Process Monitoring of NRETP under NRLM
National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) – National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) is a multi-state project aimed at identifying critical deviations in the project implementation of NRETP, and facilitating feedback to the project management for appropriate decision-making. This is being done to enhance sustained livelihood in terms of access to rights and public services and make social indicators of empowerment effective and efficient.
NRETP aims to mobilize and capitalize on resources within the 100 top-performing districts per NRLM implementation metrics, focusing on economic initiatives such as high-value agriculture and value chain development, enterprise, and skills development. Under the institutional and human capacity development component, technical assistance focuses on the recruitment, training, and retention of skilled personnel at different levels of implementation.
In this assignment, Sambodhi analyzed and documented the refined implementation processes, strengths, challenges, deviations, or stagnation of different processes in the proposed pathways. Bi-annual process monitoring reports, annual reports, and a final synthesis report were shared over two years.
The aim was to capture the NRETP outputs and implementation activities aligned with the program objectives and goals. The research was rolled out as a phased cross-sectional study with a mixed-method design. A qualitative inquiry was conducted with semi-structured, in-depth, and non-participant observation interviews. The quantitative data was collated to assess pre-existing trends of thematic areas to triangulate the key findings from the process monitoring.
3500 semi-structured interviews were conducted over ten states, with six states covered in the first year and all 10 in the second year. Each intervention component had its own focused set of stakeholders at the state, district, and block levels, who were interviewed using qualitative approaches.
Under the institutional building and capacity building component, model cluster-level federations, village organizations, self-help groups (SHG), and SHG members were interviewed.
Under the financial inclusion component, bank correspondents, block-level bankers, and SHG members were investigated.
Under the farm livelihoods component, producer groups and the non-farm component, one-stop facilities, and non-farm cluster incubators were interviewed.