was more vigilant and gave more emphasis in spot inspection of the materials/livestock purchased by the grants rather than trusting merely on purchase bills and receipts of cattle, buffalo, goat, shop, marketing activities etc. WDO reported that in many cases, the grant amount given to the members to purchase buffalo/cow or establish retail shop was not adequate and so they also invested additional amount in the enterprise from their own sources.

Action Learning

In all the districts, except in Mahottari, the livelihood promotion grant was distributed in terms of in-kind grant. Since the amount of the grant was considerable to start a business in the local settings, the beneficiaries were very much hopeful that the grant will be much helpful for their economic development through providing opportunity of income generation and self-employment. They were very encouraged to start their enterprises.

However, an important point to note here is that there was some lacking in orienting the beneficiaries to select appropriate enterprise. Because in the absence of knowledge about the enterprise, the beneficiaries were found confused and frequently changing their mind from one enterprise to another. Moreover, as seen from the HDPs of the beneficiaries, a large number of them have opted for livestock keeping (goat, buffalo, cow etc) which is a very risky venture if adopted without proper training on management, feeding, breeding and veterinary health care. The level of beneficiaries being very poor in terms of knowledge on livestock keeping, some support programmes on livestock keeping should also have been arranged for them in cooperation with the district livestock service office. Similarly, arrangement for animal insurance should also have been made for compensating the loss of beneficiaries in case of the death of animal.

Another point to note here is that the goats, which were in high demand, were not available in Daulichaur VDC of Bajhang and Kalikakhetu and Badki VDCs of Jumla, and the goats were to be purchased from other VDCs in case of Daulichaur and from other district (neighbouring Kalikot district) in case of Kalikakhetu and Badki. For this, extra cost was needed for food, lodging and travelling of the persons involved in purchasing the goat. Moreover, costs of food and shelter for the goats were also needed as the goats were to be brought from the walking distance of 2-3 days. These extra costs were, however, managed by deducting from the grant amount of the beneficiaries with their consensus. Accordingly, arrangement for some extra amount should also have been made to cover such unforeseen costs.

As the grant for livelihood promotion was distributed in the phasing out stage of the Project, its effects and impacts on the beneficiaries could not be assessed. Although such assessment is quite essential for analysing the positive changes among the beneficiaries by comparing with the baseline data, it could not be possible mainly due to the short project duration.

3. Action Learning on Capacity of the Implementing Agencies

3.1 DWDOs

3.1.1 Jumla

In Jumla, DWDO was located at the district headquarters Jumla Khalanga. The office was in a rented building and had one telephone and one computer, both working in good condition. The office lacked fax and photocopy machines. Although the district is recently opened for the vehicular transport, vehicular movement in the large parts of the district headquarters is restricted due to the lack of roads. Hence, there are no vehicles in the WDO.

In total, DWDO Jumla had 11 staff positions. Table 8 presents the staff situation in DWDO including with gender, ethnicity, and academic qualification and services period.

Table 8: Staff Situation in DWDO, Jumla Number of the Post Total Academic S. No. Name of the Post Gender Ethnicity Service Qualification Total Filled Vacant Period

1. WDO 1 1 - Female Brahmin Masters NM

2. Supervisor 1 1 - Female Brahmin Intermediate 3 months

Assistant 3. 1 1 - Male Brahmin SLC 22 Years Accountant

Chief Female Janajati-1 1- 12 Years 4. 2 2 - Female SLC Workers Brahmin-1 1- 3 months Chhetri –1 10 class 1-30 years 5. Female Workers 3 2 1 Female Dalit – 1 2-30 years

Junior Assistant 5. (Mukhiya) 1 1 - Chhetri - 1 10 class 15 years

6. Peon 2 2 - NM NM NM NM

Total 11 10 1 Source: DWDO, Jumla. Note: NM: Not Mentioned.

3.1.2 Bajhang

In Bajahang DWDO was located at the district headquarters Chainpur. The office was in the rented building and was equipped with one line of telephone one computer and printer, and one photocopy machine. All these equipments were well maintained and were in good working condition. However, the electricity being very irregular operation of computer, printer and photocopy was often disturbed. Provision of an electricity generating set is considered to be very helpful to perform the daily operations. Similarly, a fax machine is also felt necessary for quick communication.

Like Jumla district headquarters, although Chianpur is also connected by road transport, vehicular movement is restricted in the large parts of the district in the absence of road facility. Hence, there are no vehicles in the DWDO.

In total, the DWDO Bajhang had 10 staff. Table 9 shows the staff situation position in WDO including gender, ethnicity, academic qualification and service period.

Table 9: Staff Situation in DWDO, Bajhang Number of the Post Total Name of the Academic S. No. Gender Ethnicity Service Post Total Filled Vacant Qualification Period 1. WDO 1 1 - Female Chhetri Masters 18 Years 2. Supervisor 1 1 - Female Chhetri Bachelor 1 Year 3. Assistant 1 1 - Male Chhetri SLC 2 Years Accountant 4. Chief 2 2 - Female Janajati-1 Intermediate 1 Year Female Brahmin-1 Workers 5. Female 3 3 - Female Chhetri -2 SLC-2 1-24 years Workers Janajati - 1 10 Class -1 2-1 year 6. Peon 2 2 - Female-1 Chhetri -1 8 Class- 1 1-7 years Male -1 Brahmin-1 5 Class- 1 1- 1 year Total 10 10 - Source: DWDO Bajhang.

3.1.3 Rautahat

In Rautahat, DWDO was located at the district headquarters Gaur. The office wass in a rented building and was equipped with one line of telephone, one computer and printer, and one fax machine. As a means of transport, there was one motorcycle. All these equipments and vehicle were well maintained and were in good working condition. Provision of a photocopy machine is considered to be very helpful to perform the daily operations. Rautahat district, being located in the plain Terai part of the country, has transportation network within the district. As such, one motorcycle was made available to the DWDO for field operations.

In total, the DWDO Rautahat had 16 staff positions. Table 10 shows the staff situation in DWDO including gender, ethnicity, academic qualification and service period.

Table 10: Staff Situation in WDO, Rautahat

Number of the Post Name of the Academic Total Service S. No. Gender Ethnicity Post Total Filled Vacant Qualification Period 1. WDO 1 1 - Female Brahmin Bachelor 22 Years 2. Assistant 1 1 - Male Brahmin SLC 22 Years Accountant 3. Assistant 1 1 - Male Janajati NM (Kharidar) 4. Computer 1 1 - Male Janajati SLC NM Operator

5. Chief Female 3 3 - Female Janajati-2 SLC 15 Years Workers Brahmin-1 6. Female 6 6 - Female Brahmin- 2 SLC-3 2-20 years Workers Chhetri -1 10 class-3 2-10 years Janajati - 3 1-7 years 1-5 months 7. Peon 3 3 - Female-1 Brahmin-1 1-20 years Male -2 Janajati- 2 NM 1-5 months 1-NM Total 16 16 - Source: DWDO Rautahat

3.1.4 Mahottari

In Mahottari, DWDO was located at the district headquarters Jaleshwore. The office was in a rented building and was equipped with one line of telephone and one fax machine. Provision of a computer with printer and photocopy machine is considered to be very helpful to perform the daily operations. Like Rautahat district, Mahottari also being located in the plain Terai part of the country, has transportation network within the district. But, there was no any vehicle with the WDO. One motorcycle is felt essential for easy field operations.

In total, the DWDO Mahottari had 6 staff positions. Table 11 shows the staff situation DWDO including gender, ethnicity, academic qualification and service period.

Table 11: Staff Situation in WDO, Mahottari Number of the Post Total Academic S. No. Name of the Post Gender Ethnicity Service Total Filled Vacant Qualification Period 1. WDO 1 1 - Female Brahmin Bachelor 15 Years 2. Assistant Accountant 1 1 - Male Brahmin NM NM 3. Chief Female Workers 1- 15 Years - Female Brahmin SLC 2 2 1- 10 years 4. Peon 2 2 - Male -2 Brahmin NM 20 years Total 6 6 - Source: DWDO Mahottari

Action Learning

The above account shows that the WDOs in all the districts were not uniform in terms of both the physical facilities and human resources. Jumla, Bajahng and Mahottari districts had less human resources than in Rautahat.

Jumla and Bajhang, being remote mountain districts, have very difficult working conditions. Some of the selected VDCs in the districts were very far from the district headquarter and needed 2-3 days of walk to be reached. Thus, the then provision of human resources, particularly field level staff, in these districts was insufficient. Similar is the case with Mahottari where there was only 2 field staff (Chief Women Workers) for field operations whereas in Rautahat there were 9 field staff (3 Chief Women Workers and 6 Women Workers) for the same purpose. Accordingly, provision of appropriate number of human resources and required physical facilities based on the district conditions would have been very much helpful for the smooth operation of the Project activities.

3.2 The NGOs

3.2.1 Jumla

(i) Manaviya Sanskriti Vikas Manch (Humanitarian Cultural Development Forum)

The NGO was established in February 2003. It was registered in the District Administration Office (DAO) of Jumla and was also affiliated with the Social Welfare Council (SWC) and NGO Federation. It was located Khalanga Bazaar of Chandan Nath VDC of Jumla, where the district headquarters is also located.

The NGO had a computer with e-mail facility. Other office equipments such as telephone, photocopy, fax etc. were not available with the NGO. However, the persons involved in the NGO had private telephones both landline and mobile.

The NGO had a 7-memeber Executive Committee and 5-member Advisory Committee. Moreover, it also had 5 village level committees.

The NGO had 3 regular staff (Table 12), 10 volunteers and 14 resource persons. The resource persons are from diverse fields that includes legal, symbolic language, human rights, gender, health, environment, and micro enterprise development..

Table 12: Staff Situation of Manaviya Sanskriti Vikas Manch S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Academic Qualification Experience 1. Project Coordinator Male Brahmin M. Sc. 2 years 2. Office Assistant Male Brahmin Literate 4 years 3. Social Mobilizer Male Brahmin S.L.C 2 Years Source: Manaviya Sanskriti Vikas Manch

(ii) Dalit Sewa Sangh (Dalit Welfare Organization)

This organization was established in September 1994. It was registered in the District Administration Office (DAO) in Kathmandu and was permitted to operate in Jumla by the DAO of Jumla in May 2001. It was also affiliated with the SWC. The organization was located at Vijayanagar of Mahat VDC.

The NGO had a telephone and a computer. Other office equipment such as photocopy and fax were not available with the NGO.

Its organization was comprised of 9-member Executive Committee – all Dalits and a working force of 16 persons that also comprised some of the Executive Committee Members (Table 13).

