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South-South Cooperation: Kudumbshree↗️📫

South-South Cooperation: Kudumbshree↗️📫

In the Development and Aid landscape, there is a fundamental divergence - a classification of the world between the 'Global North' and the 'Global South'. Traditionally, the former has referred to developed, high income, highly industrialised nations, and the latter is used to refer to developing and underdeveloped nations. However, it is important to point out that this is no longer the case, exclusively. While several countries that have previously been identified as 'Global South' nations no longer display the same income, prosperity and productivity levels that facilitated their erstwhile classification, they also have not achieved the levels of progress on comprehensive indicators that could upgrade their classification, effectively blurring the 'North-South' divide - Heard of converging divergence?

The world was still split across the Brandt Line, when development aid (in the form of financial & technical assistance or 'expertise') typically flowed from the Global North to the Global South (N-S). However, beginning in 1978, and catalysed in the 1990's, a new direction of these flows emerged. Recognising the benefit of cooperation among countries within the Global South, S-S as well as triangular cooperation was encouraged and supported to nurture collective self-reliance. This collaborative partnership was seen as a powerful movement given the many similarities of context among the partner nations - different combinations of socio-economic demography, governance and political institutions, climatic and geographic conditions, health and education indicators, etc.

“Intra-South trade is “higher than ever,” accounting for more than one quarter of all world trade, while foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows from the South represent one-third of global FDI flows.”Antonio Guterres, 2018.

Context, as you - dear readers - will obviously recognise, is our favourite recurring theme. It is a cornerstone in the field of Behavioural Science. One of the most vocal contentions in the discussion around the theme of context in the field has been the non-viable applicability of insights garnered from studies conducted in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich & Democratic) parts of the world, in the non-WEIRD regions - largely due to the starkly disparate context of these two areas.

In today's piece, we explore the power of South South Cooperation as a catalyst for overcoming a certain degree of contextual challenge, in the field of global development. We speak to Daljeet Kaur about the Knowledge Partnership Programme and the successful knowledge transfer of the Kudumbshree model of supporting women's economic empowerment.

In Conversation with Daljeet Kaur of FCDO*: Facilitating South-South Cooperation through Knowledge Transfer

Case Study: Kudumbshree [Government of Kerala <> Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Ethiopia]

Why is South-South Cooperation Pertinent?

Traditional flows of knowledge, technology and financial transfers have occurred from the 'Global North' to the 'Global South'. However, there has been an increasing shift in this perspective for increased collaboration and transfers between countries for the Global South, or hybrid model of triangular co-operation [technology transfer between countries of the Global South, with financial assistance from a 'Global North' nation]. There are a few reasons why South-South cooperation makes sense, which largely cluster under the theme of Context.

Given the resource setting and socio-economic conditions of the population, the learning curve of countries in the 'Global South' tend to look somewhat similar. By transferring knowledge or technology between these nations, sharing best practices can help shorten this learning curve. Also, the North-South transfer model presents a specific problem of low viability of intervention implementation & success, given the different climates/contexts of the collaborating countries. Another reason that South-South cooperation is pertinent is the rapid transition of the global development landscape, especially with respect to the climate lens.

There is a higher demand for coal and fossil fuels (non renewable sources of energy) to support this growth trajectory, alongside a higher urgency to protect the environment from the use of these non renewable sources of energy. While several countries in the 'Global North' have borne the fruits of the Industrial Revolution, countries in the 'Global South' are further behind, and in some ways, on a completely different development pathway. This divergence has been an underlying contention in global debates about 'fair share of global carbon budgets'. Given limited resources, and a countdown timer with respect to the climate, countries in the 'Global South' are in a position to develop and share more climate-just best practices among themselves, in order to transition to a cleaner development pathway.


Kudumbshree, the State Poverty Eradication Mission, was launched by the Government of Kerala in the late 1990's. Leveraging women lead networks at the community level, this model strengthens local self governance with a vision of eradicating poverty through economic empowerment with financial management and other related activities. It was then further leveraged to promote other development activities such as joint forest resource management, encouraging health-seeking behaviour, providing technical and financial support for micro enterprises (and other livelihood supporting activities). The model breaks down local governance into a three-tiered micro structure that promotes efficiency and targeted support. The success of the endeavour led to the recognition of Kudumbshree as a National Resource Center, under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (Ministry of Rural Development), that supports the establishment of community networks in different states across the country. The programme undertakes the selection and training of community members into cadres of resource personnel that facilitate the establishment and empowerment of community networks for various development activities.


