Karnataka: Convergence in schemes to promote women-led development

This brief examines the mechanisms by which government programmes can be fiscally responsible, efficient and impactful while promoting women-led development. We discuss how Karnataka’s women-led schemes such as Koosina Mane and Gruha Jyoti were successfully implemented. One of the important recommendations that emerged from the discussion was the role of convergence (synthesising resources from various programmes), and leveraging local governance to improve the efficiency of operations. Finally, the brief discusses the role of sensitising policymakers to examine policies and programmes in a more holistic approach that can improve women’s participation in the process.

Convergence is critical for fiscally responsible government programmes. There was consensus among stakeholders that convergence is essential to create fiscally responsible government schemes. Convergence is effective and the best way to implement women-led economic programmes at all levels including the local government or panchayat level.

Despite the challenges associated with complementarities, as it requires advocacy to promote the need for budgets for these schemes over other competing demands, convergence enables silent interventions for many women-oriented schemes and programmes. The implementation of convergent programmes may face initial hurdles but they are more sustainable and are easily scalable. Convergence requires synthesising resources from various programmes and projects, by reducing duplication and creating complementary capacity so the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts. Furthermore, surplus funds created by convergence can be utilised for supplementary impact-creating initiatives, like providing training and capacity building that create the eco-system for future gender-led economic growth. With convergences, panchayats can also think of creating programmes with holistic outcomes, which will sustain in the longer term than fragmented specific outputs that may not continue over time.

This paper can be accessed here.

This paper is authored by Deepak Mishra, Shabana Mitra, Shravani Prakash, Cledwyn Fernandez and Havishaye Puri, ICRIER.