Blog year2008 in october is about ending poverty
http://events.takingitglobal.org/20255 so we hope this week's syndication to 100 blogs will exponentialise to tens of thousands of blogs by then, with a little help from friends like you
sustainability club
http://sustainabilityclub.comsocial business club
http://www.socialbusinessclub.netcollaboration cafe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9nL_a0K97Iyunus 10000
http://yunus10000.com collaboration coordinators for youth dialogues in that city and between cities together with invitations to action specific to each video good news story - eg if you want microcredit to beat off big banks why not help any school try out micro credit with the world's simplest program small change, big changes - a microloanfoundation franchise
Peers across hemispheres and I are far more interested in ensuring that each of these intercity movements vetoes any uses of 20th c failing system methods that the majority of club coordinators -or where elected an honorary board - vote against, than prescribing revenue models.
OPEN SOURCING THE CLUBS
Obviously we should want coordinators to make a living out of work input whlst at the same time recognising that being a club coordinator is probably worth more than having many a professional qualification - or needs to become so if this world is to be sustainable. Equally where profits are repeatedly generated I assume we can find a way iof agreeing some sliding scale that should be contributed either to your favourite grassroots organsiation in bangladesh or to a small list of other potential grassroots partners of future capitalism which should probably need at least 75 of members refendum to confirm
I am very happy if people will negotiate what other rules they would need to want to participate as well as to clarify where they want diferent contant at the mother webs. The main web system I use costs $35 a year per web so its not difficult to imagine that major cties will also want to set up their own branch web or of course a free blog - either of which we will happily linmk from the top of the mother web.
Obviously some of our constitution needs double checking with for example the 100000 bangladeshi's and other Gandhians who are the main practical exemplar of the values we seek to network worldwide so that the future sustains 7 billion brilliant jobs and goodwill multiplying across all women, children and even men.
We wish to learn from each city's most successful ways of mobilising and cross-cultural celebration, as well as metods for ensuring that any action network actually reaches to those in most desperate need of its service. This is one of the big lessons of bangladeshi experience -reiterated by every micro-system designer in bangladesh we have interviewed - once a networks starts empowering the entrepreneur inside it will never get deeper than the deepest needsholders it begins with. This is a lesson that many global NGOs seem never to have begun to grade.
chris macrae
http://worldentrepreneur.netwashington dc inquiries desk usa 301 881 1655
info@worldcitizen.tv y10000 at facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22045349892
About 6 years ago, several of us were moderating quite large webs or network positions in days when we thought that eg ecademy.com and knowledgeboard.com were going to grow as free worldwide social knowhow spaces among hundreds of thousands of concerned people; a question what is the single most connecting information (Q&A) context the worldwide needs to interact. water caused more agreement than any other single context. Beyond yogurt and banking, water is also the biggest map Dr Yunus is currently demanding freedom of market knowhow on, and which 10000 village telecentres will soon be needing a common trust map in asking water-interfacing knowledge that spreads around the world of e-agriculture
http://egrameen.com ; presumably water is potentially quite a large compass of social actions in many communities
so here are some questions:
mostofa- can you find out, is there someone in Grameen who is acting as an editor (or knowledge centre) of what grameen knows about water; also could you ask the alumni circulation list of clinton global uni who met at new orlenas if any want to form a special interest group on water
rick/anne/patrick/mitchell - promises have been made by photosythesis open source netwporks on conducting surveys of leading ecological institutes for what they can contribute to free university peer to peer curricula- has anything emerged on this that can help with the first water angels survey below- or maybe the info is so basic you can provide a lot of the answers;similarly a water quix survey handout could have been the simplest south bank citizens feedback mechanism
rebecca, lesley, samuel- does this connect at all with kenya summit or other africa grassroots communications projects or free university meta-hubs or virtually linking in movements - eg there is at least one large facebook water-africa conference which happens soon after 12 months of announcements; does africa ++ have a special interest group on water or agriculture
lilly,sabine - is there a special interest water network among the 700 who attended yunus st james
tav, guilhem, robert de s -after '7 years of development" has any plex, peoplesworld or other software got a subversion that could be put up to try its potential for trust mapping water
franklin - are there some contributions you can make from being at centre of
http://water-vis-a-bility.net :
peter ditto through being at centre of
http://tr-ac-net.orgothers: can you join the facebook version of water angels quest
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13918057255 and tell us whether it is a colaboration quest that can be replicated to yourt other favourite social networking tool or citizen hubs/forums/student unions searches etc; does anyione want to be an officer of water angels at facebook
===========================
delihgted if experts have editing suggestsions; this is current water angels description of duties
Water angels is a peoples movement that aims to freely share basic water knowledge around the world. We also map water as probably the most basic of system flows. If children and societies do not appreciate systemic and sustainability consequences of something as all connecting as water, we miss the opportunity to make better systemic local to global decisions of every kind. In both theoretical and practical senses , every compound risk to survival of our species - or large subpopulations like those that whose lands may be washed away by climate change – is a system’s mapping crisis. Such crises are made many times worse than they need be by not enough system literacy being distributed wherever there are people.
First Action Challenge of Water Angels
Compile a catalogue that through electronic networks can become as iteratively detailed as societies – and different educational grades from child to adult - need on the hundred of different water problems. At a detailed level of resolution, a water atlas would show millions of localities with water problems ranging from no water at all to plenty of dirty water but not enough clean water, to too much water (places that get flooded). There are also places whose water depends on what neighbours accidentally or hostilely do upstream.
