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Process documentation of the Writeshop at KILA from 8.7.15 to 13.7.15 to develop
Guidelines for participatory planning for GP Development Plans in the context of the
14th Finance Commission Grant
1. Aim: To develop:
a. State-specific guidelines for participatory planning by Gram Panchayats in the
context of the 14th Finance Commission grant
b. A training strategy for Gram Panchayats as per the above guidelines.
2. Dates: 8 - 13 July 2015
3. Venue: Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), Thrissur, Kerala
4. Participants: State teams that led and oversaw the process of planning in the context
of the 14th FC grant were to participate in the workshop. The States had agreed to set
up FFC resource teams to develop necessary system support for implementation of the
FFC award in the State. These teams were required to attend for the entire duration of
the Writeshop. States were divided into big, medium and small, and the number of
participants from each category was to be 5, 4 and 3 respectively, and a total of around
120 participants from States. States may be asked to select experts from MGNREGA
and NRLM to be part of the State resource team, as planning for these programmes can
also be facilitated through this process. The concerned SIRD faculty were also required
to participate in the Writeshop.
Ultimately participants from 27 states (all the Part IX states except Manipur and 2
Schedule VI states – Mizoram and Nagaland) participated in the Writeshop. State wise
list of participants is given as Annexure-I.
5. Resource persons: National resource group was set up to facilitate the workshop.
Many of the resource persons were from among those who had been involved in the
planning process for decentralised governance in Kerala. Additionally people from civil
society organisations, MGNREGS and NRLM were also invited as resource persons to
the Writeshop in view of their experience with rural issues and participatory
development processes. Resource persons from NIRD&PR, SIRDs and KILA were also
roped in. A one day meeting of resource persons was organised on 23.6.2015 to come
to a common understanding about the workshop and the role of resource persons
therein.
Names of resource persons:
1. Dr. M N Roy
2. Shri Dilip Pal (S pl. Secretary, West Bengal)
3. V.N Jithendran (Director, Social Justice, Kerala) – unable to attend on account of
illness
4. Sandeep Tambe (Director MGNREGS, Sikkim) – unable to attend on account of
transfer
5. Dr P.V.Unnikrishnan (Professor, TISS)
6. Dr Joy Elamon (Intercorp)
7. N. Jagajeevan ( Social Security Mission)
8. Liby Johnson (NRO Kudumbashree)
9. Nirmala Sanu (DFID)
10. Sahiruddeen (rtd JDC, SIRD, Kerala)
11. Manik Dive (PO convergence, Maharashtra SRLM) – attended on last 2 days
12. N. Narendranath (PRADAN)
13. Sonali Srivastava (Head, Decentralised Planning, Avantika foundation – first 2
days)
14. Anita Gurumurthy (Director, IT for Change) represented by Nandini for the first 2
days
15. J. B Rajan (KILA)
16. Dr. P. Jayalekshmi (NIRD&PR)
17. Dr. Surya Narayana Reddy (NIRD&PR)
18. Dr Anita Brandon (SIRD Rajasthan)
19. Subrat Kumar Mishra (SIRD Odisha)
20. Manas (MGNREGS consultant, MoRD)
21. Dhruv Sengupta (NRLM)
22. Philip KM (NRLM)
23. Manu Shanker (NRO, Kudumbashree)
24. Sushma (NRO Kudumbashree)
25. Ashraf (NRO Kudumbashree)
26. (NRO Kudumbashree)
27. Shibabrata Kar (UNDP SCPRI)
28. Kiran Jyoti (UNDP SCPRI)
29. Rishu Garg (UNDP SCPRI)
30. Rajesh Sinha (UNDP SCPRI)
31. Krishanu Bhattacharya (UNDP SCPRI)
Officers who participated in the Writeshop from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj included
1. SPR
2. AS RSS
3. JS SM
4. JS NS
5. Dilip Kumar , Dir IFD
6. Jaswinder Singh US IFD
7. Debashish Pal DS
8. Shivakumar US
9. Puneet Sharma US
10. Abhay Garg SO
Total number of participants, excluding senior officers of MoPR was 172.
