Dear All,

I had the occasion of visiting Bhubaneswar on 23 rd February to participate in the workshop on “Scouting
and Up Scaling Livelihoods Innovations in Odisha” jointly organized by ACCESS and TRIPTI and NABARD.
Among the several events I have attended in the past, I consider this an exceptional effort, put in by
Amulya and his team, to make the day’s deliberations most purposeful and position ACCESS very
strategically in the sector. Besides a large number of NGOs and LPOs who attended the meeting, Amulya
was able to bring in the most senior officials of the Odisha government which included the chief
secretary, five principal secretaries and several other heads of departments, besides several bilateral
and multi lateral agencies like World Bank, UNDP etc.

The idea of organizing, state level workshops on livelihoods innovation, with an eye on a possible future
engagement of ACCESS with the large Rural Livelihood Promotion Missions was discussed well with the
entire SMT. To me it seems, Amulya was the only one to understand the strategic value of taking up this
initiative, over a period of one month he was able to elicit , a large number of livelihood innovations
case studies(26 case studies), was able to cobble up partnerships with TRIPTI and NABARD as co –
organizers , was able to have over 100 participants, and most of the bureaucrats to present and
participate in a day long deliberation. I wish to congratulate Amulya for this super effort and wish to
encourage other states to benefit from the event and organize the same.

The key takeaways for me were:

1. The need to foster and forge strategic collaborations around an ACCESS initiative.
2. Such meaningful businesses help position ACCESS very strategically in the sector and offer future
programme possibilities.
3. It distinguishes ACCESS from being a local grassroots NGO into an organization that has the
ability to convene the full sector around its own initiative.
4. It enhances the credibility of ACCESS as a sharp professional organization.

Iam attaching the day’s agenda to explore the possibilities of a similar event this is also to push
Amulya to follow – up on all the possibilities with various government departments and World Bank
which have seemingly opened up based on this initiative. I would also like Amulya to come up with a
quick report of the workshop with Puja and Aarti, managing the livelihoods India Desk.