Table 13: Staff Situation of Dalit Sewa Sangh S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Academic Qualification Experience 1. Exe. Committee Member Male Dali B.A. 5 years 2. Exe. Com Member Male Chhetri M. Ed. 2 years 3. Resource Person Male Dalit B Ed 5 years 4. Resource Person Male Dalit M. Ed. 5 Years 5. Resource Person Male Dalit I. Com. 4 Years

6. Senior Social Mobilizer Male Dalit S.L.C. 4 Years 7. Social Mobilizer Male Dalit S.L.C. 2 Years 8. Social Mobilizer Female Dalit S.L.C. 6 months 9. Social Mobilizer Male Dalit S.L.C. 3 Years 10. Social Mobilizer Male Dalit S.L.C. 8 Years 11. Office Assistant Male Dalit 10 Class Pass 3 Years 12. Presenter Male Dalit I. A. 7 Years 13. Presenter Male Dalit S.L.C. 2 Years 14. Social Mobilizer Female Dalit S.L.C. 3 Years 15. Social Mobilizer Male Dalit S.L.C. 6 months 16. Social Mobilizer Female Chhetri S.L.C. 6 months Source: Dalit Sewa Sangh

3.2.2 Bajhang

(i) Samajik Tatha Prabidhik Sewa Samaj (Social and Technical Service Society)

This NGO was registered in the District Administration Office (DAO) of Bajhang and was also affiliated to the SWC. It was located at Chainpur, the district headquarter.The organization was well equipped with the modern office equipments. It possessed a computer with printer, photocopier, fax, and digital camera. A telephone line was also available with the NGO. As the NGO has been working quite from some time and was implementing 5 other programmes with the support from different donors, it was financially strong and had no problem of fund.

Its Executive Committee compriseed 12 members including a Chairperson, a Co-chairperson, a Secretary, a Treasurer and 8 members (Table 14). The Executive Committee members were mostly involved in the project activities. Nevertheless, Ms. Ganga Rokaya, a social mobilizer/local staff, was given responsibility of the TA Project.

Table 14: Executive Committee of Samajik tatha Prabidhik Sewa Samaj Academic S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Experience Qualification 1. Chairperson Male Chhetri I. A. 12 Years 2. Co-chairperson Male Chhetri B. L. 6 Years 3. Secretary Male Brahmin B.A. 5 Years 4. Treasurer Male Chhetri S.L.C. 9 Years 5. Member Male Chhetri S.L.C. 9 Years 6. Member Male Chhetri S.L.C. 8 Years 7. Member Male Chhetri S.L.C. 8 Years 8. Member Male Chhetri B.E 9 Years 9. Member Male Chhetri B.A. 6 Years 10. Member Male Dalit S.L.C. 20 Years 11. Member Female Chhetri S.L.C. 2 Years 12. Member Female Chhetri S.L.C. 1 Year Source: Samajik tatha Prabidhik Sewa Samaj

(ii) Dahabagar Yuva Samaj (Dahabagar Youth Society)

This was a village-based NGO located at Dahabagar VDC, one of the remotest VDCs of the district that requires 2-3 days walk from the district headquarters, Chainpur. Since the NGO was VDC-based, it was not equipped with equipments like computers, fax, photocopier etc. However, it possessed necessary furniture in its office. Mostly communication between the NGO and WDO at the district headquarters was maintained only through hand carrying/courier. Yet, telephonic contact with the WDO was also sometimes made through CDMA phone available in the VDC.

Besides the TA Project, the NGO was also implementing two other projects funded by donor agencies. Even so, these programmes being of small scale and the NGO being a village level organisation, its financial strength was relatively weak.

The NGO had 7-member Executive Committee that included a Chairperson, a Co- chairperson, a Secretary, a Treasurer and 3 members. Mr. Dil Bahadur Dhami, an executive Committee member was working as full time staff of the NGO. However, other members were also involved as and when necessary (Table 15).

Table 15: Executive Committee of Dahabagar Yuva Samaj S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Academic Qualification Experience 1. Chairperson Male Chhetri B. A. 12 Years 2. Co-chairperson Male Chhetri Literate 6 Years 3. Secretary Male Brahmin S.L.C. 5 Years 4. Treasurer Male Chhetri B.A. 9 Years 5. Member Male Chhetri Test Pass 9 Years 6. Member Male Chhetri Literate 8 Years 7. Member Male Chhetri Test Pass 8 Years Source: Dahabagar Yuva Samaj

3.2.3 Rautahat

(i) Gramin Yuva Samaj Sewa Sangh Nepal (Rural Youth Society Service Forum Nepal)

This NGO was located at Gaur Municipality of the district. It had also a field office at Debahi VDC, which is about 30 km northwest of Gaur. This NGO was registered at the District Administration Office (DAO) of Rautahat and was also affiliated with the SWC. The NGO had a well-furnished office. It possessed a telephone line, a computer, a fax machine, and a photocopier.

During the TA Project period, the NGO was also implementing some other programmes with funding support from DFID supported Agriculture Perspective Plan Support Programme (APPSP) and World Education (WE). Accordingly, its financial situation was not bad.

The NGO had a 9-member Executive Committee that was composed of a Chairperson, a Vice- Chairperson, a Secretary, a Joint Secretary, a Treasurer and 4 members (Table 16). The Chairperson was a bachelor degree holder with 6 years of working experience. All the Executive Committee members are involved in the project activities, as required. However, one of the

Executive Committee members named Mr. Subadar Prasad Yadav was specifically assigned to execute the activities of the TA Project.

Table 16: Executive Committee of Gramin Yuva Samaj Sewa Sangh Nepal Academic S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Qualification Experience 1. Chairperson Male Janajati B.A. 6 Years 2. Vice-Chairperson Female Janajati I. Sc. 7 Years 3. Secretary Male Janajati I. Sc. 3 Years 4. Treasurer Female Janajati S.L.C. 4 Years 5. Joint Secretary Male Dalit I.A. 5 Years 6. Member Male Dalit S.L.C. 2 Years 7. Member Male Dalit S.L.C. 1 Years 8. Member Male Janajati I.A. 3 Years 9. Member Female Brahmin I. Ed. 1 Year Source: Gramin Yuva Samaj Sewa Sangh Nepal

(ii) Mahila Krishi Tatha Bal Bikas Kendra (Women Agriculture and Child Development Center)

This NGO was located at district headquarters, Gaur municipality. It was registered in the District Administration Office (DAO) of Rautahat and was also affiliated with the SWC.

The NGO was operating in a rented building. Its physical facilities included telephone, computer, fax and photocopier. Besides, it had a motorcycle (belonging to the Chairperson but mostly used for the NGO activities) and 2 bi-cycles.

At the time of TA Project, it was also implementing some other programmes from the funding support of APPSP and District Development Committee. Financially, the NGO was operating at break-even level.

The NGO had a 9-member Executive Committee including a Chairperson, a Secretary and a Treasurer. Mostly, the executive members were involved in implementing the project activities. The Chairperson Mr. Ashok Kushbaha himself had taken the responsibility of executing the activities of the TA Project. Besides, 2 full-time female staffs had also been recruited for carrying out the project activities. The composition of Executive Committee of the NGO is depicted in Table 17.

Table 17: Executive Committee of Mahila Krishi Tatha Bal Bikas Kendra Academic S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Qualification Experience 1. Chairperson Male Janajati I.A. 4 Years 2. Secretary Male Dalit M.Ed. NM 3. Treasurer Male Janajati I. Sc. NM 4. Member Male Janajati I.L. NM 5. Member Male Chhetri B. Ed. NM 6. Member Male Chhetri I. Ed. NM 7. Member Female Janajati S.L.C. NM 8. Member Female Janajati S.L.C. NM 9. Member Female Dalit S.L.C. NM Source: Mahila Krishi Tatha Bal Bikas Kendra

3.2.4 Mahottari

(i) Ratauli Youth Club

This NGO was located at Ratauli VDC, Ward No. 6 of the district with a contact office in Janakpur Municipality Ward No. 7. It is registered in the District Administration Office (DAO) of Mahottari and is also affiliated with the SWC.

The NGO was very well equipped. It had its own building and its physical facilities included 6 telephones, 5 computers, one each fax and photocopier and 2 printers. Besides, it had 3 motorcycles and 8 bicycles.

During its 15 years of existence, the NGO has implemented various programmes in the past in the areas of health and education mainly with the support from UNICEF. During the TA Project period, the NGO was also involved in various programmes funded by World Education, NEWAH, CECI, PAF, Australian and German Embassies, SNV, Department of Education etc. Accordingly, its financial situation was not unhealthy.

The NGO had a 9-member Executive Committee including one each Chairperson, Vice- Chairperson, General Secretary, Secretary, and Treasurer. Mostly, the executive members were involved in implementing the project activities. Apart from this, the NGO had a pool of 46 well- educated staffs including 21 senior level management staff, 21 field level staff and 4 consultants. In addition, it also had 45 volunteers. Accordingly, it had strong manpower strength. The composition of Executive Committee of the NGO is depicted in Table 18.

Table 18: Executive Committee of Ratauli Youth Club Academic S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Experience Qualification 1. President Male Janajati M.A. NM 2. Vice-President Female M.A. 8 years 3. General Secretary Male B.Com. 8 years 4. Secretary Male Janajati B.B.S. NM 5. Treasurer Male Janajati B.A. 5 years 6. Member Male I. A. 5 years 7. Member Female Janajati General Education NM 8. Member Female Janajati B. Com. NM 9. Member Male General Education NM Source: Ratauli Youth Club

(ii) Mahottari District NGO Coordination Committee

This NGO was located at the district headquarter Jaleswore Municipality. It was registered in the District Administration Office (DAO) of Mahottari. The NGO was also well equipped. It had its own building and its physical facilities include telephone, 3 computers, one printer. Besides, it had 5 motorcycles, a scooter and 15 bicycles.

During its 10 years of existence, the NGO has implemented various programmes in the past in the areas of group development, saving credit mobilization, capacity development, leadership development, income generating trainings, livestock management, off-season vegetables etc. During the TA Project period, the NGO was also involved in various programmes funded by Fund Board, NEWAH, CECI, PAF, Australian and German Embassies, SNV, Department of Education etc. As such, the NGO was also financially sound.

The NGO had an 11-member Executive Committee including one each Chairperson, General Secretary and Treasurer. Mostly, the executive members were involved in implementing the project activities. Apart from this, the NGO had 9 well-educated staff of which 3 were full timers, 2 were part timers and the remaining 4 were the resource persons. In addition, it also had 30 volunteers working at the field level. The staff position in the NGO is shown in Table 19.

Table 19: Staff Position in Mahottari District NGO Coordination Committee Academic S. No. Name of the Position Gender Ethnicity Qualification 1. Programme Coordinator Male Janajati M. B. A. 2. Social Mobilizer Female Brahmin B. Com. 3. Social Mobilizer Male Janajati B. Com. 4. Account Officer Male Janajati M.B.A. 5. Technician Male Janajati B.L 6. Resource person Male Janajati M.B.A. 7. Resource person Male Janajati M.B.A. 8. Resource person Female Janajati B.A. Sociology 9. Resource person Male Janajati I.Sc. Agriculture Source: Mahottari District NGO Coordination Committee

Action Learning

The above account of the NGOs involved illustrates that the higher caste people e.g. Brahmin and Chhetri dominated NGOs in Jumla and Bajahng (except for the Dalit Sewa Sangh in Jumla which is exclusively a Dalit NGO). However, Janajati and Dalits dominated the NGOs in Rautahat and Mahottari. Nevertheless, participation of female in the NGOs was comparatively much less being only 16 women (21 per cent) of the total 74 persons. In general, these district-based NGOs had educated people and were normally experienced in carrying out district level development activities.

