Designing and implementing last-mile

service delivery solutions and

innovations: Lessons from Rural

Livelihoods Programs in India

Overview of the Rural Livelihoods Portfolio

Leveraging Institutional platforms of the poor to deliver livelihood outcomes

Specific Investments in Financial Inclusion

Agriculture and livestock

Health and Nutrition

Agriculture/Livestock/Non-farm -Nutrition Linkage

Monitoring, Learning & Measurement of Results

Innovations & Partnerships ( Bihar and Maharashtra Innovation Forum )

Total IDA investments of $ 2.5 billion over the last 15 years.

Investments worth $ 10 billion leveraged from other Government Programs and Banks

Ongoing Projects State level Projects*: Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu

Regional Project: DONER (4 North Eastern States)

National Project: Across 13 states (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal )

Presence across 19 states, nearly 200 districts, 2000 blocks, 100,000 villages and 15 million rural households

Building strong institutions of the poor such as SHGs, their village level and

higher level federations essential to enable them to engage with

State

Markets ( credit markets, commodity markets, service delivery )

Institutions of the poor enable the poor to

Access to resources through thrift , rotation of money, catalytic capital

Exerting Accountability to improve delivery of public services : Health ,

Education, Safety nets ( Pensions & MGNREGA)

Franchise model to improve access to public services : PDS, Sanitation,

health & nutrition services, insurance, marketing of food products

Building Producer Organization of the small holders

Backward and forward linkages, and access to information, access to credit,

technology, markets etc.

352 District level federation

2616 Sub-district level federation

142,000 Village Organizations

2. 2 million Self Help Groups

26. 7 million Members

ZS

MS

VO

SHG

Women Members

•Mobilization, capacity building

Setting up

dedicated

societies

Recruiting

top notch

professionals

Value chain

intervention

in Agrl,

Livestock

Access to

entitlements (

Food Security, DBT,

Pensions

Initiating SHG & VO

formation

Facilitating access

to credit from

commercial banks

12 To 18

months

Establishing

offices and

equipping

them

Recruiting

District &

block teams

Modern HR

Systems

Finance &

Procurement

Systems

Setting up autonomous State Missions

Systems establishment

Establishing District & Block

Teams

Institution Building &

Financial Inclusion

Livelihoods & Entitlement

interventions

Typical sequence of critical activities

0 to 12

months 12 to 18

months 18 – 24

months

onwards

CIF transfer

18 – 24

months

onwards

Health &

Nutrition

interventions

Financial Inclusion

Building Informed, Empowered and Responsible Clients

Micro Planning

Financial Literacy and Counselling “Vitta Mitras”

Community Managed audit and recovery Mechanism

Enabling access to Insurance

Product Innovations using CIF as catalytic fund Debt Swapping, Food Security Fund, Health Risk Fund etc.

Making Formal Financial Sector Deliver Partnerships ( formal MoUs) with commercial banks &

sensitization of local bankers

Placement of customer relations managers (Bank Mitra) to smoothen the transactions at the branch level

Alternate Banking Models for Total Financial Inclusion Enabling access to a suite of financial services at the doorstep

SHG women as CSPs at the last mile

The livelihoods programs created

‘Investment Climate for the Poor’ by

facilitating$1.3 billion of cumulative group savings

$10 billion of cumulative credit flow from banks

$1 billion of livelihoods turnover through collective marketing of agriculture commodities

Agriculture & Livestock

Mixed Agriculture / increased productivity

Border crop/ increased productivity Bund plantation/ increased production

Knowledge intensive agriculture / cost-effective

System of crop intensification/increased productivity

Community-managed extension

Village level seed bank Community based marketing and

procurement

Micro-planning for agriculture

Community managed

Focus on small and marginal farmers

Mobilizing them into producer organizations that work on the entire value chain

Collective procurement of inputs ensuring quality & cost savings

Extension system - Farmer field school based and Community Managed extension systems ensures delivery of extension services at the farmers doorstep

Seed Production and productivity enhancement practices

Focus on climate smart /sustainable agriculture technologies like System of Crop Intensification, Non Pesticide Management, Zero Budget Natural Farming

Working with 25 lakh small & marginal farmers

Productivity enhancement ( > 70% increase in productivity) through System of Crop Intensification across 500,000 farmers in Bihar, Orissa, M.P & A.P

Increased Food Security as a result of productivity enhancement

Nearly 100,000 quintals of seed produced by small & marginal farmers across more than 10 crops

Reduction in costs of cultivation for nearly 19,00,000 farmers through Sustainable agriculture practices

