Steering Committee for Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007).

Voluntary Sector

Dated 5th Febrary 2001

Minutes of the First Meeting of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) - Steering Committee on "Voluntary Sector" held on 16^th March 2001

Member (Shri D.N. Tiwari ) was in the chair. The list of participants is annexed.

At the outset, the Chairman welcomed the participants of the first meeting of the Steering Committee on Voluntary Sector for the Tenth Plan and highlighted the increasing importance of Voluntary Sector in the development process. He stressed the need to have uniform or common norms for different schemes run by various Department / Ministries. He pointed out that not only the procedures on selection of VOs / NGOs, processing of the proposals, release of grants but also the monitoring and evaluation methodologies adopted by different Department / Ministries need to be streamlined. He emphasised that the proposals of VOs / NGOs should be appraised and monitored appropriately.

Secretary, Planning Commission informed members of the Steering Committee that in the Tenth Five Year Plan emphasis would be laid on the role of good governance. He emphasised the need to change the mindset of bureaucracy about NGOs who should not be treated as only grant seekers but the one having superior knowledge. He further stated that collaboration with NGOs is necessary at district, State and Central level. Interaction with NGOs will help in transparency, mutual learning process, viable replicable models, etc. He hoped that the Steering Committee would deliberate on ways for improving the interaction between NGOs and Government and among the NGOs, PRIs and User Groups. NGOs have to work for people’s empowerment, social activism and also to do the watchdog role in the society. He expected that this group would bring out some useful recommendations / suggestions for improving matters relating to the role of voluntary sector.

Principal Adviser (Voluntary Action Cell), Planning Commission informed about some recent developments, such as declaration of Planning Commission as the nodal agency for the GO-VOs interface in March 2000, setting up of a Standing Committee of VOs / NGOs, building NGO database on the website of the Planning Commission and setting up of a Task Force on Laws relating to Voluntary Sector, which will be submitting its report by May 2001. He further highlighted that the voluntary sector assumes importance in the context of the Tenth Plan. The report of the Steering Committee is to be finalised by end April 2001.

A lively discussion took place on the issues of (i) simplification of procedures adopted by different Department / Ministries for dealing with proposals from the voluntary sector, (ii) need for capacity building of voluntary sector, (iii) criteria for selection of NGOs for a particular programme and the need for categorising NGOs in appropriate categories, and (iv) improving the monitoring and evaluation systems. Copies of the notes sent by three members of the Steering Committee: Shri Harnath Jagawat, Sadguru Foundation; Dr. Rajesh Tandon, PRIA and Shri Satish Girija, Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra were distributed to all participants.

During the discussion on agenda items, some of the important suggestions made by the members, for consideration of the Steering Committee, are as follows:

• All the states may set up / identify the nodal department for dealing with the voluntary sector.
• Selection procedures for new VOs / NGOs should be streamlined.
• Straight-jacketed schemes of the Government need to be made more flexible and Department / Ministries should adopt a pro-active approach while dealing with the voluntary sector.
• Need to merge some of the over-lapping schemes being implemented by voluntary sector.
• A fast track or green channel system need to be adopted for involvement of VOs / NGOs in implementation of various programmes pertaining to health, education and empowerment of weaker sections of the society.
• A system of fast track adopted by the Rural Development and Tribal Development Departments of Gujarat Government, where NGOs are categorised into A and B categories may be emulated at other levels.
• A time bound compliance by the donor agencies / departments should also be ensured, while imposing time limits on the voluntary sector.
• Need for support / funding for project formulation activity and also for funding the NGO networks.
• Maximum use of the information and communication technology including Internet facilities should be made.
• The e-mail addresses of members of the Steering Committee should be distributed to all members (included in the list of participants as annexed).
• While formulating uniform norms for schemes for voluntary sector due emphasis be given to the climatic conditions and geographic locations where NGOs are operating.
• Clear-cut official policy on voluntary sector, inter alia spelling out the expectations from both sides (GO and NGOs) needs to be prepared.
• Need to develop independent rating system for VOs / NGOs carefully by adopting strict norms.
• The spirit of volunteering is declining, as there is no national recognition, therefore, steps needed to revive this spirit amongst the youngsters.
• Capacity building is needed for all those involved in the development process, i.e. for functionaries of the voluntary, public and private sectors.
• Capacity building is required in the areas of awareness, advocacy, empowerment, implementation of programmes (service delivery), resource utilisation and resource generation.
• Voluntary sector should make efforts to develop second line of leaders and to make the sector clean by identifying and removing the contractor types.
• A long term perspective on voluntary sector is required, keeping in view the need to strengthen people’s organisations (POs) and withdrawal of VOs / NGOs after a particular stage.
• No single sector can completely solve the complicated development problems, therefore, the tri-sectoral partnership involving voluntary, public and private sectors is required.
• Need to decentralise and appropriately involve PRIs in the monitoring and evaluation systems.