However, in case of the TA Project, the NGOs engaged in the project implementation needed to work hard in very remote VDCs and mostly with illiterate community for one year. Considering their efforts and the human resources they had to engage in this task, it is felt that the remuneration of Rs.100, 000 given to them was quite insufficient.

As the Project districts were not similar in terms of the topographical condition and physical facilities (transportation and communication), the uniform amount of Rs. 100,000 to the NGOs operating both in the hill and Terai districts was not justifiable. It is felt that this aspect was overlooked while fixing the remuneration to the NGOs. In fact, the amount to the NGOs in the hills and Terai should have been different based on the estimation of manpower involvement and other expenses they need to incur for implementing the Project activities by considering the topography and the available facilities in the districts.

4. Working Conditions

As it is already known, among the project districts two districts namely Jumla and Bajhang were located in the northern high hills and the remaining two districts namely Rautahat and Mahottari in the southern plane (Terai).

Action Learning

The working condition in the hilly districts i.e., Jumla and Bajhang was difficult mainly due to the location of the project area. Although fair-weather road tracks have been opened to join the district headquarters of both the districts with the national road network, the tracks being recently opened are fragile, susceptible to landslides and inoperative during the rainy season. As such, there was no regular vehicular transportation facility available in these districts. Similarly, even though Jumla has the facility of regular air service, the air service was also occasionally disrupted due to bad weather condition. In Bajhang’s district headquarters although there exists a runway for air travel, there was no regular air service. Accordingly, it was very difficult to easily reach even the district headquarters during the rainy season of about 4 months. Similarly, the electricity and communication facility in these districts was also not reliable.

The selected VDCs being located in the high hill areas could be reached only on foot by covering stiff/steep ups and downs, and crossing rivers and streams through the temporary open plank bridges. In the rainy season, the movement was restricted for weeks as these bridges were swept away by the swollen rivers and streams. Although this problem is common in both the hilly districts, it was comparatively more acute in Bajhang as the project location in this district was situated far away from the district headquarters. Similarly, in the winter season of about 3 to 3.5 months working condition in the project areas of both districts was harsh due to the cold climatic condition. Cold rainfall and snowfall made the working condition extremely difficult.

The selected VDCs of these districts lacked reliable communication facilities. The only reliable means of contact between the district headquarters and project areas was the human runner. As a result of which, there was big problem in terms of communication, information exchange and supervision of project activities and support from the district headquarters in case of emergency.

In the Terai districts i.e., Rautahat and Mahottari, although there is no transportation difficulty, the heavy flood during the rainy season and the on-going political unrest had adversely affected the implementation of project activities. In the past rainy season, many parts of these districts including district headquarters were inundated for days due severe flood caused by the heavy rainfall. Likewise, different violent Madheshi groups opposed to the government were active in both districts. These groups were resorting to different types of violent means, such as sporadic killing, abduction, force donation etc. and particularly fuelling the hatred among the Terai people against the people of hill origin. All these had caused adverse effect on the implementation of the project activities and field visit by the staff coming from hill communities.

5. Action Learning on Record Keeping, Reporting and Monitoring

Record keeping of the carried out activities are extremely important for implementers’ own purposes of reviewing the activities and reporting to the concerned authorities. Good records are required to monitor the progress of the activities and they can show whether the project activities are being carried as expected. Accordingly, all the individual records of each and every member included in the Project activities were needed to keep in order and accessible when required.

Similarly, the activities carried out at the field level needed to be regularly and timely reported to the district level and in the same manner the DWDO was needed to regularly and timely report its activities at the DWD. The timely reporting of activities is a must for taking quick action and effectively carrying out the activities.

Action Learning

Regarding the records of the activities, the HDP Preparation and Grant Mobilization Guidelines did emphasize the record keeping of only the financial transactions but mentioned nothing about the record keeping of other activities. This indicates that only the financial activities were thought important by the Project authorities. Similarly, the Project Guidelines had also failed to mention about the reporting requirements of the Project activities.

May be due to this reason, in all the districts, records keeping and reporting of the projects activities were in poor condition in both the DWDO and NGOs. Record keeping was not systematic. Reporting was neither regular nor timely. Recording and reporting was the weakest part of the Project implementation. Similarly, committee meetings and progress review meetings, and field monitoring of the project activities by the officials of DWD and DWDO had been rare mainly due to the limited number but hectic work schedule of the human resources involved in executing the project activities.

6. Findings of the Baseline Surveys and HDPs

6.1 Findings of the Baseline Surveys

The baseline survey was conducted for acquiring HH baseline data and information. The baseline survey sought information of the HHs in terms of individual information, family population and their education and training, membership with other groups/committees, children and nutrition, economic information including land possession, livestock population, sources of income and debt situation, and gender and social information. The survey was carried out with the help of a survey format (Annex 1) after the groups of the beneficiaries were formed.

It is to be noted here that all of the beneficiaries have not responded all the questions and the findings are based only on the received responses from them. The major findings of the baseline survey are described below.

6.1.1 Ethnicity of the Beneficiaries (Respondents: 993)

The beneficiaries in all the districts were mainly from the minority dalit (untouchable) groups. However, in Jumla and Bajhang, around 24 per cent and 26 per cent beneficiaries, respectively were from higher caste Chhetry group. The dalits in Jumla and Bajhang were comprised of Damai, Sarki, Kami and Nepali ethnic groups whereas in Rautahat, and Mahottari the dalit beneficiaries mainly comprised of Chamar, Dusad, Khatwe, Mushahar, Paswan, Sada and Tatma ethnic groups. Table 20 shows the ethnicity of the beneficiaries.

Table 20: Ethnicity of the Beneficiaries Jumla Bajang Rautahat Mahottari Ethnicity Number % Number % Number % Number % Non-dalit Chherty/Thakuri 61 24.4 66 26.4 1 0.4 - - Dalits Damai 19 7.6 30 12.0 - - - - Kami 78 31.2 61 24.4 - - - - Nepali 16 6.4 ------Sarki 72 28.8 19 7.6 - - - - Chamar - - - - 67 26.8 3 1.2 Dushad - - - - 37 14.8 - - Khatwe ------47 19.3 Mushahar ------50 20.6 Paswan ------48 19.8 Sada ------33 13.6 Tatma - - - - 45 18 16 6.6 Others 4 1.6 74 29.6 100 40 46 18.9 Total 250 100 250 100 250 100 243 100.0 Source: Baseline Survey.

The district population of Jumla and Bajhang is comprised of about 80 per cent of non-dalit population. Accordingly, non-dalits in Jumla and Bajhang were included mainly because of the significant presence of these groups in the selected wards. This also implies that not only the dalits

and other lower caste people, but the higher caste people are also equally poor in these districts. Contrary to this, all of the beneficiaries in Rautahat and Mahottari belonged to the dalit groups as they are comprised of 35-40 per cent of total population of in these districts.

6.1.2 Literacy and Education Status (Respondents: 993)

In terms of literacy, almost all beneficiaries in the hill districts were illiterate with Jumla (98 per cent) and Bajhang (96 per cent). But literacy status of the beneficiaries in the Terai districts was much better with literate beneficiaries of 39 per cent in Rautahat and 33 per cent in Mahottari.

Similarly, none of the beneficiaries in Jumla and Bajhang did receive any category of formal education (primary, secondary and higher secondary). However, 6 per cent and 14 per cent beneficiaries, respectively in Mahottari and Rautahat were primary level graduate, and 2 per cent beneficiaries in Rautahat received secondary level education. Thus more beneficiaries in the Terai districts were literate compared to the hill districts. This is mainly due to the higher awareness level of the people about education, and convenience and accessibility of schools in Terai.

6.1.3 Marital Status (Respondents: 992)

Almost all beneficiaries in Jumla (99 per cent) and Bajhang (97 per cent) were married. Similarly, most of the beneficiaries in Rautahat (86 per cent) and Mahottari (83 per cent) were also married. In total, about 91 per cent beneficiaries were married.

6.1.4 Religion (Respondents: 993)

All the beneficiaries in Jumla and Bajhang belonged to the Hindu religion. Similar was the case with Terai districts, except for one person (0.4 per cent) in Mahottari and 13 people (5.2 per cent) in Rautahat belonging to Muslim religion.

6.1.5 Household Type (Respondents: 993)

In all other districts except in Jumla, 63 per cent, 75 per cent and 71 per cent beneficiaries in Bajhang, Mahottari and Rautahat, respectively lived in the joint family system. In Jumla, only 48 per cent beneficiaries lived in joint family system. In totality, most of the beneficiaries (64 per cent) were living in the joint family system. This implies that nucleus family system is gradually replacing by breaking-up the joint family system even in the rural areas of Nepal.

6.1.6 Training (Respondents: 993)

Among the beneficiaries, 60 per cent of them in Jumla had taken part in some kind of training but majority of the beneficiaries in other districts i.e., 77 per cent in Bhajang and 84 per cent in Rautahat, had not taken any kind of training. Response was not received from about 9 per cent in Bajhang, 16 per cent in Rautahat and 61 per cent in Mahottari. The remaining 39 per cent in Mahottari did not take part in any training.

6.1.7 Membership in Other Groups (Respondents: 993)

Likewise, majority of the beneficiaries (about 74 per cent) in each district were not members in any other local level groups such as forest user groups, water user groups and the like. Only about 13 per cent in each district were involved in some kind of group activities. The remaining 13 per cent in each district did not respond to this question.

6.1.8 Hygiene and Sanitation

(a) Toilet and its Use (Respondents: 704)

Of the total respondents, only about 9 per cent (24 per cent in Jumla, 5 per cent in Bajhang, 0.5 per cent in Rautahat and one per cent Mahottari) have toilet in their homes. Among the respondents having toilet in their homes, only 83 per cent have been using it and the remaining 17 per cent did not use the available facility. Thus, a lot of efforts are yet to be done to make the people aware about the importance of using the toilet. This is particularly so in case of the Terai districts.

(b) Type of Cooking Stove and its Use (Respondents: 375)

Only about 1/3 of the beneficiaries (59 per cent each from Jumla and Bajhang and 32 per cent from Mahottari) responded to the type of cooking stove they are using. No response was received in case of Rautahat. Among the respondents, all from Jumla and Bajhang used traditional cooking stoves. None of the beneficiaries in these districts used improved or modern cooking stoves. But majority of the respondents in Mahottari used improved (25 per cent) and modern cooking stoves (5 per cent). Use of traditional cooking stoves was lowest in Mahottari with only about 2 per cent of the beneficiaries using it.

For the information regarding status of household sanitation, the format used for baseline survey has categorised the houses in terms of good, moderate and care needed; but without any bases for such categorization. However, the available information shows that in total 47 per cent houses had moderate household sanitation (with 62 per cent in Jumla, 35 per cent in Bhajang, 56 per cent in Rautahat and 35 per cent in Mahottari). Of the remaining 53 per cent, 25 per cent belonged to good, 27 per cent to care needed and about one per cent did not respond.

