The Future of DFID’s Programme in India

Written evidence submitted by VSO

About Us

1. VSO is an international development agency with over 50 years of experience working in a variety of settings worldwide. We take a unique approach to tackling global poverty, by placing committed volunteers with carefully selected partners - from grassroots groups to government ministries. Our 1600 volunteers use their skills to improve the impact of aid efforts for poor and marginalised people. By working closely over time with partner organisations, they provide the right support to help ensure that local development efforts deliver greatest impact and value for money.

2. VSO has worked in India since 1959 and currently works through international and national volunteers on programmes across three VSO goal areas: Disability, HIV and AIDS and Participation and Governance. In 2009, VSO India registered as an Indian non-governmental organisation. In the future, VSO India will work through local staff reporting to a national board, and will integrate the learning and experience gained by VSO globally over the past 50 years. VSO works in partnership with DFID in India through the INGO partnership agreement programme (IPAP).

Executive Summary

3. VSO welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the International Development Committee’s Inquiry into the future of DFID’s programme in India. Despite India’s rapid growth and increased international standing, there are still 450 million men, women and children in the country living on less than $1.25 a day. This represents over a third of the world’s poor. While India’s economy has thrived in recent years, the proceeds of growth have not been spread across all sections of society; leading to increasing social and economic inequality. As such, inclusive growth and the improvement of essential services have been identified as government priorities, in order to ensure that the benefits of India’s economic growth reach poor people.

4. The mid term appraisal of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for India showed slow progress in poverty reduction, food security, access to education and health care, climate change mitigation and adaptation and infrastructure.

5. DFID’s role in India has been primarily to address institutional accountability, enhance access of poor and marginalised communities to services and to encourage structural reforms. However these efforts are limited and there is need for more work to be done. VSO’ recognises DFID’s contribution to poverty alleviation in India but believes that new and innovative ways of working should be established. For example, DFID should work not only with the poor communities but increase its work with growing populations in India such as the 300 million members of the middle class and young people. The role of India’s growing and dynamic private sector should also be considered to encourage them to become more aware of social and development issues and play an active role in the development of active citizenship in India.

6. VSO has recognised the distinct benefits of engaging members of the Indian Diaspora to volunteer their time and skills in the country. While there is much informal contact and many informal and familial networks that link the Indian Diaspora to India, DFID could look to use them more in the future in pursuit of development outcomes.

7. DFID should continue to support excluded groups including girls, women, religious minorities, scheduled caste and scheduled tribes [1] , disabled people and people living with HIV so that they have better access to basic services including education, health, employment and social security.

8. On climate change, progress to achieve MDG 7 has been slow. As a growing economy, India has to balance the twin challenges of sustainable economic growth with ensuring that such growth does not cause lasting damage to the natural environment. More effort needs to be given to ensuring that India possesses the technical skills to achieve sustainable growth.

9. DFID should continue to strengthen the capacity of civil society groups and government structures in the areas of governance, climate mitigation and adaptation, raising voices of marginalised and excluded groups so that they can uphold their rights enjoy full and equal access to information and entitlements and also work on enhancing transparency and accountability.

DFID's Programmes in India

10. There are 421 million people living in poverty in the eight north Indian states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal [1] . This is higher than the estimated 410 million poor living in the 26 poorest African nations [2] . There is a great challenge, therefore, to reach MDG1 in India.

11. The nature of poverty, and the context in which it is found has changed greatly in India. The challenges of inclusive growth and improvement of essential services have been identified as government priorities, as the benefits of India’s economic growth have failed to reach the poor. Although rural poverty remains a great development challenge, a poor person is now increasingly likely to live in a town or city in India [3] .

12. VSO’s partners have been engaged in a number of poverty alleviation projects that have been either partly or fully funded by DFID. For example, the Network for Enterprise Enhancement and Development Support (NEEDS) is a VSO partner working in Jharkhand state. NEEDS has been part of the DFID funded Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme. Murari Choudhury, head of NEEDS, commented that the programme was "focussed on the most poor and access to entitlements. [PACS] is the only programme in India, which directly focussed on access to entitlements by the poorest communities. The programme has had a large impact towards enabling people to access entitlements including social security, food entitlements and land rights." However, Mr Choudhury, like many respondents, commented that the engagement should have run for a longer period of time: "…the programme was only for three years and not much change was realised. There should have been longer engagement with communities and civil society groups to have a larger impact in the community…at least till the MDG timeline expired."