Subsequent System Maps of Water Angels
Water use also needs to be modelled for such dynamic interactions as personal drinking, community keeping clean, agricultural and industrial. As a whole, these uses reveal that water can be subject to all sorts of exponential changes. For example like topical crises in basic food markets in Asia or banking liquidity around the world, if a place has any time of the year when it has only just enough water for vital needs – and then even temporarily loses 10% of supply – the economic crisis is that costs may go up hundreds of per cent and the human crisis may be greater in lives lost. The other main crisis of system literacy can be described as not detecting Future-Now shocks. Due to current personal and governmental literacies and behaviours, the world is exponentially decreasing its stocks of water. As an example, this means that in most richer parts of the globe where water is relatively abundant and so cheap, we are not preparing for a generation or half a generation away when costs of water are much more. If the world does not rapidly increase transparency and collaboration capabilities around water, then it is quite likely that water will be the root cause of even more wars than oil has been over the last half century. If children and adults cannot visualise how to wholly share true maps on a flow as network connecting locally to globally as water, the chances of developing correct biomass maps where water’s flows are interfaced with one or more other worldwide flows are next to zero. It is not an exaggeration to say that water mapping is a necessary skill for there to be any chance of resolving climate crisis in time.
chris macrae us 301 881 1655
http://waterangels.blogspot.com/
When it comes to mapping System Whole Truths , I believe we need to tell a lot more odd couple stories, carefully selected... how about the
2 Social Entreprenurs: Prem Kumar and Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER?
This is the sort of story I replay in my mind when I search to connect these 2 people's biggest truths for humanity
* * *
INTEGRATING WORLDWIDE TRUTH NEEDS DEEPER QUALITIES THAN 20TH CENTURY SHOUTED OVER US
One dimensional language such as: “shall have a social or a capitalist economy?” is wholly irrelevant to local and world citizenry when it comes to life systems that flow through us all. Peoples and places cannot compound strong economic performance over time unless there is transparency and communal empowerment around A) water, B) schools and C) hospitals.
If economists cannot map whether systems are compounding value multiplication up or down, then their discipline is as fraudulent as medicine would be if it was governed by quack doctors. If a place’s systems and transparent system mapping do not simply see the truth of how we are all connected by water health and learning, then there will be no real public servants. They will image and plan over us in ways that compound more and more conflicts. The more they use expensive media to shout democracy the more the future economic destruction is being built into that region and anyone its history of power interacts with.
If a place cannot agree that all its children have the right to open sustainable investments in say their first 14 years related to water, schools and hospital then there will be no energising truth from being united as a animation, a region, nor a world citizen. There will be no peace. There will be no true empowerment of everyone’s lifetime opportunity to explore the freedom of being productive and the happiness of choosing demands that build up from communal basic needs to segmented special joys.
Water is the odd one out of this sustainable economics trio. The cross-cultural integrity of regions (historically nearest the equator) that start with little clean water is urgent whereas those nations which have historically enjoyed several generations of seemingly abundant water have been at risk of getting ever lazier about deep civil society and its interfaces both cross-culturally and environmentally. Twenty five years ago when we first surveyed the future of a globe in which one generation was going to be challengde by an unprecedented rise in networking connectivity, it was clear to almst every scientist we interviewed that the old markets of water and energy were due to start running out of healthy abundance everywhere. This would not compound many difficulties if peoples of the world openly collaborated around photosynthesis entrepreneurs; it would compound the beginning of the end of humanity if we did not. Exactly when global irreversibility sets in is not something that can be predicted ahead to an exact accounting quarter, but we timelined 2015 as a goal or deadline for uniting the world around photosynthesis systems in 1984 and we see no evidence for changing that now. That goal anticipated collaboration in a lot of truth exploration between 1984 and 2015 that has been slow top start and is only expoentially accelerating now. The next 7 years need searches for truth and reconciliation unlike any in human history.
This brings us back to two truth public servants Prem and Arnold, however different their life stories may appear the first time you greet them. One an Austrian who emigrated to as a young man to the freedom of America: a start born in Holywood unlike any seen befopre. He says now that whilst he always believed in the freedom of the American dream he realises it was conditional on having a clean and motivated family start to life, however poor his Austrian parenthood. Out oif Califormina today, he aims to unite the region's people beyond short-term politics of any label on the 3 system communalisers of public service: health, education and the environment t energies that begin with nature’s systems of water and sun. Unlike Arnold who I have only heard on a Charlie Rose tv programme, I have listened for hours to Prem Kumar’s story whilst he was visiting London's citizen networks inspired by Gandhi and other cross-cultural souls. Prem has spent the last 30 years uniting 100 Indian Villages by living in them. Villages join this communal confederation by pledging the vibrancy of our cultures and faiths merit each other’s total respect but water, education and health systems unite us. Once those are actionably mapped in directions that compound healthy wherewithal, the united vilages need to invest in the entrepreneurial capacities of those who are most embedded in sustaining the future. At the rural stage of development, this is women householders and nurturers of family. That’s why microcredit systems designed around women became the next sustainability priority after communal truths of water, schools and medicine centres. Serving all these needs requires hi-trustleaders empowering communities from within, not got governing standard plans from above.
When we listen to Aronool and Prem we time-travel through two different worlds: sustaining the world’s largest state economy and sustaining one of the most truly developing regions. Yet the realistion of socila truth discovers systematically similar leadership maps of how public servants contribute to whether there will be any tomorrows for our next generation - to entrepreneurially compound healthy economies and celebrate whole truth communities.
Exercise: what actions does this story of 2 governors require peoples everywhere vote fore
Much more education at every age and culture on seeing transparent system maps, and valuing what futures we collaborate in compounding
Much more love and genuine exploration around sustaining contexts of health, education and water.
Understanding that sustainability and innovation involve the same communal dialogues of resolving conflicts- what Larry Brilliant calls early detection, early response on any life critical energiser
Do add some of of your own do nows to this list. Water , health and education are participant productions we all need to interact round if the future is to be integral and opportune for all peoples rather than big brothered by a few for a few.
