Founded in 1960, Find Your Feet enables poor rural families in Asia and Africa to grow enough food so they don’t go hungry, to strengthen their voice so they can speak out against injustice and to earn enough money so they can find their feet.

Vision

We believe in social justice: a world in which everyone has the right to build a future free from hunger and poverty

Mission

Our mission is to mobilise local knowledge and skills, and promote the ownership and use of natural resources by poor rural communities in finding sustainable solutions to hunger, poverty and discrimination.

Values

Our approach is based on six core values:
• Justice – social justice underpins our vision of the world we want to live in.
• Empowerment – a collective voice gives the poor both power and agency.
• Partnership – we work with the poor and like-minded organisations.
• Learning – we learn through a process of iteration and reflection.
• Accountability – we are accountable to the poor but also those that support us.
• Equality – equality of opportunity and outcome will place the poor on an equal footing.

Goal

Our goal is to support the poorest members of society to achieve their full potential as individuals, families and citizens. Over the next 5 years we will work with 100,000 people and their 500,000 family members.

We will support poor rural families to articulate and realise their own development visions through a process of long-term community-led initiatives that build sustainable livelihoods. This enables poor rural families to: use the land and its resources responsibly; earn an income through employment and micro enterprise; utilise what the state and others have to offer; build organisational capacities; and create an enabling environment for development.

The European Union supported “JOHAR” project aims to address the following inter-related barriers preventing adivasis from accessing, monitoring, and lobbying government on public services and schemes:

• Limited awareness of rights.
• Lack of access to information.
• Poor organisation.
• Limited participation in local governance structures.
• Limited understanding by service providers of their roles.
• Weak capacity of service providers to fulfil their roles.

Building on its existing work in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and working through a network of seven local partners, Find Your Feet will: (1) facilitate the establishment of a network of tribal-led organisations operating from the village to the central levels, through which adivasis will access information and training on public services and schemes, monitor their availability and quality, and collectively lobby government for more effective and equitable public delivery systems; (2) provide information, training and support to service providers, including PRI representatives and local government authorities, to enable them to fulfil their roles effectively in relation to service delivery and information dissemination in tribal areas; and (3) encourage and support adivasis to engage in dialogue with service providers and participate actively in local governance structures, notably the Gram Sabhas, with a view to improving their accountability and transparency.

Objectives

The overall objective of the action is to empower tribal communities to reduce their poverty and exclusion by improving access to and monitoring of public services.
The specific objective of the action is to empower tribal communities in 240 villages from 8 backward districts, especially women, to access and monitor public services and advocate for their proper implementation.

Target Group

The target group is 21,600 adivasis from the Santhali, Gond, Oraon, Pahariya, Birhor, Korwa, Kawar and Pando tribes from across eight Backward Districts in the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Final Beneficiaries

The final beneficiaries will be 152,000 family and community members.

Estimated Results

Result 1. Reduced poverty and social exclusion through access to government services relating to poverty reduction, tribal rights, education, child and maternal health and income generation.

Result 2. Formation of a network of village level CBOs and representative Tribal Rights Forums (TRFs) that will advocate on tribal issues at all levels.

Result 3. Tribal communities participate in planning, implementing and monitoring government services, improving the accountability of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and service providers.

Savitri Sharma
Director, Find Your Feet- India

Olivia Wills
Program Manager, Find Your Feet- UK

Nilesh Munje
Program Officer, Find Your Feet- India

Results achieved after completing one year of the project (January-December, 2014)

Our assessment of progress in relation to the expected results of the project is as follows:

Result 1: Reduced poverty and social exclusion through access to government services relating to poverty reduction, tribal rights, education, child and maternal health and income generation

• 400 self-help groups (SHGs) providing access to information and training by end of Year 1. 394 SHGs have been established, providing 5044 members with access to information, training and low interest credit.
• 90% of SHG members are women. 96% of the SHG members are women, exceeding the planned target, and ensuring that the groups provide a platform for the social and economic empowerment of women.
• 8 Public Information Centres (PICs) established and functioning effectively from Year 1 onwards. 8 PICs have been established, one in each district, and they are all functioning effectively. The government support for, and ownership of, these centres has been one of the greatest achievements of the project to date.

Result 2: Formation of a network of village level community-based organisations (CBOs) and representative Tribal Rights Forums (TRFs) that will advocate on tribal issues at all levels
• 240 CBOs established and meeting regularly by end of Year 1. 240 CBOs have been established, are meeting regularly and actively representing the rights of their members.
• 1 inter-state TRF formed and functioning effectively by end of Year 2. Not applicable during this reporting period.
• CBOs and state/inter-state TRFs actively monitoring and lobbying government on public services/schemes from Year 1 onwards. The CBOs and TRFs are already playing an active role in monitoring and lobbying government on public services/schemes, by collecting and documenting evidence and presenting this evidence to service providers through meetings, public hearings and campaigns.

Result 3: Tribal communities participate in planning, implementing and monitoring government services, improving the accountability of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and service providers
• CBO/TRF members are meeting regularly with PRI representatives and other service providers to exchange information on public services/schemes by end of Year 1. There is ongoing dialogue between CBO/TRF members and PRI and government representatives, including quarterly block level meetings and ad hoc state level issues-based meetings to discuss public services/schemes. This dialogue is helping to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the public service delivery system.
• Adivasis in the targeted villages are actively participating in functioning Gram Sabhas by end of Year 2. CBO/TRF members are increasingly participating in Gram Sabhas – where they are functioning – which is helping to enhance transparency and accountability, as well as improving community relations.
• PRIs and other service providers are increasingly meeting their obligations in regard to public services/schemes (year on year improvements). The quantitative evidence from the project on the increased number of people accessing government services and schemes, as well as the qualitative evidence on improvements in the quality of services demonstrate that service providers are increasingly meeting their obligations.

Address of the Head Office
Unit 316 Bon Marche
Centre 241 – 251 Ferndale
Road London SW9 8BJ
United Kingdom