Section – 5
PROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY
The preparation of development plans cannot be achieved by the governments alone. It is a long term adaptive challenge for the communities in the region. This would involve engaging the public and social capital in the region in order that an optimum and equitable plan to surmount this challenge can emerge. This experience will not just have provided the people the opportunity to shape their future, but it will have transformed them into an informed and strengthened civil society by the time the process is complete. The people will have learned to accept the realities of the world, to be patiently realistic with inevitable give-and-take situations and to discover an optimum dynamic lifestyle. This would true empowerment of the people.
Each Indian state is different in terms of language, landscape, lifestyle, customs, culture, climate, etc. What works for a northern state may not work for a southern state. To start with, therefore, the philosophical model of PULSE may be suitably modified into a region-appropriate development model as an immediate challenge. The long term challenge will then be the design of Regional Development Plan (RDP), truly reflecting the 'pulse' of the people, and implementation.
To understand, appreciate and accomplish this shared responsibility for setting their own development goals, however, people will need to be educated and guided in various disciplines of development. This is an important and delicate exercise that needs to be undertaken by a panel of experts identified for the purpose. A Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) comprising such experts should educate, guide, motivate and facilitate the people to collectively exercise adaptive leadership to design, shape, formalize and own the RDP. Therefore, RAC should comprise of experts with exceptional and impeccable credentials to ensure adaptive processes are transparently followed at every stage of engaging the people. This is a crucial prerequisite for the success of the process.
The facilitators/experts in RAC may be identified from among the regional talent pool that would include eminent citizens, scholars, discipline experts, leading institutions, research communities and talent from private entities, NGOs and governments at various levels. Facilitators/experts from other regions (or even overseas) with special expertise/credentials may also be included in the committee, wherever appropriate. They will conduct in-depth assessment and analysis, respectfully lay out the facts, and present the alternatives with trade-offs - all with total honesty and integrity. The assessment and analysis should engage diverse groups of people including citizens from all strata of society. Assessment tools should be rigorous and can be in the form of surveys, focus groups and should include primary data as well as secondary data.
They will provide for efficient communication with the people in their own language and local setting. The ability of the facilitators/experts to communicate clearly without jargon, and their ability to help the public understand complex data and information is also a key. The ultimate decision making should finally rest with the community.
RAC should share their thoughts and experiences with RACs of other regions. This should happen on a continuous basis in order to promote wide cooperation and derive the obvious benefits thereof for the entire country. One should never lose sight of the fact that RACs are just advisory bodies encouraging and ensuring that an appropriate RDP is essentially shaped, formalized and owned by the people of the respective region.
Each RAC has the responsibility to reach out to the people in various geographical locations in its region, to mobilize them to document their locality-specific aspirations (that may differ from even a contiguous location) and to advise them on how to factor them all in into the RDP. This may involve formation of appropriate sub-committees specific to each part of the region. The sub-committee may be called Local Advisory Committee (LAC).
The work of LACs at the grassroots level is of crucial importance and should be coordinated by the RAC. Each LAC has the same tasks as RAC in its specific locality. They would thus include educating and engaging the local people and getting them to realize how their ideas, interests, values and aspirations are appropriately conveyed to the RAC and incorporated in the RDP. This is where local NGOs and local community could play a crucial role and LAC should include all local talent and knowledge.
RDP will identify in coordination with central government agencies specific areas required for national security, strategic transport and communication facilities including railways and large central government facilities and institutions. The development of such areas will be entrusted to the central government.
Once the RDP is finalized by the people, its implementation will essentially be a technical problem. At this point, the governments should take over the technical development and implementation of various projects envisaged in the RDP, subject to review and audit by the people and the RAC. The whole process should be dynamic in terms of not just considering feedback from public and modifying the original plan (should changed circumstances demand it) but also altering the course of project implementation (should it become unavoidable).
All rationale/details of the RDP document and updated information on the projects implementation process should be continuously available in the public domain for people's review.
Governments' Role
Governments should realize that adaptive work cannot be undertaken by established organizational and social structures. Therefore, for the proposed methodology to work, both the central and state governments should create appropriate new legal environment. The parliament and the respective state legislature should enact suitable laws to accord legal sanction and authority to the all processes and functions of regional development. All RACs and LACs should be legal entities and funded by the respective states.
Each final RDP should be enacted as a law of the state and the central government.
The governments should diligently identify the facilitators in RAC and LACs and officially notify their appointments. They should not in any way influence the functioning of these committees. They should respect the fact that people know what they need and how to plan their own destinies and should not interfere in the design of RDP. The work of RACs will also be monitored and reported to the public on a continuous basis.
Once the final RDP emerges, the state planning commission (SPC) takes over the technical process of implementation. For this purpose, the SPC should be named an independent public entity that would include another group of experts who do not constitute RAC and LACs, and senior government functionaries. This will facilitate independent two-way audit - (a) Objective audit of RDP by SPC so that any implementation-related issues can be sorted out before implementation starts, and (b) SPC's implementation process by the people, RAC and LACs on a continuous basis. SPC, with support from various government departments and the government, will develop, fund and implement the projects and achieve all the goals set by the RDP. SPC may also engage private consultants for the project development and engineering phase. The government and SPC should simply support the implementation of RDP as the legally recognized vision of the community. They will also have SPC undertake a thorough and objective review of projects already being executed by the governments, in order to determine how they could be adapted, with or without suitable modifications, into the RDP in order to avoid redundancy of efforts.
Governments should invest in the implementation, but ask that their investment is matched/leveraged with other non-public resources. They should take people into confidence on matters of funds availability and the need to prioritize certain projects. They will represent the people of India and negotiate with international funding agencies when their assistance is sought. They thus play the crucial role of mobilizing and managing project finances and getting the projects implemented on behalf of the people and under their watchful eyes.
Any unilateral action by the governments to modify or delete any part of the RDP will be illegal and will not be missed by the empowered people. Since their shared responsibility for the RDP will have made them proud owners of the plan and since they know better than any others the rationale behind each element of RDP, no unreasonable amendments to the lawful RDP will be tolerated. The entire community acting like watchdogs will also fight any corrupt practices.
Private Sector's Role
The private sector (both Indian and foreign entities) can provide specialized services in project development, design and implementation. Their role in the development process is important too, as part of their corporate social responsibility. They can contribute initially by making their special talent available during the formulation of RDP. Later, they can fund and implement some of the development projects all by themselves via any of the routes/mechanisms available for the purpose. They can even consider adopting and developing an entire city or town around which they may plan to develop their business interests. This should however dovetail into the overall RDP. There are many examples of such development.
Enlightened and Empowered People
This methodology will not only teach the people to fish but also empower them to design and make their own fishing rod.
REFERENCES
Heifetz, R.A. (1998) Leadership without Easy Answers. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press
Heifetz, R.A., Linsky, M., and Grashow, A. (2002) Leadership on the Line. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press
Linsky, M., and Heifetz, R.A. (2009) The Practice of Adaptive Leadership on the Line. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press
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