third EF meeting
- executive summary

Also Read: Local contribution guidelines

Also View: Photos of the third EF

An exchange forum meeting was held held at Prawarda, Basavakalyan, Bidar District from 26th – 28th April 2004. The topic of the third exchange forum meeting was to the experiences and challenges in mobilization and future management of local contribution. The executive summary of the report of the meeting is as follows:

On day one, the programme began with a welcome and the self-introduction of all participants. A brief geographical and historical sketch of Bidar district and Prawarda was presented to the group. The objectives and detailed programme schedule of the workshop was shared with the participants. As part of the programme for the second day, four field-visit groups were formed and the framework for observations during the field visit was drawn up with participants.

Day two began with field visits to Upper Mullamari watershed in four groups to Urki, Illal, Bandenawazwadi and Gokul Kitta villages. The four groups visited the village representatives, interacted with the community and CBO representatives, and later on presented their observations through charts, during the plenary. There were intense discussions and clarifications after each of the group presentation. A resource group was formed to cull out the key points from each presentation and present a synthesis on the final day. In the forenoon, there were presentations by ISPWDK and SDC/IC NGO partners, MYRADA – Chitradurga, Dr. Sanghi – WASSAN and Mr. Ranganath Rao – AGM, NABARD. Each of them shared their experiences and views on Local Contribution.

Day three began with presentations continued from the previous day. Later, Mr. Sreedharan, Financial consultant who has rich experience in development projects and, who is also the auditor of PSMU-ISPWDK partners, gave his inputs on the ways and means to address legal compliances for local contribution in ISPWDK. There were discussions and clarifications on different observations made by the participants. This was followed by the presentation of synthesis of the points culled out by the resource group from the different presentations. The presentation covered the key issues of concept and strategies, decision making on LC, management and utilization of LC, ownership of LC and monitoring of LC. This session had discussions and clarifications on LC and gave much more clarity and helped the participants to plan for different interventions on LC.

There was a feedback session in which the participants felt that the workshop was a very good learning event, which has brought much more clarity on LC for field application. They also expressed an intention to share with others in their organization the learnings of the meeting. The workshop concluded with a round of thanks to participants and organizers.