Empowered lives. Resilient nations. SWAYAM SHIKSHAN PRAYOG (SSP) India Equator Initiative Case Studies Local sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities UNDP EQUATOR INITIATIVE CASE STUDY SERIES Local and indigenous communities across the world are development in marine, forest, grassland, dryland and advancing innovative sustainable development solutions wetland ecosystems. Selected from 806 nominations from that work for people and for nature. Few publications across 120 countries, the winners were celebrated at a gala or case studies tell the full story of how such initiatives event in New York, coinciding with Global Goals Week and evolve, the breadth of their impacts, or how they change the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. Special over time. Fewer still have undertaken to tell these stories emphasis was placed on scalable, nature-based solutions with community practitioners themselves guiding the to address biodiversity conservation, climate change narrative. The Equator Initiative aims to fill that gap. adaptation, disaster risk reduction, gender equality, land The Equator Initiative, supported by generous funding rights, and food and water security to reduce poverty, from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation protect nature, and strengthen resilience. (NORAD) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), awarded the The following case study is one in a growing series that Equator Prize 2017 to 15 outstanding local community describes vetted and peer-reviewed best practices intended and indigenous peoples initiatives from 12 countries. to inspire the policy dialogue needed to scale nature- The winners were recognized for their significant work based solutions essential to achieving the Sustainable to advance nature-based solutions for sustainable Development Goals. PROJECT SUMMARY KEY FACTS Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) empowers Equator Prize Winner grassroots women’s collectives to move from 2017 ‘Margin to Mainstream’. Over the past 20 years, SSP has built robust partnership ecosystems Founded that support women-led entrepreneurship and 1998 leadership in sustainable development. SSP works in low-income, climate-threatened communities Location across India. Since 2009, SSP activities have reached over 5 million people, and empowered over 145, 000 Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Assam, women to revitalize local and household economies. and Odisha States in India SSP has built a movement of grassroots women Beneficiaries leaders who see opportunities in challenges such as agriculture, health, and water and sanitation. SSP’s 145,000 women engagement with a diverse range of partners has Areas of focus enabled grassroots women’s networks to develop their skills and access entrepreneurship, finance, Climate resilience, food security and agriculture, livelihoods, technology, and marketing platforms. SSP has clean energy, health, water, sanitation empowered women farmers and entrepreneurs to take leadership to fight climate change by ensuring Sustainable Development Goals addressed food security, increasing incomes, creating jobs, boosting local economies, and advocating with government. As a result, grassroots women are no longer perceived as beneficiaries; instead they have emerged as partners in driving local initiatives and creating lasting impact. UZ BE Kashi 60° 65° K 75° 80° 85° 90° 95° IS TAJIKISTAN TURKMENISTAN T D A N u c h a nb Hotan SOUTH ASIA e 35° Gilgit 35° Herāt Kābul Chinese Jammu Line Indian Line AFGHANISTAN Peshawar In and du s ād CHINA Islāmāb i Kashmir ind walp Kandahar- Ra Gujranwala Zhob Lahore Amritsar 30° Simla Quetta 30° Multan Ludhiana Chandigarh N Lhasa Indian Line A j utle Yarlung T Bahawalpur S Delhi N Chinese Line I S (Brahmaputra) Xigazê phu P A K Bareilly im Sukkur New Delhi G G E Mount Everest s Y h u a Dibrugarh h 8848 m T Larkana d a n n a I m g P Itanagar a es g r u h A t Dadu n a Kathmandu pu Jaipur a r L BHUTAN a Lucknow a hm Turbad Bra Jodhpur al Gorakhpur Hyderabad mb Kanpur Dispur ha Ga 25° C Gwalior nges Shillong Kota P 25° Karachi V a Udaipur a tn (B r a Imphal a a n na BANGLADESH a si A Gandhinagar ra g Aizawl s) art G Ahmadabad Bhopal Jabalpur Kolkata Dhaka ala ulf o f Kutch Indore Jamshedpur (Calcutta) Khulna Chittagong Vadodara Raurkela a s Mandalay Rajkot Narmad Mahanadi Kharagpur ge n a t M e G a outh of th h Surat Nagpur Raipur b Cuttack Jaipur MYANMAR m 20° a Daman h 20° f K Silvassa f o Bhubaneswar Sittwe Gul INDIA Kalyan Go vari Mumbai Pune da (Bombay) Bh im Hyderabad a Vishakhapatnam A r a b i a Kolhapur Vijayawada Kakinada n S e a K g a l rishna B a y o f B e n Belgaum Guntur Machilipatnam 15° Panaji Bellary 15° A n