How can India fulfil her inclusive development dream?
by Atulya Mishra, Parul Tandon and Akhand Tiwari
Apr 10, 2025
4 min
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This note is based on MSC’s development sector experience of working at various levels, ranging from the district to the gram panchayat level. It emphasizes three critical factors for implementers to effectively oversee development initiatives in line with the government’s goal of successful implementation and desired outcomes for welfare programs.
The Hon’ble Prime Minister has repeatedly emphasized the need to ensure that the benefits of development programs reach all sections of society, particularly the most vulnerable individuals.
Efforts to drive development at the grassroots level have been made through initiatives such as the Aspirational Districts Program and the recently launched Aspirational Blocks Program. The latter aims to enhance government services in 500 Blocks across the country in health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, agriculture, financial inclusion, and basic infrastructure. The block and gram panchayat are foundational elements of the overall structure of the federal administrative structure. At the local and panchayat levels, administrative officers hold responsibility for executing government schemes and programs. However, implementing several projects, each with its own distinct challenges, places a heavy burden on officers operating at different levels—each with different capabilities.
This note is based on our experience of working at various levels, ranging from the district to the gram panchayat level. It emphasizes three critical factors for implementers to effectively oversee development initiatives in line with the government’s goal of successful implementation and desired outcomes for welfare programs.
1) Driving inclusivity
Inclusivity in a scheme design or implementation is not a default virtue. It may overlook the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women, who may not have access to or may not be reached by these programs.
Strengthen Gram Panchayat Development Plan
To ensure inclusivity in program implementation, targeting multiple specific groups and setting goals for each is essential. The gram panchayat (GP) officials who are elected every five years need to be taught to be data-driven and inclusive. Such training works for GP officials, who can draft better need-based and local context-specific Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP). Specific provisions are made in the XVth finance commission for GPDP regarding the allocation of funds to rural local bodies, the formation of State Finance Commissions (SFCs) in all states, and the appointment of nodal officers and facilitators to prepare plans. Much stress has also been given to data collection, analysis, and updating the GPDP and other related portals.
Involve groups in the planning process
To drive inclusivity, it is crucial to involve women Self-help Group members, farmer producer groups, and youth groups and utilize their increasing influence within their communities. With a collective reach of over 80 million women, SHGs hold a more excellent hold in the community than others. SHG in many states (such as Bihar’s JEEViKA and Kerala’s Kudumbashree, to name a few) are successful examples of SHG-led initiatives that various departments trust to implement schemes and reach out to communities.
2) Building implementer’s capacities
Cultivate an outcome-focused mindset
Implementers’[1] work with the output mindset, focusing on short-term results. These achievements feed into performance evaluation and appraisals, reinforcing the attention to output. However, their focus can be expanded through coaching and training to include outcomes.
The central ministries are collaborating with NITI Aayog to develop strategic plans and align them with the Output Outcome Framework. Yet, for this approach to be successful, knowledge and capacities must also be built, and insights from lower levels must be gathered by including those directly accountable for implementing the plan.
Encourage data analytics and data reporting
Data-driven decision-making is crucial for both inclusive targeting and effective implementation. It is essential for district officers to utilize data for decision-making and to enhance their skills in three key areas: first, understanding the significance of quality data; second, being able to collect and utilize disaggregated data (based on geography or gender); and third, skilfully employing data in the decision-making process concerning their development programs.
3) Fostering community engagement
Push for Jan Bhagidari
Community engagement, or Jan Bhagidari, is crucial for the success of development programs. Unless the community owns its development agenda (think education, sanitation, nutrition, health, digital payments) and makes complementary efforts, it will be easier for development programs to achieve outcomes. By working with volunteers and leveraging behavior change communication, implementers can engage the community to design and execute activities, assess needs, create awareness, and drive behavior change. However, for implementers, this requires proper selection of community volunteers, setting expectations, creating a supervision and support structure, engaging public representatives and influencers, and continuous support from development partners. We have witnessed that =incorporating the spirit of competition through incentivizing performance motivates the community and its representatives to achieve goals and promote excellence.
Streamline working with development partners
Development partners (including multilateral and bilateral agencies, donors, philanthropies, technical agencies, non-governmental organizations, and civil society organizations) often need to be more utilized by district officials. Their engagement can be more effective when development partners are assigned distinct roles and specific responsibilities with set targets and are held accountable for their work. Moreover, development partners can contribute to skill and knowledge transfer by conducting training programs for implementers and the community.
Overall, the Government can fast-track inclusive development by involving the community development partners, building implementers’ capacities towards an outcome-oriented and data-driven approach, and pushing for inclusivity in implementation.
[1] By implementers, we mean district/block-level officials
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