6.1.9 Land and Livestock (Respondents 993)

Since the beneficiaries belonged to the poorest and deprived class groups, many of them were marginal and landless. Some of the beneficiaries, who have land, possessed very small land holdings. The size of land holding could not be presented here mainly due to the unavailability of information on land holding as by majority of the respondents have not responded to this question, and whatever information was available it was very vague being responded the size of land in terms of different local measurement (unit/system).

Similar is the case with livestock. Livestock in the Nepalese rural areas have multiple uses as they provide milk and meat, dung for replenishing the soil fertility and are items of trade for emergency

cash needs. Even so, the average number of livestock with the beneficiaries has been very less as majority of them possessed only one local cow or buffalo and its calf, 2 goats and few poultry.

6.1.10 Economic Information ((Respondents 993)

(a) Borrowing of Loan

The available information on borrowing of loan shows that altogether 845 (85 per cent) of the beneficiaries have borrowed loan. Among them 54 per cent in Jumla, 98 per cent in Bajhang, 89 per cent in Mahottari and 99 per cent in Rautahat have borrowed loan. Around 44 per cent respondents did not respond to this question in Jumla whereas the number of respondents in the remaining three districts was very small. Loan was borrowed from different formal sources such as banks, cooperatives and groups; as well as informal sources such as money lenders, relatives and neighbours etc. The interest on loan varied significantly (from lowest 18 per cent per annum to the highest 68 per cent per annum) being less in case of formal sources and exorbitant (up to 68 per cent) in case of informal sources particularly the money lenders (in Rautahat and Mahottari). Table 21 shows the information on borrowing of loan and interest rate in the districts.

Table 21: Loan Amount and Interest on Loan District Loan Amount (Rs.) Interest Rate (%) Maximum Minimum Average Maximum Minimum Average Jumla 20,000 1,000 8,722 (184) 24 18 21.47 Bajhang 15,000 2,000 4,125 (248) 36 20 21.43 Rautahat 70,000 4,000 27,703 (248) 68 36 48.32 Mahottari 30,000 3,000 27,220 (235) 60 18 35.29 Source: Baseline Survey Note: Figures in parentheses shows the number of respondents.

Table 21 shows a large variation in the range of loan amount taken by the beneficiary as the range varies from Rs 1,000 in Jumla to Rs. 70,000 in Rautahat. Also it is seen that the number of loan borrower and average loan amount is relatively high in the terai districts compare to hill districts. Similarly, the interest rate is also seen relatively high in terai districts compare to hill district. This may be mainly because of the socio-cultural factors such as compulsion of dowry to marry the girl and also more availability of goods and services in terai than in hill.

(b) Income

The beneficiaries earned income from various sources. The major sources were wages and sales of livestock. According to the available information, the annual average income of the respondents by source of income in Mahottari is the highest and followed by those in Jumla and Rautahat which are almost equal. The annual average income is least in Bajhang. No response was received in Mahottari about the source of income. Table 23 depicts the information on sources and amount of average income.

Table23: Income Sources and Average Income (Rs.) Districts Income items Jumla Bajhang Rautahat Mahottari Wages 22,119 (218) 7,000 (241) 15,425 (95) 15,425(242) Service 2,000 (169) 600 (220) NA NA Fruit sales NA 200 (100) NA NA Vegetable sales 4,511 (195) 400 (221) 6,250 (125) 12,50(215) Livestock sales 4,973 (213) 2,800 (226) 18,756 (120) 18,756 (243) Sales of milk and dairy products 3,667 (170) NA 3,784 (200) 3,784(236) Other income 1,800 (172) NA 5,759 (95) 5,759(243) Total average income 7,010 (218.) 1,571 (241) 7,139 (200) 12,887 (243) Source: Baseline Survey Note: Figures in parentheses shows the number of respondents.

According to Table 23, income of the beneficiaries mainly depends on wage earning. However, in terai districts, sale of livestock including poultry, goat and cattle/buffalo was also prominent income source. The general cultural trend in western hill is to temporarily migrate to India to work as wage earner. But, the terai people either work as farm labour or labour in construction within the country, particularly in the big cities like Kathmandu

The expenditure items of the beneficiaries comprised of education, food, clothing, medicine and others. No response was available on the expenditure items in Mahottari and for Rautahat expenditure on education was not available. In general, in the three districts, people were expending more on food followed by clothing. Table 24 presents the information on items of expenditure and average expenditure amount.

Table 24: Items of Expenditure and Average Expenditure (Rs.) Districts Expenditure items Jumla Bajhang Rautahat Mahottari Education 5,479(169) 3,352 (241) NA NA Food 18,439(169) 8,526(240) 13,563 (159) NA Clothing 7,883(160) 4,242 (244) 8,803 (198) NA Vegetable 9,222 (211) 1,267(220) 4,574 (200) NA Fruits 729 (201) 3,416(229) 3,948 (188) NA Medicine 3,640 (215) 2,846 (195) 4,919 (151) NA Other expenditures 2,100(218) 2406 (195) 3,266 (161) NA Total average expenditure 15,060 (218) 5,082 (244) 11,307 (232) NA Source: Baseline Survey Note: Figures in parentheses shows the number of respondents.

It is important to note here that these data regarding loan, income and expenditure are to be cautiously taken as they are subject to reliability due to the general tendency of reporting higher figures for loan and expenditure, and lower figures for income by the respondents. Moreover compulsion of completing the baseline survey more quickly consequent to the shortened project duration, lacking of surveyors’ competence in carrying out the survey, and the ignorance and illiteracy among respondents were some major hindering factors of the baseline survey.

6.1.11 Gender and Social Information

(a) Social Activities and Gender Involvement

Information on gender involvement in a range of social activities were tried to collect in the baseline survey. Both the male and female have been involved in all the activities with varied degree of involvement. Table 25 depicts the gender involvement in social activities by district.

Table 25: Different Social Activities and Gender Involvement Bajhang Jumla Rautahat Mahottari Total Activities Gender No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % Male 46 39.7 35 31.3 4 1.1 4 2.1 89 11.3 General Household Activities Female 37 31.9 39 34.8 160 44.0 2 1.0 238 30.3 Both 33 28.4 38 33.9 200 54.9 188 96.9 459 58.4 Male 71 92.2 7 11.1 40 15.6 2 100.0 120 63.1 Management of Female 6 7.8 56 88.9 150 58.4 0 0.0 212 33.1 Land and Property Both 0 0.0 0 0.0 67 26.1 0 0.0 67 3.8 Involvement in Male 59 62.1 7 8.1 58 42.0 3 6.1 127 34.5 Animal Husbandry Female 8 8.4 37 43.0 55 39.9 0 0.0 100 27.2 Both 28 29.5 42 48.8 25 18.1 46 93.9 141 38.3 Involvement in Male 52 55.9 6 8.1 84 36.1 2 3.8 144 31.8 Agriculture Female 7 7.5 44 59.5 98 42.1 0 0.0 149 32.9 Activities Both 34 36.6 24 32.4 51 21.9 51 96.2 160 35.3 Involvement in Male 42 63.6 4 6.9 55 31.3 2 4.2 103 29.6 Education Activities Female 3 4.5 50 86.2 75 42.6 0 0.0 128 36.8 Both 21 31.8 4 6.9 46 26.1 46 95.8 117 33.6 Transaction of Male 50 80.6 3 5.9 69 44.8 2 28.6 124 45.3 Property Female 1 1.6 44 86.3 27 17.5 1 14.3 73 26.6 Both 11 17.7 4 7.8 58 37.7 4 57.1 77 28.1 Foreign Male 78 88.6 10 22.2 85 66.9 2 4.3 175 57.2 Employment Female 5 5.7 35 77.8 22 17.3 1 2.2 63 20.6 Both 5 5.7 0 0.0 20 15.7 43 93.5 68 22.2 Care of Agriculture Male 12 40.0 13 15.3 62 44.6 2 4.5 89 29.9 Tools Female 0 0.0 34 40.0 35 25.2 0 0.0 69 23.2 Both 18 60.0 38 44.7 42 30.2 42 95.5 140 47.0 Male 16 22.2 16 17.8 45 27.4 0 0.0 77 22.0 Attending Meetings Female 7 9.7 39 43.3 65 39.6 1 4.2 112 42.0 Both 49 68.1 35 38.9 54 32.9 23 95.8 161 36.0 Male 20 34.5 7 10.4 65 40.4 0 0.0 92 29.4 Membership Female 2 3.4 36 53.7 69 42.9 4 14.8 111 35.5 Both 36 62.1 24 35.8 27 16.8 23 85.2 110 35.1 Social Activities Male 14 26.4 6 8.5 61 37.2 0 0.0 81 19.2 (attendance in social Female 3 5.7 20 28.2 83 50.6 1 0.7 107 25.4 events) Both 36 67.9 45 63.4 20 12.2 133 99.3 234 55.5 Involvement in Male 53 70.7 25 32.1 55 44.7 0 0.0 133 41.6 Trade and Business Female 15 20.0 21 26.9 5 4.1 39 88.6 80 25.0 Both 7 9.3 32 41.0 63 51.2 5 11.4 107 33.4 Source: Baseline Survey

Table 25 shows that there are some gender specific household activities. For example, the trend of total district shows that activities like management of land and property, foreign employment, and trade and business are male dominated. Similarly, educational activities and attending in meetings are mostly dominated by women. However, it is also seen that there is small margin of variation between genders in the involvement of household activities and the involvement of both gender is more prominent in most of the activities. This indicates a better gender balance among the beneficiaries.

(b) Gender Control in Different Social Activities

Information on the control of different social activities shows that the control in different social activities is mainly a family issue as both male and female make such decision. Table 26 depicts the gender involvement in social activities by district.