Bangalore Chennai d Mangalore (Madras) a Vellore Port Blair m Mysore Pondicherry Andaman L a L Kozhikode Salem Islands a n a (INDIA) k (Calicut) s 10° ( K c I h 10° N S a a Madurai D v c d I a e A w r a Cochin Jaffna a ) e a t t d Tuticorin e i p i r a Trincomalee v Trivandrum n Nicobar an e f M Negombo SRI LANKA Islands lf o Gu (INDIA) Kandy Sri Jayewardenepura-Kotte S e Galle 5° MALDIVES a Matara 5° Maldive The boundaries and names shown and the designations used Male on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance Islands by the United Nations. I N Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control 0 200 400 600 km D I A N O C E A N in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been EQUATOR PRIZE 2017 WINNER FILM 0 200 400 mi agreed upon by the parties. 65° 70° 75° 80° 85° 90° 95° Map No. 4140 Rev. 4 UNITED NATIONS Department of Field Support December 2011 Cartographic Section The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations or UNDP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports 43 2012, Marathwada is included in the Drought Prone percent of the labour force in agriculture in developing Areas (DPA) of India. countries are women. When we shift our focus to India female participation is even more. A Press Information In climate-threatened regions of Maharashtra, India, Bureau (PIB) release states 79 percent of rural women in marginal farmers are at great risk and grow mostly India are engaged in agriculture, as compared to only 63 cash crops such as soy and cotton, which require more percent of rural men. water, chemical fertilisers, and pesticides. The result is long-term damage to their land, health, and the In Maharashtra, there are only 93,000 marginal women environment. Compounding this crisis are the few farmers out of 539,000 total marginal farmers working livelihood opportunities available outside of agriculture. on landholdings of one hectare or less. In case of small In fact, the region is sadly notorious for its high rate of farmers operating on landholdings of between one to farmer suicides due to their failed crops and inability to two hectares, the number of woman farmers further pay agricultural loans. plummets to 54,000 as compared to 257,000 male small farmers. Small and marginal women farmers in Traditionally, women in this region, despite being actively Maharashtra hold 112,000 hectares of land out of a total engaged in agriculture, have been only considered of 695,000 hectares of land. as farm labour, with no decision making role in their farms and no support from government extension Located in central western India, the Marathwada region programmes targeted towards building the capacity is a part of Maharashtra State, which is the third largest of women farmers. To address these multiple issues, state in India and plays a major role in country’s economy, Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) piloted its women-led both through industry and agriculture. The climate in the climate resilient farming model starting in 2014, has region is generally dry, with annual rainfall ranging from upscaled it over the last few years. This project focused 675 to 950 millimetres. Because it has been repeatedly on women and their families from among the marginal affected by lower rainfall and sustained drought since and landless groups in the Marathwada region. Origin and structure Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) is a leading learning women’s leadership in post-disaster reconstruction that was organisation established in 1998 and based in Pune, applicable in India as well as globally. Gradually, SSP honed India. Though formally launched in 1998, it drew strength their expertise in recovery and started creating models for from its early origins and learnings in a community-led building community resilience. reconstruction partnership after the Latur earthquake in 1993. The Latur crisis and reconstruction of houses gave Through the years, SSP created large-scale programmes local people the opportunity and impetus to mobilize rural with the government that were aimed at development women for large, community-centred efforts. These women centred around women’s participation and leadership. were recognized as effective facilitators for the extensive SSP built a support system of village level networks reconstruction of infrastructure in the disaster-struck of entrepreneurs – known as Sakhis, which means communities. In time, SSP mobilized these women into ‘friend’ – and social enterprises and that offered business self-help groups. Leveraging the insights gained following skills, financial services and marketing and distribution the quake, SSP developed a replicable model for building opportunities).