Welcome to SAMS

 

BHARAT RURAL LIVELIHOODS FOUNDATION

 

 

Introduction:

 

The Union Cabinet in its meeting held on 3rd September 2013 decided to set up an independent registered society for charitable purposes, to be called as Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF). The Foundation is constituted as a partnership between Government on the one hand and the private sector philanthropies, private and public sector undertakings (under Corporate Social Responsibility) on the other hand. The Government will provide BRLF with Rs. 500 crore in two tranches to create its corpus fund. Private philanthropies, public and private sector undertakings and others will be encouraged to partner with BRLF and contribute to its corpus fund or provide annual grants or provide co-financing support to BRLF funded projects.

 

BRLF’s mission is to facilitate and upscale civil society action in partnership with Government for transforming livelihoods and lives of rural households, with an emphasis on women, particularly in the Central Indian Tribal Region.

 

BRLF will provide financial grants to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to meet their human resource and institutional costs for upscaling of proven interventions; invest in institutional strengthening of smaller CSOs and capacity building of professional human resources working at the grassroots. BRLF will continuously facilitate projects receiving its grant support through all levels of Government to ensure smooth flow and utilization of Government funds to rural communities and poor households under the various flagship programmes for promoting livelihoods of the poor.

 

Background:

 

Communities living in Central India especially the tribals, who have not received the dividends of India’s growth process, perform poorly on every indicator of well-being, whether it is economic well-being, health or education. The largest percentage of India’s tribal population lives in Central India in a contiguous belt stretching across nine states viz. Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. This region also houses a majority of India’s poor.

 

Concerned about the increasing inequalities, Government of India has focused on a strategy of ‘inclusive growth’. Since 2004, a series of landmark legislations like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005; the Forest Rights Act, 2006 the; Right to Education Act, 2009 etc. have been enacted. The twelfth Five Year Plan emphasizes faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth. Backed by huge financial outlays, the Government is investing large amount of resources in these areas. However, the full benefits of these legislations, plans and schemes can only be realized by the poor when they, especially the tribal communities, are organized, are aware of their rights and entitlements and have the requisite capacities to plan and implement livelihood enhancing projects. Some C.S.Os  working in this region have managed to work with communities and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to leverage Government funds and there have been outstanding achievements in social mobilization, integrated natural resource management, forest related livelihoods, non-farm enterprises and several other activities.

However, even in many of these successful cases, adequate funds flow to the community from the Government sources still did not happen due to lack of timely coordination and facilitation. The other constraints faced were inadequate provisions and releases for capacity building of community based organisations (viz. Self Help Groups, Producers’ Organisations, SHG Federations, Gram Sabhas etc.) and institutional support costs of the CSOs.

As a result, on the one hand the CSOs could not scale up their successful interventions, and on the other, the Government funds could not be optimally utilised. Hence, the desired developmental outcomes were not achieved.

It is, therefore, necessary to look at a new model of cooperation wherein Government proactively engages with private philanthropies, public and private sector undertakings (as part of their corporate social responsibility) as well as other stake-holder groups to raise resources to support and scale up proven interventions of CSOs in this priority region. Alongside, a competent facilitation mechanism needs to be created so that funds under various flagship programmes can be effectively accessed and utilised by the intended beneficiaries to improve livelihoods, reduce poverty and narrow the development deficit.

 

Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF)

 

Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF), an independent registered society for charitable purposes, would work towards facilitating civil society action in collaboration with Government. BRLF’s mission will be to facilitate and upscale the proven interventions of CSOs in partnership with Government for transforming livelihoods and lives of rural households, with an emphasis on women, particularly in the Central Indian Tribal Region.

BRLF would have participation of both the Government and non-government sector which will give it the credibility within the Government and with the CSOs to push through key changes in practices of each and to enable a meaningful developmental outcome at the grassroots through Government-CSO-community collaboration. The support provided to CSOs will be both financial and non-financial (facilitation support). Funding to be provided by BRLF will include human resource and institutional costs of CSOs for scaling up proven interventions; institutional strengthening of smaller CSOs; building a large pool of development professionals for supporting developmental interventions etc.. A key role that BRLF would play is the continuous facilitation support to projects receiving its grant support through all levels of Government to ensure smooth leveraging of programme funds and successful completion of livelihood projects. It will also advocate for the best practices and all the associated costs to be mainstreamed into the government programmes.

 

Envisaged Benefits:

 

The desired outcome for the people would be sustainable livelihoods with dignity, enlarged space for women in the family and the society, enhanced access to and control over resources; enhanced carrying capacity of natural resources; responsive, accountable, transparent administrative and self-governance institutions; creation of a strong and vibrant service demand system and service standards; new opportunities for the youth etc.

 

Constitution of BRLF and Governance:

 

BRLF has been constituted as an independent society and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 on 10 December 2013. BRLF has well-defined contours for involvement of, and separation from, Government to ensure institutional autonomy, accountability and enable it to raise resources from the non-government sector.

BRLF is governed by the General Body, comprising all members of the Society, and the Executive Committee, comprising elected, nominated or ex-officio members. These bodies consist of eminent persons from the development sector, academics and institutions, ex-officio representatives from State Governments, the Government of India and financial Institutions. No Government representative will hold the position of the President of the Society. The Society shall create its own financial rules with approval from the Government. BRLF shall be subject to audit by CAG. The Right to Information Act will apply and the Society shall proactively follow a system of maximum transparency.

 

Operational Area of BRLF:

 

Even though BRLF has an India wide mandate, the initial focus of the organisation will be on the Central Indian Tribal Region, centred on blocks having significant tribal population (not less than 20%) in 873 blocks across about 170 districts in the States of Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.


Source of Finance for BRLF:


The Government of India will grant BRLF Rs. 500 crore in two tranches to build its corpus fund. The first tranche of Rs. 200 crore will be provided soon and the second tranche of Rs. 300 crore will be provided two years after formation. No    other budgetary commitment from the Government will be there. While BRLF will not make any expenditure from the corpus itself; income from this corpus will be one source of revenue for BRLF. In addition, BRLF will mobilise resources through corpus contribution, periodic grants, co-financing arrangements etc. from private philanthropies, public/private sector undertakings etc.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                             

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