References- please mail info @worldcitizen.tv subject Truth to add links
Empowering Children
1Life-Critical Markets
1Water & Energy
1 2
At this
Map of Africa, we are working towards Make Poverty History 2.0 - an attempt by collaborations
1 2 of
citizens organisations to
Make Poverty History. At
AfricaMPH, we all hope to time our first peak as a map of guides round all the most inspiring community-sustaining projects and networeks around Africa in time for Kenya's first in Africa- the hosting of the World Social Forum
1 2Visa in India seemed to me to be a world class benchmark case of a generation's race out of extreme poverty. I have written up visa's story this way. How would you improve this so that anyone in Africa who could gain from knowing about how Visa's grassroots organsiations for villagers has cycled win-win-wins over 100 quarters (or quarter of a century) chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk
I have had the honour to listen to Prem Kumar for several hours on what he says needed to be done over 25 years to sustain a collaboration between 100 rural villages in India and the community of 100000+ families that this interconnected. This is what I heard. Please note some of the deep contextual nuances of this story are outside my experience; and mistakes in reporting are mine.
We needed to road-map what our priorities to sustainability were. Have communal meetings in every open way from the very start.
Contents
At each of the following cycles in our cooperative development, we clarified goals that all our villagers identified culturally with, took action towards them, then integrated any knowledge into a grassroots up communal governing structure
1.0 Communal Safety for All; Our own sustainability governance over what matters most and longest
2.0 Clean water and natural systems for all; cross-border relationships based on respect as equals
3.0 Microfinance & vocational education prioritised around those who grow up lifelong in our community
4.0 Consensus on exact choice of first export pathway
1.0 Community-up governance and Safety for all
Every village was asked to agree we love safety for each other- we love cultural differences but we are all in this together
1.1 We could not leave a plan of our evolution to outsiders who come and go. We needed the planning agreed and done by the people who were going to be here for ever , and leaders of our community of villages need to be the people who have networked the most connections because they are most trusted
2.0 Clean water; clean systems of agriculture, energy
What came first for us was clean water (which connects with clean agriculture and clean energy). In seeking some outside funding for the water irrigation infrastructure we developed we didn’t just need money; we need the influence of those authorities to ensure that nobody from outside our borders started dumping on us. If they did not love our energy of purpose and the open plans we exchanged with them, then we sought other funding. We need to know funders lifelong goals with us –and our view of how to compound sustainable improvements for all our peoples - not just be told of their quarterly administrative goals. Only we are the epicentre of all the systems that must interface with each other to develop a sustainability web.
This has become vital over time. For example when we started 25 years ago, the distance between the nearest of our villages to a big city was over 50 miles now it may be ten…We need great border relationship but as equals not as we are the poor villagers and they are the rich citizens
3.0 Microfinance those who serve the community the most (in our case women householders because males in families often go to cities to find work and send back some money) ; ensure education is vocational and health-orientated, particularly for those who will be lifelong in our communities. The cottage industries are women co-create typically involve wood crafts.
From the beginning we wanted to contextualise the deepest most sustainable microfinance program. We invite people to come and benchmark our returns. Because we are investing in those whose lives are most aligned to our community’s sustainable evolution, we believe you will find that our microfinance system attains world class standards. Indeed we delight in exchanging views of what those should be if you microfinance program is structured around sustaining 100 rural villages in a way that makes poverty history for all involved. We love forming an association of visitors from anywhere in the world whose corresponding development challenges can make for mutual exchange learning schemes.
Ensure that we have an epicentre and hubs that can relay questions to the outside world and search for the relationships we most need. Our governance structure is a grassroots NGO at the epicentre with very few people. Across India’s civil society the richness of networks of villagers organisations is a far greater nation-building advantage than can be imagined by Westerners who have not studied Gandhi’s lifelong advice and practices. Ensuring every communications loop maps across our lands and back from our future in the world is the only leadership we need, other than project teams who pilot experiments in innovation at a locality; and then franchise that service across every village valuing its delivery.
4.0 Agree what the first export (ie beyond our own needs) quality industry would be and whether it would be regional, national, international in terms of its end goals for success. We believe cashew nuts can progress through all these levels of quality as long as we develop a trading plan where we own not just the crop but progressively top quality partnerships so that we participate in owing all the value of the branded product. These partnerships will need to be interlocal in some cases on other sides of the world; we want to discover who has the most appropriate stepping stone technologies and organic methods for cashew nuts as we raise the brand from regional to national to world quality and value.
This is the 2006 version of the progress at Visa
Mr Prem Kumar
Executive SecretaryYCOVisakhapatnam,
Andhra PradeshIndiaW:
YCOFifty Words: NGO Management,
Rural Development Issues particularly water,
land,
income generation for poor,
women empowerment,
networking with International NGOs,
Professionals relating to Third World Development,
IT Management,
Host international volunteers,
Environment,
Information,
Mural Art & Crafts,
India,
Scotland,
Ukraine,
Films,
Love,
Fun,
Self development,
Happiness,
Challenges,
Relationship,
Support,
NTR sr & NTR jr,
Amitab Bhachaan,
Friendship,
Children and Spicy FoodFind
A Small Note:Today (i.e. 7th October 2005), I really learned following heart touched words from one of the Friends of ecademy and very much impressed my heart to put in my profile, Thanks you "M" for your great words:Years pass. Relatives, close friends and colleagues come and go. Loved ones die one by one. What would be our LEGACY to the world when we are no more? Our individual footprint to remember us by??I am of the opinion that footprint is not based on wealth, power or career titles for eventually such a life leaves us empty and lost yet always craving for something elusive. The more wealth, power and wordly posessions we amass, the more we desire for yet greater fortunes and possessions. Yet if we stop for just a moment, it is truly the simplest things and moments in life, usually taken so much for granted, that bring about the most happiest of memories and impart a deep sense of inner peace.I believe our footprint stems from the humanity within us - generosity, love, compassion, humility and purity of heart. Every moment where we've used our humanity to touch others in some positive way marks our abstract footprints along our life's journey. Each footstep of our life's journey does not necessarily leave a footprint in life. Yet the footsteps that do leave our marks in the world will, without a doubt, become our personal legacy, long beyond our lives and the lives after us.
