Visit of Representatives of Women on Wings to ILSP, Uttarakhand!
Mr. Ronald van het Hof, Managing Director, Women on Wings, Netherlands and his colleague Mr. Shashank Teotia, Sr. Business Consultant visitedthe state of Uttarakhand during December 03 – 05, 2018 with the objective to see the work being done at grassroots in the rural hills to empower the hill population particularly the women.
During this visit, they visited the project areas of IFAD supported Integrated Livelihood Support Project (ILSP) area in Tehri district and the groups of State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM). The purpose of the visit was to identify the possible partnership areas with the project and the state government for building the capacities of the community institutions (Livelihood Collectives and Federations) created under ILSP and SRLM towards sustainable business models.
During the visit the Mr. Ronald visited some of the HILANs outlets and Collection centers managed and operated by these community institutions at block, district and state level. They also witnessed several initiatives of the these rural development programmes like Crop Protection using Chain Linked fencing, Business model of Farm Machinery Banks, development of Fallow Land, sorting grading and packaging units etc. and appreciated the activities and the community empowerment.
The team also studied the community plans and supply chain managements of the rural commodities being aggregated and reaching out to the consumers through various channels. The meetings and discussions to understand the processes and the way forward was done with the Mr. ManishaPanwar – Principal Secretary Rural Development, Sh. SenthilPandiyan – Secretary Agriculture-Horticulture / Chief Project Director – ILSP , Dr. Ram BilasYadav – Additional Secretary – Rural Development/ Agriculture/ APD – UGVS, Ms. Sonika – District Magistrate of Tehri along with the team members of ILSP and SRLM.
During the meeting Mr. Ronald shared his observation made during the field visit like the empowered community, cleanliness observed at the processing units and HILANs outlets and expressed his willingness to collaborate with the state in working together for further empowering the businesses of the community, related value chains at each level and their social enterprises emerging under ILSP and SRLM. He also emphasized in identifying the “Agent of Change” at LC/ Federation level and empowering them through this partnership to bring ownership of the community in all the activities initiated by ILSP and SRLM.
Ms. ManishaPanwar shared that the Apex organization (non-government) would also be established to coordinate and support all the work of these institutions. Mr. SenthilPandiyan emphasized that the key focus areas in the remaining two years of ILSP would be Marketing and Value Chain Strengthening of rural products.
Mr. Ronald in principle agreed for the collaboration with the state and will be submitting a proposal shortly defining the key role and responsibilities to be shared towards the cause.
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