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Delivering Eco-solutions

How does Development Alternatives define the eco-solutions it innovates and delivers?

Our eco-solutions address immediate needs and eliminate poverty without compromising the state of the environment. They function through resource-efficient pathways, emphasising ecologically friendly materials and production methods.

In delivering eco-solutions, DA follows four central principles outlined below.

1. Equity

From its inception, DA has been driven by the aspiration to ensure social and economic equity for all.Eco-solutions improve the lives of the marginalised by providing them with access to basic necessities and uplift from poverty those who subsist on a miniscule fraction of the world’s resources. For instance, DA has partnered with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in support of Women’s Self Help Groups that provide microfinance services to their members in order to enable livelihood generation activities.

2. Environment

Eco-solutions hinge upon the responsible stewardship of our natural heritage and its resource base. The DA Group implements solutions that regenerate the environment, tap renewable sources of energy and materials, transform waste into useful products, and stress resource efficiency. Sustainable land use through agro-forestry in the semi-arid region of Bundelkhand is just one of the ways in which DA fosters environmental regeneration.

3. Economy

For DA, the implementation of eco-solutions necessitates making a tangible impact on sustainable economic development. Replication and scaling are therefore key determinants of an eco-solution’s success: the litmus test is eco-solutions’ capacity to be converted into enterprises generating decent, ecologically responsible livelihoods in large numbers. Among specific measures undertaken by DA toward achieving this goal is the large-scale sustainable housing delivery system functioning through the eco-artisans’ cluster TARA Karigar Mandal, which has connected 2500 households across the state of Madhya Pradesh with livelihood-generating green building services.

4. Empowerment

True eco-solutions lend themselves to long-term implementation by those whose needs are being answered. DA empowers members of developing communities through literacy training and capacity building to design and deliver their own solutions, tailor-made to respond to communally identified needs and address urgent problems such as water scarcity, soil erosion and unemployment. For example, DA’s TARA Akshar, a revolutionary computer-based literacy programme, has enabled about 60,000 women to become literate over the past three years.

Enhancing Eco-solutions through Policy Influence

Good policy facilitates the multiplication of good practices, while good practice informs and influences effective policy. DA’s international events such as the TARAgram Yatra and the Lok Awaas Yatra bring together top-level practitioners and policy makers from all over the world to develop strategies for reducing poverty and regenerating the environment. This approach involves the demonstration of good practices initiated on the ground in Bundelkhand by DA. Nationally, we aim to influence decision makers by building consensus and engaging in consultative processes to foster a policy environment that nurtures innovative and ecologically responsible action.