About myself:I am a Post Graduate in Sociology and presently preparing myself for Ph.D. I selected the subject "FUTURE OF NGOs - STRUGGLE AGAINST HUNGER & EXPLOITATION". I got three children, 2 daughters and 1 son. My elder daughter completed her Graduation and planning for higher studies abroad, Second daughter is studying 8th Standard. My son is studying 5th standard. My wife is care taker of my children and of course she got professional skills in mural art and handicrafts, interior designer. I am mostly care taker of my organisation. We are all living at Yellamanchili, a small town close to Visakhapatnam City (65 kilometres) in Andhra Pradesh.
About my work and organisation:I started YCO in June 1981 with the active support of like minded people of Yellamanchili, Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh in India with a view to create a just society where in the poor will improve their self dignity through self efforts for sustainable development and self reliance. The purpose to start the organisation is to alleviate rural poverty within the target areas of Visakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh. The organisation is secular, non-political and non-profit making in its structure, and focuses its programmes on self-reliance, self-help and community development. Initially YCO operated in four target villages and now extends to over 185 villages and 18,000 families. Programmes are in watershed management, thrift and credit management for income generation for the poorest, health and education including sanitation, and sustainable housing. A micro finance programme was started as an activity in YCO during 1992. Initially the approach was one of the linking self-help groups and banks. This approach changed over the following years, with YCO establishing a separate savings and credit programme to enable the savings of members to be reinvested into the communities through loans offered to the members. The Swayamkrushi Women's Development Mutually Aided Cooperative Thrift Society was registered under the Andhra Pradesh State Mutually Cooperative Thrift Society Act 1995 with the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Visakhapatnam on 26th November 1996, and has been functioning independently since 16th January 1997.
Vision and Dreams:A dream in which children will no longer be put to inhuman work in the match factories anthem homes of testic workers, in restaurants and hotels to do the most menial and degrading jobs, but will be able to go to school, and develop their full potential and gain human dignity that every person has a right to.A dream in which women are treated as equal to men as regards respect, ownership and companionship, and are not in any danger of being burnt as brides, or sold for dowry, malnourished or ill-treated from the very moment of their birth - if they are allowed to be born at all! A dream in which segregation of untouchables in remote, unhygienic, filthy and sordid cheris or hamlets, but where they can live and work side by side with other people of all castes, and can take their rightful place in society as Indian Citizens. A dream of fulfilling people's democratic aspirations which are the fulfilment of minimum provisions and facilities for all, in food, in access to drinking water, in health and nutrition through paramedical and ancillary services; through education that focuses on literacy and elementary and vocational education for all; through transport and roads and area planning that are built through intermediate and relevant technologies; through a system of welfare that caters to basic minimum needs of the sophisticated and computerised model of governance; through judicial institutions that attend to people's pressing problems and conflicts.
MISSION STATEMENT: "To foster a process of ongoing change in favour of the rural poor in a way in which this process can be sustained by them through their efforts:To build and manage appropriate and innovative local level institutions rooted in values of justice, equity and mutual support, which can ensure their sustainable livelihoods.To recreate a self-sustaining habitat based on a balanced perspective of the relationship between natural resources and the legitimate needs of people.To influence public policies in favour of the poor and to build supportive institutional linkages between official institutions and peoples organisations.To support small NGO and foster the emergence of new NGOs working in rural areas. To promote networking among peoples institutions and among NGOs
OUR BELIEFS:It is not enough to teach people to fish when in most cases they cannot reach the river. Our experiences in villages show that too often poverty involves fundamental structural barriers that limit access to productive assets, market and fair wages. YCO's strategy is two fold: Foster alternative systems of the poor through which they mobilise and manage the resources they need; these institutions form the basis for their sustained empowerment. Secondly, lobby with the official system to recognise these alternative systems in their own right and to relate with and support them. YCO believes that it must constantly dig deeper in order to reach the poorest; asserting that 'we are working with the poor', results in working with the enterprising poor unless direct initiatives are taken to support the poorest. Mobilising people to participate in officially designed programmes only adds on one more ring in the chain of delivery; it is not empowering, or sustainable. We believe that unless there is a sound foundation to promote equity, which is based on poor people's organisations formed and controlled by them, all investments to foster "growth" and even to decentralise political power will tend to increase income inequality. The basic needs approach without a direct focus on promoting institutional empowerment of the poor is inadequate and could even be counter-productive; the strategy based on the assumption that the poor require only education, health and skills to break into the market is not supported by ground reality. We believe that our intervention should build on people's strengths, not on their needs to which they will in time respond. We believe that regular savings and investment should form the basis of growth and the people's institutions, starting with the traditional Grama Sabha, are both the basis of their sustained growth as well as the guarantor of constant change in favour of the poor. These institutions are also the basis of a thriving decentralised democratic system.We believe in investing in children, not in isolation, but together with the mother and in the context of the family, affinity group and surrounding environment. Our strategy takes into account the close relationship between the removal of poverty and the concern for the environment, which has been a traditional feature of India's past. Unless the rural environment is managed in a way in which it can support livelihoods, a crucial link in the strategy to eradicate poverty on a permanent basis is missing. OUR
