At Policy Level

There have been significant impacts at policy level.  They are:

1. The principle of “authority with responsibility” realized through giving substantial financial resources to be directly managed by the villagers has now been included in all major Government programs of this nature.

2. The Government has granted permission to the Program to treat lands belonging to the Forest Department. These lands usually occupy the upper ridges of a catchment and without treating them one cannot undertake comprehensive treatment of the area. This is a major breakthrough since by law, except for the Forest Dept., nobody else can normally develop or utilize such lands.

3. The experience of the Indo German Watershed Development Program (IGWDP) has been the basis of the setting up of the National Watershed Development Fund in 1999 by the Govt. of India through budgetary support. This fund which is managed by NABARD now    supports projects in 8 states in India and WOTR is supporting these efforts through capacity enhancement, exposure and training activities.

4. The experience of the Capacity Building Program has been extensively drawn upon by the Govt. of India in re-orienting the National Watershed Development Program managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Rural Development.

5. The GOM has adopted the idea of “capacity building institutions” in its own Watershed Development Program (like WOTR’s role in the IGWDP) and has involved NGOs in this task.

6. Groups, institutions and govt. agencies from other Indian states regularly visit IGWDP projects and avail of practice-oriented training offered by WOTR. In these states, similar programs are being re-oriented in the light of learnings made in Maharashtra.

7. The IGWDP has also influenced the developmental debate in Germany. Funding by way of grants for projects that promote self help has increased and several high-ranking officials have actually stayed in project villages in order to experience first hand reality as experienced and perceived by the poor. It has also contributed to the international debate on participation, poverty reduction and environmental regeneration.