A project in Meghalaya empowers communities to take informed action related to their environment
Umdohbirthih village is about 50 km away from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. It was once known for its rocky terrain, rivers, waterfalls and lush green valleys. In recent years, however, its forest cover and natural resources have declined sharply.
access to knowledge
Many villages are facing similar crisis. The state, which has been named as the ‘wettest place on earth’, is now facing a severe water crisis. In this context natural resource management becomes important. This is not a new concept, especially in Meghalaya where traditional practices on sustainable use of natural resources have been transferred from one generation to another. This indigenous knowledge gradually began to fade, however, due to population growth, the quest for sustainable development activities, and indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources among other factors.
Another obstacle to natural resource management was the inaccessibility of knowledge among rural communities. When communities are not provided with free access to information on an issue, they rely on outside agencies to solve their local problems. The government wanted to see that when provided with the right knowledge, solutions to problems could be designed and implemented even by members of the community with proper facilitation support. Re-energizing community engagement with natural resources and enabling them to deal with resource crises became a priority of the state.
We have had the opportunity to do so through the World Bank-backed Meghalaya Community-led Landscape Management Project. We established a cross-functional team with diverse expertise. The team worked with several facilitators and empowered them with digital infrastructure. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme became the main resource mobilization scheme to impact poor families so that there is systematic convergence of all concerned departments like agriculture, horticulture, soil and water conservation. The program leverages technology and the youth population.
Leveraging technology, over 2,000 village community facilitators have already been trained and are working towards reversing climate change. These facilitators take informed action regarding their environment. The idea is to bring in at least 14,000-18,000 community facilitators (three from each village). This has been made possible with the help of digital applications like Participant Digital Attestation. This app allows community cadres to register their attendance by scanning the QR code. It provides them with content, training sessions and digital certification. These tools help create a free flow of knowledge without hierarchy and empower communities to overcome knowledge barriers.
To create autonomy, we use simple tools. They are designed with several factors in mind: creating community agency, building the capabilities of all individuals in the program, and ensuring continuous interaction between them. Technology empowers us with real-time data, resulting in better program governance, transparency and accountability. Communities are now able to articulate the complexities of their problems through a scientific lens and create their own natural resource management plans.
one-stop center
To take this momentum forward, we are starting a Center of Excellence in Meghalaya, a one-stop center for natural resource management. Its mandate is to build leadership capacity to enable closer collaboration between departments, democratize access to knowledge, and continue research and development on every aspect of natural resource management. Through our work, we intend to empower thousands of village community facilitators.
Sampath Kumar, IAS, is the commissioner and secretary to the chief minister and Abhishek Srivastava is the senior manager of Arghyam, a Bengaluru-based public charitable foundation.
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