Table 26: Gender Control in Different Social Activities Districts Activities Gender Bajhang Jumla Mahottari Rautahat Total No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % Household Activities Male 9 4.2 102 61.1 22 17.1 7 3.5 140 19.8 Female 95 44.6 46 27.5 2 1.6 4 2.0 147 20.8 Both 109 51.2 19 11.4 105 81.4 187 94.4 420 59.4 Land and Property Male 34 17.9 28 18.8 14 25.9 4 7.4 80 17.9 Female 33 17.4 74 49.7 11 20.4 1 1.9 119 26.6 Both 123 64.7 47 31.5 29 53.7 49 90.7 248 55.5 Animal Husbandry Male 27 14.6 32 22.4 66 36.5 2 3.8 127 22.6 Female 44 23.8 33 23.1 50 27.6 1 1.9 128 22.8 Both 114 61.6 78 54.5 65 35.9 50 94.3 307 54.6 Agriculture Activities Male 57 36.3 29 22.0 32 22.1 2 3.4 120 24.4 Female 23 14.6 34 25.8 35 24.1 0 0.0 92 18.7 Both 77 49.0 69 52.3 78 53.8 56 96.6 280 56.9 Education Activities Male 86 69.4 24 21.8 12 29.3 2 3.8 124 37.9 Female 11 8.9 66 60.0 19 46.3 0 0.0 96 29.4 Both 27 21.8 20 18.2 10 24.4 50 96.2 107 32.7 Transaction of Male 91 82.0 15 15.5 56 83.6 1 9.1 163 57.0 Property Female 7 6.3 78 80.4 6 9.0 3 27.3 94 32.9 Both 13 11.7 4 4.1 5 7.5 7 63.6 29 10.1 Foreign Employment Male 48 94.1 1 3.0 6 31.6 2 40.0 57 52.8 Female 1 2.0 26 78.8 7 36.8 0 0.0 34 31.5 Both 2 3.9 6 18.2 6 31.6 3 60.0 17 15.7 Service and Business Male 45 95.7 0 0.0 1 2.2 2 4.4 48 29.6 Female 0 0.0 18 72.0 21 46.7 1 2.2 40 24.7 Both 2 4.3 7 28.0 23 51.1 42 93.3 74 45.7 Agriculture Tools Male 12 40.0 12 40.0 3 13.6 12 40.0 39 34.8 Female 0 0.0 0 0.0 8 36.4 0 0.0 8 7.1 Both 18 60.0 18 60.0 11 50.0 18 60.0 65 58.0 Attending Meetings Male 35 17.9 47 32.4 10 15.4 21 50.0 113 25.3 Female 35 17.9 53 36.6 23 35.4 17 40.5 128 28.6 Both 125 64.1 45 31.0 32 49.2 4 9.5 206 46.1

Membership Male 30 24.0 35 29.4 23 25.3 8 10.4 96 23.3 Female 17 13.6 54 45.4 15 16.5 24 31.2 110 26.7 Both 78 62.4 30 25.2 53 58.2 45 58.4 206 50.0 Social Activities Male 22 20.0 26 31.3 2 20.0 0 0.0 50 23.9 (attendance in social Female 9 8.2 36 43.4 4 40.0 2 33.3 51 24.4 events) Both 79 71.8 21 25.3 4 40.0 4 66.7 108 51.7 Source: Baseline Survey

As seen in the involvement of gender in different activities in Table 25, both genders are playing relatively balanced role in the control over basic household activities shown as in Table 26. The gender discrepancy is less observed among the beneficiaries. However, there were few activities that show more control or inclination towards one gender. For example, transaction of property is more controlled my male and so is the foreign employment. This reflects the male stereotype image for these activities.

6.2 Findings of the HDPs

6.2.1 Preparation of the HDP

The HDP was prepared for entitling the group member to receive the HDG. The contents of HDP include the group members’ vision regarding her would-be household situation after 4 years with support and the assurance of efforts to realize them; the sequence of activities; and the amount of money needed for each activity to be executed in the first year. The HDP was prepared for all components of HDG i.e., basic needs, opportunity cost and livelihood promotion. The format used for the preparation of HDP is presented in Annex 2.

As in the case of baseline survey, the HDPs of the beneficiaries were also incomplete, and ambiguous. There are haphazard responses, which have made it difficult to process the available information and thereby analyse and interpret. Preparation of HDP with all requirements including four years’ vision and preparatory works had been a tough task on the part of the selected households mainly due to illiteracy among them as well as their lack of understanding about the programme. Similarly, the facilitators involved in preparing the HDPs were also much confused since they were not fully oriented on filling the formats of HDP but they needed to prepare the HDPs in haste. On the whole, the steps to be followed for the preparation of the HDP and the paper works required to be accomplished had been very difficult exercise both on the part of the respondents and facilitators, the HDPs have not become able to serve the intended purpose. Nevertheless, an effort has been made here to summarize the findings of the HDPs based on the available information.

6.2.2 Components of HDPs

(a) Basic Needs

The basic need component of the HDP sought information on the requirement of livelihood protection of the beneficiaries for ¼ of the total grant amount (i.e., NRs. 6,180) in either cash or kind. The beneficiaries requested for items such as house repair, health care, food, clothing and utensils, etc.

The available information shows that the beneficiaries have made request for the above items only in cash although the requirement of the beneficiaries was needed to be separately mentioned in cash as well as in kind. The average amount requested by the beneficiaries for the basic needs component is presented in Table 27. It is to be noted that only information in cash is available in the HDP forms although both information on cash and kind both was requested. This is true for all the information of HDP.

Table 27: Request for Basic Need (Rs.) Requested Districts Items Bajhang Jumla Mahottari Rautahat House maintenance 1,892.7 1,965.7 3,118.7 2,254.5 Household purchase 929.0 959.9 540.3 1,115.8 Cloth 570.2 582.6 620.1 961.6 Medicine 505.6 404.1 217.0 582.2 Education 672.7 625.9 128.9 476.0 Food 2,317.5 1,780.5 1,518.9 1,720.0 Other 134.9 142.8 1,091.0 NA Total 7,022.6 6,461.5 7,234.9 7,110.0 Source: HDPs

Table 7 depicts that in all the districts the beneficiaries have requested somewhat more amount than the allocated ¼ of the total grant. However, the request was very close to the allocation in Jumla. This substantiates that the HDPs were prepared haphazardly without any seriousness, and the facilitators as well as other concerned officials did not care to check and verify the HDPs.

(b) Opportunity Cost

The opportunity cost component of the HDP (also of ¼ of the total grant) inquired the beneficiaries about the amount required for covering opportunity cost of community affiliation and capacity development such as membership of the users’ group for participating in community activities as well as skill/capacity development trainings. Table 28 summarizes the average amount requested for opportunity cost.

Table 28: Request for Opportunity Cost (Rs.) Districts Requested Items Bajhang Jumla Mahottari Rautahat Membership of User’s Group NA NA 650.0 760.0 Participation in meetings 815.0 1,022.0 1,000.0 994.4 Participation training programme 650.0 2,787.0 NA NA Participation in basic trainings 4,078.0 2,608.7 422.8 1,819.4 Participation in other programmes 400.0 195.0 1,200.4 2,182.4 Total 5,943.0 6,612.7 3,273.2 5,756.2 Source: HDPs

The livelihood promotion component of the HDP which was ½ of the total grant asked the beneficiaries about the amount required for promoting livelihoods by facilitating basic economic activities such as animal husbandry, micro business development and increasing labour productivity etc. Table 29 recapitulates the number of beneficiaries and their average requested amount for livelihood promotion.

Table 29: Request for Livelihood Promotion by number of beneficiaries Requested Items District Bajhang Jumla Mahottari Rautahat Goat keeping 193 118 11 25 Retail shop 23 44 8 30 Buffalo keeping 2 14 74 115 Radio maintenance 1 1 - Wooden furniture - 2 - 2 Fruit (Apple) farming - 36 - 3 Tailoring 9 13 2 10 Cow keeping - 17 120 5 Poultry 7 3 - 2 Shoe making - 2 - Pig-keeping 10 - 8 8 Agro-veterinary/tool & machinery Shop 1 - - 2 Iron workshop 2 - - Vegetable farming 1 - 7 27 Hotel 1 - - Fishery - - 1 7 Bullock - - 16 Trading - - 1 Livestock trading - - - 6 Hair saloon - - - 1 Cycle repair - - - 3 Rickshaw - - 2 4 Total 250 250 250 250 Total requested average Amount (Rs) 12,360 12,005 11,915 9,904 Source: HDPs

The average amount requested for the items shows that the requested amount in all the districts is well within the limit of allocation with exact amount of allocation in Bajhang, a little less in Jumla and Mahottari and less in Rautahat.

Table 29 shows that goat keeping is the most desired means of livelihood in hill which is due to its market value. Also the availability of grazing land in that area is good to support the activity. Retail shops are the second most desired means of livelihood in hill. However, the uncertainty of the consumers, more competition and lack of business skill could make the beneficiary uncomfortable at the end of the day. In teari districts cow and buffalo keeping is the most desired livelihood promotion activities because of the existence of better marketing potentiality of milk.

7. Observations and Replication Strategy for Future

7.1 Observations

It is observed in the past that the most disadvantaged households of the community have often not participated in or benefited from poverty reduction programmes. This happens so because their day-to-day strategies to meet the survival needs of the family consumes almost all of their time, which prevents them to participate in mainstream development programmes.

The modality of the TA Project differs from most of the conventional rural development programmes in the sense that it took care not only of livelihood promotion but also of basic needs and capacity development of the most disadvantaged households. The other important fact is that the grant allocated in the project was transferred directly to the target households. Accordingly, the uniqueness of this Project was that it not only provided supports for the livelihood promotion but also for the basic needs of the most disadvantaged households; and passed on the grant directly to the target households. On top of that, various measures had been taken to maintain transparency in delivery mechanism during the course of implementation of the project.

The Project was implemented in remote locations during very difficult time. It was started when the country was being marred by conflict and political unrest. In addition, heavy rain and consequent flood and inundation of the villages in Terai restricting the movement was another big problem to tackle. The DWDOs and partner NGOs have done an excellent work to complete the Project activities within the stipulated time even in such an adverse condition.

Even so, in all the districts, all the related persons have praised the selection procedure of the ultra- poor. They think, although many similar HHs are not included, but the Project was able to reach to ultra poor community. They also think the conceptual framework of conditional grant for the basic needs and improvement in the livelihood was very effective.

The foregoing account on the multiple contributions of the Project in terms of enhancing the socio- economic condition of the disadvantaged ultra-poor of the country, it is felt essential that this Programme be replicated in wider scale to cover all the ultra-poor of the country. Not only as a single project, this type of programme should also be incorporated as a component of the larger scale projects and programmes funded by ADB as well as other donor agencies. However, the following strategies are suggested for consideration for its replication.

7.2 Replication Strategy

7.2.1 Project Formulation

(i) Grant Amount

The weakness of the Project was the disbursement of same amount of grant (US$ 350) to both the hill and Terai districts (and the near and remote part of the same district) irrespective of the distance and remoteness of different Project localities. For this, the assessment of district situation analysis considering the cost of living of the Project area should be done prior to allocating the grant.

(ii) Grant Currency

The equivalent amount of US $ grant in Nepalese currency is another issue of the grant allocation. As such, the grant amount should be mentioned only in Nepalese rupees, which the beneficiaries will receive.

(iii) Nature of the Grant

Further, the HDG had also provision of grant in-kind for basic needs. Basic needs of different households are not the same. As such, collection of requirements of the beneficiaries, procurement of the goods as required by them, storing and distribution of these commodities and keeping stepwise records (from procurement to distribution) of each item for each individual household are actually a complicated task. Instead of such complicated provisions, single provision of grant in- cash with strict monitoring of grant utilization will make the implementation process much simpler. Nevertheless, the livelihood promotion grant being of substantial amount should not be the cash grant.

7.2.2 Project Duration

The Project duration was reduced to only one year from its initial duration of two years. That compelled the WDO and partner NGOs to hastily execute the Project activities. The beneficiaries, DWD, DWDOs and the partner NGOs as well as other elites of the districts have complained that the Project duration had been short. Taking into consideration the requirement of fulfilling a long list of formalities before the distribution of HDG, stumpy level of literacy and awareness of the beneficiary, and the working style of the Nepalese administrative machinery, the Project duration should not be less than 2 years in view of its distinctiveness, and if the envisaged impact and outcomes from the Project are to be achieved.