Why was Kudumbshree picked as a model for replication? What are contextual factors that supported the grafting of this model in Ethiopia?

The erstwhile DfID (Department for International Development) supported Knowledge Partnership Programme aimed to share Indian and global evidence on policies that impact development outcomes and support advocacy towards strengthening policy design and implementation. Upon presenting best practices from the Indian context that could be replicated in Ethiopia, the Kudumbshree model was picked under the theme of 'Women's Economic Empowerment'. A few reasons that made this model feasible for replication were:

  • It was simple. It had minimal requirements in terms of the creation / development of new institutions. An opportunity to leverage similar community networks in the Ethiopian context was identified.
  • It was well documented. The model had been studied in depth with respect to processes and impact. This made it easier to design and implement a contextualised model in Ethiopia.
  • It accelerated the multiplier effect. The establishment of formalised women's collective was shown to, and showed potential for, positive impact on other development activities and outcomes, including (but not limited to) health, economic activities for sustainable livelihoods, climate smart agriculture, etc.

Kudumbashree is well documented and therefore was already well known to both the Ethiopian Minister and the Ambassador. The rural context of India is very similar to Ethiopia as most women are employed in Agriculture and allied sectors. Women are responsible for the health and well being of their families in both countries and are willing to form groups to support each other to ensure prosperity for their family and community. This fundamental similarity laid a strong foundation for a potentially successful replication.

What ensured the sustainability of the knowledge transfer and implementation of the model?

Capacity building, two-way exposure visits and institutional support were some of the key factors that ensured the learnings from Kudumbashree were shared for adoption with Ethiopia. Another important aspect of this south-south cooperation was the commitment at the highest level - leaders from both India and Ethiopia were keen to learn from each other and replicate good practices to build women's economic empowerment in their respective countries. The commitment led to peer-to-peer learning from not just the practitioners and programme officials but the communities themselves. The interactions between the community members helped the Ethiopian gain insights on the nuances of the Self-Help Group model in India.

Can you highlight some of the common ground between the members from both sides of the knowledge exchange programme that helped to facilitate a smoother exchange of knowledge and learning?

We had dynamic women in leadership positions on both sides, Dr Valsala Kumari - ED Kudumbashree, Dr. Genet Zewide - Ambassador of Ethiopia to India and Ms. Zenebu Tadesse Woldetsadik - Minister of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The three leaders connected very well with each other and inspired each other to learn and adopt something that was so close to their heart - women's economic and social empowerment. The team from Kudumbashree was already used to training and knowledge exchange within India and they had previously also shared the model with Middle eastern countries along with Nepal and Bangladesh - this helped in designing the training and replication programme for Ethiopia.

What are some of the factors that can strengthen sustainability of South-South collaborative activities?

I believe the strongest contribution to these activities, with a potential of magnifying positive impact, is time and patience.

Well planned and well structured programmes can still suffer given paucity of time. Given sufficient time to mature, these replication activities can successfully let the idea take root in communities and build the momentum that is needed to achieve development goals. Besides time, support is another important factor to ensure sustainability.

Take the example of replicating the Kudumbshree model. This can look like constant handholding in the early stage of the programme can help communities find processes and methodologies that work for them, while also building capacities across these communities and the governance structures that they interact with. Sensitivity training, as part of capacity building exercises, among local governance institutions can strengthen the implementation of the programme by ensuring that activities are executed with minimal external interference, and maximum technical support, as needed. Policy support can help with formalising these institutions, providing them with the opportunity to access formal credit systems for loans and grants.

Glossary:

  1. Kudumbshree- The name of the programme launched by the Government of Kerala in the late 1990's, translates to 'prosperity of the family' in the Malayalam language.
  2. South-South - This refers to cooperation between two or more nations from the region we have earlier described as the 'Global South'.
  3. Multiplier - Refers to the injection of an input into an ecosystem that leads to a disproportionately large output than was estimated, or expected.
  4. WEIRD - Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic Nations.

References:


Daljeet Kaur has a double Master's degree in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College London and Environmental Planning from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. She has previously worked as a Senior Programme Manager for the DFID funded Knowledge Partnership Programme (KPP), implemented by IPE Global under which the knowledge transfer for the Kudumbshree model was facilitated. She is currently the Climate and Environment Adviser to FCDO, India.

*The views and opinions contained in the interview belong solely to the individual interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of associated institutions including IPE KPP, FCDO, Kudumbshree, or others.


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