Increased price realization due to collective marketing & value addition

Dairy

Mobilization into dedicated producer organizations

Provision of animal treatment and breeding

services at the village level

Access to better quality feed and fodder

management

Transparent pricing and ease of payments

Backyard Poultry

Management of the mother unit ( vaccination, health

management) by a private entrepreneur

Transfer of birds to individual households only after

the birds are hardy

Partnership with the private sector for technical

support

Dairy

Working with nearly 500,000 dairy farmers across

A.P, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh

Collection of nearly 1,500,000 liters milk per day

(30% of A.P milk production is handled by

community institutions of the project )

Massive increase in the ownership of livestock

amongst poor households. Currently 57% of SHG

households in A.P posses livestock

Increased price realization of 25 to 30 % for the

dairy farmers

Backyard Poultry

Nearly 30,000 households earning an additional

incomes of nearly Rs 12,000 per annum.

Health and Nutrition

Preventive & Promotive Health Care

Curative CareFinancing and Service

Delivery

Human/Social Capital• Health activist/ASHA• Community Resource

Person (CRP)

Fixed Nutrition & Health Day(NHD)

Water & Sanitation

Nutrition Centers

Case Managers

Making Services Work for the Poor – Accessing PHCs & Area Hospitals

Community-owned Pharmacy

Microfinance Product for NUTRITION

Health Risk Fund/ Health Savings

Health Insurance

Community-owned Hospitals

Food and Nutrition Security

Multiple Pathways to Improve Food and Nutrition Security

Enterprise Approach to ensure availability of

nutritious food in local stores

Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture interventions

Improving health, nutrition and sanitation

behavior practices especially in the 1000 day

cycle

Community managed initiatives and access to

safety nets and entitlements

Women’s empowerment through the creation of the

institutional Platforms ( SHGs and their federations )

Agricultural extension activities look at nutrition sensitivity as a key part of design – selection of crops, promotion of kitchen gardens

Nutrition counselling a key part of the dairy and backyard poultry interventions ( per capita milk, eggs, meat consumption increase)

Setting up of nutrition/consumption field schools which enable women experiment with various ways of food preparation and other aspects related with nutrition.

Building a brand of local and healthy food products so that a local market is created.

Transforming Kirana stores to provide various nutrition relevant and health products at doorstep

Nearly 4,200 community managed health & nutrition centers ( CMHNC) in A.P and 82 similar centres in Bihar have been established reaching out to nearly 300,000 families

2.912 kg is the weight of a newborn in CMHNCs compared to the state average of 2.588.

10 per 1000 live births is the infant mortality rate in NDCCs (49 is the state average)

0.34 per 1000 is the maternal mortality rate in NDCCs (134 is the state average)

High number of Digitized transactions

Frontline workers equipped with digital devices

Cost-effective digital content for the poor

Digital empowerment

Efficient decision Support System

e-payment gateways

Local and indigenous knowledge capture

Increased access to technology

Monitoring, Learning and Impact

Measurement

MONITORING - For real time learning by doing

MIS Indicators that enable decision making for the projects

Developing User friendly dashboards

Process monitoring mechanism with a well designed sample, clearly

defined questions and systems of learning and feedback with the

project staff

IMPACT EVALUTIONS - For long term learning from periodic,

scientifically designed evaluations

Rigorous methodology

Key questions examined in line with project objectives

Core model evaluation

INNOVATIONS AND SPECIAL STUDIES - To understand key

issues for project implementation and design

Provide support to identify good research partners and

provide inputs into research design

Innovations - Using innovative designs to estimate the

impact of the interventions and its pathways

▪ Bihar Behavioral experiments

▪ In-depth Qualitative Tracking

Special Studies - Link with research partners and provide

inputs into research design

▪ Resource Block Study

▪ Skills

▪ Community monitoring

▪ Community seeds initiative

Results of a ten year program

Social Mobilization to building community based institutions of poor

Facilitating linkages with commercial banks to improve access to financial services including thrift, credit, insurance and financial literacy

Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture for enhancement of agricultural income

Community Managed Procurement Centers to link agricultural producers to markets

Connecting dairy producers with markets and intervention to improve productivity of livestock rearing

Skill development and employment generation through EGMM

Community managed Nutrition Centers to improve maternal and child mortality, and malnutrition.

Social Action Committees to enable gender empowerment Convergence with other government schemes to improve

access to last mile service delivery

Social Mobilization and creation of an institutional platform for poor

Favorable Investment climate for rural poor including increased investment at household and economy level

Improved Well being Enhancement of existing Livelihoods Higher Market share for Poor Gender and Political Empowerment Better Access to Last-mile service delivery Human Development Impact Policy Impact

Project efforts accelerated the formation of four-tiered community-based institutions

173,841 community resource persons to provide support to these institutions

11.2 million women mobilized into 998,000 self-help groups (SHGs)

Affinity based SHGs further federated into Village Organizations, MandalSamakhayas, and District Federations.

