DFID's Odisha Girl's Incentive Programme (OGIP) aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the national scholarship scheme for SC and ST children for secondary education through robust implementation structure and system improvement, community wide mobilization and outreach, conditional cash transfer of national scholarship on achievement of 70% attendance, supporting additional cash transfer to girls and full scholarship to SC & ST children ineligible due to household income cap, and implementation of region specific pilot programmes to address specific constraints to secondary education.
Sutra Consulting was part of the consultant's consortium which was engaged as a Research and Evaluation Agency and it contributed in making a robust evaluation for OGIP's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program and innovative pilots such as learning hub and safe transport pilots. The team of experts has developed specific methodology and design for evaluation of the various components under the programme i.e. CCT, Community Mobilisation, the learning hubs, School Transport and other experimental pilots. Further, it has also refined and developed research questions and measurable indicators for the CCT and pilot programmes. A three staged study was also undertaken with baseline, mid-term and end-term to compare evaluation parameters at all three levels and record the changes accordingly.
Our work contributed in providing inputs for building a robust evidence on the impact of the OGIP programme on secondary school education outcomes and social impacts, enhanced learning on cash transfer and provided lead points to Governments, Multilaterals like World Bank and UN agencies, and NGOs to design and implement conditional cash transfer programmes nationally and globally. The recommendations provided ways to improve ecosystem of G2P (Government to Persons) payments, remittances, savings and transfers. The evaluation helped in providing leads for universal financial inclusion, quicker turn-around-time for opening accounts and faster fund transfer to beneficiaries by the State governments.
The Tejaswini - Socio-economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Project is to improve the economic opportunities of adolescent girls and young women who are particularly vulnerable group, as well as a source of vast under-realized potential for contributing to Jharkhand's competitiveness. In economic opportunities, young and vulnerable women in Jharkhand are clearly lagging. The proposed project aims to facilitate employment of young and vulnerable women by assisting them in acquiring skills that are in demand by the local labour market and connecting them to relevant public and private sector employers, as well as engaging them in productive self-employment activities.
Sutra Consulting was part of the consortium that was engaged by Tejaswini, Jharkhand to undertake a district-level market assessment study to identify high potential wage and self-employment opportunities and skills requirement for young and vulnerable persons in age 16-24 years in Jharkhand for Tejaswini programme with a special focus on adolescent girls and young women. This market assessment had strong gender focus. The team of experts were involved in refining the tools and conducting interviews with the government officials, large, medium and small employers, non-government organizations, financial institutions, front line workers working in the communities including the households and key members of the communities.
World Bank Bihar Teacher Effectiveness Operation is a $225 Million project being implemented by Department of Education, Government of Bihar. The Bihar Teacher Effectiveness Operation focuses on teacher training, performance, and accountability- primary determinants of education quality. Using new ICT technologies, the operation aims to help pilot innovative approaches to teacher education and professional development. The Program uses DLIs for program management and disbursement. In line with the Results Framework the DLIs focus on 6 result areas including requisite infrastructure of Teacher Education (TE) Institutions; Capacity enhancement of TE institutions for effective TE delivery; Certification of unqualified teachers and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers in service; Effective Monitoring and Evaluation of Teacher management and performance; Enhancing teacher accountability at school level; Strengthening procurement, financial systems and corporate governance framework in BSEIDC; and incentivizing compliance with State Treasury Rules by DR&T.
As Third Party Agency, Sutra Consulting is responsible for carrying out verification of achievements of the Disbursement Link Indicators (DLIs) as reported by Department of Education (DoE). The verification follows for each disbursement claim under the project strictly follows the protocol as agreed between DOE and World Bank. In accordance with the agreed protocols, Sutra Consulting has developed a set of tools (DLI wise) for verification. For verification of the DLIs Sutra has deployed a multi-disciplinary team drawn from various fields such as Education, ICT, Social Development, Engineering and Finance.
BRLPS is implementing the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) programme in Bihar. It has partnered with Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs) through its Skill Mission and is supporting these PIAs in student mobilization, counselling, post placement tracking, monitoring of skills training and placement programmes. In DDU-GKY, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society targets to train close to 1,50,000 trainees and therefore the need for a Technical Support Agency has arisen as per the DDU-GKY Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures to support the execution of the project.
Sutra Consulting is engaged as Technical Support Agency (TSA) and the role primarily includes execution of Skill Development Programme" under DDU-GKY with emphasis on promotion of 'professionally competent and dedicated implementation structures' at the state and regional level for managing and supporting all skill development and livelihoods activities with special focus on centrally funded Aajeevika Skills Programme. Our team of experts have been involved to provide thematic support services for ideas incubation, policy framing and formulating implementation strategies for programme implementation on key areas such as skill development, training on monitoring, quality assurance, jobs placement and market linked skill development. Our work has enhanced the DDU-GKY processes at BRLPS and expedited the training agenda.
