The Central government has finally approved World Bank’s ambitious US $ 144.4 million (Rs.683.2 crore) anti-poverty campaign for eight districts – including Nagaland’s Peren and Tuensang districts – and 15 panchayats in three North Eastern states. The approval signals the commencement of one of the biggest poverty-alleviation initiatives the Government of India has taken in the past 20 years.
As reported earlier by The Morung Express on September 8, the US 144.4 million-worth campaign would benefit the poorer of the communities living in Peren and Tuensang districts. The campaign would be implemented in four principal components spanning five years.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the North-East Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) today, a report obtained by this daily shows. The Rs.683.2 crore-worth poverty-alleviation initiative comprises a soft loan from the World Bank amounting to Rs.614.8 crore (US $ 130 million) approximately. On the part of the Government of India, its funding share is Rs.68.4 crore (US $ 14.4 million) to be channeled into the World Bank aided Central Sector Multi State Rural Poverty Alleviation Project over a period of 5 years.
The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (or DoNER) will be implementing NERL Project in the NE states of Mizoram: Aizwal and Lungei districts; Peren and Tuensang districts in Nagaland; South, West and 15 Panchayat wards of East district of Sikkim and in Tripura state the West and North districts. The project will cover nearly 3, 00, 000 households in 1, 624 villages of 58 blocks falling in the four stated states.
Citizens may recall that in May 2009, officials of World Bank led by the then-Joint Secretary of DoNER Jayashree Mukherjee had met with Chief Secretary of Nagaland Lalthara and other government officials in Kohima to discuss the development project.
The NERLP project has four components through which the campaign envisages to improve the rural livelihoods especially that of women, unemployed youth and the most disadvantaged in the targeted areas. The principal components are social empowerment, economic empowerment, partnership development of the targeted areas and project management.
There are currently no details available concerning the extent of fund allocation to each of the targeted areas. Nonetheless, the project would be targeting only the rural “poorest of the poor” as the principal priority.
With the aid of World Bank, the NERLP envisages to create sustainable community institutions around women Self-Help Groups, youth groups of men and women and Community Development Groups; building capacity of community institutions for self-governance, planning from the grassroots-level and up and democratic functioning with transparency and accountability.
Likewise, another equally important objective of the project is to increase the economic/livelihood opportunities of the targeted poorer sections by developing partnership with community institutions for natural resource management, microfinance, market linkages and sector-specific economic services.
As reported earlier by The Morung Express on September 8, the US 144.4 million-worth campaign would benefit the poorer of the communities living in Peren and Tuensang districts. The campaign would be implemented in four principal components spanning five years.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the North-East Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) today, a report obtained by this daily shows. The Rs.683.2 crore-worth poverty-alleviation initiative comprises a soft loan from the World Bank amounting to Rs.614.8 crore (US $ 130 million) approximately. On the part of the Government of India, its funding share is Rs.68.4 crore (US $ 14.4 million) to be channeled into the World Bank aided Central Sector Multi State Rural Poverty Alleviation Project over a period of 5 years.
The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (or DoNER) will be implementing NERL Project in the NE states of Mizoram: Aizwal and Lungei districts; Peren and Tuensang districts in Nagaland; South, West and 15 Panchayat wards of East district of Sikkim and in Tripura state the West and North districts. The project will cover nearly 3, 00, 000 households in 1, 624 villages of 58 blocks falling in the four stated states.
Citizens may recall that in May 2009, officials of World Bank led by the then-Joint Secretary of DoNER Jayashree Mukherjee had met with Chief Secretary of Nagaland Lalthara and other government officials in Kohima to discuss the development project.
The NERLP project has four components through which the campaign envisages to improve the rural livelihoods especially that of women, unemployed youth and the most disadvantaged in the targeted areas. The principal components are social empowerment, economic empowerment, partnership development of the targeted areas and project management.
There are currently no details available concerning the extent of fund allocation to each of the targeted areas. Nonetheless, the project would be targeting only the rural “poorest of the poor” as the principal priority.
With the aid of World Bank, the NERLP envisages to create sustainable community institutions around women Self-Help Groups, youth groups of men and women and Community Development Groups; building capacity of community institutions for self-governance, planning from the grassroots-level and up and democratic functioning with transparency and accountability.
Likewise, another equally important objective of the project is to increase the economic/livelihood opportunities of the targeted poorer sections by developing partnership with community institutions for natural resource management, microfinance, market linkages and sector-specific economic services.