6. Resource material
It was decided to make the following material available to the participants for the
writeshop –
For all participants:
1. Toolkit on Writeshop
2. Schedule (Part of Toolkit)
3. GP profiles
4. Hard copy of ppt of SPR on participatory planning
For each State :
1 12th FYP Plan Formulation LSGD Kerala
2 12th FYP Kerala-Subsidy LSGD Kerala
3 12th FYP Kerala-Project Forms LSGD Kerala
4 12th FYP Kerala-Plan approval LSGD Kerala
5 11th FYP Kerala Plan Formulation LSGD Kerala
6 District Planning Guideline Planning Commission of India
7 V Ramachandran Report Planning At the Gross Root
Level
8 S M Vijayanand Classical Decentralization KILA
9 SAGY Guidelines Ministry of Rural
Development
10 SAGY_Village Development Plan Sahyadri E - News
11 SAGY Training Module Final Ministry of Rural
Development
12 Participatory Identification of Poor
-
13 Participatory Rural Appraisal Vikas Publishing
14 WriteShop Toolkit Ministry of Panchayati Raj
15 S M Vijayananda PPT Writeshop Ministry of Panchayati Raj
16 11th five year english SDC Cap Deck
17 Decentralisation SDC Cap Deck
18 Emerging issues CSES / CRM / SDC Cap Deck
19 Gender in Panchayati raj Sakhi Women.s Resource
Centre
20 GPK manual-agriculture Karakulam GP
21 GPK manual-ayurvedam Karakulam GP
22 GPK educational institutions ayurvedam Karakulam GP
23 GPK manual-engineering Karakulam GP
24 GPK manual-panchayat Karakulam GP
25 GPK manual-primary health Karakulam GP
26 GPK manual-vetenary Karakulam GP
27 Gramasabha English SDC Cap Deck
28 Gramasabha Malayalalm SDC Cap Deck
29 Jagratha Samithi SDC Cap Deck
30 Managing Disasters Trust For Village Self
Governance
31 Panchayats and Protection of the
Environment
MAITHRI
32 Emerging voices Sakhi Womens Resource
Centre
7. Methodology: Participants were oriented to concepts and methods of decentralized
participatory planning by SPR, followed by detailed discussion on the various
activities pertinent to participatory planning and plan approval. They further
undertook field visits to Gram Panchayats to see the process of planning followed.
Participants then developed generic guidelines for participatory planning over 3 days
of the Writeshop, after a strategy setting exercise. The last activity was to develop the
capacity building strategy for the State to operationalise the GP development Plan,
and project requirements. States also discussed their key takeaways from the
Writeshop and suggested activities to be undertaken at their end and at the level of the
Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
Preparatory work:
1. By the Ministry
SPR interactions with top bureaucratic and political leadership of 24
states on the possibilities of the GP development plan
Discussions with MoF on FFC and GP development Plans
Letters sent to State Governments
Toolkit prepared touching on Writeshop methodology, Activities for
the GP Plan and template and note for GP visits, FFC guidelines etc
Schedule drawn up and finalised
Resource material for the writeshop identified and KILA entrusted to
source information
Videoconference held with participating States on finalising participant
lists, updation of resource envelope exercises and preparation of
introductory chapter to the guidelines
Videoconference and follow up with KILA on the GP visit modalities
and overall arrangements for the Writeshop
2. By KILA
Visit to identified GPs, profile of GPs
Workshop with GP Presidents, Secretary and other stakeholders on
organisation of GP visit
Transport and accommodation arrangements for participants
Catering arrangements
Venue arrangements
Setting up of support faculty team for the Writeshop
Preparation/printing of resource material for the Writeshop
Preparation of participant kits and State kits for the Writeshop
3. By NRO Kudumbashree
Layout and design of tool kit
NRG discussions
The NRG were required to be present on the day before the commencement of the
Writeshop and the specific groups touching on each area to be expounded before the
participants had break out sessions for strategy setting on how the subjects were to be
broached. The specific groups were :
1. Group on Resource envelope and system support
i. Neerja Sekhar
ii. Sahiruddeen
iii. JB Rajan
iv. Puneet Sharma
v. S.K. Biju
vi. D. Sanky
2. Group on Environment generation, participatory planning and envisioning
exercises
i. Dr P.V. Unnikrishnan
ii. Dr Joy Elamon
iii. Dr. Jos Chathukulam
iv. D.K.Pal
v. Nirmala Sanu
vi. N. Jagajeevan
vii. Liby Johnson
viii. N. Narendranath
ix. Sonali Srivastatva
x. Nandini
xi. Dhruv Sengupta
3. Group on GP Plan development and approval
i. Sarada Muraleedharan
ii. Jagajeevan
iii. Nirmala Sanu
iv. Philip Mathew
v. AVG Ramachandran
vi. K.J Kurien
4. Group on Capacity building
i. Rashmi Shukla Sharma
ii. Anita Brandon
iii. K. Jayalakshmi
iv. Surya Narayana Reddy
v. Subrat Kumar Mishra
vi. J.B Rajan
The resource envelope, plan development and capacity building group opted for an
interactive session based on probable questions that would be relevant to the topic,
while the group on participatory planning broke into technical sub sessions, and opted
for a combination of presentations and discussions.
