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PACS civil society partners

The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme is an initiative of the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), aimed at reducing the gap in wellbeing status between the socially excluded groups in India and the rest of the population.

PACS intends to unlock the potential of the civil society to address social exclusion, by providing:

  •  Grants to CSOs, to help them assist the socially excluded people to claim their rights and entitlements
  •  Capacity-building support for these CSOs, on issues ranging from financial management to policy advocacy
  •  Opportunities for networking, alliance-building, communication activities and joint advocacy
  •  Knowledge management by tracking the progress of programme implementation, identifying and disseminating the lessons learnt, filling operational knowledge gaps, and providing evidence for policy advocacy

PACS work with the civil society organizations to help groups claim their rights and entitlements by promoting inclusive policies, programmes and institutions at local, district and state level.

PACS aims (2009-16):

  • ensure various capacity building initiatives for the CSO partners
  • provide opportunities for networking and alliance building
  • initiate joint advocacy and communication activities
  • develop a knowledge base of effective programme implementation

How CSO partners are being selected:

CSOs selected by PACS have been identified through a rigorous process and assertive action to include the representation of the excluded and the marginalised.

For six month, namely from January to October 2011, 91 CSO project proposals have been selected by PACS, as per the instituted selection process. All selected CSO proposals were then submitted for approval to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and Government of India, to initiate the grant roll-out process.

As of 1 February 2012, 90 CSO projects have been approved by the DEA and PACS has begun grant roll-out in the seven states.

The focus of these projects is on non-discriminatory access for socially excluded groups in two key themes:

  1. Livelihood rights (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Forest Rights Act, land rights, skills development)
  2. Right to basic services (education, health and nutrition)

Among the 90 CSO projects, 50 are individual CSO led projects and 40 projects are network projects covering 135 CSO partners working in the 90 PACS targeted districts.

PACS covers the 90 selected districts in the seven states, i.e. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

In West Bengal, PACS programme covers five districts of the total 18 districts of the state. In the four years of implementation, the five projects will cover 1419 villages, reaching directly to 1.5 million populations, focusing on scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST), Muslim, women and people with disabilities (PwD). The projects will focus on effective implementation of government programmes on health, education and livelihood, such as Janani Suraksha Yojna (JSY), Midday Meal scheme (MDM), the MGNREGA and the FRA.

The underlying spirit of the entire PACS programme is to develop strong and effective partnerships in all seven states where we operate.