Theme

Training Package

Days

Reason for Choosing the Package

Panchayati Raj System

People’s Access to Livelihood Resources under PESA

4

Provisions of Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 has in principle provided a way for tribal autonomy in 5th Schedule area. Since tribes live in resource rich areas and their survival depends on the natural resources, the legislation thus adequately addresses people’s control and ownership on natural resources, though the states in their corresponding laws often have diluted the spirits of law. In the projects dealing with local self-governance in 5th Schedule Areas, the managers/executives need to deeply understand the legal aspects, its implications in field, interface with coinciding laws and status of implementation in their respective area. GI/GIT will give practical inputs in the training, with the current status of implementation in corresponding state.

Sustainable Agriculture

Organic Farming

4

In modern times of input-intensive agriculture and with its negative impacts widely visible, the quest of ecological agriculture added to numerous projects being operational. The managers/executive yet require knowledge and skills to practice or promote organic farming. This training is exceptional in the way that it would cover unconventional and new methods of doing organic farming along with full technical know-how. It will cover topics ranging from N-fixing crops to organic cultivation of fruit crops and market opportunities for organic products.

Sustainable Agriculture

Integrated Pest Management

5

Increased environmental and public health awareness has led to an urgency to implement sustainable agricultural production systems. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an essential component of sustainable agriculture that discourages the injudicious use of pesticides and ensures an integration of various control measures without negative side effects on the environment and occupational and public health. But majority of development projects promoting sustainable agriculture lack necessary skills on IPM. The training package clearly spells and gives inputs on currently valid methods of IPM, assessment of pesticide poisoning, biointensive IPM, integrated weed management, IPM plan, techniques and equipments, and much more.

Natural Resource Management

Community Watershed Development and Rainwater Harvesting

5

Water is diminishing resource on the planet, to make its conservation, development and management an urgency. Watershed development and rainwater harvesting now are in core of natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods development. Assessment, planning, execution and monitoring of water resource development by earning community participation is well difficult and relies on technical capability as well as handling human beings. Training will not only impart knowledge of the subjects involved but also inculcate necessary skills. Teachings of planning, assessment and monitoring will be practical-based, and will be delivered in mountain and plateau environments where watershed development is most challenging. Rainwater harvesting for irrigation and groundwater recharge will be additional inputs. This training offers a new approach in integrating technologies and participatory strategies within the “watershed” for sustainable resource use, conservation and protection.

Livelihood Systems Development

NTFPs Based Micro-Enterprises (Market Interventions & Processing)

4

In tribal belts and the Himalayas, the poor people chiefly augment their livelihood from collecting and selling NTFPs. In case of non-nationalized products, the local traders have monopoly on the business and disallow percolation of economic benefits to the poor families. NTFP collectors need to be empowered with the skills of how to raise prices they get on unit quantity of particular NTFP commodity, how to market NTFPs with bargaining power, how to escape the local or road-head trader to increase the value of produce, how to add value by semi-processing and processing. They can be strengthened to start producing a finished product out of the raw one and sell it in the market. Training thus will equip the manager/executive with knowledge and experience of how to engage SHGs in the micro-enterprise based on NTFPs.

Livelihood Systems Development

Agri-business Development & Supply Chain Management

4

Overcoming poverty through enhancing market access is the current hot topic for development organizations and a complex challenge. With a focus on the medium scale agro-processing industry, this training provides participants with the conceptual framework and practical tools for analyzing market opportunities, developing sound business plans and accessing investment finance. The training will follow a step-by-step approach starting with the selection of the most promising sub-sector and investment opportunity, through analyzing the market-economic environment within which the agro-processing industry is to operate, followed by the drafting of bankable proposals. Apart from identifying the critical market-economic variables in relation to competing for market share and added value, the supply chain management concept also examines the intricacy of network arrangements. Training is must for managers/executive promoting income generation activities (IGAs) through SHGs.

Livelihood Systems Development

Market Access and Improving Local Livelihoods

4

The promotion of market access of goods and services from villages can boost local livelihoods. Poor producers are increasingly affected by global market development and are experiencing (in)direct influences of market economic trends. Local markets tend to be somewhat neglected as instruments for poverty reduction, while it is an area where numerous poor producers can be reached; local market development can make the difference for poor households between life-long deprivation and sustainable livelihoods.  In fact, this calls for changes in the institutional context at local level: local business climate, decentralized policy making, regulations, norms and values in society, relations between local organizations, social relationships between stakeholders, power structures, organizational culture, etc. The training is best for those who intend to promote livelihoods development.

Women Development & Empowerment

Gender Mainstreaming in Planning and Development Action

3

Gender inequality persists in every corner of the world despite a relentless struggle to equalize opportunities between women and men.  Women still constitute 70% of the world’s poor and two-thirds of the world’s illiterates.  As follow-up of gender sensitization, the training focuses on how to incorporate and integrate the gender aspects in all planning and development action. The training package addresses women development and empowerment by exercising inclusive planning of development actions/projects on governance, poverty/livelihoods, human rights and water resource.

Community Mobilization and Motivation

Behavior Change Communication and Community Mobilization

4

In every development project, the mobilizing the community and ensuring participation always remain challenging area for field executives. Communities have resistance to innovative ideas or new technologies. ‘Communication’ plays key role in mobilization and motivation process. Project manager/executive so needs to learn how to change the attitudes and behavior of the local people. Training will provide inputs on communication techniques and tools for changing attitudes and perceptions of the people and for mobilizing the mass towards a particular project.