Proceedings of the Writeshop
Day 1 - 9.7.2015
a. Concept setting
The Secretary Ministry of Panchayati Raj gave the introductory lecture on
preparation of gram panchayat development plan converging resources over
which the gram panchayat has command. His presentation covered the following
The fourteenth finance commission award
background of grassroots planning
the nature of local development plans
the rationale for GP level planning from policy, State, GP and Citizen
points of view
Initiation of the planning process and environment generation
Fixing the resource envelope and the planning unit (GP/ cluster of GPs
etc)
Support arrangements including use of technology
Processes of GP Planning, including setting up of task forces, data
management, situation analysis, covering various sectors
human development, social justice, poverty, infrastructure, water
supply, sanitation and delivery of other services
visioning and strategy setting exercises with 5 year perspective
Projectisation and due process of approval, documentation as plan
Vetting and approval, disclosures and dissemination
Focus on costless development
Content of a GP Development Plan
Convergence with MGNREGS, SBA, housing, NRLM
Development of poverty reduction plan
Implementation support
Accountability and other systems
Human resource and capacity building for planning
Need for action plan for operationalising decentralised planning
b. Detailed discussion on GP Development Plan components
After the introduction to the writeshop methodology, the States were split into 2 groups, each
of which was given inputs on the 4 broad areas mentioned below:
1. Resource envelope and system support
2. Environment generation, participatory planning and envisioning exercises
3. GP Plan development and approval
4. Capacity building
The States were split into two groups on the basis of extent of HR availability in the Gram
panchayats. The 2 groups were :
Group I Group II
1. Kerala 1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Karnataka 2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Tamil Nadu 3. Bihar
4. West Bengal 4. Haryana
5. Maharashtra 5. Himachal Pradesh
6. Gujarat 6. Jammu and Kashmir
7. Madhya Pradesh 7. Mizoram
8. Chhattisgarh 8. Nagaland
9. Odisha 9. Telengana
10. Rajasthan 10. Uttar Pradesh
11. Assam 11. Uttarakhand
12. Tripura 12. Jharkhand
13. Sikkim 13. Punjab
14. Goa
The group sessions were organised in such a manner that the resource envelope and
participatory plannings followed one upon the other, and the projectisation and capacity
building discussions were held simultaneously.
The purpose of the group sessions was to familiarise participant States to the steps required to
be undertaken in the participatory planning exercise, and the need to elaborate and
contextualise to the State scenario. Broadly the steps are
1. Identifying resource envelope
2. Identifying GP mandate as per State Act and devolution – in respect of basic services
to be delivered
3. Clarifying role in identified CSS
4. Positioning HR for facilitation of exercise
5. Environment generation
6. Situation analysis
7. Visioning – stakeholder inputs including gram sabha
8. Need assessment
9. Stakeholder consultations on situation analysis and need assessment
10. Projectisation – multi sectoral task forces
11. Finalisation of development plan and validation in gram sabha
12. Vetting of plans
13. Plan approvals
14. Supplementary arrangements – technical approvals, fund flow etc
15. Supporting guidelines – Procurement, beneficiary selection etc
16. Capacity building for participatory planning –trainers, methodology of training,
transaction rounds etc
Due to the number of sub topics that were to be handled in participatory planning, the
sessions took longer than were scheduled, and the Capacity building session had to be
postponed in the case of Group II. The presentations made in these sessions are attached
as Resource envelope and Capacity Building presentation.
