fourth EF meeting
- executive summary

... continued

Discussions on VDS and GP

The experience shared by FES (Foundation for Ecological Security), which has been working with the Gram Panchayat (GP) to develop common lands in the watershed at Kolar District was found interesting. Some new ideas came in on how GP could establish a sub-committee to plan and implement the activities for developing biomass in Gomal land (grazing lands/revenue lands). In order to gain further insights by communities and staff in GP addressing the common land issues, it was explored with FES for a joint exposure visit. Another presentation was made by SAMPARK regarding their experiences of good governance at their project in Koppal district and found useful by the participants.

Gender thread in the Exchange Forum

One of the salient features of this exchange forum is that the Gender thread was introduced at the NGO and the community level, which is being followed in SDC/ IC events. The feedback from the participants was very good about the introduction of the gender thread. Five more gender threads were introduced in a ceremonial way, for partner NGOs of ISPWDK & IC NGO KTN. It was explained to the NGO staff how could these threads be used in the various events to bring in the observations / process on gender for better integration at various levels.

At the end of the workshop, each of the ISPWDK NGO partners, the communities in three watersheds and PSMU brought out actionable ideas & strategies for further interventions to strengthen the VDS and establish meaningful linkages with Grama Panchayat.

It was also felt very strongly that the Exchange Forum is an excellent forum for community sharing and learning together with the project stakeholders and with other resource persons for bringing better understanding, improvements and changes in the project.

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