3.

Partner(s) - Catalysing for Community Actions

Handholding support and leadership from eminent personalities/organisation Partners in
development would facilitate achievement of vision of Smart Village-Smart Ward towards Smart
Andhra Pradesh. The partnership could be area based, sector (theme, commodity) based (such
as Health, Nutrition, Sanitation, Product Development, etc.)

Partner(s) can be the elected representatives, corporate houses, industrialists/NRIs/NRVs (Non-

resident Villagers)/ NGOs/popular personalities and officers, viz. IAS/IPS/IFS and Group-I officers
of the State, who will volunteer to facilitate the local development processes as a catalyst.

The Partner(s) will handhold the development process by facilitating the communities, especially
women, youth and children, with special focus on deprived and marginalised communities in
society, and integrating different sectoral verticals of the government.

There are 12,918 Gram Panchayats and 3,465 Municipal Wards in the State. The district-wise
break-up is given below.

DISTRICT WISE INFORMATION ON NO. OF MANDALS, GPs

MUNICIPALITIES & WARDS

SI. No. District No. of No. of No. of No. of

Mandals GPs Municipalities Wards

1 Srikakulam 38 1099 6 147

2 Vizianagaram 34 921 5 149
3 Visakhapatnam 43 925 6 194
4 East Godavari 64 1069 12 364
5 West Godavari 48 908 9 289
6 Krishna 50 970 9 277
7 Guntur 57 1011 13 433
8 Prakasam 56 1030 8 225
9 SPSR Nellore 46 940 7 218
10 YSR Kadapa 51 790 9 256
11 Kurnool 54 889 9 271
12 Ananthapur 63 1003 12 373
13 Chittoor 66 1363 8 269
Total 670 12918 113 3465

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The partnership in Gram Panchayats/habitations and Wards will be developed in a period of six
months to a year.

Gram Panchayat Population Total Total

Sl.
Classification Ward
No SC/ST/Remote/Interior GPs Wards
Plain Areas

1 Small Up to 5,000 Up to 1,000 11,597 Up to 5,000 2,803

2 Medium Up to 10,000 Up to 5,000 1,013 Up to 10,000 455

3 Big Above 10,000 Up to 10,000 308 Above 10,000 207

Smaller units (Sl. No. 1) above may be preferred by individuals, philanthropists, officers, etc.

The bigger units (Sl. No. 2) may be taken up by the peoples representatives like MPs, MLAs,
MLCs, etc. The biggest units (Sl. no. 3) are a higher population conglomeration that requires the
development of resources and therefore the helping hand of corporate houses and industrialists.

The district-level committee will coordinate, finalise and publish the partnerships through a
dedicated portal. The committee may agree to a group of Partners in a particular area identifying
a lead Partner among themselves.

Portal: The list of GPs/Wards or Sectors for adoption shall be made available on a public portal
being developed currently. The portal becomes the platform for selection, proposed adoption,
sharing news, views, best practices and innovative technologies for replication in other locations,
and monitoring, etc.

Ideally, setting the platform for ensuring exhaustive coverage will be completed in about six
months time. Priority in selection will be given to low-performance mandals, tribal areas in the
state.

Role of the Partner(s) in Smart Village-Smart Ward programme

The Partner(s) will provide leadership and arrange for enhancing capacities, development, self-
management skills, entrepreneurial activities, etc.

Following are a few indicative roles:

1. Participate in collective visioning exercises of Village and Gram Panchayat, Ward and Nagar
Panchayat, as applicable.

2. Engage with all sections of the community and institutions in the village

3. Mobilise additional funds, which might be required; arrange appropriate technical support

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 and promote innovation and good practices for holistic development of Gram
Panchayat/Ward(s)/cluster of Wards/thematic sectors, as applicable.

4. Facilitate implementation of approved development plans and adherence to timelines with

focus on sustained development.

5. Contribute to achieve inclusive growth and expedite achievement of key result areas.

6. Bring in new ideas/innovations/technologies, and set up technical teams of

experts/facilitators for expediting community mobilisation and process of holistic
development in the Gram Panchayat/Wards/thematic sectors.

7. Harness the strengths of local committees, village resource persons, village-level

organisations, volunteers and institutions for synergy and convergence to reach all the
sections of deprived communities.

8. Facilitate learning reflection meetings, undertake evaluations.

9. Provide market linkages to local products through standardisation, quality assurance, etc.

10.Celebrate achievements of non-negotiable development commitments with community.

Role of Gram Panchayats/Wards

The Sarpanch/Ward member will provide overall leadership and optimum utilisation of local
resources and management bandwidth, for realisation of goals and outcomes of the Smart
Village-Smart Ward programme, supported by Gram Panchayat secretary, Village Secretary for
rural areas and Bill Collector for urban areas. The following are a few indicative roles-

1. Coordinate, encourage and involve Partner(s) in the local development (micro plan)
processes, and help them to meet their envisaged roles.

2. Lead collective visioning exercises of habitations Gram Panchayat, Ward and Nagar
Panchayat, as applicable, and upload to the web-portal at regular intervals.

3. Conduct collection and analysis of data for understanding of bottlenecks.

4. Expedite achievement of non-negotiable development commitments of Smart Village-Smart

Ward programme.

5. Mobilise funds from government, sponsors and Partners, and promote innovation and good
practices.

6. Facilitate the implementation of approved development plans, ensure timelines of reporting

are followed, and share best practices through web-portal.

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7. Ensure that the committees and institutions are constituted appropriately and functioning
effectively.
8. Discuss periodically within the Panchayat/Wards about the observations and functions of
each committee in an informal way. Also ensure that all available committees are duly
making reports on the meetings.

Dos for Partner(s) Donts for Partner(s)

l Explain clearly who you are and what you are for l Do not disregard local peoples
working knowledge, skills and
l Exploratory walk through the area to know
abilities
rural ecological conditions
l Dont be a stereotype, dont
l Know the past and present conditions of
stereotype
village/ward
l Dont rush the process
l Listen more to community members; observe
more the local processes l Do not criticise or ridicule their
ideas, practices, local beliefs
l Treat all people with dignity and respect; show
respect and sensitivity towards gender, cultural l Avoid ordering anyone
and religious practices
l Do not exhibit power or authority
l Respect local talent and knowledge available to
l Dont threaten
facilitate doing things differently
l Dont dominate the proceedings
l Maintain high ethical standards; immediately
address untrustworthy or dishonest behaviour l Dont accept any gratuity

l Adopt participatory, convergent, empowering,

ecologically sound, socially acceptable, self-
reliant and self-sustainable processes and
interventions
l Set high standards for quality of work; monitor
and maintain quality of work; ensure works are
in a systematic, methodical and orderly way;
consistently achieve set outcomes
l Tackle demanding goals with enthusiasm;
develop and follow accountability framework
l Sit on equal platform; respect other peoples
opinions;

The above list is not exhaustive and possible important additions could be made, if required.

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Sector-based Partnerships
As some of the NGOs/corporates/Individuals have proficiency in select sectors of development, it
is proposed that these entities can partner with several GPs/Wards on their sector of expertise.

1. Interior and Tribal Areas: Interior and remote areas, comprising SC/ST populations. will be
prioritised for adoption to improve basic amenities and service delivery.

2. Education: Provision of drinking water facilities, sanitation, blackboards, virtual class rooms,
laboratories, libraries, playgrounds, gyms, etc.

3. Sanitation: Improve sanitation by providing dustbins, garbage-transport vehicles, and

individual and public latrines, by providing sanitation staff, and giving social security cover to
sanitary workers.

4. Energy: Provide streetlights, LED lights, solar public/street lights, solar lanterns, solar
cookers, torch lights, etc.

5. Health: Provide infrastructure to PHCs and Area hospitals, and to provide high-capital-
intensive equipment like MRI scanning machines, etc.

6. Nutrition: Promote nutrition, specially micronutrient nutrition of young children, pregnant

mothers and adolescent girls, for ensuring physical and cognitive development that influence
the learning outcomes and adult-age capabilities of our current and future generations. This
can be done by strengthening Anganwadi centres and Health centres and by engaging
communities in promoting home-based care.

7. Providing thematic technical guidance/expert opinions: In this adoption type, the strengths
of big corporates can be leveraged by developing technical teams in the chosen field/sector
across one or more districts. The aim is to boost development of self-help groups, technology,
innovations labs, skills, knowledge, various committees at village level like village education
committee, health and nutrition committee, sanitation committee, JBM committee, etc.