7.2.3 Implementation Arrangements

Adoption of an innovative approach of simultaneously involving the government and non- government agencies for carrying out the project activities has proved to be an effective joint venture between government and non-government agencies. Since the local NGOs have better knowledge and understanding about the local settings and the attitude, beliefs and values of the local people, their involvement have greatly helped the DWDOs to execute the project activities. In all the districts, the DWDOs and NGOs have mutually cooperated with each other in the entire

project related matters. In some cases, the NGOs have even borne certain project related expenses the by themselves. From the experiences so far, it is felt that this is an appropriate approach to implement the development activities targeting the poor in rural settings as it has indicated to be more effective. Hence, this approach should be continued to implement the development activities targeting the poor in the rural settings.

7.2.4 Targeting Procedure

(i) Selection of the Districts

Indicators from Districts of Nepal: Indicators of Development (CBS/ICIMOD/SNV Nepal) Update 2003 was used for the selection of four least developed districts. The Project selected the two least developed Terai districts but in case of hill districts the upper ranking Jumla was selected instead of lowest ranking Mugu. For district selection in future, updated indicators of district development would be more relevant, as the indicators used by the TA Project have now been more than 5 years old. Henceforth, the latest indicators should be used in the selection of districts.

(ii) Selection of the VDCs

The selection of VDCs has largely been good enough as the VDCs were selected based on the analysis of available socio-economic statistics as well as well-defined criteria of VDC classification by the District Project Coordination Committee (DPCC) represented by the officials of local development, agriculture, livestock and forestry. But, the DPCC has failed to include the representation from three important sectoral development agencies namely District Education Office, District Public Health Office and District Drinking Water Office. Similarly, the selection criteria has also missed some important social indicators relating to literacy/education, health and sanitation facilities in the VDC as well as literacy, health and sanitation status of the VDC people. Accordingly, the DPCC should also include representatives from the sectoral offices of education, public health and drinking water, and the VDC selection criteria should be improved to comprise indicators of literacy/education, health and sanitation.

(ii) Selection of the Wards

The target beneficiaries of the Project were only 250 households from each district or 60-65 HHs from the whole VDC and they were to be selected on the basis of specified criteria. To select a Ward or Wards meeting the criteria was actually a very difficult task since the settlements of poor and disadvantaged people were found scattered in all the nine wards of the VDC. The DWD and the DWDOs as well as the partner NGOs had been very much sensitive to avoid the controversies and select the appropriate Wards. Participatory process including social mapping was used to select the wards in each VDC. For this, knowledgeable village persons form different sections of the society including women; Daits and other disadvantaged persons were gathered. This strategy of Ward selection was quite appropriate and impressive, and hence should be continued in the future too.

(iv) Selection of the Target Households

Target Households were selected from participatory techniques from the mass meetings after prior notice to the residents of the Wards. In the meeting, the concept and implementation procedure of the Project and criteria for selection of the beneficiary HHs were explained in detail to the participants. The criteria used for the selection was the well being ranking of all the households of the selected Wards for which, social, economical and cultural status of the households were taken into account. As the number of households to be selected was less and the number of total ultra- poor in the VDCs was high, many equally poor households have been excluded. As such, instead of selecting some of the poor households from one or two Wards, all the poor households of the selected Wards should be included.

The targeting procedure would have much been easier had the number of beneficiary households been large enough to cover all the poor households of the Wards. With such provision, all the poor households from one Ward could have been selected instead of some households scattered in different wards. This would have saved time, efforts and cost for conducting meetings in different wards and also relieved the DWDO and partner NGOs from being involved in settling the controversies regarding the non-selection of other equally poor households. Moreover, selection of households from one Ward would also have resulted in comparatively easier implementation of the project activities

7.2.5 Project Implementation Process

(i) Groups and Committees and their Functions

The selection of the target HHs was followed by the formation of groups, federated Inter-group Committees and its Executive Committee and Advisory Committee. It is felt that the number of groups and Committees has been large and the size of the groups comparatively small. Moreover, the groups and Committees were involved for carrying out more or less similar group activities. Therefore, the groups should be comprised of 15-20 (from the current 5-7 members) members and the responsibilities of the Committees should also be given to the groups. However, an EC represented by the Chairperson of the groups could be formed to arrange for the preparation of agendas, implement the decisions, and carry out day-to-day operations. This would ease the burden of the group members to be simultaneously involved both in the activities of group and Committee and also save time, cost and efforts on the part of the implementing agencies.

(ii) The Trainings

The present training programmes such as 7-days basic training to the group members, gender equality training to the group member and male member of the household and capacity development training for skill development have been much helpful to make the group members more aware about the development activities and the role they can play in those activities and have encouraged them to participate in such activities. Moreover, participation in the training programmes has brought the group members as well as their men in close cooperation and they have realized that development can be achieved only through the joint efforts but not acting individually. The major outcome of the trainings has been the start of monthly group savings and

lending to the members. Accordingly, these training programmes should be the main part of the programme.

It has been experienced that duration of the training programmes had been lengthy mainly due to implementing the training programmes successively one after another in each ward and in a single session by the same trainers. So as to shorten the training duration, the trainings could be simultaneously conducted in the selected wards with different training schedule (one shift in the morning and another in the afternoon). If it is not practical to conduct the trainings in shift, involvement of different set of trainers would also reduce the training duration.

(iii) HDP Formulation

The HDP formulation process involved baseline survey, checklist-based information, observation, preparation of problem tree, four years vision, and preparation of HDP which are lengthy and time taking processes requiring large extent academic exercises. But due to the poor quality of target groups in terms of their literacy status along with time and human resource constraints for data collection, the quality of the gathered information has not been much consequential. It is felt essential that professionals should be involved to conduct such baseline survey as the information received from such survey is very important to compare with the outcome of the Project.

The process of HDP preparation should be made short by preparing it immediately after the completion of baseline survey by avoiding the checklist based interaction, observation and preparation of problem tree. The preparation of HDP should be done in simple manner by avoiding the four years’ vision and preparatory works.

The baseline survey is a must for gathering the pre-project household level basic data for comparing them with the post-project household status to determine the effects and outcomes of the Project. Accordingly, instead of taking time to follow various steps, more time should be given to conduct the baseline survey so as to make the data and information more consistent and dependable.

(iv) Steps/Process for HDP Approval

The present HDP approval process was also very much complex and time taking. The main problem to follow the prescribed processes was the organization of meetings of groups, committees and District Project Steering Committee (DPSC) for the discussion and approval of the HDP. The difficulty for conducting the meetings had been faced mainly due to absence of the members. DPSC members, being the government officials of the district level government line agencies were found either very much busy with their own official works, or absent from the office for attending meetings inside or out the district, for participating in programmes, trainings and seminars, or on leave. So as to make the HDP approval process simple and short, all those requirements of stepwise approval of the Committee and DPSC should be avoided. The process should be made much easier by making arrangement for the submission of the HDPs by the group members directly to the DWDO for approval with notification to the EC. However, the DPSC should be notified by the DWDO about the approved HDPs. The following process is suggested for HDP preparation:

• Baseline survey. • Preparation of the HDP. • Group meeting for reviewing the HDPs. • Submission of the HDPs by the groups to the DWDO and its notification to the EC. • Verification and approval of the HDPs by the DWDO and its notification to the DPSC.

(v) Fund Release

The present fund release process was another complicated and time taking exercise and was characterized with the same problems of conducting meetings in each successive step. To make the process quick and easy, requirements of stepwise approval of the Committee and DPSC should be avoided. The following process is suggested for fund release:

• Filling of budget request form by the group members • Group meeting for reviewing the budget request forms. • Submission of the budget request forms to the DWDO and notification to the EC.. • Scrutiny and sample-based verification of the budget request by the DWDO. • Approval of the budget request by the DWDO and its notification to the DPSC. • Transfer of grant to the groups’ bank account. • Transfer of grant to the group member.

(vi) Distribution of HDG

As mentioned earlier, the basic needs grant should be in cash. Nevertheless, the beneficiaries must be strictly followed-up for the utilization of fund with the condition that if the fund is used for any other purposes by any member, her membership and all benefits she is entitled to receive during the programme period should be withheld until and unless she pays the penalty equivalent to the misused amount and commits that she will never be involved in such action in the future.

It is felt that there is no need of any change in the grant for opportunity cost. However, the grant should be made timely available and the training programmes should be conducted as targeted so as to avoid the practice of using of grant amount as meeting allowances during group meetings.

7.2.6 Capacity of the Implementing Agencies

DWDOs in all the districts were not uniform in terms of both the physical facilities and human resource. The mountain districts of Nepal and particularly their remote areas have very difficult working conditions due to inaccessibility and lack of communication facility. Some of the VDCs

in the districts are very far from the district headquarter and need 2-5 days walk to be reached. Accordingly, provision of separate human resources, particularly field level staff, in these districts should be made.

NGOs engaged in the Project implementation have to work hard in very remote VDCs and mostly with illiterate community. Considering all their efforts, difficulty and the involvement of their human resources, it is felt that the remuneration of Rs. 100,000 is insufficient. The amount should be increased with differing amount for mountain/hill and Terai districts.

7.2.7 Record Keeping, Reporting and Monitoring

The HDP Preparation and Grant Mobilization Guidelines has emphasized the record keeping of only the financial transactions but has mentioned nothing about the record keeping of other activities. The reporting requirements of the Project activities are missing. It is felt that the record keeping and reporting of the Project activities has been the weakest part of the Project implementation. Committee meetings and progress review meetings, and field monitoring of the Project activities by the officials of DWD and DWDO had been rare. As such, special provisions for monitoring and reporting with strict schedule should be incorporated in the guideline.

