A Journey of SAP CSR's Rural Development Initiative (January 2017 - June 2018)

Context and Vision for Rural Development Initiative

• Rural development in India has multiple imperatives viz., 1. livelihood opportunities for local citizens, vulnerable sections of the society, people living Below the Poverty Line 2. Education, Capacity Building and Skills development opportunities 3. thriving agriculture and rural non-farming livelihood 4. public health infrastructure and medical facilities 5. basic housing for citizens 6. safe drinking water, sanitation and related hygiene 7. rural connectivity, among other significant imperatives. Different domains require different approach and specific targeted interventions.
• While the resources (financial and otherwise) are generally defined and scarce, it is crucial, that a prioritized, targeted, outcome driven interventions need to defined, for an inclusive growth and development, which can make the initiative self-sustainable after a few years of intervention.
• While we firmly believe that technology is a great enabler for inclusive societal growth, it alone can not propel development, if the concerns of malnutrition & hunger, healthcare, basic education, drinking water & sanitation, women's education, cultural taboos and practices, are not simultaneously addressed.
• With the focus on Primary education and digital literacy in the center, SAP CSR wanted to create sustainable impact on the rural communities in the state or district, where the key indices under Human Developmental Indicators are lower than that of the nation and the state, to which the cluster belongs to.
• With this vision in view, SAP CSR determined to work on 3 developmental challenges in any specific rural areas in June 2016, and intervene for next 3 to 5 years, with sustainable community development.
• For next 6 months, we undertook various surveys and research to identify and define the construct of Rural Development Initiative

Approach, Objectives and Goals

Approach: it was always difficult to decide where to start? However the power of partnership always work well. We decided to work with our partner HOPE Foundation. Ian Correa, Board Member of HOPE Foundation and Chandra Sekharan, Project Director, HOPE Foundation, played a crucial role in ensuring the right implementation approach, identifying & recruiting resources in Bharatpur. The SAP Labs India CSR Governing Board approved the approach, supported through setting up of goals and objectives, have been provided comprehensive leadership support.

Step 1: Identify the Geography, Demography and Focus Area

1. We started with a basic secondary research to identify the rural clusters or districts, where intervention is feasible and needed by SAP and HOPE Foundation, using official government database and census.
2. Post the secondary research on several districts, based on Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) and SWOT analysis, we decided Bharatpur district in Rajasthan as feasible geography for intervention - 28 villages around the Bharatpur town (including) have been selected for intervention
3. Next step was to zero in on 3 to 4 areas of intervention, which needed immediate & systematic intervention, where we can create positive impact in 3 to 5 years.

Step 2: Base Line Survey & Needs Assessment in the community

1. With the team of researchers and social scientists, we conducted the base line survey 28 villages with Gram Panchyats (Village Councils), Schools teachers & principals, village leaders, youth and women, health care providers, district collectorate of Bharatpur, etc. Proper research methodology was followed
2. Needs assessment was conducted with around 800+ families or households to determine the unmet needs
3. We realized the challenges are galore, however, both these exercise helped us tremendously to gain insights into community requirement, build relationship with them, and, the community participation in project subsequently.

Step 3: Putting in place Log-Frame and Logic Based Model, and Determine Project Indicators

1. It was crucial to follow the 'Log frame model' for the programme planning & implementation, which helped us define the Goals and Objectives
2. Logic Model has been crucial to monitor project progress and challenges, while managing the challenges and community requirements

Step 4: Building rapport with stakeholders & Community Participation

• HOPE foundation ensured that a strong relationship was being established with the community, village councils (Gram Panchayats), district administrators & collectorate, village leaders, etc. for their engagement

Goals & Objectives: Setting up of goals & objectives became easy based on data on base line survey, needs assessment findings, log-frame and logic model

• We positively impacted the lives of 50,000+ citizens in 28 villages / hamlets in almost 1 year, through education, skills development, access to primary health, drinking water and sanitation, women empowerment through local employment, and swachh Bharat initiatives. As we know, technology is a great enabler for socio-economic development, we are enabling Digital Inclusion in every indicator under project, to bring the excluded community, connected with the world.

Areas of Interventions - Start Small, Stay Focused and then Expand

• We decided to remain focused on 4 broad domains: (1) Skills Development; (2) Primary Education; (3) Women Empowerment and (4) Sanitation, Health & Drinking Water. Project area necessitated us to focus on public health concerns and women empowerment, if we want to make the Digital Inclusion & Empowerment successful for sustainable growth & development of the communities. Without addressing the basic, yet crucial, public health challenges in the region, STEM Education & Digital Literacy, would not be possible. Hence, we adopted an integrated approach of community development, which is centered around key focus areas of SAP CSR.
• It is desired that for a huge project, the vision of the project is well defined, start small yet focused, and subsequently expand or scale, based on the experience. We see tremendous outcome and progress with this philosophy.

Challenges

• The initiative is not without challenges. We had to be very flexible while working on ground, it was not always easy to implement the project as designed on the premise of Log-frame and Logic Model.
• A significant time was invested to build the community relationship, to ensure that they participate in the outcome. The Behavioral Change Communication was needed to make appropriate behavioral changes. This has surely been a time taking process. While the community has been very welcoming and receptive, the find out the appropriate human resources was difficult. It was always a challenge to leverage the expertise of experienced professionals, teachers, doctors, and project managers in these villages, as there was dearth of the same. We took 6-8 months to build the team on ground.
• The community dynamics, caste equations, etc. always play important role, and the project need to be respectful and mindful of these scenarios. Appropriate mechanisms were devised to ensure that our commitment & outcome of the programme are felt by each and everyone in the rightful manner.
• HOPE foundation and team on ground put on tremendous efforts to ensure that the project outreach ensures development for all. We do have regular interactions with the community leaders, Village Councillors (Sarpanchs), Village Leaders (Gram Mukhiyas), etc. The CSR team pay regular visit to the villages and interact with them on a regular basis to understand their requirements and progress made, and determine several project indicators or project inputs (activities) based on community participation.

Road Ahead

• We are on the verge of completing 2nd year of the project implementation. We would remain focused on the indicators & focus areas and geographical outreach, for at least another year.
• Our objective is to ensure that we create sustainable mechanisms through project outcomes, and we withdraw from the community, we would leave empowered citizens, in the domain where we intervened.

In my next article on the Rural Development Initiaive, I will dive deep into each focus areas, logic model framework, outcomes & impact of the project in 2 years' time.