Completion Evaluation

The project brought about changes in tribal development, allowing a multi-stakeholder approach with a specific focus on tribal people. The shift in focus from the limited objectives of increasing employment and service delivery to that of programme management by tribal communities to improve their natural resource base and means of livelihood, paid dividends.

Projects need be more realistic, however, about how far communities already have the capacity to participate. Villages with strong traditional institutions take on board new approaches and technologies more easily: the level of project delivery should be decided village by village and based on institutional capacity rather than predetermined and rolled out across the board. ‘Participation’ was often seen as a mechanism for service delivery, rather than as a platform for community involvement and empowerment: what is important is people’s ability to manage change. Village institutions need to be nurtured, whilst skills and capability development for social mobilisation should be an integral part of project design and implementation. Newly acquired expertise, skills, and capabilities also need to be institutionalised so that they are developed, sustained, and upgraded in the long term.