Learnings Report – DELTA Last Mile Linkage Programme, Chandrapur (Maharashtra)
The report captures our learnings and experiences from supporting community-led participatory planning process by empowering communities to leverage data to create development plans at village and gram sabha levels.
Tata Trusts’ Data Evaluation Learning Technology & Analysis (DELTA) programme aims to revitalize community-centric development planning, placing emphasis on a community’s ownership of their own development trajectory. It is designed to support an inclusive, sustainable planning model with the ability to remain evidence-based and community-centric, even at scale.
The first phase of DELTA’s process was taken up in three blocks (Mul, Pombhurna & Jiwati) of Chandrapur district in Maharashtra in 2015-16. An exhaustive survey was conducted to cover all individuals and all community institutions. As an initiative, the Last Mile Linkage programme was the extension of the earlier DELTA effort to encourage the implementation of Village Development Plans drafted in the earlier stage.
The project, in partnership with the district administration of Chandrapur, was implemented over two years with the intent to empower beneficiary communities and strengthen the development, planning & implementation process. Our team of facilitators and field experts worked towards improving coordination and communication between different stakeholders in the process, facilitating last-mile knowledge/information transfer and empowering communities to participate, contribute and thus sustain development in the project areas.
The report captures the success of our efforts on ground, as a step towards creating ‘enabling’ structures - like the Model Gram Panchayat approach, trained volunteers-turned-changemakers, activated Gram and Mahila Sabhas, Block & District Level Convergence meetings, among others – to continue supporting the change even beyond the life of the project.
