Inclusive development and temporary organizations: Field notes from a changing landscape

Abstract

Public projects related to economic and social development are supposed to create public wealth in terms of common resource assets such as common property like forests, local ecosystems like watersheds, and public infrastructure like roads and schools for inclusive growth. Often, however, while the material fruits of development like income opportunities and wealth creation are focused on, scant attention is paid to identity formation and change, a key dimension of inclusive growth. Through field-level studies of a spectrum of development projects that the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is associated with, we try to understanding the context of the project over and above its tangible targets, to explore whether being included in the benefits of growth also bring about obligations to nurture a sense of belonging to the mainstream of civil and political life, and whether the interventions are ecologically sustainable. This working paper is an interim deliverable of this project, which documents experiences in a micro water-shed project in an arid village of West Bengal, an eco-tourism project in Sikkim, an Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management UPNRM project in Andhra Pradesh and a Women’s Self Help Group movement in Himachal Pradesh. We identify noticeable similarities and differences with respect to inclusive growth for these disparate projects in an effort to validate our analytical framework and identify new data needs as we continue our study