DA News Update

Development Solutions Branch (DSB)

• JICA-Market Research, supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Government of Uttar Pradesh, is implementing the Uttar Pradesh Participatory Forest Management Poverty Alleviation Project (UPPFMPAP). The project seeks to blend the need for sustainable forest management and the need of livelihood security of the forest-dependent communities.

• Under the UPPFMPAP, a field study was completed that covered 17 villages in the Vindyachal and Bundelkhand region. Vegetable cultivation and collective trading, pisciculture, dairy cluster development, pulse and grains processing, grading, packaging and trading, backyard poultry, watershed development are all emerging as major intervention areas across Mirzapur. The tasks outlined for this project are situation analysis, resource analysis and identification of potential income-generating activities and production processes. In this regard, a workshop/orientation programme will be held on March 13, 2012.

Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA)

• The Seventeenth Poverty Environment Partnership Meeting (PEP 17) was held in Orchha, MP over a four-day period extending from February 6 to 9, 2012. The theme for the meeting was ‘Green Economy for Poverty Reduction: Innovation and Scale’. As a novel change, the PEP meeting was held for the very first time in a rural environment.

• Under SPEED (Smart Power for Environmentally sound Economic Development) project, a comprehensive two days’ Monitoring and Evaluation workshop was organised at Zorba the Buddha, New Delhi on February 13-14. Also, a field visit by DESI power to new and existing sites in Bokaro District of Jharkhand and north Bihar, respectively, were jointly organised along with the Rockefeller Foundation and Sambodhi Team.

• Under VE-SuRE (Village Electrification through Sustainable use of Renewable Energy) project, the Programme Management Unit recommissioned Bakhriwa plant in mid-February, which is operating successfully and electrifying 47 households. Bahratola plant has successfully completed 343.05 hrs of operation and is electrifying 121 households. The Bahratola plant also tested 9 irrigation sites and successfully completed the demonstration, after which it was inaugurated on January 27, 2012 and formally handed over to VEC.

• Under the Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL) Literacy to Self Reliance project, vocational training of over 80 women is currently being delivered in five centres across three villages of Surajpur, Kulesra and Kasna, Greater Noida.

• TLA conducted a 15-day training programme with 40 participants for Presidents and Secretaries of Watershed Committees from February 2 to 16, 2012 at Orchha under the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Mission, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

• A 45-day training conducted on Cutting and Tailoring for 70 women at block Shahnagar (MP) and another 45 days’ training session on Basic Sewing and Bag Making was held for 32 women at Village Radhapur, Tikamgarh were held under DPIP, Panna (MP).

• A 3-day exposure visit to Orchha was organised from February 19 to 21, 2012 for 10 participants belonging to the University of Applied Sciences, Austria.
   

Innovation Systems Branch (ISB)

• Under the project, DST Women and Habitat, a workshop was conducted on February 27-29, 2012 with UNNATI in Jodhpur to train women on construction techniques with the focus on stone and management skills.

• The FEM project sites in Bundelkhand were visited for a third party Monitoring and Evaluation Study by Bottoms up Consulting on February 13-16. An assessment report with recommendations and suggestions based on the study has been submitted to the FEM team.

• A dedicated website on eco-friendly brick production www.ecobrick.in has been set up under the SHAKTI project.
   

Communication Solutions Branch (CSB)

• Under the DM Project, participants from the second round of the first Rural Reality Show aired on Radio Bundelkhand were trained on five selected climate change adaptation measures. Approximately 120 participants were trained and handed over the Community Guide, which they will use everyday while following the measures.

• The Development Alternatives Group participated in the ‘India-Africa S&T Ministers Conference and Tech Expo’ organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and the FICCI on March 1-2, 2012 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

• basin-South Asia has released the nineteenth edition of its newsletter on the theme of ‘Policy as a Key Enabler in Eco-Habitat’.

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