After detailed discussions, it was decided that: (i) all Department / Ministries should send the details of procedures adopted by them for seeking and processing proposals from VOs / NGOs, (ii) all the members, representing the voluntary sector in the steering committee, may send a note on the needs for capacity building of NGOs as well as of the officials dealing with voluntary sector and (iii) all the members of the steering committee may send a note on improving, monitoring and evaluation methodologies, to the Member-Secretary of the Committee by 31^st March 2001. After analysing the material received from the members, a note would be circulated along with the date for the next meeting of the Steering Committee, at the earliest.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

List of Participants

1. First Meeting of the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) - Steering Committee on "Voluntary Sector" held on 16^th March 2001
2. Dr. D.N. Tewari, Member [In chair], Planning Commission. 3715932, 3719541 (Fax)
3. Dr. N.C. Saxena, Secretary, Planning Commission. 3717539, 3719082 (Fax)
4. Shri P.K. Mohanty, Pr. Adviser (Energy and VAC), Planning Commission. 371 6353, 335 9336 (Fax)
5. Shri S.K. Naik, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs 338 1652
6. Mrs. R. Sandhu Joint, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. 338 6220
7. Shri S. Bagchee, DDG, CAPART 464 2395
8. Shri S.N. Shukla Pr. Secretary Planning and EAP Lucknow, UP 238 467
9. Dr. M.L. Sharma Dy. Adviser (Ayurveda) Deptt.of ISM and Homoepathy Ministry of H and FW 373 1577
10. Shri M.K. Sharma Addl. DG of Forests M/o Environment and Forests 436 2785, 436 3232 (Fax)
11. Shri I.A. Ahmad Director Deptt. of Science and Technology 651 9530
12. Shri Anil Gulati Director (EE) M/o Human Resource Development 338 1882
13. Shri A.K. Pradhan Addl. Chief Secretary Planning Gandhinagar, Gujarat 02712-20144
14. Shri H.R. Purshotamraj Director Programmes Business and Community Foundation, New Delhi 332 2941 e-mail: raj@bcfindia.org
15. Dr. Swapan Garain Reader Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 022-5563290, 022-5510000 (Fax) e-mail: llsem@bol.net.in
16. Shri Jagadananda CYSD Bhubaneshwar 300983 e-mail: cysdbbsr@dte.vsnl.net.in 
17. Shri Satish Girija Secretary Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra Hazaribag Jharkhand06546-23143 -23332 (Fax) e-mail: nbjkh26@dte.vsnl.net.in
18. Shri Anil. K. Singh Executive Secretary VANI New Delhi 6688369, 6681689 e-mail: vani@nda.vsnl.net.in
19. Shri Deep Joshi Programme Director PRADAN New Delhi 6518619 e-mail: pradanho@ndb.vsnl.net.in
20. Shri H. Jagawat Director Sadguru Water and Development Foundation Dahod, Gujarat 02673-31367 e-mail: nmsadguru@yahoo.com
21. Shri Shankar Ghose Exec. DirectorNational Foundation for India, New Delhi6441864 e-mail: sghose@nfi.org
22. Dr. S.K. Dwivedi (Rep. of Dr. Rajesh Tandon) PRIA New Delhi 6089559 e-mail: info@pria.org
23. Shri Ashutosh Tripathi Ahead India Foundation Noida 91-4548539
24. Shri Kaushal Kumar Uthhan Allahabad 420454 420984 (Fax)
25. Dr. N N Mehrotra NIC DAP Lucknow 212411-18
26. Prof. Rajendra Prasad Centre for RD Technologies, IIT New Delhi. 65911571 6526135
27. Swami Nityamuktananda Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Cherrapunji Meghalaya 35242 35202
28. Shri Lalit Kumar A-68, Yojana Vihar New Delhi 214 6550
29. Shri Naresh Kochhar Greenlawns Nursery Allahabad 604132 606815
30. Dr. Lalit Kumar Dy. Adviser Planning Commission 371 0956
31. Shri R.L. Sahu Research Officer Planning Commission3715481 (extn. 2538)
32. Brig. J.L. Kaul Consultant, Planning Commission 3710414