CONTENTS Foreword 6 Statistical Overview 8 Leadership 9 AKRSP(India)’s Development Approach 11 State Reports 12 THEMES 18 Community Institutions 18 Gender 26 Strengthening Local Governance 28 Sustainable Agriculture 30 Livestock Development 33 Water Resources Development 37 Soil and Water Conservation 40 Decentralised Drinking Water Systems and Water Testing Laboratories 42 Sanitation 44 Renewable Energy 48 Education 50 Skills and Entrepreneurship 54 OUTREACH 56 VADVAI: Capacity Building Initiative 56 Partnership with Civil Society Organisations 58 NEW INITIATIVES 60 Multi-thematic Rural Transformation Initiatives 60 Research and Documentation 61 Our Team 62 Financial Summary 64 Media Coverage 66 Donor Partners 67 Office Addresses 69 Annual Report 2016 3 4 Annual Report 2016 Annual Report 2016 5 FOREWORD The year that was from the desk of CEO For rural India, 2016 largely provided a good monsoon and reasonably good yields though Saurashtra and Dangs in Gujarat had poor rainfall, affecting agriculture and drinking water availability. Demonetisation however impacted the rural economy (November 8, 2016 was right in the middle of Kharif sales & Rabi input purchase). Only time will tell whether the impact was short term or medium term. AKRSP(I) has initiated steps to build capacities of rural citizens to manage in the changing economy. Civil Society Organisations did not have a great year; first there was the potential application of the Lokpal Bill on all their Trustees/Senior Office bearers and then the suspense over the renewal of the FCRA. And yet it is a sector which is never short of optimism and hope; new organisations emerged while the older ones continued with vigour. AKRSP(I) in 2016: Overall, 2016 became a year of many firsts; the first time AKRSP(I)’s programmes in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar became large (Overall AKRSP(I) crossed staff strength of 400), the first time we had the chance to influence policy in Bihar, the first time we took up large-scale work with small ruminants and the first time we ran a development management course for tribal youth. Women’s day celebrations were big events with thousands of community members gathered to celebrate the day. Padyatras were very effective in Dangs along with leaders’ conference held during the event. Education programme saw expansion during the year with all three states now having education as integral part of programme portfolio. Under education, we have interventions for early childhood development (ECD) in Gujarat and Bihar in partnership with the government supported anganwadi system. There are two approaches for children between 6-12; in Gujarat we provide additional support (Learning Enhancement Programme) in 40 schools while in Bihar, we have now graduated to working with entire Primary Schools under the School Improvement Programme. Learning levels amongst children witnessed improvement in 2016. Sanitation Programme continues to grow despite many challenges at ground level. Three schools in Gadu and Sayla regions won Swachh Vidyalaya Puruskar recognising the quality of work done by the team. The unprecedented focus by the government on sanitation has helped thousands of women own and access toilets, and AKRSP(I) is partnering with the government in all 3 states for facilitating the clean village approach amongst communities. One downside of the time-bound approach is the tendency of some officials to over-state the achievements; declaring villages and districts open-defeacation free ahead of schedule. This poses a severe challenge to field staff and local government officials as they seek to separate the genuine from the exaggerated information. Some exciting models emerged under Irrigation development namely irrigation market development through solar pumps in Bihar and diversion based irrigation in Madhya Pradesh particularly deserves commendation. We also saw success of check-dams programme in Netrang through support from CSR. Drone based videography of land and water related activities in Dangs and Netrang provided an overview, which was missing earlier. PIM also saw scaling-up in South Gujarat, through various follow-up efforts from the team. There is need for policy influence to develop context programmes to enhance water control for tribal communities. 