Day 2 was to be entirely devoted to gram panchayat visits, and preparatory arrangements
had been made by KILA. 13 Gram panchayats in Thrissur district had been selected for
the visit. The Director KILA and Dr J.B Rajan had visited all the GPs. A videoconference
had been held between JS SM and director KILA in which the agenda for the visit, the
different sessions and interactions that were required, the material that had to be prepared
etc were discussed. KILA then held a preparatory workshop with the Gram panchayat
presidents and secretaries to ensure that all the requisite people from among resource
persons and civil society, as well as all ERs and implementing officers of the panchayat
would be available for discussions, and that the presentations made by the GPs focused
on the processes of participatory planning. A brief profile of each Gram panchayat visited
was prepared by KILA in separate booklets provided to the visiting teams. (Annexure--)
States were allotted specific panchayats for visit so that there were around 10 persons per
GP. Resource persons were also distributed across the GPs such that KILA RPs and NRG
members were both available for every GP. The Resource group for the Writeshop met
after dinner to assess the day’s events and to discuss the modalities of the GP visit. All
participants had been given a note for the GP visit which touched on the objectives of the
visit, and provided a checklist of 32 indicators touching on
a. role of GPs in participatory planning
b. preparatory arrangements
c. participatory processes
d. plan formulation, projectisation and approvals
e. institutional mechanisms
A template for the GP visit which broke up the interactions into the following sessions,
indicating what were the aspects that needed to be gone into, had also been circulated.
Interactions were organised with the Panchayat committee, the local resource groups
who had been involved in the early day of the Peoples’ Plan, the working groups for
project formulation, the community bodies of the Kudumbashree and padasekhara
samitis, school management committees etc, the implementing officers and
functionaries of the panchayat and the Standing Committees. The NRG was briefed on
their role and the matters to focus on during the interaction. (The Note for GP visit and
the Visit template may be seen as attached.
Day 2 - 10.7.2015
The GP visits encompassed the entire day – the teams left KILA between 7.30am and
8.30am in the morning and returned between 6pm and 8pm in the evening. All the
participants availed of the opportunity and interactions to clarify issues, understand
challenges and appreciate practical solutions. They also took time to interact with
community structures and understand their relevance and participation in planning for
local development. The NRG team had the daily debriefing as well as preparation for
the following day. It was decided that in the wake of the panchayat visit, the pending
CB session could be dispensed with. It was however felt that the participants needed to
have clarity on state specific aspects of the GPDP. Therefore instead of the format of
writing sessions followed by discussions that had been planned for the 3 days, it was
decided to first get the States to discuss their doable plans and the broad strategies that
could be adopted and share their strategies in the same groups of day 1. The template
for discussion was:
1. What is a doable Gram Panchayat development plan for the State?
– Basic services
– Poverty reduction etc.
2. How will you do need assessment for such a GP development Plan?
3. What will be your participatory planning processes?
– Tools, activities, HR support?
4. What is your technical support mechanism?
– For project development?
– For appraisal and approval?
It was also decided that rather than provide thematic inputs in respect of their specific
area of expertise, the NRG would take up specific states as smaller teams, and provide
support for the entire chapterisation work undertaken by the State teams. The states and
the members of the NRGs that facilitated them are indicated below:
Day 3 – 11.7.2015
The morning sessions were undertaken as parallel sessions as on day 1, with JS SM and
Dr. Unnikrishnan leading Group I and AS RSS and Dr. MN Roy leading Group II. The
NRG members sat with the State teams, while the States deliberated their strategy for
GP planning. After an hour and a half of discussions, state wise presentations were
made and feedback provided by other members and the NRG. Details of state specific
presentations can be seen within the State wise folders provided as State presentation.
The proper business of the ‘writeshop’ commenced from the afternoon of Day 3, as the
teams got down to discussing and detailing the action points for the various chapters of
the guidelines. The session on NRLM had to be cancelled due to the inability of the AS
MoRD to attend. A presentation was made by Dr. M.N Roy on resource envelope and
participatory planning , which may be seen as attachment of same name. A progress
sheet was prepared and put up inside the hall to enable the States to record the
completion of chapters. The time frame for completion of chapters was flexible,
although broad time frames were indicated, so that the states could know whether they
were on track. The teams went around states giving suggestions and feedback, and
clarifying specific doubts raised. Most of the teams worked on till past 8pm at night.