PARTNERS:The following institutions are the primary partners of YCO:Self Help Groups 900Women's Registered Associations 180Self Help Youth Groups 20Water User's Associations 40Village Development Committees 120School Development Committees 75Village drinking water & sanitation committees 120Children Assemblies 10Community Block Plantation Groups 25Group Block Plantation Committees 48Others 12Apart from the people in these institutions, YCO also works directly with approximately 18,000 families in programmes such as drinking water and sanitation, housing, education, health and veterinary care and community forest management. At any point of time therefore, YCO works with approximately 87,000 poor people. It is continuously withdrawing from areas after 12 years and moving into new ones, leaving people with adequate skills and confidence to manage their institutions, investments and resources, and to strengthen and expand linkages with supporting institutions.YCO is supported by several donors, both Government and Private. (15 in country and 4 from abroad). Their relationship to YCO differs. Some consider their partnership with YCO as the basis of their relationship and the project they fund as an expression of this partnership; others relate more directly with the project they support and tend to view YCO more as a contractor.OUR STAFF:In 1995 YCO had 102 regular and part-time staff including volunteers. The number declined to 76 in October 1999 as groups are taking over many of the functions earlier performed by YCO. Besides, YCO's interventions have become more strategic in recent years; this requires fewer but experienced staff. There are 100 volunteers trained in health care, animal husbandry, forestry, literacy and other relevant areas who provide services in project areas, enabling YCO to withdraw. 98% of YCO's staff comes from the rural areas; they are graduates or post graduates. YCO looking for and develops the following qualities in its staff:Commitment, professionalism, innovativeness and the ability to work in a participatory manner. Commitment is defined as the willingness to work in YCO though more lucrative offers for alternate employment are open.All matters related to accounts and personnel are computerised in every project and at the head quarters. The authorised auditors are engaged besides the statutory auditors who audit twice in a year. Otherwise auditors conduct monthly systems audit of major projects and occasional audits when required. All SHGs/Women Associations including Youth Associations audited by Chartered Accountants Firms during 1993-94. Most SHGs paid for this service.
PHYSICAL ACHIEVEMENTS:House Built 2450Community Halls 15Tanks desilted 55Watershed area treated 10,000 Hec.Wells dug/drilled 215Trees planted 13 MillionSchoolrooms constructed 12Schools provided with drinking water 5Schools provided with boundary walls 3Approach road & internal roads constructed 45 KmsMinor irrigation channels renovated 170 KmsBridges constructed across Sarada River 1Village drinking water systems 30Individual toilet units supported 1000Training centres constructed 3Groynes constructed in Sarada River 6
CRITICAL AREAS:There are few critical areas in which YCO is making a significant contribution to development theory, policy and practice. In some of these areas, notably in the SHGs, Housing and Watershed management strategies. YCO's pilot initiatives have influenced change in the state policy. Identifying and fostering affinity groups:Since 1989 YCO has fostered SHGs of the rural poor. These groups not only manage credit, they also provide space for the poor to grow in skills and in confidence to make decisions regarding their lives. They are credit plus institutions. In June 2001, there were 900 SHGs in YCO projects with 9000 members, managing a total fund of Rs. 65,500,000/- of which Rs. 7,985,650/- is savings. They have disbursed over 19,500 loans. Several hundred more SHGs have been fostered in other mandals of the district. NABARD supported YCO with a grant of Rs. 750,000/- in 1999 from its R&D fund, for the pilot initiative to encourage 25 small NGOs in Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Though YCO adopts a non-party political approach, over 300 members of SHGs have been elected to various panchayat institutions. So far banks have advanced Rs. 45,000,000/- as loans to the SHGs through YCO/Women's Cooperative. Management of Micro-watersheds:Around 1984, realising that a major investment in wastelands was required to ensure food security to the poor. YCO began exploring the strategy of micro watershed management. YCO's focus was to foster appropriate people's institutions, which would take on the responsibility of planning, budgeting and implementing treatment measures in a watershed and then managing the investment for sustained impact. YCO has two simple slogans: "Make the water walk" and " Bring the soil back to life" (through judicious use of biomass, compost, silt and soil cover). Several studies have shown sustained increases in remarkable change in the biomass cover, productivity and the ability of crops to weather prolonged dry periods. YCO's major concern however were that all the inputs were grants; this does not lay the basis for financial sustainability; people do not make sound investments if grants are available. YCO has attempted to introduce the practice of taking loans for treatment measures on private lands with banks. This experiment now covers 28 watershed areas. Participatory strategies in regeneration of wastelands and community forestry management:YCO promotes two strategies. One in arid lands lying degraded and fallow and the second in degraded wastelands in moderate to reasonably high rainfall areas. The first strategy in arid zones is based on regeneration of private lands lying fallow, revenue wastelands and other non-agricultural lands lying degraded in the YCO project area. Planting is minimal. Traditional practices used in treatment of upper reaches of the micro watershed and of nalas are recognised and adopted. The overall strategy is based on micro watershed management. YCO's experience indicates that unless people have evidence that efforts to protect and regenerate the upper reaches (largely owned by the Revenue and Forest Departments) and private fallows have a direct impact on agricultural and biomass productivity, there is no motivation for sustained management of treatment measures on degraded areas. The second strategy adopted in the other areas is based on training of different people including forestry staff in participatory management practises, micro planning in each village, formation and training of village committees, identification of affinity groups especially headloads and those who depend on forest products for their livelihood ad forming them into self-help groups, exposure of these groups to other projects and training of NGOs. The objective of this intervention in collaboration with the Government is to ensure people's livelihoods, protect core areas of the forest from pressures and to establish effective Vana Samarakshna Samithies (VSS, Village forest protection committees) to manage and sustain natural resources which provide both the basis for their livelihoods as well as adequate forest cover and protection of flora and fauna.Swayamkrushi MACS:YCO is not a micro finance institution. Hence it consistently refuses to accept loans/grants for on-ward lending to SHGs. However to establish confidence between the SHGs and formal financial institutions, YCO accepted as an intermediary and supported the SHGs to on-ward lending of loans. YCO conducted a survey in 7 revenue mandals of Visakhapatnam District showed that hardly 20% of rural credit provided by official financial institutions. Besides only 800 SHGs fostered by YCO have been linked to banks so far. YCO therefore decided and promoted a community based financial institution (CBFI) called SWAYAMKRUSHI WOMEN'S DEVELOPMENT MUTUALLY AIDED COOPERATIVE THRIFT SOCIETY, which operating independently of YCO and lends to SHGs formed by YCO and other community based agencies. The main objectives of the Swayamkrushi are:• Timely finance (minimum 24 hours and maximum one month) to its members for income generation;• Shelter and settlement;• Strengthen the social capital and improve the self-esteem/empowerment;Setting Up Agro-Industries:YCO promoted "Yellamanchili Agri-Tech Company Limited" with a view to farmers are entitled to both a return on their land and share in processing profits. It is a novel method, which converts farmers into shareholders. Unlike in the previous arrangement where the entire risk defacto was their's, in this arrangement there could be a possibility of guaranteed divided. It will also incorporate the increased land values in their favour. This approach will also improve the employment generation, optimum and sustainable use of natural resources with self-esteem and social capital development. The Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 with the Registrar of Companies vide 01-20843 of 1995/96.
