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Dr Ashok Khosla,
Chairperson, Development Alternatives(DA)
answers frequently asked questions
about the PACS Programme:
How does managing
the PACS Programme fit in with DA's
overall objectives and framework?
The mission of Development Alternatives
is to promote sustainable national
development. It does this through
the design and delivery of technologies,
institutional systems and environmental
management methods that empower
communities, engender enterprise
and lead to the widespread creation
of sustainable livelihoods.
Given the scale of the task, we
have long recognised that this can
only be achieved through partnerships
with small local enterprises and
community-based organisations. Our
marketing wing, TARA, establishes
strong partnerships with small,
local enterprises and the PACS Programme
enables us to do so with field-level
CSOs.
What is the
setup you have at DA for managing
the programme?
The PACS Programme management unit is part of our small
organisation support group, which in
turn is in the institutional systems
branch of Development Alternatives.
It is staffed by professionals of
the highest calibre from Development
Alternatives and
PricewaterhouseCoopers who have
in-depth knowledge of both the
issues of sustainable development
and the field realities under which
these must be dealt.
The members of Development Alternatives’ PACS unit are:
· George C. Varughese- Programme
Coordinator
· Kiran Sharma- Programme Director
· Sanjeev Ranjan- State Manager (Madhya Pradesh
& Chhattisgarh)
·
Rakesh Jha- State Manager (Bihar)
· Poonam Mehta- State Manager (Maharashtra)
· Sharad Tiwari- State Manager (Jharkhand)
· Santosh Kumar Dwivedi- State Manager
(Uttar Pradesh)
· Satya Ranjan Mishra-
Programme
Manager (Capacity
Building)
· Vinamrata Rani- Advocacy Coordinator
· Sunetra Ghosh- Communications
Coordinator
Support services also provided by the following units of DA:
·
Training systems Group (TSG)
·
Technology Systems Branch (TSB)
·
Environment Systems Branch (ESB)
·
Information & Communications wing of
DA
·
Research & Documentation wing of DA
The PACS unit works closely with partners and potential
partners to design effective
projects which are then screened and
approved or rejected by a project
selection committee whose members
are professionals of national
eminence. Subsequent support
services for the implementation,
evaluation and dissemination of the
results of approved projects is the
responsibility of the PACS unit. Our
effort has been to maintain the
highest levels of objectivity,
flexibility, transparency and
accountability in the grant-making
process.
What are the
major challenges you have faced
in managing this large programme
spread over several states, and
involving scores of civil society
organisations?
Having had the benefit of considerable
effort in the early stages to design
effective management systems and
to put in place a professional team
of the highest quality, rollout
of the PACS Programme has actually
been quite smooth. The great majority
of our partners tell me that they
are quite pleased with the quality
of support they have received.Even
people who applied for project
support that was not approved have
expressed appreciation of the
selection process.
What do you
think are the significant achievements
recorded by the programme so far?
I believe we have been able to quite
quickly establish a small grants
programme that can serve as a model
for other such programmes throughout
the country and indeed in other
developing countries as well. The
methods we have pioneered for outreach,
capacity-building, peer review,
impact evaluation and continuous
learning will help anyone seriously
interested in supporting grassroots
empowerment and field-level action.
What challenges
do you foresee?
To maintain continuity of the PACS
Programme after support from DFID
is over.
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