13. VSO partners welcomed the recognition of civil society in fighting poverty in their own communities. Gangaram Paikra, of CHAUPAL, a civil society organisation and VSO partner in Chhattisgarh commented, "Although the government of India has formulated and implemented various poverty alleviation schemes…the poor and excluded communities are still far from accessing them due to lack of awareness and information. This is also associated with the problem of poor capacity at the Panchayat [4] level and the presence of corruption at all levels. Hence, there is a need for capacity building of Panchayats, awareness in the community and to foster a culture of good governance."

14. Partners recognised the DFID programme in India as key to driving the inclusion of the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in the country. Many partners commented that the focus on including the most marginalised in DFID programmes has led to a renewed focus on these groups, which is welcome.

15. DFID's interventions in India have been focussed on access to entitlements, poverty alleviation, capacity building in government and improving governance. While this is welcome, there is still a lack of support for NGOs and local partners working in the country. VSO believes that support for processes of awareness building amongst excluded and vulnerable groups and strengthening grassroots civil society organisations in important to ensure that organisations of the poor are able to hold Government to account.

16. The role of the private sector in development is one that has taken on increased prominence in recent years. In India, the corporate sector is becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of employee volunteering as an effective component of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. However, many corporations struggle with volunteer management and placement design. There is still a general distrust of the credibility of small NGOs in India and, as such, DFID may have a valuable role to play in harnessing this enthusiasm from the corporate sector to promote volunteering and active citizenship and support the establishment of programmes.

Encouraging Active Citizenship

17. VSO believes that active citizenship is about promoting the voice of people in development, encouraging participation in democratic processes and giving people greater access to information and control over the actions that affect their communities. At the same time, active citizenship is about enhancing the responsiveness of those in power to ensure that decisions benefit poor and marginalised people.

18. The Government of India has made inclusive growth a priority and has been working, with DFID's support, to ensure that marginalised groups are included in decision-making and are taking an active role in their own development. At the same time, the Government of India are also working to raise awareness among the middle class, elites and young people to ensure that they recognise they have a key role to play to create and enabling environment for inclusive growth to prosper.

19. There is tremendous potential for DFID to engage the politically influential Indian middle class to stand up and act against poverty in both rural and urban settings. This is matched by great enthusiasm among parts of the Indian middle class to engage in work that improves development outcomes. For example, Teach India 2008 – a social initiative organised by the Times of India bringing together children in need of education with people who were willing to teach them – attracted 100,000 applicants in just three months. VSO India has supported the establishment of volunteering initiatives in India. In its National Policy on the Voluntary Sector in 2007, the Indian Government acknowledged the important role of volunteerism in tackling exclusion. However, the potential of volunteering schemes has not been realised, as local people are often not consulted in the development of volunteering initiatives. There is a potentially useful role for DFID to play here in encouraging the Indian government to harness the potential of the middle class through national volunteering efforts. VSO India will soon be launching V for India – Volunteering for Change which will look to encourage and able local people to act as agents for change and to contribute to sustainable development in their own communities.

DFID’s role in the Relationship between India and the UK

20. The growth of India has changed the nature of the relationship between India and the UK. While the UK will likely continue to have a donor relationship with India, there is also a need to address the country in a number of new contexts, including the role of the Indian Diaspora community and the role of India as an aid donor in its own right.

21. Since 2008, VSO has worked in partnership with DFID to run volunteering initiatives for members of Diaspora communities in the UK. This is one area where DFID could seek to strengthen links between India and the UK. India has around 30 million Diaspora citizens in 130 countries around the world. In the UK, the Diaspora community is now close to 1.5 million people. Keen to support their country of heritage, highly skilled and influential, aware of India’s domestic and foreign policy contact and able to offer an external perspective, they are well placed to be involved in development work in India. Diaspora volunteers have been able to contribute to the growth and build capacity of civil society organisations working with marginalised communities so that they are better able to advocate for their rights, mobilise resources, enhance communication and influence policies in favour of the poor and disadvantaged.

22. India is increasingly becoming an important aid donor in its own right. Recently, aid contributions have been growing, particularly to Cambodia, Afghanistan and a number of African countries like Uganda, Sudan and Guinea. However, there is little transparency in the process or in the allocation of funds. DFID, as a best practice donor, could work more closely with the Government of India to improve transparency, coordination and effectiveness of its aid and alongside this work influence the direction of the Government of India's development policy and practice.

30th March 2011