Now we are studying the technical feasibility and economic viability of the following agro-industries to set up in the project area with the expert advise and consultancy: 1. Cashew Processing Unit2. Cashew Nut Shell Liquid3. Cold Storage Plant4. Dehydrated Vegetables5. Tomato Products6. Coconut Shell Powder7. Canned Mushroom (Export)8. Coconut/Cashew Feni9. Desiccated Coconut (Powder)10. Onion Storage Plant11. Micro Irrigation Systems12. Mini-Milk Chilling plant Influence Government strategy:YCO's experience in influencing policy change at the national level and in implementing these policy changes, indicates that to be as effective as possible, YCO also needs to focus on a compact area where other existing institutions required to support innovations in favour of the poor also need to be adequately mobilised and focused so that the institutional base is adequate to support present changes and future impact. New institutions at a local level may need to be established where there is no appropriate support for these innovations.
YCO's strategy rests on three thrusts or pillars: a) provision of credit to the poor for which there is appropriate (if inadequate) infrastructure at the commercial banks, SHGs of YCO and of other NGOs; MOUs have been signed with the banks to support the credit thrust. b) Sarada River Basin through Development through Micro-watershed Management, there is no appropriate administrative underpinning for this at the District level. YCO is involved in the area; this provides a good take off point, but there is a long way to go. c) Off-farm enterprises, there are different organisations of government and training institutes promoted by Commercial Banks. The major presence of private industry in this sector is being tapped.
Training Resources: YCO has not actively promoted itself as a training resource. The demand for training however is far more than it can cope with. On average YCO's 3 Training Centres (all located in project area) and teams conduct 10 training programmes for outsiders (Government and Bank officials, international organisations, volunteers and NGOs) every year. Apart from this, YCO's staff conducts in the villages 180 training programmes (annual average) for our Community Based Organisations and staff. Education:YCO invests both in upgrading the existing educational system and in preparing children to cope with its requirements as well as in setting up alternate systems to cope with those who cannot do so. 15 new classrooms have been constructed, 3 schools provided with boundary walls and drinking water with 70% matching support of Government of Andhra Pradesh under Janma Bhoomi Programme. Systematic programmes are conducted to motivate parents to send children. Over 1200 loans have been taken from SHGs for education. This is a good indicator of the level of motivation. The SHGs monitor the attendance of the member's children and the school committees monitor the performance of the teachers and attend to general school matters. In an effort to encourage excellence, several brilliant children from poor families have been supported to enter professional courses like computer engineering and other engineering courses etc. One technical school in Yellamanchili has been proposed to provide skill trainings to the dropout children who will secure employment after they have trained.
Off-farm Income Generating Programmes:YCO, like most NGOs, is weak in design and marketing; it therefore linked up with industries, which provide support in these areas, while it built up the capacity of the poor to cope with organisational demands and quality control. It did not set up off-farm enterprises but let the SHGs decide. Over 5000 such loans have been provided. YCO provides support services to ensure that value is added to the enterprises that SHG members borrow for.
COLLABORATION WITH GOVERNMENT:YCO collaborates with Government because it recognises that this a strategic link in its efforts to upscale in terms of programmes as well as to initiate policy change. YCO has entered into the formal collaboration with Irrigation department of Government of Andhra Pradesh to improve and reconstruct the groynes, irrigation channels and tanks (World Bank Loan Project to State Government) in Sarada River Basin Area. German Agro Action, Germany is supporting YCO to strengthen the Water User's Associations for effectively utilise the water resources for an integrated development of the area. State Government also registered YCO as an official civil contractor (Class II) recently. Some development works are not able to implement by the women and youth groups of the project area as per the norms lay down by the Government. They needed an official registered contractor to construct the work. Now, YCO will support the local groups to take up development related programmes worth of Rs. 10 million per a single work and assure the quality. This will help to avoid the traditional contractors. The State Government nominated YCO as a member in the District Level Credit Review Committee on behalf of the NGOs particularly review the performance of the Swarnagar Grameena Rozgar Yozna (replacement of IRDP and merging TRYSEM, PMRY etc), which is a Government of India programme. The State Government also nominated YCO as a member in the District Level Water Mission under Neeru Meeru Programme. YCO has been actively involved in promoting the SHG and Loan Guarantee Housing concepts in other countries notably Sri Lanka and Uganda. Staff members of different NGOs from these countries visited YCO for training and exposure. We are now planning to send some of our experienced staff to these countries to train the local people and to assist in strategic planning. YCO has not taken the lead in health sector, it has learnt from others. YCO's health programme however is a small one. It focuses on providing infrastructure support to existing government facilities which are ill-equipped, arranging health camps and early detection and referral of chronic diseases and disabilities, capacity building of local level health workers and check up for children. A unique community based awareness compaign on HIV-AIDS prevention started in 2002 in YCO project area.