During the NRG meeting, it was further decided that the States would be requested to
prepare presentations on their capacity building strategy the following day rather than
keep it to day 5, on the lines of the strategy setting session the day before.
Day 4 - 12.7.2015
The forenoon session was taken up with the ongoing work of chapterisation. The
afternoon session began with a presentation on Plan Plus and the opportunity of using
it during the participatory planning exercise.
The post tea session was on Support Systems and Capacity building for GP
Development Plans. A format for discussion and presentation on systems and capacity
building was prepared and given to States, which may be seen as attachment of same
name. The discussion touched on who were to be covered under training for GPDP,
selection and CB of resource persons, infrastructure and logistics, monitoring and
quality assurance, and CB plans for the current year. The States were also given a
capability matrix to plot the requirement of GPDP Capacity building on the basis of the
work to be done at various levels and for various components.
In the NRG discussions, it was suggested that the final session could commence at 11
am, and that an interactive session which could capture key takeaways through flash
cards would be organised by Joy Elamon, followed by a valedictory session to be
structured in the following manner:
a. State views on the way forward
b. Follow up sought from the Ministry
c. Reflections on the Writeshop
d. Vote of Thanks.
Day 5 - 13.7.2015
The State teams continued with the preparation and fine tuning of the chapters of the
guidelines. The morning session was brought to a close by 12 noon. The status of
completion of the chapters as reported by the State teams was as follows:
No. of States that completed all chapters (12) : 20
No. of States that had completed over 80% of chapters (10 or more): 4
No. of States that had completed over 50 % (6 or more): 3 (Bihar, Kerala,
Uttarakhand)
The closing session began with the exercise on takeaways anchored by Joy Elamon. Some of
the key takeaways identified are listed below. The details may be seen at attachment of same
name.
i. Clarity in GP development planning
ii. Jab Jaago Tab Savera
iii. Inclusive planning
iv. Swaraj through local government
v. Planning systems linkage with line departments
vi. Framework for Village development Plan
The major recommendations by the States for the way forward, including their expectation
from the Ministry as made in the final session have been recounted below:
i. Chhattisgarh : create resource pool of participants; would like HR
support
ii. TN : Advisory on conditionalities to be introduced for participatory
planning; need support in creating enabling environment
iii. Punjab: MoPR to issue guidelines on how RGPSA can be utilised for
Capacity building
iv. MP: Just as line department acitivites are bing synchronised with
SAGY, similar synchronisation with GP DP needed; need
handholding of the State task force; May create Facebook/
WHATSAPP groups on participatory planning
v. WB : MoPR to issue comprehensive guidelines; GPDP to be made
mandatory
vi. Sikkim : Need handholding support; request MoPR to do proof
reading of GPDP draft
vii. Karnataka : Exposure visits to sites of participatory planning to be
made compulsory
viii. Odisha : DPRCs should be given funds; one more round of
discussions needed before finalisation
ix. Rajasthan : guidelines need to be cross verified
x. Bihar : Other Ministries and departments need to be made to
coordinate for the GP DP
xi. UP : Instructions may be issued to conduct State level workshops;
MoPR to take initiative for IEC interventions; how are
Administrative expenses of GPs in this regard to be met?; cells may
be set up at State, divisional and district levels
xii. Telengana : Apex meeting with states and top officials may be
organised by MoPR
xiii. AP : MoPR should constitute mini secretariat of all 29 subjects;
Operational guidelines may be issued to all States
xiv. Maharashtra : Need for TV campaign on GP DP; brand ambassador
needed; competition among states to be encouraged on GPDP;
National level RPs to be positioned; Provision for PMU and for
trainings to be incorporated into the RGPSA Plans
xv. Haryana : planning wing/cadre to be inducted in every State for GP
DP
AS RSS proceeded to give the Ministry’s response, saying that the suggestions would be
discussed in the Ministry and further action intimated. She then went on to thank all the
participants, and the NRG for the deliberations of the Writeshop and KILA for the
arrangements and support provided. The Writeshop came to formal closure by 2 pm on day 5.