Community Mobilization and Motivation

Improving Interpersonal Communication Skills

3

In modern social work, the field personnel need to be not only technically sound but also having communication skills. Particularly the interpersonal communication skills contribute considerably to the personal achievements and success in the field. While interacting with the communities, with officials, with other stakeholders and with other colleagues the manager/executive requires specific set of skills. This training equips the personnel with such necessary skills.

Project and Organizational Management

Project Planning, Proposal Writing and Resource Mobilization

4

For each development organization the project proposal submission is mandatory for seeking the financial support. But most of small NGOs and many personnel in big organizations do not have adequate technical skills of grant writing and planning the projects in given socio-political milieu. This training package specifically targets those who like to learn how to write the project proposals provided they understand the functioning of the resource agencies. How to raise resources for the organization is additional input.

Project and Organizational Management

Organizational Outreach (Ways of Publicizing the Organization)

3

In the competitive environment of delivering the social good and grant seeking the organizational outreach is essential in order to create image in external world. Bigger the size of the organization in outer world the stronger the credibility of organization and increased opportunities of resources inflow. Once the space and resource base is expanded the organization can serve large mass of communities and poor. Skills for publicizing the organization are yet necessary for achieving the same.

Project and Organizational Management

Documentation, Reporting and Dissemination

4

Project implementing agencies and some personnel of resource agencies often lack necessary skills of documenting and reporting their own achievements in the projects. Analyzing the situations, the processes of interventions made and the achievements/ outputs is difficult task for the project personnel. Training imparts skills of preparing varied types of documents e.g. quarterly/six-monthly/ annual progress reports, annual report of organization, folder, newsletter, poster, manual, photo book, case book, video document, website, etc. It simultaneously inculcates skills of disseminating the documented stuff in medium-friendly way. Visual presentation of documents is the thrust of training.

Project and Organizational Management

Evaluation and Development of Organizational Capacities

4

The dramatic acceleration of technological, environmental, economic and institutional change currently taking place in the world makes capacity development more and more essential in development organizations. Some broad implications for designing capacity development efforts and for using evaluation as a tool to strengthen an organization’s capacity and improve its performance are discussed. Training outlines approaches and methods for evaluating organizational capacity development, and discusses the importance of evaluation principles as well as issues related to preparation and the carrying out of evaluations.

Project and Organizational Management

Participatory Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation

4

This training is for those who design and manage community-based development programs or projects, and extension officers and field personnel that implement them. Participants are meaningfully engaged to reflect on the practical applications of PPM&E within the context of their own organization, program, or project; and to identify ways to improve their current practices in planning, monitoring and evaluation. The training focuses on how to design and institutionalize participatory planning and M&E systems in projects and programs for continuous learning and enhanced performance.

Advocacy

Media Advocacy

3

Mainstream media is so powerful nowadays that it shakes the roots of polity and legislative. As a tool the media could be used to make the policy environment in favor of poor and excluded mass, but it can happen once the media is sensitive enough towards people’s issues and gives desirable space for such issues. Moreover, sensitizing the media and using the media as tool of advocacy are matters of learning and knowing. Training will provide with the techniques of handling the mainstream media and doing advocacy through using the media tools.

Advocacy

Advocacy Writing Skills

3

Advocacy is persuading people to take action; it's about recommending, supporting, challenging or defending ideas in writing. Most of the field personnel engaged in advocacy works often do not have necessary writing skills. Through this training the skills of such field activists will be strengthened. Focus in this ‘effective writing: core skills’ training is how to write effective professional stuff to win the battle.

Research

Participatory Action Research for Rural Development

4

Action research represents a dynamic, ever-evolving range of practices and applications that are, nevertheless, characterized by a common philosophical foundation. It turns to the community itself to define and shape the concept of action research, first and foremost, through the simple act of contribution. This training is designed specifically for decision-makers working on rural development. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect upon and share experiences in rural development, explore principles of participatory action research (PAR), and experiment with a range of tools for examining multiple perspectives relevant to rural development with stakeholders in the field. Emphasis will be placed on providing a stimulating environment for sharing of ideas among participants, facilitators, and other resource people.

Development Communication

Case Story Writing Skills

2

During the implementation of development projects various case stories and success stories generate that can not only reveal the processes of execution but also give rise to many learnings. But these stories remain undocumented due to the lack of necessary skills at the part of organization. Training program is to impart skills among project executives of how to write case and success stories.

Development Communication

Development of Media Writing Skills

6

Development agencies usually supply the news releases to the newspapers, but either the newspapers do not consider at all or the news is shortened. This is because the news pieces are written appropriately following the principles of news writing. Educated rural youths especially women and the NGO workers should learn how to write in different media forms such as newspapers, magazines and radio, if they want the voices of the people get adequate space in the media. Training package covers writing techniques and exercises of news, news story, feature, article, letter to editor, column, etc. Additional skills on reporting, interview, research and desk review are also given. Techniques of preparing wallpaper and composing newspaper/newsletter are told.

ICT4D

Handling the
E-Communications

3

With the rapid changes in telecommunication technologies, the cheaper and faster ways of communication are developing day by day. E-Communications are becoming the part of everyday’s life. When the industry and commerce have been using the electronic communications extensively, the NGOs are not able to explore the potential to the adequate level. It is because of skill gaps as well as technical barriers. The personnel in development organizations can overcome skill gaps easily through getting training on e-communications.

ICT4D

Multi-Media for Development

7

Training covers extensively the audio recording/editing, encoding, listservers, media archiving, scripting, radio browsing, OOo Wrtiting, Opensource, Impress, etc. This training is specifically designed for those who wish to work on radio production for development sector.