"Working with FST for the last one year gives incredible experience on working with the women who lost their loved ones (husbands) in the armed conflict… IRDSO could work with their emotions, traumas, their life. I also feel that coming together of these women itself is a process of healing from their traumas. I witnessed and experienced women changing from the first time I met and saw them."
The North East region of India is known for its abundant resources and unique cultures and communities; this rich diversity is also often the cause of ethnic conflicts and tensions. A long felt sense of alienation and isolation from the Indian mainstream further compounds the situation in the region which witnesses significant socio-economic disparities and political unrest.
The instability has adversely affected the development scenario of the North East India. Several indicators reveal a discouraging picture: poverty incidence is high, gender inequity is severe, there are still a number of areas subjected to continued violence, and rapid natural resource degradation is depleting the very assets that are usually highlighted as offering the greatest potential for development. The region’s agriculture sector has been declining, and diversification into services and manufacturing has been inadequate. Moreover, the process of globalization has led to the emergence of new issues like migration, increasing youth unrest and their addiction to drugs, high incidence of HIV/AIDS, lack of planned urban development, etc.
In recent times, there has been considerable investment for the development of the northeast region. On the one hand, several large infrastructure development projects funded by national and international agencies have been undertaken by the state governments. Many such projects did not take into account democratic and holistic planning processes, consequently causing large scale displacements, man-made disasters, environmental degradation, conflict, etc. On the other hand, there are still large parts in many states, especially the Hill areas which are still inaccessible due to lack of proper roads and communication facilities, and where people are still deprived of basic services and amenities.
Thus, development practice and civil society work in Northeast India has to take into account the unique socio-economic and political realities of the region and locate their work within the larger socio political context, understand the impact of certain development policies and projects on the people of the region and on issues of marginalization and vulnerability. This will increase their own capabilities to negotiate and utilize schemes/services and deal with existing service delivery systems.
FST has supported 51 partners - 19 organisations and 32 individuals - whose creativity and innovative work has much potential for social change as they conduct leadership and vocational skill training for the youth, enable access and improve quality of health and education facilities in remote villages, promote good governance, advocate for child rights, enhance child participation, raise awareness about rights and entitlements and much more.
FST also endeavours to build capacities of its partners and facilitate forging of wider networks and alliances to extend and sustain their initiatives. In the past FST has organised workshops for partners on various need based topics in collaboration with resource persons from within and outside the region. The topics covered in the past workshops were more generic in nature - Resource Mobilisation, Organisation Development, Documentation and Communication, Fundraising.
Workshop rationale
Based on the rich experiences and diverse range of work done by our partners, our understanding of needs of the region, and as we come to the close of the current grant making project, we realize that there is a great need to learn and share from each other’s experiences, revisit the thematic areas , discuss and discourse, so as to deepen our understanding of the issues , build networks and alliances and explore options for strengthening and taking forward our work into the future. It is in this connection that we are collaborating with TISSNERC and other resource persons and experts to organize a workshop for our partners to discuss our work, build common perspectives on general issues and specific themes – child rights, youth development, gender and social justice and natural resources and linked livelihoods.
Workshop objectives:
1. To facilitate interaction, sharing and networking across and beyond the region
2. To build on the participants’ existing understanding of the thematic issues related to
child rights, youth development, , gender and social justice, natural resources and
linked livelihoods
3. To strengthen skills and capacity for intervention at different levels of practice.
