Evidence-informed policymaking for rural transformation: An exploration of the role of women’s collectives and community participation

Time: 9am-7pm
Venue: Taj Mahal Hotel, Number 1, Mansingh Road, New Delhi, India

Start Date: 09 January 2020 End Date: 10 January 2020
Evidence-informed policymaking for rural transformation

India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission has been working to reduce poverty by placing community participation and women’s collectives at the centre of change. More than six crore rural women have already been mobilised into self-help groups and the aim is to reach over nine crore households in the coming years. Within South Asia and elsewhere, these models have also been a source of learning, with new lessons emerging from global experiences.

The World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and DFID in partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development organised a conference to learn from research evidence about the role of women’s collectives and community institutions in fostering social change and bringing about rural transformation.

 
Time Sessions
9:15-10:00

Opening remarks:
Alka Upadhyay, (AS-RD), Ministry of Rural Development; Poonam Devi, Didi from Jeevika;  Sumila Guliyani, World Bank
Alkesh Wadhwani, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Nupur Barua, DFID

Facilitator: Emmanuel Jimenez, 3ie
10:00-11:00 The insider – outsider conundrum: What are some of the challenges to implementing evaluations within government systems?
Panelists:

Bipin Bihari, PD, JOHAR; Ronald Abraham, IDInsight; Anand Kothari, Oxford Policy Management; Emmanuel Jimenez, 3ie; Suneeta Krishnan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Moderator: Priti Kumar, World Bank
 

11:30-13:30 Recent findings from evaluations of NRLM Presenters
Anjini Kochar, Stanford University; Bidisha Barooah, 3ie; Rohan Shah, Vrutti; Abhishek Gupta, World Bank; Vivek Pandey, IRMA; Shivani Gupta, IFPRI

Reactions by: Nita Kejrewal, Ministry of Rural Development; Gayatri Acharya, World Bank
Chair: Yamini Atmavilas, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

View presentations:
NRLP Evaluation
NRLM results
14:30-15:45 Findings from the North-East Rural Livelihoods Project
Presenters: Swapnil Shekhar, Sambodhi
Reactions by: Indevar Pandey, MDoNER Rasha Omar, IFAD; Alok Srivastava, Govt. of Sikkim; T.Kabilan, Niti Aayog
Chair: Priti Kumar, World Bank

View presentation
16:00-17-15 Session 4: At the cutting edge of agri-business and ag-competitveness
Presenters: Adarsh Kumar, World Bank; Paramveer Singh, World Bank; Stuti Tripathi, 3ie
Reactions from: Abhijeet Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Chhattisgarh
Chair: Balakrishnan Subramaniam, Vrutti
 

View presentations:
Technology enablers for Connecting Women Farmers with Agrimarkets
WARDA

Session 5: What does the evidence say about role of community groups in rural transformation?
Presenters: Bidisha Barooah, 3ie; Rohan Shah, Vrutti; Madhavi Misra, Population Council
Discussant: Nupur Barua, DFID
Chair: Shubha Chakravarty, World Bank
 


View presentations:
Evidence gapmap synthesis
Health Nutritional outcomes
17:15-18:00 Closing remarks
Parmesh Shah, World Bank
 

18:00-18:30 Keynote speech
Parameswaran Iyer, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Jal Shakti Ministry
 

 
Time Sessions
9:30-10:45 Can rural livelihoods interventions reshape deep rooted social and gender hierarchies?
Presenters: Divya Hariharan and Saumya Kapoor, IWWAGE-KREA;  Nisha Nair, Kudumbashree
Usha Rani, NMMU

Reactions from: Balakrishnan Madhavan Kutty, World Bank; R Vimala, Chief Executive Officer, Maharashtra SRLM
Chair: Yamini Atmavilas, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation



View presentations:
Gender initiatives of KUDUMBASHREE
Integration of gender in DAY
IWWAGE Technical Assistance to NRLM
UMED-Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission
10:45-12:15 An embedded approach to learning: using integrated methodologies to evaluate livelihoods programs
Presenter: Vijayendra Rao, World Bank;
Discussant: Yamini Atmavilas, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
 



View presentation
12:15-13:30 The role of women’s groups in tackling health and nutrition challenges
Panel: Laili Irani, Population Council; Kalyani Raghunathan/Purnima Menon, IFPRI

Reactions by: R Vimala, CEO- Maharashtra; Vani Sethi, UNICEF;
Moderator: Neeta Goel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

 

View presentations:
Role of SHG platforms to tackle health and nutrition challenges
Swabhimaan
Experimental evidence on the impact of the JEEViKA
Evaluation with SHGs
14:30-16:00 Incentives to go digital: The role of technology in improving access and efficiency in livelihoods interventions
Panel: Amit Jain, Jharkhand State Livelihoods Promotion Society; Krishnan Dharmarajan, Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion (CDFI); Shashank Kumar, De-haat; Aaditeshwar Seth, Mobile Vaani
Moderator: Samik Sundar Das, World Bank
 

16:15-17:30

Session 10: Mainstreaming innovative fintech models in rural India: Deepening financial inclusion through market-led solutions
Panel: Sourav Ray, NMMU; P Ravikumar, Telengana government (Stree Nidhi); Pawan Bakshi, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Ravi Tyagi, SIDBI; Rolf Behrndt, South Asia Practice, IFC; Anindom Datta, Rabobank;

Moderator: Amit Arora, World Bank



View presentations
Financial inclusion through technology– STREENIDHI
Leveraging Technology for Financial Inclusion


Session 11: Scaling-up agri-tech interventions to address rural transformation challenges
Panel: Alok De, Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains; Sonu Agrawal, Weather Risk Management Services; Shilpa Gupta, Madhya Pradesh-SRLM; Kunal Prasad, CropIn; Anirban Ganguly, DFID
Moderator: Abhishek Gupta, World Bank