7.2.8 Evaluation of the Project

Map of the Project Districts

Annex 1 Schedule and Contents of Basic Training Day Date Time/Training Contents 10.00-11.30 11.30-1.30 1.30-2.20 2.20-3.45 3.45-5.00 1 Name Registration Group dynamism: Methods of group and Functions of the groups Introduction What is a group Committee formation Objective of the training Why Collection of training How expectation Discussion on training schedule 2 Group effectiveness Functions of the Advisory committee and Conflict resolution within the Decision process Committee its role group Group work and exercise on decision minuting. 3 Saving: what, why and how Saving collection, Records of saving Interest adjustment on saving and mobilization and loan mobilization loan retrieval 4 Introduction of household Household development Household development Points to be considered while development problem tree problem tree: group work problem tree: individual selecting the potential income Snacks Snacks exercise generation activities for livelihood: Three As 5 Points to be considered while Identification of potential Identification of potential Preparation of integrated HDP: selecting the potential income income generation income generation Group work generation activities for livelihood: activities for livelihood: activities for livelihood: • Skill group work individual exercise • Market • Profit 6 Preparation of integrated HDP: HDG: introduction, basic HDG: grant mobilization Communication and its skills individual plan needs, opportunity cost and (conditions, records and livelihood promotion monitoring) 7 Leadership: what, why, how and Safe motherhood: what, Records of the Training evaluation, closing and functions role and responsibility of Committee and progress certificate distribution. the family report

Annex 2 Schedule and Contents of Co-development Training Day Time/Training Contents 10.00-11.00 11.00-12.30 15 minutes 12.45-2.15 30 minutes 2.45-4.15 4.15-5.00 1 Inauguration Gender and gender related Identification of gender Change in gender role Review of the day’s terminology role (including group work (flip chart show and lessons for separate roles to be discussion) played by women and men based on social values) 2 Analysis of women’s and Access and control of Equality for prosperity men’s daily work schedule women and men over (including discussion

(including group work) resources, opportunities Snacks based on the message Review of the break Tea and benefits of Bata ki Bahini previous day’s picture story) 3 lessons Types and causes and of Introduction, objectives Preparation of HDP Closing domestic violence against and working procedures of and conditions for women and its elimination HDP program livelihood promotion (including group work) grant

Annex 3 Baseline Survey Format

Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups in Mainstream Rural Development

Household Level Baseline Information of the Group Member

District: ……………… VDC: ……………….. Ward No. ……… Village/Settlement: ………… Date of Information Collection: ………………. Name of the Inquirer: ……………………… 1. Individual Information Name of the Group Member: ……………… Name of the Household Chief: A) Female ……………….. B) Male ………………….. House No. (according to Social Mapping): ………………………………………… Status/Rank according to Well-being Ranking: …………………………. Number of Family Member: …………………. Female …………… Male ……………. VDC ……………… Ward No. ………………….. Village/Settlement: ………………….. Age …………… Caste ……………. Religion ………………….. Educational Status: (A) Illiterate (B) Literate (C) Primary Level (D) Secondary Level (E) Campus (F) Informal Marital Status: Unmarried Married Single Type of Household: Joint Family Single Family Relation with the Household Chief: ……………………….. 2. Description of Family Population Female Male Total Age Group Literate Illiterate Literate Illiterate Literate Illiterate < 3 years 3-<5 years 6-14 years 15-18 years 20-59 years >60 years Total

Number of 6-14 years school going children: Boys ………… Girls …………… What the 6-14 years boys and girls do if they do not go to school:

A) Number of Boys: ……………. Description of Work: ……………….. B) Number of Girls: …………….. Description of Work: ……………….. 3. Name of the Group and Committee Number of the Group: ……………… Date of Founding: ……………. Position: ……………. Name of the Committee: …………. ... Date of Founding: ……………. Position: ……………. 5. Mention if any Training is imparted in the Past S. No. Name of the Training Organizing Institution Place Duration 1. 2. 3.

6. Whether affiliated with any other group or User Committee? 6.1 If affiliated with any group, User or Management Committee, which are they? A) ……………. B) ……………. C) …………….. 7. Children and Nutrition 7.1 Age and Weight of the baby < 3 years A) Age ………………… Weight ………………. B) Age ………………… Weight ………………. C) Age ………………… Weight ………………. 7.2 <3 years baby’s mother’s: Height …….. Weight ………….. 7.3 Duration of Breast Feeding to the baby (years) A) Youngest: ……………… B) Former to the youngest 7.3.1 Number of daily Breast Feeding: …………….. 7.3.2 Main foods given to the children: A) Green Vegetables B) Fruits C) Milk D) Pulse, Rice, Maize, Dhindo/beans 8. Status of Household Sanitation: Good Fair Care Needed 9. Source of Drinking Water (specify): ……………… How far: Distance (in minute) ………. 10. 1) Provision of Toilet: A) Yes B) No 2) Whether toilet is used or not A) Yes B) No

8. Economic Information 8.1 Type of House: Temporarily Roofed Hut ….. Tin /Stone Roofed …… Number of Rooms ... 8.2 Description of Land Particulars Khet (Low land) Bari (Upland) Others (Specify) Area (Ropani or Kattha) Total food production (Rs.) Home Consumption (Rs.) Sales (Rs.)

Duration of food sufficiency from own production: Month: …………… If not sufficient, how you manage during the shortage period? 8.3 Presently, whether the family has to repay loan to anybody A) Yes B) No 8.4 If in somebody's debt, S. No. Source of Debt Purpose of Debt Debt Amount Annual Interest (From where) A) B) C)

9. Information on Livestock Type of Animal Male Female Total Cow/Bullock Male calf/Female Calf Buffalo/Male Buffalo Male Buffalo Calf/Female Buffalo Calf Female Goat/Male Goat/Castrated Goat Patha/Pathi Pig/Hog Patha/Pathi Birds (Goose Poultry) Others

10. Annual Income Source Income Source Rs. Expenditure Rs. Wages Education Service Foods Fruits Sales Clothes Vegetable Sales Vegetables Livestock Sales Fruits Dairy Product Sales Medical Expenses Others Others Total Total

11. Gender and Social Information Activities Role (Mark who is mostly involved) Remarks Male Female Both Children 1. Who does what work (A) Household/Reproductive Related • Cooking • Washing • Drinking water hauling • Dish washing • Child care etc. (B) Productive Works • Farming • Animal keeping • Wage labor • Service • Trade

2. Access Access Control Remarks Female Male Both Female Male Both • Household affairs • Land • Livestock • Farming • Education • Purchase and sales of property • Foreign employment • Service and trade • Agricultural inputs (c) Social and community participation • Meeting attend • Executive membership • Social activities e.g., marriage, bratabandha etc.

Signature of the Inquirer: Name of the Supervisor: Signature:

Annex 4 Primary Needs and Strengths Assessment Checklist ( for Checklist based for Interaction)

VDC: ……………………. Ward:………………….. Village: ………………….. Committee: …………………. Name: ……………………. Group Number: …………………

[We have come from Women Development. We are going to work with you in your village. We hope you won’t consider us an alien, sister. We would like to ask you about the vagaries of life. Would you tell us frankly?]

1. How many of you are there in your family? 2. Your children are all going to school, I guess? 3. And what about yourself, sister? I mean, do you know how to read and write? 4. How much property does your family possess, sister? 4.1 House: 4.2 Land: 4.3 Livestock 5. Could you tell us how many months would the yield of your land sufficient to feed your family? 6. How does your family manage for the rest of the months? 7. If you work for the wage, 7.1 Who in your family do so work? 7.2 How many days in a month can you find work? 7.3 How much wage do you get for a day’s work? 8. One thing, sister – what do you think the core problem (the main one) in your family? 9. You just said …………………….. is the problem. What could be the specific causes of this problem? Why don’t you tell us? 10. May be you could tell us about it differently as well. What could be the effects due to the problem of ……………………………., as you said? 11. Are not there any ways out of this problem ……………………….. and of looking forward for happy days? 12. What needs to be done in your opinion? Could you explain us?

13. Concerning income generation, sister, what do you think you can confidently do? 14. You said you have confidence in doing ………………………………. How can you say so? May be you could tell us that, too. Why should one hesitate to express one’s feelings? Isn’t it? 15. Do you also have some skills or experiences? 16. Does it occur to you that it would be great if someone could help you in such and such things to this or that extent? 17. How often do others ask you about, or consult with you on, community work? 18. You just said they do [don’t]. What could be the reason for that? 19. Would you like to participate in the work of your community? 20. What could be the activities in your community in which you like to, or don’t like to, be involved? Activities you like: Activities you don’t like: 21. Finally, may be you could close your eyes for a while, sister, and tell us what would you like your home affairs, children and lot to be four years hence.

[May your wish come true! One realizes it only when one is determined to. We hope to see you again and again, sister]

Date:

Annex 5(A) Imaginary Household Development Problem Tree [One: A hunger stricken family]

Family Hopelessness

Burden of Loan

Educational Family Deprivation Separation Increase in Decrease in treatment cost productive time Child labor (3 domestic workers) Maternal Anemia Hunger

Low yield High Dependency Ratio Low Labor Productivity (not sufficient for 3 (8 Children) (Monthly labor wage months even) Rs. 1,200)

Limited land Traditional (0.025 ha) Farming Skepticism as to Son preference Lack of work Low wage (Rs. (Potatoes, Barley) Contraceptives (Desire to have at least 2 (<15 days in a 60 per day sons) month) without food)

Alternatives: Promotion of a Labor Skill Cottage-based Business Development

Annex 5(B) Imaginary Household Development Problem Tree [Two: A debt-ridden family]

Financial Alarm

Curtailment in Increase in Outstanding Bites of the Loan Paddy field Basic Liabilities (School fees Shark Land being Consumption not paid for 2 months Deprivation Mortgaged

Interest expenses (Monthly Rs. 710) Indebtedness (Rs. 27,000 +)

Emergency Expenses Exorbitant Marriage of the Low Household Income for the Husband Interest Rate Daughter (Rs. 8,000) (Monthly Rs. 1,900) (36 per cent)

Funeral Rites Treatment Cost (Rs. 4,000) (Rs. 1,500) Absence of the Traditional Barren Corn-field Land Bread Winner Low Yield Farming (0.25 ha) (Single head of the (Paddy, lentils) house)

Alternative: Promotion of a Land-based Business 66

Annex 5(C) Imaginary Household Development Problem Tree [Three: A family fallen victim to Alcohol]

Family Disintegration

Adverse Effect Quarrels Lack of Earning Extra Curtailment on Paddy field on Child Members Workload on Basic Land being Psychology Women Consumption Mortgaged

Domestic Violence Incidence of Disease Liquor Expenses

Alcohol Addiction

Disappointment Demonstration Effect Unemployment

? ? Skilllessness Landlessness

Alternative: Promotion of a Land-based Business

Annex 6 HDP: An Example

VDC Ward Number: Village: Name of the Committee: Group Number: Group Membership Number:

General Information on the Group Member

Name: Age: …….. yrs Name of the Husband: Number of Household Members: Family Status:

Household Head

Mother –in Law

Daughter-in Law

Daughter

Other

1. Four-year Vision My family will have the means to live comfortably: • We will have a cozy, three-roomed, rainproof house; • We will get rid of this illness of occasionally feeling giddy, from which I am suffering from one or two years now; • All the three daughters will be going to school; • We will have a thriving leather-shoe business; • There will be 20-25 goats in our shed; • My savings account will have a balance of Rs. 6,760, sufficient to feed the family for two months; and • I will be an active member of the Community Forest Users’ Committee.

2. Preparatory Works

(a) All members of my family, including my husband, mother-in law and daughters, have sat together to discuss how to repair and improve the house, and have agreed to improve the

roofing as well as creating a room at the cost of Rs. 3,500 [just like that of Tahinla who lives up the road]; (b) When my husband took me to the health post for a check-up, t6hey said that I needed to go to the district hospital for further examination and take some medicines; (c) We asked Nauli to find out how to enroll our daughters in school and, as she said, we can send them there from next April; (d) Making leather shoes is the traditional business of my family but we are in need of a shoe-sewing machine as well as some pieces of tanning equipment suitable for the new- age, and I also have the idea of sending my husband to do a course in making shoes of new styles; (e) All of us in our group went to see Thuli Dandakharka is keeping goats following her training and, on our way home the other day, I and my husband also stopped there for a while; (f) I have been depositing my [monthly] savings from the very day I joined the group [Rs. 25 for now but my idea is to increase it gradually]; and (g) Even though my daughter did not let me go as she was suffering from fever from that day, the others in my group went to the Community Forest [Users’ Group] and they are willing to accept us as members provided we pay Rs. 785 each.

