"Part 2
This is the second part of the blog published earlier on Rise Against Hunger India’s program strategy and approach in creating sustainable food and nutrition security in last mile “hotspots.”
New Program Strategy (2020-21 onwards)
As mentioned in the part 1, COVID 19 related events led Rise Against Hunger India to critically review its program approaches and develop a new way of addressing food insecurity challenges for the most affected groups. The post-pandemic strategic directions can be broadly categorized as follows:
- Continue the volunteer engagement and meal packaging/ distribution programs through improved partnership engagement and more effective emergency response initiatives.
- Initiate sustained efforts towards food security, hunger action and nutrition promotion in rural pockets with high rates of malnutrition, anemia and food security challenges (hotspots).
Research and Learning
In 2020, Rise Against Hunger India gathered as much information as possible from diverse source to understand and learn the domains it should prioritize, geographical region it should focus on with a long-term commitment.
A comprehensive data review process conducted to identify priority districts based on fifty-four parameters across categories such as population demographics, infant and young child feeding practices, disease burden, pre-natal & delivery care, post-natal & early childhood care, health & nutrition indicators of women and young children etc.
The analysis led to identification of 8 geographical clusters of 34 districts that Rise Against Hunger India could focus on. All districts are identified as ASPIRATIONAL Districts by the NITI Aayog, government’s nodal planning agency. Each cluster represents a group of a group of districts sharing similar climatic, geological, demographic and social conditions. In most cases, these districts were in tri-junction or bi-junction areas bordering two or three States. The map below visual representation of these districts.
Commitment to Long-term Investment in Rural Food & Nutrition Security Interventions Begin
Following the strategic decision by the Board to intensify rural food security work with a long-term impact driven approach, it was necessary to develop an operational plan with implementation model, structure, budget etc.
This exercise was a very open and transparent process to realistically examine the organizational capacity, resources and bandwidth. After careful assessment of resource availability and the capacity of the organization at that time, it was decided that the organization would begin with two Clusters in the Eastern Region covering Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh (Cluster 1) and Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal (Cluster 2).
The first Cluster Office was set up in Jeypore (Odisha) to cover 6 Districts (Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabrangpur in Odisha; Bastar and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh; and Parvathipuram in Andhra Pradesh). The second Cluster Office was started in Deoghar (Jharkhand) to cover 7 Districts (Godda, Pakur, Dumka and Sahibganj in Jharkhand; Jamui and Banka in Bihar; and Birbhum in West Bengal).
Thus began a new phase in Rise Against Hunger India’s programmatic journey.
Diving Deeper in the Clusters - Selection of Communities
The motivation behind going to the priority districts was to show results in the areas of utmost challenge. This was easier said than done.
In India, an average District has a population of around 2 million on covering anywhere between 800 to 1,500 villages with the geography spreading anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 square kilometers. So, for a new entity like Rise Against Hunger India aiming to initiate community-based grassroots activities it was not only overambitious, but it was also impractical.
Even the next level of sub-district geographic areas (Blocks) with an average of 100 villages per Block did not seem a feasible option to start programs. The best way to start operations was to take a small set of 10-15 villages (consisting of one or two Panchayats – lowest of the self-government and administrative tiers) for household level interventions.
So, the very first task was to locate pockets within the districts that are among the most neglected and are too left behind in the development journey. Experts familiar with the districts and conversant in local language/dialect were engaged to conduct field assessments to further study the district’s characteristics and identify most ‘left behind’ communities within the prioritized districts. Based on this exercise, groups of villages in each district were identified for program initiation. This was a time-consuming process, but very enriching.
In most districts, the pockets that were identified for program initiation are inhabited by indigenous tribal communities (earlier known as primitive tribes later named as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups or PVTGs). Most localities are completely cut-off from the mainstream, with little or no communication network, or even other basic amenities. Government services sporadically reach them only occasionally. Trying to get to these locations and conducting community-led programs was most certainly an audacious goal.
Alongside the field assessment and community identification process, Rise Against Hunger India started hiring field teams and installing local offices in the districts. Following this, the very first thing each team was tasked to do was to conduct transact visits and immersion meetings with the villagers and government bodies.
Rural Food and Nutrition Security Program Initiation - A Quick View of the Process Flow
Cluster Program Implementation Structure
Each operational district has a field office to oversee the operations in 10-15 villages, served by 3 to 4 Community Animators each covering 3 to 4 villages. The Field Coordinator located in the Field Offices is responsible to oversee the Animators. For technical inputs and field implementation, Project Coordinators representing three functional domains (Food & Nutrition, Health & WASH, and Livelihood) were hired at the Cluster level. The Cluster Coordinator (later redesignated as Cluster Manager) is responsible for overall operation of the cluster and is supported by a Finance and Administration Officer and an Office Assistant. This structure is visually presented as follows.
(Note: this core structure has remained intact for the past 3 years. For ease of operations, a sub-cluster office was created in one or two locations to reduce the travel time of the Cluster teams to the field locations. For the Cluster based teams, it used to take 3 to 4 hours to reach the villages which was impeding their engagement)
The first part of the series gave a broad outline of the initial program experiences of Rise Against Hunger India. If you have not yet read the first part, click here to go to the post.
The third and concluding part series will have more explanation on the Hunger-Free Village Charter and implementation process.
