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Watershed
Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) started in 1995
as an informal network of NGOs to influence the Watershed
Development Program of Government being implemented in the drought
prone areas for economic improvement of the poor, women and
marginalized sections of the rural India. Carving out a creative
space for NGOs within the government program, capacity building of
various stakeholders, influencing policy and capacitating and
empowering the rural community are the main agenda of WASSAN.
Droughts and land degradation are not just natural calamities.
They are results of a process of systematic neglect of the rainfed
lands and people depending on them, their knowledge systems and
their livelihood needs. The rainfed regions constitute a large
part of the poverty geography of India. The livelihood
requirements of the poor and the health of the ecosystem are more
closely entwined in these regions. A continual erosion of the
productive capacity of the natural resources in the rainfed
regions is making the people much more vulnerable to the vagaries
of droughts.
Participatory Watershed Development Program Guidelines brought out
in the year 1994-95 was a historical landmark in India’s
struggle to deal with the problems of land degradation, droughts
and related livelihoods. Making a radical departure from the
department centered and thinly spread investments, the Guidelines
suggested focused, area based investments to be managed by
community and facilitated by an external organisation. For the
first time significant public funds were placed in the hands of
the community to plan and invest on natural resource regeneration.
The Guidelines were also a logical conclusion of several advocacy
efforts made by various NGOs, individuals, researchers and active
civil servants as they evolved from a synthesis of the principles
of participatory and community centered approach.
It was a much greater challenge for NGO sector to respond and to
realise the objectives. The challenges were two fold: first, to
change the nature of their own work and secondly, to work with a
large-scale publicly funded program. The first challenge entailed
a reorientation in the way NGOs work i.e. a shift from an
implementation to a facilitator role and the second one is to face
the uncongenial mainstream situation - in terms of target
oriented administration systems inappreciative of the values of
participation and larger vested interests. The processes of
grounding such a large publicly funded participatory program were
yet to be defined.
It was in this context that a network of NGOs in Andhra Pradesh
emerged with the initiative of Centre for World Solidarity (www.cwsy.org)
in 1995. The principle concern of the network was to find ways of
grounding the program and providing an interface with the
government for the NGOs. Network meetings were initiated for this
purpose. The team anchoring the network also started dialogue with
district administration in various districts to initiate
collaboration. WASSAN Action Study Project was taken up as a
network initiative to work with three NGOs in six watersheds to
innovate on the participatory processes of community organisation,
planning and implementation of watershed program. This was a
tripartite agreement with the Commissioner, Rural Development, AP
Academy of Rural Development and Centre for World
Solidarity-WASSAN. Dr. Vijay Bhai Kochar anchored this process
initially.
Realising the intricacies and magnitude of the efforts required,
the need was felt to have a full-pledged support team to serve the
agenda. WASSAN thus emerged as an independent non-profit, network
based support organisation and was registered as a Public Trust in
1999 with Sri. B.N. Yugandhar as the Managing Trustee. WASSAN
retained the network character and the role of witch was mandated
in the Trust deed. The Annual network meetings have further gained
significance and are continuing to be a major advocacy platform
and an interface with the government officials.
Since then, WASSAN has grown in strength with several
opportunities and partnerships opening up with NGOs, their
networks and government programs. The encouragement from, and the
opportunities of working with senior officials like Mr. S.P.
Tucker and Mr. K. Raju and the constant support from the Trustees,
further enriched the process of building WASSAN as a responsible
and capable resource organisation.
WASSAN is further strengthened with the opening up of partnership
with Community-Based Organisations since 2003. These partnerships
with the Mandal Mahila Samakhyas (Federation of Self-Help Groups)
opened up larger ground for learning. Work with NRM based
Cooperatives and Panchayat Raj Institutions started in 2004. The
study on wages issues and the Annual Network Meeting 2004 opened
up collaboration with the Agriculture Labour Unions. With these
enriching partnerships and networking opportunities WASSAN is
poised well to realise its vision.
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