6 Annual Report 2016 Solar programme for irrigation and domestic use continues to impress us. We hope to touch 50 solar irrigation systems soon. The current outreach is 700 farmers, which is a good progess for a relatively new programme. It is also heartening to notice various models of solar irrigation and domestic lights being piloted by our team. Agriculture now includes several types of activities across all geographies of the organisation. We plan to enhance Pulses production in Bihar, which is a national priority. Goat rearing program continues to grow in Madhya Pradesh and now in Bihar. Poultry in Madhya Pradesh shows high potential. Dairy Programme for the poorest reduced as there was a change in government policies in Gujarat. Organic cotton and drip irrigation in cotton continues to scale-up with the support of CSR support. Many challenges exist in both of these initiatives. Conservation Agriculture brought us accolades at many platforms, our case study won a national level award in addition to opportunity to present our work in World Agronomy Congress. We expect this to grow in coming years at higher pace. SRI too needs our attention to make it more result oriented. We expect horticulture trees to start fruiting in near future. Attention needs to be shifted to productivity and marketing of horticulture produce. Farmers’ institutions also saw some progress; however there is long way to go before they become self-reliant institutions owned by the farmers themselves. Micro-finance activities helped women in starting many new micro-enterprises using their own savings, bank credit and Nabfin credit. Skills development related activities were affected due to piling up of receivables from government. Team is trying to establish fee based structure as mitigation measure. New courses on trades like nursing and beautician were started by the team during the year. Stitching courses for young girls and women in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are in high demand due to employment opportunities available locally. Good governance is on the way to become an integral strategy of our work in tribal dominated regions of AKRSP(I) geographies. Studies have shown that mobile based extension system is very effective in reaching remote tribal areas with useful information. Governance team is playing important role in social security, empowering PRIs, health and education related entitlements to poorest. We entered into partnerships with many new donors during the year in addition to continued support from existing donors. This year also saw visits of many high rank government officials including chief minister of Bihar visiting our work there. Our work was continuously highlighted by media throughout the year. The overall expenditure was Rs.78 crores, 36% more compared to 2015. Audits and financial reports are now the time-consuming cost of doing development work and AKRSP(I) submitted 426 financial reports across 64 projects. The systems developed ensure transparency for communities, government and donors. Staff strength increased beyond 400 in 2016; 8 new offices were opened in rural areas, taking the total offices to 61. In Learning and Sharing, two end-term evaluations including the European Union funded project on drinking water and sanitation in Bihar and the Tata Trusts funded project on livelihood enhancement in Madhya Pradesh were completed. While several other research studies and baseline studies are done regularly by AKRSP(I), some studies have a major impact on policy/programme collaboration. One such study was that done on potential for Irrigation Development in Dangs. This report has been found to be of use by the government, and it is likely that their own investment in Dangs will be influenced by the study recommendations. Annual Report 2016 7 STATISTICAL OVERVIEW Details Achievement in Year 2016 Cumulative Till 2016 Coverage Villages (no.) 256 2289 Households (no.) 31200 249372 Village Institutions (no.) 920 11232 Women’s Institutions (no.) 553 6735 Rural Governance Panchayats Strengthened (no.) 96 96 Gram Sabhas/Mahila Sabhas Strengthened (no.) 96 96 Citizens Benefitted (no.) 15939 33557 Sustainable Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Practices (households) 7984 28061 System of Root Intensification (households) 3126 28383 Conservation Agriculture (households) 96 153 Agri Input Supply (households) 12870 65853 Agri Equipments (households) 954 10225 Farmer Producers Organisations (no.) 10 18 Soil and Water Conservation (ha.) 993 50260 Agro Forestry/Horticulture (households) 1560 18831 Vegetable Cultivation (households) 7575 38785 Water Management Canal Irrigation Societies (no.) 18 165 Lift Irrigation Devices (no.) 7 968 Check Dams and Irrigation Tanks (no.) 35 1395 Well Irrigation (no.) 245 1411 Farm Ponds/Bori Bandhs (no.) 115 1992 Water Use Efficiency Devices (ha.) 1171 14317 Forestry Joint Forest Management (no. of villages) 0 83 Livestock Development Dairy (households) 42 5194 Poultry (households) 524 1201 Goat Rearing (households) 8667 12557 Pashu Sakhis (Paravets) trained (no.) 68 126 Veterinary Services provided (households) 8667 15079 Renewable Energy Solar Powered Irrigation Schemes (no.) 5 10 Alternative Energy Coverage (households) 797 71106 Drinking Water and Sanitation Roof Rain Water Harvesting