Consultant For Capacity Building - Swayam Shikshan Prayog

Consultant

Consultant for Capacity Building on Water Infrastructure Planning & Leveraging Convergence through Government Engagement in Osmanabad District of Maharashtra

Osmanabad is an aspirational district in the southern part of Marathwada, known amongst the most drought affected regions of Maharashtra. The district receives an average annual rainfall of 600 to 850 mm with an irregular pattern. The region is marked by hilly terrain causing high run-off. Rocks of the Deccan trap formation make surface water storage a considerable challenge. Osmanabad has no major rivers flowing through it. The region is marked by year-long dry hot weather except for monsoons.

77% of the district’s population is engaged in agriculture. Over 80% of farmers own less than 2.5 acres of land. Only 1.38 lakh hectares (a mere 18.5% of cultivable area) is irrigated according to the Department of Agriculture, Osmanabad. The district’s small farmers are highly dependent on groundwater. As a result, major parts of the district are showing trends of declining ground water levels due to over extraction for irrigation.

In the last decade, several schemes by the Centre and the State have been undertaken to address the region’s water crisis. Efforts have been made to improve water infrastructure (bunds, water ponds, farm ponds) via central schemes like MGNREGS and agricultural yields through State schemes like Project of Climate Resilient Agriculture (POCRA). However, implementation has proven to be a challenge.

For the period 2020-2022:

MGNREGS: Of the 2,324 projects submitted to the Panchayati Raj department, barely Rs. 30 crores or 10 % funds were utilized.

Irrigation: Of the 659 projects received from the Irrigation department, Rs. 100 crores remain unutilized

POCRA: 64 of 262 projects are in progress as farmers can access water conservation/ irrigation projects

Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), a leading non-profit organisation in Maharashtra is implementing a “Sustainable Water for Agriculture Model” to improve water security and wellbeing of 1 lakh women farmers in the drought prone Marathwada region. The organisation will create a grassroots cadre of progressive farmers called “Sakhis” who will expand their well-established 1-Acre bio-farm model in over 500 villages of Osmanabad district. The cadre will also mobilise village communities to plan and implement regionally appropriate water conservation infrastructure in 200 Gram panchayats of Osmanabad district.

Detailed scope of work:

While SSP has significant organisational experience in working with rural communities on aspects of health and nutrition, the organisation seeks to engage a specialist agency to help sakhis develop and execute a “water access plan” for their respective villages. The aim of this engagement will be to develop capabilities of sakhis to work with Gram panchayats and their village communities for transparent data led plans and formal governance of water assets, land, and green cover. The objective of this engagement is to help SSP’s Sakhi cadre build:

Collective vision for water: Orient the sakhis on water by promoting water numeracy amongst farmers group, Krishi sanjivani samiti (panchayat mandated farmer communities) through water budgeting and crop planning exercise, help village create shared vision for water assets.

Participatory Planning: Encourage and lead participatory planning for water infrastructure in their villages to leverage government programmes like MGNREGS, POCRA for community and individual water infrastructure.

Proactive Governance Establishing panchayat samitis with governance norms to maintain functional state of common water assets.

The detailed scope is as follows:

Prepare and deliver training modules covering the following aspects:
- Overview of water/hydrological cycle
- Sensitise the village on the changing water scenario in the villages – over the past 1-2 decades (discussion and video)
- Orientation on soil and water conservation measures
- Introduction to NRM, watersheds and key concepts in watershed planning
- Introduction to crop water budgeting and ground water budgeting
Training and providing handholding support to the sakhis to collect data:
- Orientation to water budgets – its need and uses
- Training on simple water budgeting tools to collect water data
- Develop village water budgets with the aim of estimating per capita and household water consumption Inventorise existing village water assets
Orientation and basic training on government programmes:
- Orientation to NREGA and other flagship programmes relevant to the region
- Introduction to the village planning process to develop village water plans
- Orientation on recharge and discharge areas in gram panchayat and villages
- Engagement with GRS, NS and other village level planning functionaries as part of development of the village water plans
Ground truthing water budgets and plan preparation:
- Train the Sakhis to mobilise villages and form groups for village water planning and implementation
- Identify locations for water recharge and discharge structures
- Assess the feasibility of building infrastructure on selected sites
- Prepare village level plans for water infrastructure

Participating in government plans:
- Handhold Sakhis to work with their respective village communities for preparation of water security plans
- Submit plans to their respective panchayats for inclusion in GPDP
- Driving convergence with other related departments– why is it needed, how is it achieved?
- Helps sakhis map and explore linkages through other schemes (Irrigation, agriculture, POCRA, etc.)
- Submit plans for approval

P.S.: All training modules should be learner-centric and digital (as far as possible). Training materials should be made available in local languages in a way that they can be understood and consumed easily.

Milestones & Timelines

The project duration is 6 months. The programme is an ongoing programme and will follow the governments planning and execution calendar. A schedule of key milestones with timelines is outlines below:

S. No.	Deliverable	Date
1	Training programs and learning materials: Digital and video training modules (not exceeding 45 mins to 60 mins per module) in English and Marathi to be delivered within 3 weeks and cover the different project components Each module needs to be accompanied by the following: Objective Key Take ways for participants Questions for recall All training content should be contextualised to the region and relevant for the audience (SSP’s Sakhi cadre)	1 Month
2	Handholding support to the sakhis: Classroom and field session plans for the sakhis Selection of water budget tool to be deployed Methodology for data collection Interpretation of watershed maps to sakhis in context of the local geography. Methodology for ground truthing Water budgets created for 100 villages GPDP plan preparation completed for all 100 GPS	2 months
3	Convergence and implementation plan: Plan inclusion on NREGA shelf of works	3 months
4	Continuous handholding support till project completion.	Upto 6 months

Application Process:

Interested organisations can share a detailed proposal and budget for this scope of work to SSP’s email id by September 15, 2021. Proposals must include:

A profile of the organisation with prior similar work
Summary profiles of key team members, their expertise, and key projects
Two examples of comparable work
Detailed budget

Given the tight timelines, agencies that can start the training within 10 days of selection will be preferred. Partners that have ready training materials and experience in executing similar projects will be preferred. Shortlisted agencies will be contacted via a detailed online call including a presentation to programme’s advisory panel.

Consultant

Consultant for Capacity Building on Water Infrastructure Planning & Leveraging Convergence through Government Engagement in Osmanabad District of Maharashtra

Detailed scope of work:

Milestones & Timelines

Application Process:

Swayam Shikshan Prayog

The organisation is committed to promote sustainable community development by repositioning women as change makers and fostering collective leadership.

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