Institutional+strengthening

India, Institutional Strengthening:
Nils and Rana (INHERE) presented on the IS component focusing on IPs, improving dairy marketing and developing a basket of feed options. Rana/Thanammal presented some key outcomes emerging from IP activities in Sult. Bhuwan Pant (CHIRAG) presented some key outcomes in Bageshwar. He presented the case of Jaganath producer cooperative. This currently involves 102 producers from 11 villages and has increased farm incomes by 600-1600 rupees per month which is a 40-45 % increase in local household incomes. The milk shop operated by the cooperative in Bageshwar took over from an IFAD-backed shop which seemed to have collapsed due to the ending of the ILSP (refuted by IFAD staff in Bageswhar the following day). The success of the Jagenath cooperative seems to be that it requires no external financial resources (shop staff are employed by CHIRAG but paid for by the co-operative) and thus is more sustainable.

Q: At what level are IP’s constituted and how do the various IPs link? A: They are well linked through having some common participants. Comment: the bottom up process of developing a milk shop in Bageshwar should be documented and shared with the ILSP project since it seemed to work well and be potentially sustainable. Comment: We need to work out better way of contextualizing proposed interventions in IFAD investments – interventions are often highly context specific and blanket approaches will not work. Letting IPs be instrumental in prioritising interventions appears to produce positive results.

Tanzania, Institutional Strengthening:
Brigitte and Fred presented on the IS component focusing on the process of site selection, IP formation and entry point identification. Q: How long is left on the project? Is there time to implement the proposed shopping list of interventions? A: We will not implement them all. But it is important to ensure that interventions emerge from local platforms and are therefore owned by the local implementers.