88% of SCs and 80% of STs covered under the project ( Social Inclusion)

22 ZSs

Quality Control of MSsInsurance and safety

netsProviding jobs to youth

Convergance with government departments

1098 MSs

Quality control of VOs

CIF ManagementAuditing SHGs

and VOs

Managing bulk milk collection

units

Handling social issues

38,375 VOs

Quality control of SHGsOn-lending community

investment fund to SHGs

Collective procurementHandling health and

social issues

998,000 SHGs with 11.1 million members

Savings Internal LendingsAccessing Credit from

banksFinancial Literacy

Income increase from US$488 pa in 2004 to US$ 1132 pa in 2009

Five-fold increase in the value of assets from US$837 to US$3983 in 2009 3 % increased ownership of land

amongst participants

875,000 acres freed up from legal issues

Huge improvement in consumption patterns 80% increase in consumption

expenditure

8.3% reduction in food expenditure

7% reduction in health expenditure

33% increase in education expenditure

837

488 543

3982

1132979

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

Assets Income Consumption

2004 2009

US$ 132 million have been

saved cumulatively from CMSA

Higher realization from the

organic produce

US$ 390 million additional

income generated from CMSA CMSA Field Non - CMSA Field

Community Managed Procurement Center(CMPCs): Aggregation of local produce and single window marketing facility to improve market linkages. 2065 CMPCs have handled more than 100 commodities since

2003 1.6 million tons worth $344 million handled during 2011 US$58 increase in agricultural income 10% increase in Maize prices due to CMPCs

Provision of animal treatment and breeding services at the village level; formation of a dedicated community based supply chain catering to small dairy farmers; and fodder development initiatives Massive increase in the ownership of livestock amongst poor

households. Currently 57% of SHG households posses livestock Community Federation manage 2002 bulk- chilling units at

Mandal level 4215 Village Procurement centers managed by community

federation 1,52,000 milk producers linked to the supply chain 344,000 litres milk per day handled during the peak season

and 197,00 litres per day in the lean season 30% of state’s milk production is handled by community

institutions of the project 20% market share of the formal milk sector.

Uses community based institutions to identify and mobilize youth to train, skill and place at various training academies and forges partnerships with various private sector players 582,595 youth trained since 2005 449,205 youth placed since 2005 US$ 660 million cumulative income

generated from the program US$238 million additional income generated

from the program 42.7% of youth trained are from vulnerable

groups

Community based organizations have taken away a major share of rural economy: 10% of rural credit market controlled by

federation under the project 40% of the livestock added into the state

was by community institutions 43% of procured under the MSP scheme

is by procurement centers 10% of paddy procured for PDS scheme 60% of insurance enrollment 50% of co-contributory pension schemes

The project funded community-managed Nutrition-cum Day Centers (NDCCs) to tackle the high child malnutrition problem 4,200 centers have been established reaching 283,000 families

2.912 kg is the weight of a newborn in NDCCs compared to the state average of 2.588.

10 per 1000 live births is the infant mortality rate in NDCCs (49 is the state average)

0.34 per 1000 is the maternal mortality rate in NDCCs (134 is the state average)

3.37 million households participated in food security initatives US$161 million saved from food security initiatives

Various education interventions have reached 229,697 people Early-childhood centers have improved the performance of children in schools

Pass-percentage of students in project supported schools is 14.3% higher than that of government schools

Increased awareness amongst PWDs and improved access to various and public ans private sector services 306,211 persons with disabilities have been mobilized into 32,780 SHGs

Social Action Committees were established to resolve domestic issues SACs formed in 13,058 VOs with a membership

of 112,739

31,749 have been taken up and 22,402 cases have been resolved

51.93% women reported drop in general violence at home

Political voice of the poor women who lead the CBOs has increase 25% of the women elected at all levels have been

involved with project supported community based institutions

Nature of partnership Description Partner Agencies

Outsourcing services Targeting and selection beneficiaries and

delivering services as community

intermediaries

Pensions, ration cards, job cards, MGNREGS works, entitlements

etc.

Help desks and

information services

Provision of information, counseling, technical

advisory, transaction processing support

Banks (Bank Mitra), Insurance Companies (Bima Mitra), Hospitals

(Case managers), Para vet (Pala Mitra), Agriculture and livestock

extension worker, para-botanists, etc.

Community Enterprises Managing last mile delivery of public services

as social business as franchisees for

government, public, private and cooperative

sectors

ZSs as corporate agents of insurance companies, VOs as banking

correspondents / agents, VOs managing PDS Shops, procurement

centers, etc.