reconstructed from Google Meltdown 9 Dec 2005- hope you still value this extraordinary case- mail me at wcbn007@easynet.co.uk if you have views to add , find a missing link etc
what to learn from 25 years of systems supporting 150 villages - NGO: YCO,YELLAMANCHILI, Visakhapatnam, India
Deep wisdom practice exchanges include:
IF you contact Prem Kumar at YCO (
1,,
2), you'll connect to valuable benchmarks for exchanging knowhow, culture and trade. After quarter of a century of developing a cluster of 150 rural villages, we'd be surprised (also happy to know of) any coordinate where you will find more worthwhile systems regarding:-organisation to sustain and improve livelihoods of 150000 rural people-an all-are-one communal culture in spite of different creeds etc-deep knowledge of how to make the most our or irrigation (watersheds) for farming communities-one of the world's lowest cost and most sustainable micro-finance centers for women-one of the most linkedin networks exchanging actionable projects between India, Russia & Scotland-future plans are to do cashew nut processing and marketing better than any comparable cooperative-to show the world the artistic woodcraft talents of this region's culture
As a parallel blog
Water Angels aims to explain - inspired by such great resources as Anita Roddick's new book Troubled Water: one of the greatest sins Northerners & Westerners with water on tap can commit is not to have imagined how most of our 6 billion people without such basic access see their whole lives through water. We can demonstrate that with statistics : eg in arid areas many women spend most of their daytime carrying water for miles and miles. Or perhaps YCO, with the following tapestry of water's threads across village life can be the wake up call we need to be sure that we never again permit our governments to suggest global plans for water that fail the grassroots human context. Currently the world's ten largest organisations dealing with water - Coca-Cola, Nestle, the global utilities etc - need simultaneously to go back to
school & colour the human palate of water with 12 year olds. Otherwise these corporations will have ruined the world's water systems and all of our next generation's humanity.YCO PHILOSOPHY OF WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT:
9. Individual OrientationVisionsHopesAspirationsFearsSelf image/respect“Gurus” models
8. Family OrientationAncestorsCaste, social statusAspirations to leadership,Education, jobsAspirations to power,Wealth, social mobility
7. Collective OrientationSubsistence agricultureFood securityReligion, traditionsCPRs, State lawsWorld views, schoolCapitalistic values, city,new prosperity Future Orientation
6. Inner Human SpaceIntegrity, identityAwarenessSelfishness, compassionResponsibilityAffectionCuriosity, courage
5. Family SpaceGender relationsNutrition distributionHealthFamily planningDistribution of work loadSolidarity
4. Socio-economic SpaceProduction relationsSystems of cooperationCommunity organizationsGovt. InstitutionsMarkets of goods, land,labour and capitalContractors, industry
3. Emotional BasisMemoriesAttachmentsFeelingsAnxietiesBoredom
2. Knowledge and Activity BasisTechnologyAgricultural patternsExperience, skillsTrade knowledgeLabour, crafts, servicesModern professions
1. Physical Basis- Nat. environment(topography, climate)Nat. ResourcesAnimalsHabitatAccumulated Wealth Traditional bound
February 04= Authentic NGO
This section will collect information enabling us to benchmark authenticity of NGO in South & East, and how these organisational systems often have wholly different sustainability contexts and foci than the largest NGOs known in the North, West and "globally". There's a lot to learn particularly for volunteers- what type of NGO do you want to give your time to?One of your editors has done pro-bono work researching the internal organisational systems of hundreds of NGOs. YCO seems, in my experience, to be in the top 1% of any NGO in delivering what is intended to do. Of course, we are delighted to receive your bookmarks to NGOs that you suggest benchmarking as up in the top 1% for improving livelihoods, the human condition and communal sustainability
What Classificiations of NGO do you use (views from N & W)
At
americapolicy.org, a researcher identifies 4 types (though I am a bit unhappy about how 1 and 2 have been explained from a West-North lens) :1) Service-oriented NGOs work directly with a grassroots constituency and provide them with specific services and programs, such as micro-enterprise loan programs or technical assistance. A common model is that of training "promoters" who are from the beneficiary population and are either volunteers or are given a small compensation.2) Grassroots support NGOs(often called grassroots support organizations or GSOs) provide organized grassroots groups with a variety of support services and seek to build the capacity of grassroots organizations. These NGOs often see themselves as supporters and allies of popular opposition social movements. This is their main difference from service-oriented NGOs, who generally work with individuals or initiate small groups of people for specific projects, and do not see themselves as contributing to social movements.3) A number of other NGOs operate in the realm of policy development, lobbying, and information gathering, especially in the environmental arena. These policy-oriented NGOs often have no direct ties to community groups or the poor, although they see their work as part of a broader struggle to empower marginal groups.4) Another type of NGO in the border area is that of advocacy NGOs for labor, environmental, human, women's and indigenous rights.
This is a
Northern appraisal (originally from the World Bank!):NGO Strengths and WeaknessesBecause the nature and quality of individual NGOs varies greatly, it is extremely difficult to make generalizations about the sector as a whole. Despite this diversity, some specific strengths generally associated with the NGO sector include the following:-strong grassroots links; - field-based development expertise; - the ability to innovate and adapt; - process-oriented approach to development; - participatory methodologies and tools; - long-term commitment and emphasis on sustainability; - cost-effectiveness. The most commonly identified weaknesses of the sector include: - limited financial and management expertise; - limited institutional capacity; - low levels of self-sustainability; - isolation/lack of inter-organizational communication and/or coordination; - small scale interventions; - lack of understanding of the broader social or economic context.
Benchmark for microfinance for women in rural community
January 2004 collects together information for understanding why this NGO (YCO at Visakhpatnam) is a benchmark for microfinance in the communityThis post's details are taken from this
document.
SummaryYCO has 20 years of experience in the unique development problems facing poor families in Andhra Pradesh. YCO’s successes include the following:1. The organisation of rural women into self helps groups. This have given them a medium through which to voice their anger and frustration against poverty and to search for their own solutions;2. The establishment of the micro finance scheme, which permits poor families to save and acquire loans to improve their income. This scheme reaches beyond the financial benefits. It also teaches self-sufficiency and self- confidence.3. The establishment of women’s cooperative, an organisation working for the benefit of the community and not for profit. This cooperative shall eventually operate as a bank in its own right giving control to the people over their livelihood. This last is quite crucial. If the Women’s Cooperative becomes as a community based financial institute in its own right and successfully meets all the financial needs of the community shareholders, what is the need for the formal banking sector? One could argue that once the Women’s Cooperative reaches this powerful level, the community members, who not only run the Cooperative but also dictate its policies, will be able to deal with the formal financial sector as an equal partner. Short of this, the communities will always be merely clients who must suffer the insensitivity and inflexibility of the formal banks. The context within which the scheme is operating must determine the strategy used. In the context of formal banks in Andhra Pradesh, an autonomous approach through the Women’s Cooperative has been far more successful than integrating the communities directly with the formal sector.General BackgroundRastriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) or National Women’s Fund is a programme set up by the Indian Government to provide loans to women through an NGO. RMK accepted YCO as an intermediary because of their savings and loan experience and their excellent loan recovery rate; greater than 95%. The RMK programme offered loans up to ten times the capacity of YCO and conveniently by passed the formal banking sector by lending directly to YCO. YCO was able to finance RMK loans directly to the Women Associations without answering to the unresponsive bureaucracy of the formal banking sector. Today, an RMK loan can be financed within twenty days of the loan request, meeting the unique needs of a community vulnerable to inconsistent income.In light of community participation in the planning and implementation of self-help schemes, YCO reflected on its past decade of community work. They realised that the women associations were slowly but surely moving away from autonomy and relying more on outside financial agencies such as RMK and SIDBI. To address this particular concern and to further by pass the uncooperative nature of the formal banking sector, YCO promoted a Mutually Aided Cooperative Society as a Community Based Financial Institution. Swayamkrushi Women’s Development Mutually Aided Cooperative Thrift Society: Self Sufficiency and Autonomy:The main aim of the Women’s Cooperative is to provide timely finance to its members and make the women shareholders of their own institution rather than dependent on external charity. As prescribed by the Andhra Pradesh Government Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Act 1995, Women’s Cooperative members must be recruited from those households living below the poverty line. Additionally, they must either be marginal farmers, landless labourers, artisans or fisher people and must have a perfect track record of savings with their women’s association. At present the Women’s Cooperative concentrates its activities in YCO’s 150 target villages in Visakhapatnam District. They hope to increase by another 50 within the next five years. Known colloquially as the Women’s Cooperative or Women’s Bank, this financial institution was set up in 1996 with an authorised share capital of Rs. 500,000 and increased to. Each member buying ten shares at Rs. 10 per share. After fully repaying any outstanding loans from previous programmes, every women belonging to YCO’s savings and loan programme is welcome to become a shareholder in the Women’s Cooperative.As of March 2001, there were 8890 shared holders in the Women’s Cooperative. All the monthly savings collected by the women associations are deposited with the women’s cooperative, where it earns 9% interest per annum as a recurring deposit. As soon as the savings are deposited they are available for loan financing through the Women’s Cooperative. Unlike the NABARD or other programmes, the member’s funds will be primary source of loans. The Women’s Cooperative charges 18% per annum for income generating loans, 12% for housing and 24% for consumption loans. As of March 2001, the total savings held within the Women’s Cooperative was Rs. 63,00,000. Like the revolving fund initially introduced by YCO in mid 1980s, the women’s cooperative is an excellent example of a community solution to a community problem. All capital generated within the community circulates locally and, as the women’s cooperative grows in reputation and assets, so will the community share-holdings.
women's networks gaining respect for women in rural poverty
Can you help us with any women's networks that either want to be contacted on this issue or where there are already inspiring cases to benchmarkwe are aware of :1
Hunger Project in parts of India, though we could always do with more contacts 2
Kind in Nigeria3 Through
Global Reconciliation, we are one degree removed from the extraordinary work with an emphasis on Africa that Mary Robinson is doing at
Ethical Global 4 We are acquainted with but not as yet actionably connected with the pioneers work that
Meg Wheatley does with inspiring determination5 It is our intent out of the UK to help mobilise some women's student movements using models that people have been sharing with us recently and now that youth female directors have been appointed in organisations we are closely related to such as The
Simultaneous Policy, which has started to link humanitarian politicians in UK, European and Australian Parliaments6 Londoners count ourselves fortunate to be in geographic proximity to
a lady who surely in anyone's books rate in the hall of fame among world's most responsible business-women -of course we'd love to hear of other nominations! The more world responsible business people we can celebrate the more delighted your writer will be. Our mathematician and mapmakers do however apply one of the strictest audits of mutuality that any global corporation complies with before confirming such nominations.7 We are aware that some of the greatest networking economists in the world are female and available to help doublecheck critical social network mapping.
