Progress report for
Creating and nurturing vibrant partnerships to achieve the sustainable development goals in tribal regions of Western India
Achievement at a glance
In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the targets registered on the SDG<br>Platform, VAAGDHARA has reached more than 1100 villages and has achieved the following:-
<br>- 17,000 Tribal families are directly linked with sustainable integrated farming system -
<br>inclusion of Hunger, Food sovereignty, sustainable livelihoods and improving bio
<br>diversity.
<br>- 70,133 numbers of children positively impacted in 1100 villages on the issues of Child
<br>Protection, Child Development, Child Survival and Child Participation.
<br>- 6,900 farmers increase their additional income by 15% - 20% through adoption of
<br>Sustainable Integrated Farming System and Horticulture Development Programme.
<br>- Formed and strengthened more than 700 Community Based Organizations on the issues
<br>of Sustainable Livelihoods and Child Development and Protection.
<br>- 11505 children and their families are linked with different Social Protection Schemes
<br>and programmes of the Government.
<br>- Increased Food security for female heads of households (from 21 to 53 percent) and for
<br>children (from 23 to 53 percent).
<br>- Diet diversity increased by an average of three additional foods a day, especially milk,
<br>vegetables, and roots and tubers--now grown in home gardens.
<br>- The percentage of new mothers who breastfed their infants within the first hour of birth
<br>increased from 47 to 83 percent.
<br>- Created 12 Child –Friendly villages in Banswara district of Rajasthan, India.
<br>- 2000 Number of Women Volunteers is acting as Change Agents among villages and
<br>generating knowledge and awareness on nutrition and agriculture among the
<br>community.
<br>- 4400 Nutri-Sensitive micro plans under NREGA are submitted and 1939 plans got
<br>sanctioned amount up to 300,000.
<br>- 720 Families are linked with National Horticulture Mission and got 40 kinds of fruit
<br>plants (Guava, Mango and Lemon).
<br>- 158 women are using internet for their livelihood up scaling activities.
Challenges faced in implementation
During the implementation of various programmes to achieve SDGs various challenegs has<br>been faced which are as follows:-
<br>- Lack of awareness and accountability among the local level structures and other
<br>stakeholders to achieve the SDGs.
<br>- The Government Mechanism is very time consuming which at times makes the
<br>processes more complex.
<br>- Lack of follow up and review mechanism by the Government, especially in the context of
<br>SDGs.
Next Steps
In the next phase of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and VAAGDHARA’s<br>objectives, by 2022, the organization will focus on 6 Key Result Areas, each of which
<br>encompasses a specific set of distinct approaches and related activities. The Key Result areas
<br>are as follows:-
<br>- Strengthened people’s organization and tribal leadership demands increased public
<br>investment in tribal area on nutrition, education and sustainable livelihoods focusing on
<br>most vulnerable families.
<br>- Empowered Janjatiya Swaraj Sangthan-JSS facilitate increased access to state
<br>entitlements for the members.
<br>- 100 Gram Panchayat-GP have adopted ecologically harmonized developed plans.
<br>- 100000 families in 10 identified districts in tri-junction, have benefitted from,
<br>VAAGDHARA innovated culturally aligned processes, technologies (NSFS) ensuring
<br>sustainable production and consumption, livelihoods.
<br>- 50% of villages, 100 GP are child friendly, where all children in age group of 6-14 are in
<br>school, having quality education, enjoying good health, participation and free from
<br>- Institutional and meta-governance capacities of VAAGDHARA are strengthened to
<br>support innovations, learning and efficient implementation.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries include the tribal people from all age group who have been largely excluded
<br>from the development story of the country. VAAGDHARA has decided that by 2022, it will focus
<br>its efforts on “poor people in tribal dominated geographies”. It has decided to extend and
<br>strengthen its work in Tribal tri-junction reaching to communities in the states of Rajasthan,
<br>Madhya-Pradesh and Gujarat. It will also initiate taking programme learning to build
<br>developmental processes to benefit wider tribal community in central India and other similar
<br>regions.
Actions
The specific actions taken by VAAGDHARA to positively impact the beneficiaries are as follows:-<br>- Promoting the low – cost interventions such as Nutri- Sensitive Farming System and the
<br>Sustainable Integrated Farming System without compromising on efficiency and
<br>productivity to ensure Sustainable Livelihoods of the Tribal Community.
<br>- Building the capacities of volunteers and Community Based Organizations (including
<br>Women Self Help Groups, Farmers Group, School Management Committees, SHG
<br>Federation etc.) on the issues of Sustainable Livelihoods and Child Development and
<br>Protection.
<br>- Awareness generation among the community on the subject of Agriculture, Child Rights
<br>and on different schemes and programmes run by the government through the
<br>Community Radio Station.
<br>- Establishing convergence with government programmes under different projects to
<br>maximize the reach of the beneficiaries.
<br>- Capacity Building of 2000 Women Volunteers as Nutrition Advocates who provide
<br>knowledge and awareness on nutrition and agriculture.
<br>- Facilitated improved wage rates under MNREGA
<br>- Awareness generated among 1 lakh tribal women on digital literacy.
<br>- Establishing linkages of families with the various programmes and schemes of
<br>government meant for Community Development.
<br>- Building capacities of 1345 members from Local level Government Institutions and
<br>structures including Panchayat.
<br>- 3516 number of Children who previously engaged in child labor is removed from labor
<br>practices.
<br>- 1916 Children are get prevented from Child Migration to cotton field industries as well
<br>other harmful industries and out of that 1126 children get enrolled in schools.
<br>- 8100 Children equipped with life skills training including thematic areas of gender
<br>equality and child protection and 414 Youth undertook vocational Training.
<br>- 1966 Community members trained on child rights issues and awareness on child
<br>tracking mechanism.
<br>- 309 Teachers are trained on child-friendly methods and classroom transaction process
<br>improved for better learning outcomes.
<br>- 12628 Children attended government primary school and demonstrated improvement
<br>in learning outcomes.