SAFANSI The South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative a targeted rural livelihoods program in orissa The Targeted Rural Initiatives for Poverty Once the target households were identified, Termination and Infrastructure (TRIPTI) project attention turned to the establishment of new began in Orissa in 2009.1 It is a participatory community based organizations, beginning with livelihoods project based on community 10 to 15-member SHGs whose members belonged mobilization and institution building through self- to those households. Where the SHGs had already help groups (SHG) and village level organizations. been established, the project sought to further TRIPTI was designed in part to redress some of develop their capacity for collective action, the shortcomings of Orissa’s earlier Mission Sakthi particularly in the course of activities relating to program, which accomplished limited outreach their livelihoods and economic potential. Much of by including very poor scheduled castes and this entails group based savings and lending and tribes in the process of forming self-help groups the development of basic financial literacy and that serve as the foundation of participatory accounting skills necessary to manage accounts. livelihoods programs throughout much of India. These activities scaled when SHGs became The new project focused heavily on identifying federated into larger village or “gram panchayat the least advantaged and the most likely to have level federations,” and eventually into still larger been passed over by the earlier program. This “blocks” of multiple village organizations. At this involved conducting a census and situational level federations can often attain sufficient scale analysis within each village, and a subsequent to interact with formal sector financial institutions participatory process of villagers classifying and service providers, effectively breaking their households according to their well-being - on a dependence on informal sources who typically spectrum between “very poor and vulnerable” and charge exorbitant interest rates and service fees. “well-off.” Evaluation The evaluation of TRIPTI’s success in improving livelihoods would measure its impacts on households’ indebtedness, savings, access to credit, and consumer spending. The formation of new SHGs and gram panchayat village level federations and the restructuring of several existing ones enables the project to target these groups and federations with community investment funds. A prerequisite for each participating household to be eligible for access to these funds is the development of a micro investment plan, which would also be used to help identify specific needs. Self Help Group (SHG) women from the TRIPTI Odisha Livelihoods Mission Most of the impacts found were relatively modest. One explanation for this could be that impacts 1 TRIPTI is more often referred to as the Orissa (or Odisha) may reflect the relatively brief three-year window. Rural Livelihoods Project in World Bank documents. January 2017 South Asia Region Projects entailing large-scale social mobilization Improvements in women’s mobility were also typically take time to generate longer-term effects observed, though limited to specific roles involving and results. Long germination periods could credit such as attending self-help group meetings elapse, between the process of initial mobilization and going to banks - activities relating more or into SHGs of 10 or 15 members and the emergence less directly to their economic roles relating to of a well functioning federation of SHG networks. the project rather than to their mobility outside On the other hand, the results could point to the the household in general. What qualifies this project’s limited success in going beyond first important indicator of women’s empowerment is order outcomes that relate to credit access, to that a significant proportion of women had to seek achieve second order outcomes on measures of permission before visiting a bank or self-help group household welfare, such as livelihoods portfolios meeting. Yet women in TRIPTI areas reported that and incomes2. they were more likely to resort to institutions in the public sphere to resolve problems relating to Some important changes were observed in spite domestic violence, the performance of the public of the limited timeframe. Increased access to distribution system, and mid-day meals served at more affordable credit among the treatment schools. households saw no increase in either household assets or overall consumer spending, which are Note on Methodology important indicators in rating changes to economic welfare. Could they not be spending more because The impact evaluation of the TRIPTI project is they are simply paying off existing debt first? the third in a series of five evaluations of ongoing The assessment did find evidence of reduced large-scale, participatory livelihoods projects in indebtedness to costly informal creditors like India, the first two being Jeevika in Bihar and moneylenders among the treatment households the Pudhu Vaazhvu Project in Tamil Nadu. A word compared to the control households, as well on the methodology employed for this particular as a greater likelihood they would borrow from evaluation is in order. The need for empirical formal credit sources like banks. Their savings evidence to rate the effectiveness of participatory rates were also higher than control households. livelihoods projects and system for evaluating While these changes may very well prove to be impacts is clear given the scale of investment in satisfying preconditions that will eventually lead this approach to poverty reduction. Because the to higher consumer spending, the assessment evaluation was devised after the project areas had did find increased spending on healthcare and already been selected, a randomized control trial on products used mainly by women and children. was not possible. However, since project areas These changes very likely reflect an increased role were selected based on an objective score that in decision making among women – a defining targeted lagging areas, a rigorous evaluation could element of women’s agency. be designed by using a Regression Discontinuity Design. 2 These two plausible explanations cannot be disentangled without additional empirical evidence. Partners SA FANSI Administered by: This results series highlights development results, operational innovations and lessons emerging from the South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (SAFANSI) of the World Bank South Asia region. Disclaimer: The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.