3. The First Year Programme Budget

Activity Activity Budget Commodity Remarks Code Details In Cash In Kind Total (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) 01 Fulfillment of Basic Needs 01 (1) House Repairs • Roofing 2,000 2,000 ……. Tin sheets • Walls 500 1,000 1,500 .... Cement blocks • • • 01(2) Household Accessories • Beds 200 200 Two wooden • Utensils 500 500 One iron pan one bronze bowl • • 01(3) Clothing • Quilts 350 350 One large piece • Mosquito net 75 75 One piece • Blankets 200 200 One piece

Activity Activity Budget Commodity Remarks Code In Cash In Kind Total Details (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) 01(4) Medicines • For Oneself 750 750 • • • 01(5) Education Books of Grade 2 • Books, copies etc. for the elder daughter 250 100 350 • • • 01(6) Food • • • 01(7) Others • Toilets 255 255 A cement pan and Two-pit flush pipes water • Sub-total Basic Needs 1,500 4,680 6,180 02 Community Affiliation and Capacity Development 02(1) Membership of the Forest Users’ Committee 785 785 02(2) Participation in meetings (36 times) 840 1,500 2,340 02(3) Participation in …….. kg. Training (47 days) 2,055 1,000 3,055 Steamed Rice • Basic Training (7 days) • Hide-tanning Skill Development Training • Entrepreneurship Training (7 days) • Other Trainings (11 days) Sub-total Community Affiliation and Capacity 3,680 2,500 6,180 Development

Activity Activity Budget Commodity Remarks Code In Cash In Kind Total Details (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) 03 Livelihood Opportunities 03(1) Increasing Labour Productivity • • • 03(2) Development of One shoe sewing own Business machine and a set • Machinery 6,500 6,500 of leather tanning accessories. • Workplace 500 500 Improvement in the existing room • Parental breed 4,000 4,000 Two pregnant she-goats. • Sheds 1,360 1,360 To be constructed Sub-total Livelihood Opportunities 1,860 10,500 12,360 Total 7,040 17,680 24,720

4. Terms and Conditions

I shall comply with the following conditions prior to or after receiving the budget for the programmes proposed above:

Grant Conditions Effectiveness of Component condition (1) Basic Needs • Primary school enrolment: (I will enroll all the children of After the grant has the primary school-going age in my home in school). been received. • Immunization: (I will make sure that all the under-five After the grant has children in my home are immunized as prescribed for their been received. age). (2) Opportunity • Community Affiliation: (I will acquire the membership of After the grant has Cost the ………. …… Forest Users’ Group in my been received. neighborhood). • Participation in Capacity Development Training: (I or Prior to the receipt other members of my family will participate in the capacity of the grant. development training as specified under the Project). • Participation in Community Meetings: (I or other Prior to the receipt members of my family will participate in the capacity of the grant. development training as specified under the Project).

(3) Livelihood • Regular Savings: (I will save a minimum of my day’s wage Before the receipt of Promotion per month in my own group). the grant. • Women’s pewa (entitlement): I alone will be entitled as in the case of pewa, to possess, manage, and use or dispose of After the receipt of any grant, whether in cash or in kind, received under the the grant. Project, including all earnings thereof, and all in my family have agreed to this).

In addition, I understand that I shall receive the budget only on completing the preparatory work as follows:

(i) I and my husband shall go to school ourselves to find out what needs to be done for enrolling our daughters: and (ii) The group will have to arrive at a conclusion as to the suggestion that high-quality pieces of hide-tanning equipment may be bought to be run at group level and shoe-sewing machines may be had individually.

Signature of the husband: Signature of Group Member: [or another member of the family]

Date: Date:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………. The group member’s plan is reasonable.

Recommended by the Recommended by the Approved by the Chairperson Facilitator Chairperson of the Group of the Committee

Signature Signature Signature

Name Name Name

Date Date Date

Annex 7 Revised Baseline Survey Format

Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups in Mainstream Rural Development Household Level Baseline Information of the Group Member

District: ……………… VDC: ……………….. Ward No. ……… Village/Settlement: ………… Date of Information Collection: ………………. Name of the Inquirer: ……………………… 1. Individual Information Name of the Group Member: ……………… Name of the Household Chief: …………………… Number of Family Member: Female …………… Male ……………. House No. (according to Social Mapping): ………………………………………… Status/Rank according to Well-being Ranking: …………………………. Age …………… Caste ……………. Religion ………………….. Educational Status: Illiterate Literate Primary Level Secondary Level Campus Level Informal Marital Status: Unmarried Married Single (Widow) Type of Household: Joint Family Single Family Relation with the Household Chief: ……………………….. 2. Name of the Group and Committee Number of the Group: ……………… Date of Formation: ……………. Position: ……………. Name of the Committee: …………. ... Date of Formation: ……………. Position: ……………. 3. Family Population Female Male Total Age Group Literate Illiterate Literate Illiterate Literate Illiterate < =5 years 5-16 years 16-60 years >60 years Total

Number of 5-16 years school going children: Boys ………… Girls …………… What these children do if they do not go to school: Number of Boys: ……………. Description of Work: ……………….. Number of Girls: …………….. Description of Work: ……………….. 4. Health and Sanitation 4.1 Are the children below 5 years immunized? Yes No 4.2 If no, why: ……………………………….. 4.3 If yes, describe the types of immunization given to the children below 5 years Measles Yes No DPT Yes No Polio Yes No 4.4 Main foods given to the pregnant mothers and children: Green Vegetables Yes No Fruits Yes No Milk Yes No Pulse, Rice, Maize, Dhindo/beans Yes No 4.5 Status of Household Sanitation: Good Fair Care Needed 4.6 Source of Drinking Water (specify): ……………… Distance ………. minutes 4.7 Provision of Toilet Yes No 4.8 Use of Toilet Yes No 5. Economic Information 5.1 Type of House: A) Thatched Hut B) Tin /Stone Roofed House C) Number of Rooms ………... 5.2 Description of Land: Khet (Low land): ……………. Ropani/kattha/bigha Bari (Up land): …………….. Ropani/kattha/bigha Others (specify): ………….. Ropani/kattha/bigha

5.3 Food production: Major Crops Quantity (mt/Kg.) Khet Bari Others

5.4 Duration of food sufficiency from own production: …………. Months 5.5 If not sufficient for the whole year, how you manage during the shortage period? ………………………………. 5.6 Information on Livestock Cattle Buffalo Cow/Buffalo Goats Pig/Hog Poultry Others Calves Cow Bull Female Male Female Male Female Male

5.7 Presently, is the family is in debt? Yes No 5.8 If yes, Source of Debt Duration Purpose Amount (Rs.) Annual Interest Rate (%)

6. Annual Income Source(s) and Expenditure Income Source Rs. Expenditure Rs. Crop Sales Education Fruits Sales Foods Vegetable Sales Clothes Livestock Sales Vegetables Dairy Product Sales Fruits Wages Medical Expenses Service Others Others Total Total

7. Gender and Social Information Activities Role (Mark who is mostly involved) Remarks Male Female Both Children 1. Division of works (A) Household Works • Cooking • Washing • Drinking water hauling • Dish washing • Child care etc. (B) Productive Works • Farming • Animal keeping • Wage labor • Service • Trade 2. Access and Control Access Control Remarks Female Male Both Female Male Both • Household affairs • Land • Livestock • Farming • Education • Purchase and sales of property • Foreign employment • Service and trade • Agricultural inputs Social and community participation • Attendance in meetings • Executive membership • Social activities e.g., marriage, bratabandha etc.

8. Participation in Training 8.1 Have you or your family member participated in any training in the past? Yes No 8.2 If yes, Name of the Training Organizing Institution Place Duration

9. Are you or your family member affiliated with any other group or User Committee? Yes No 9.1 If yes, which are they? ……………. ……………. ……………..

Signature of the Inquirer: Name of the Supervisor: Signature:

Annex 8 Household Development Budget Request Form for Group Members

Date: The Chairperson ………………… Committee

Sub: Budget Request Dear Madam: I hereby request you, through my group, for releasing the …….. budgetary installment budget to carry out the activities included in my approved HDP under the Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups Mainstream Rural Development Project as mentioned hereunder. I also promise to fully utilize the amount received in accordance with the Project Document and the HDP Preparation and Grant Mobilization Guidelines.

Activity Activities Total approved Requested budget Total amount Remarks Code budget now including that requested now In In Total In In Total In In Total In In Total cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) 01 Fulfillment of the basic needs 01(1) House Repairs - - 01(2) Household accessories - - 01(3) Clothing - -

Activity Activities Total approved Requested budget Total amount Remarks Code budget now including that requested now In In Total In In Total In In Total In In Total cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) 01(4) Medicines - - 01(5) Education - - 01(6) Food - - - 01(7) Others - - Sub-total – basic needs 6,180 02 Community affiliation and 6,180 X X X X X X X X X capacity development 03 Creation of livelihood opportunities 03(1) Increasing labor productivity - -

Activity Activities Total approved Requested budget Total amount Remarks Code budget now including that requested now In In Total In In Total In In Total In In Total cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. cash kind Rs. (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) (Rs.) 03(2) Development of own business - - Subtotal – livelihood 12,360 opportunities Total – basic needs and 18,540 livelihood opportunities Grand total 24,720 X X X X X X X X X

Applicants’ Signature: Name: Group number: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. The applicant’s demand is reasonable.

Facilitator’s Signature: Name: Date…/…/…. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. I hereby recommend, as per the decision of …………… of the group that the applicant’s demand is reasonable.

Signature of the Chairperson of the Group: Name: Date…/…/…. Decision of ………… of the Committee

Approved as demanded Returned to the group for the following reasons: Rs. ……. Approved with the following changes in the demand Signature of the Chairperson of the Committee: Name: Date…/…/…. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Decision of the Women Development Office Released as demanded Remarks Signature of the Chief office or the Chairperson of the Committee: Name: Date…/…/….

Annex 9 Household Development Budget Request Form to be submitted by the Committee to the DWDO

………………………… Women Development Committee ………………………. Reaching the Most Disadvantaged Groups in Mainstream Rural Development Project List of the Household Development Budget Request Form Date…/…/….

Amount received to date Amount received now Total amount, including that Remarks requested now S. N. S.N.

member member Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. cost Rs. Rs. cost cost Rs. Rs. cost cost Rs. Rs. cost Group number number Group Total Rs. Rs. Total Total Rs. Rs. Total Total Rs. Rs. Total Livelihood Livelihood Livelihood Basic needs needs Basic Basic needs needs Basic Basic needs needs Basic Name of group of the Name Opportunity Opportunity Opportunity Opportunity Opportunity Opportunity promotion Rs. Rs. promotion promotion Rs. Rs. promotion promotion Rs. Rs. promotion

Total of the Committee

Signature of the Facilitator: Signature of the Chairperson of the Committee: Name: Name: