DA has been working for Good Governance and Advocacy since 2000. In this initiative we have associated with many stake holders to create awareness on governance system in tribal dominated districts of Nabarangpur of Odisha State. Both Central and State government has been implementing so many development initiatives for the development of Schedule Tribe, Schedule Caste and Other Social and Economic Backward Communities from time to time, But still the output has not been reflected in practices.

DA approaches to development at the community level by efforts to strengthen the capabilities of grassroots level forums i.e. Palli Sabha, Gram Sabha, CBOs, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in order to manage their resources, ensure to maintain transparency, accountability and advocacy to solve issues.  The Nabarangpur district is also coming under Panchayati Raj Extends to Schedule Area Act (PESA) and Three-tire Panchayati Raj System So, our responsibility has increased to create more awareness about provisions for effective participation of community people to access their rights.

Involving Women: We facilitate the inclusion of women in village self-governing bodies and encourage them to hold their own meetings to discuss their issues. In each of our target panchayats, women’s organization meetings have been held, where we work to help them define their role in the Panchayat Raj system and strengthen their role as decision-makers regarding health and education issues.

Land and Forest Rights: We facilitate the formation of forest rights committees and train them on the key issues and how to advocate for their rights. So far, with our support, over 600 families have applied for land and forest rights under the Forest Rights Act. In addition, we’ve helped villages develop sound plans for sustainable agriculture, land management, forest regeneration, and water harvesting.

Strengthening Network Process:

Since DA has promoted two Cooperatives in its operational area, it realized the importance of networking. In view of this DA trained all the leaders of the cooperative, village level development service providers, local representatives about the benefit of network and its impact in order to strengthen network and also to smoothen the welfare and development initiatives at the grass root level. All the key service providers were promoted to participate in each Nodal meeting on 1st of every month and 16th of every month at the Grampanchayat level in order to plan systematic implementation of the welfare schemes which are actually meant for the poor people of their villages.