Convergence services CBOs partner with government and public

agencies to enhance the reach of their

programs and services

Medical and Health Department, Agriculture/ Horticulture/ Animal

Husbandry/Forest Departments, Primary Education and Higher

Education Department, Women and Child Welfare, Police,

Judiciary, etc

Social audit of public

services

CBOs participate in social audit mechanism

and enforce social

accountability of Government departments

and public agencies using formal or moral

pressure

Panchayats, PDS Shops, Schools, ICDS centers, Hospitals, etc

Various partnerships have improved access to both public and private sector services

Objective of the policy Description

Micro Credit Plan based SHG-Bank Linkage by State

Level Bankers‘ Committee

Develop project financing and specific products for rural poor on a

wholesale basis

Development of land belongs to poorest of the poor Forge a convergence with MGNREGS for development of land belonging

to the poorest of the poor

Upgrade skills of women farmers in sustainable

agriculture

Mahila Kisan Saskthikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) was formed to upgrade

skills of women farmers in sustainable agriculture and increase their net

incomes.

Implementation of State Milk Mission through SHGs The ambitious programme with an outlay of US$1.1 billion aims at

doubling the milk production in the next 4 years

Liberalization of NTFP Trading Girijan Cooperative Corporation Limited permits NTFPs procured by VOs

to sell to private traders on payment of charges

Village Organizations partner with AP Markfed for

MSP Operations

VOs to be paid 1% service charges for procuring maize from farmers

Village Organizations partner with AP State Civil

Supplies Corporation for MSP Operations

VOs to be paid 1% service charges for procuring maize from farmers in

2007. This was increased to 1.5% and eventually to 2.5% in 2009

Loan Eligibility Cards to tenant farmers Cards be issued to tenant farmers to enable them to get loans.

SHG Land Lease Bill SHGs can lease in lands for the benefit of their members for a period of

five years

Land Purchase Scheme One lakh acres of good quality cultivable land would be made available to

SC/ST families of the state

Co-Contributory Pension scheme Introduction of the Co-Contributory Pension scheme

For every US$1 CIF invested groups were able to leverage US$21 as loans

Annual turnover per employee was over US$1 million

Management cost to investment ratio was only .7%

IMPACT EVALUATIONS

Core Intervention

Food security evaluation

SRI Evaluation

INNOVATIONS AND SPECIAL STUDIES

Using behavioral science to design better interventions for

(i) flood affected areas and (ii) the ultra poor

Developing a community based monitoring system

MGNREGA access

Village Organization headed PDS study

400 villages surveyed in the districts of Gaya, Khagaria, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda and Purnea. 200 (Treatment) villages ( 2008 ) and 200 (Control) villages. Sample size consists of 4000 households

The study constructs the analysis through propensity score matching

Statistical techniques used to match HHs across treatment and control groups in such a way that the matched HHs have similar propensity scores

This has ensured that the average treated entity is similar to the average non treated entity, and the only difference is that the treated entity is a project beneficiary and thus the control HH is indeed a counterfactual, albeit next best

Savings and Indebtedness: 58% more households starting regular

savings in treated areas as compared to the Households (HHs) in the

control areas. Treated HHs have significantly less high cost debt burden

than control HHs.

Assetisation: Project Households have significantly increased their

ownership of assets like cows (by 59%) and bullocks (by 177%)

compared to the control HHs.

Food Security : the average project HH has been able to reduce the

duration of food shortage by 27 % as compared to the control HH

Women’s empowerment: A significantly higher percentage of women

in project participant villages go to the Panchayat meetings , provide an

opinion about borrowing behavior, education of children and self-

employment.

Existing partnerships with a range of public and private sector agencies

Institutes of Excellence like DMI, TISS, IRMA, XIMB, XLRI, KSRM etc.

Livelihoods Support Organizations like PRADAN (Natural Resource Management), BAIF (Livestock Development), Landesa (Land Access), Digital Green (Knowledge Management and Capacity Building)

Banking and Financial Institutions like SBI (Kiosk Banking), HDFC Bank (Livelihoods Payments), Axis-Airtel Money (Cash Transfers)

Private Sector Firms like Hatsun (Dairy), KeggFarms (Poultry), Dabur(Honey), ITC (Agri Products)

Innovation forums in Bihar and Maharashtra have identified nearly 100 innovations

Across private sector, NGOs, Social Enterprises, public sector

Across 8 major sub sectors – Agriculture, Livestock, Non Farm Sector, Financial Inclusion, Health & Nutrition, Rural Energy, Entitlements, ICT,