Designing and Implementing Last-Mile Service Delivery Solutions and Innovations: Lessons from India Rural Livelihoods Program

The World Bank has been working in partnership with Government of India and many state Governments in India for rural poverty reduction through development of rural livelihoods over last fifteen years. During this period, World Bank has supported programs (investment of more than $ 2 billion) which work directly with more than 25 million rural households. These results have now been used to support National Rural Livelihood Mission which takes a programmatic approach for rural livelihood development. These programs are expected to reach 50 million rural households and are creating an ecosystem and an institutional platform for pro poor and inclusive growth, particularly in poorer and lagging regions of India. These programs have worked with community institutions, clients and social entrepreneurs to develop cost-effective and innovative solutions for last-mile service delivery. This e-learning series explains the key findings, innovations and strategies used in these programs and how scale has been achieved in these programs. There are 6 videos in the series. The first video provides an overall introduction and explains the approach and investment framework used in the rural livelihoods programs. The second video provides key strategies and solutions used for achieving financial Inclusion of the rural poor. The third video provides strategies and innovations used for increasing income and participation of small livestock producers and poor in dairy and livestock value chains. The fourth video provides approaches used in rural livelihood programs to achieve health and nutrition outcomes. The fifth video provides strategies used for crafting innovative solutions in low capacity and high Poverty regions in India. The sixth video illustrates how climate adaptation and resilience are being achieved in these programs. The lessons learnt from these programs are being shared to stimulate global learning for similar program which aim to develop rural livelihoods, reduce rural poverty and stimulate rural inclusive growth.

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Parmesh Shah

Parmesh Shah is the Global Lead for Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Jobs at the World Bank. In this position he provides leadership to Bank’s work in these areas and supports development of global knowledge and learning in these areas to offer solutions to clients and other development partners. He also leads the rural livelihood and development cluster in South Asia region of the World Bank and is involved in designing and supporting a number of large scale rural poverty reduction and inclusive growth programs in the region. His current areas of interest are economic and social organizations and networks of the poor, making markets and public services work for the poor, social entrepreneurship, ICT based innovations in agriculture and rural development, promotion of on farm and off farm jobs and public private and people partnerships for rural poverty reduction.
Prior to his current position, Parmesh worked as Coordinator of the Bank wide Community of Practice on ‘Participation’. In this role he supported development of operational knowledge and learning across the Bank group on community driven development, community participation, participation in development of country owned poverty reduction strategies and social accountability mechanisms,
Before joining the Bank, Parmesh worked for governments, civil society organizations, foundations and other bilateral and multilateral development organizations in Asia and Africa regions in the areas of community driven development, participatory approaches, institutional change and natural resources management.
He holds a D Phil in Development Studies from Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and B Tech degree in Agricultural Engineering from Pantnagar in India.
He has authored a number of papers and publications and has co-edited a book ‘Fertile Lands: Economic and Environmental Impacts of Participatory Watershed Development Programs.’ ( IT Publications)

Vinay Kumar Vutukuru

Mr. Vinay Kumar Vutukuru is a Senior Agriculture Specialist at the World Bank. He has 15 years of experience in Agriculture and Rural Development Programs and has anchored several development projects during his work with the World Bank, Agha Khan Rural Support Program, Center for Good Governance and Plan International. An agriculture graduate, Mr. Vutukuru holds a Master’s degree in Agribusiness Management from IIM-Ahmedabad and a Master’s degree in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School.

Samik Sundar Das

Mr. Samik Sundar Das is a Senior Rural Development Specialist at the World Bank. He has over 18 years of experience and has managed several programs in the areas of rural livelihoods, agriculture and watershed management in regions of India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Ethiopia. Mr. Das holds a Master Degree in Sustainable Development for Brandies University, Waltham,- MA, USA and a Masters in Social Work with specialization in Urban and Rural Community Development from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. He has a certificate diploma in Micro-Finance and Financial Inclusion from Boulder Institute of Micro-finance, Turin, Italy.

Priti Kumar

Priti Kumar is currently Senior Environmental Specialist in the Food and Agriculture Global Practice. Prior to this she worked in the South Asia Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Unit and the South Asia Environment and Water Resources Unit. She manages a number of operations in India on rural livelihoods, watersheds development and climate smart agriculture. She has managed the World Bank’s multi donor trust funds on climate change in the Maldives and Bangladesh. She has also worked on projects and technical assistance activities in India and Nepal that interface between climate change and rural livelihoods, agriculture and rural energy. Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Kumar held a number of environmental roles in the private and NGO sectors and was a consultant with a number of international development organizations.

Priti joined the Bank in 2004 as an Environmental Specialist in the South Asia Environment and Social Units in the Sustainable Development Network and became Sr. Environmental Specialist in 2007. She has worked in large volume of Bank operations covering the areas of water supply and sanitation, local governance, agriculture and rural development. She has led a number of knowledge studies and technical assistance activities on climate change adaptation.

Ms. Kumar holds a Masters in Systems Design Engineering focusing on groundwater systems from the University of Waterloo, Canada and a Masters in Mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India.