Procurement Support Consultancy for implementation of Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme(OTELP)
Project Location : Orissa, India
Client : Department for International Development (DFID), India
Time Period : November 2007-February 2010

Narrative description of Project :

Tribal Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme (OTELP) is being implemented by the Scheduled Tribe & Scheduled Caste Development Department (STSCDD) of Govt. of Orissa (GoO) with financial assistance from the Department for International Development (DFID), Government of UK, International Finance for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The goal of the programme is to ensure that livelihoods and food security of poor tribal households are sustainably improved through promoting a more efficient, equitable self-managed & sustainable exploitation of the Natural Resources at their disposal & through off- farm/non- farm enterprise development .

The overall strategy of the programme focuses on empowering the tribal community and enabling them to enhance their food security. The programme helps the poor to increase their incomes and improve their overall quality of life through more efficient natural resource management. The methodologies are based on the principles of improved watershed management, more productive & environmentally sound agricultural practices and through off- farm/non- farm enterprise development. A strong emphasis is given for involvement of community for designing, planning and implementation of the activities in a participatory manner. The programme will be implemented in 3 phases covering 30 backward blocks with tribal concentration in seven districts of the State.

The objective of this consultancy was to provide procurement support to the implementation process of the OTELP, for the DFID assisted TA component of the Programme. In order to facilitate the provision of such inputs, it was proposed that the consultancy will establish and operate a small Procurement Support Team (PST) based in Bhubaneswar and will manage the use of £1.4 million of TA funds in response to project demands as articulated through the OTELP Programme Support Unit (PSU).

Services Provided By NRMC :

The key responsibilities included :

NRMC India also facilitated Impact Evaluation of the programme. The study used a quasi-experimental, time-series mix design. The mix design approach with a judicious mix of qualitative and quantitative approach was adhered to so as to cover all the aspects of programme processes, outcomes and impacts. The overarching approach was the double difference method assessing before-after and with programme and without programme changes and making comparison

The key impacts of project were highlighted as :

Click here for further information on the project   http://www.otelp.org/