Misaal Fellowship

1st Quarterly Review & Reflection Meeting

Lucknow, 27-28th July, 2015

Capacity, Advocacy, Knowledgewww.misaal.ngo

www.facebook.com/misaalfellowshipinfo@misaal.ngo

Supported by

PartnersDigital Empowerment Foundation, New Delhi

Hashiya, New Delhi Al Khair Trust, Patna Social Development Foundation, New Delhi

Hassan Educational & Welfare Trust, Madhubani

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1. ObjectiveMisaal Fellowship’s 1st Quarterly Review and Reflection meeting was organised from 27-28th July in Lucknow. The purpose was to collectively review the progress made by fellows and other Misaal constituents, in the course of their work, and reflect on the lessons learnt, in terms of challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for effective delivery of the fellowship programme. Output aimed at was action plans, for Misaal as a whole, and fellows individually, crafted through a consultative process, of discussion and debate between Misaal constituents. An additional objective of the Review was to provide training and capacity support on relevant themes to fellows.

2. ParticipantsParticipants included all fellows; Misaal national team, including volunteers; Action Aid India, Lucknow office participants, besides local mentoring teams from Shamli, Bareilly, Banda and Lucknow. Full list of participants at Annex 1.

3. Programme The programme was set up as follows:

Time Item Resource Remarks27-07-15 Reporting, review, reflection09:30- 10:00 am Registration10:00-10:30 am Opening and welcome Misaal NRC10:30–01:00 pm Presentation on work of last quarter Fellows 20 mins of presentation, followed by 10

mins. of discussions.01:00-02:00 pm Lunch02:00-05:00 pm Presentations by fellows (contd.) Fellows - do-05:00-06:00 pm Focus areas for next quarter, for

workplansNRC Discussions and agreement on thrust

areas for action28-07-15 Training and development10:00–11:00 am Misaal internal communication Misaal NRC Periodic reviews, reporting by fellows,

and advisories11:00-12:30 am Misaal portal and functionalities Satyendra Singh,

DEFUsing Misaal website and other social media, for internal communication

12:30–01:30 am Local mentors, handholding, and supervision

Raja Bhaiyya, VDS

Local platforms as capacity resources for fellows

01:30-02:30 Lunch02:30–03:30 pm Media documentation and outreach Shah Alam,

Misaal media fellow

Training fellows to document, report and engage with local and non-local media

03:30-04:30 pm Focus themes – Minority schemes & RTI Act.

Salim Baig & Akram Akhtar, AIF

Quick run through the law and schemes – and helpful tips for using those.

04:30–5:30 pm Closing: Review of workplans & Thanks

Misaal and Action Aid (Rajan Singh)

Note: NRC - Misaal National Resource Centre; Delhi, DEF - Digital Empowerment Foundation, Delhi; VDS - Vidhya Dham Samiti, Banda; AIF - Afkar India Foundation, Shamli

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4. Description of Technical Sessions

4.1 Day 1 (Review Day)

Day one was devoted to fellows presenting a description of their work over the past months, since launch in April 2015. For those in the initial batch (April 2015), this included:

For fellows that have just started – Aligarh and Fatehpur (in UP) and Darbhanga (Bihar) – and who had been tasked for the review, only to conduct a quick sample survey of their focus community, this involved reporting the findings of their sample survey, and a description of their preliminary plans, going forward.

Fellow District 1st Q focus Process Outputs to show Focus for 2nd Q1 Salim

AnsariShamli(Un block) , Uttar Pradesh

Education; PDS

Community meetings, SHG, RTI Act; volunteer

Helped get 112 voter cards made; 34 students enrolled; 80 students admitted

Education; women empowerment; MG-NREGS; MSDP

(i) an account of the baseline survey they had conducted of their community, as well as a summary of its findings; (ii) reporting on their efforts with organizing local volunteer teams, success and challenge therein; (iii) achievements to report in the course of their work, and the challenges that lie ahead(iv) finally, an account of the fellows’ action plans for the next quarter, to October 2015.

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MCDmobilisers; mentor team

in Anganwadi.

2 Arshi Khan

FatehpurTown, Uttar Pradesh

MCT

Services for urban poor

Volunteer mobilisers; SHG;RTI Act; mentor team

Helped get handicraft workers registered, and hastshilp cards made

Employment and skill development; women rights and empowerment; Education

3 Asma Ansari

Aligarh Town, Uttar Pradesh

MCT

Services for urban poor; women empowermen; health

Volunteer mobilisers; mentoring team

Baseline survey of 100 households conducted; local volunteer team formed

Education; income activities or women; services for the urban poor

4 Mohd. Azaz

Bareilly (Nawabganj block), UP MCD

Eployment; education

Community meeting; mentor team

Baseline survey conducted of focus village

Education; MG-NREGS

5 Majida Parveen

Banda, Uttar Pradesh

Womens empowerment; health

Nukkar sabha/ rallies and campigns; mentor team

Conducted women’s empowerment campaigns

Women legal rights; SHG and income activities; Education

6 Mohd. Mahmood

Bhagalpur / Banka(Hassanpur block), Bihar. MCD

Education; NREGS; pensions

Volunteer mobilisers; community meeitngs; nukkad sabha; mentor team

Entitlements survey of 12 resettlement sites conducted. Appliactions for NREGS job card, widow/old age pension made; volunteer team formed

MG-NREGS; social justice schemes; PDS; and peace and communal amity

7 Najmul Hafiz

Madhubani(Kaluahi block), Bihar. MCB

Education; Pension; Sanitation

Volunteer mobilisers; community meetings;

Baseline survey of 525 families conducted; helped enrol 50 students; volunteer team formed

Education; pension; sanitation scheme

8 Meraj Ali Phulwari sharif, Patna town, Bihar

MCT

Services for urban poor;Education

Community meetings; mentor team

Baseline survey conducted; awareness programmes conducted; free tution provided to children.

Admitting out of school children in schools; housing rights; Water and sanitation

9 Sarfaraz Ahmad

Darbanga Town,

Education; Services

Community meeting;

Rapid summary mapping of

Education; citizenship rights

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BiharMCT

for urban poor

communtiy conducted

for excluded Nat group; rights of unorganised workers

10 Anzar Bhajanpuri

Araria (Forbesganj block), Bihar. MCD

Pension; Sanitation; employment

Nukkar sabha; volunteer mobilisers; community partners

Helped obtain job cards of some 150 community members; created awareness; and prior work on mobilisation of victims of Police firing for legal rights and compensation.

Sanitation; MG-NREGS;

Note: MCD – Minority Concentrated District; MCB – Minority Concentrated Block; MCT – Minority Concentrated Town

4.2 Day 2 (Training and Development Day)

The second day was devoted to Organisational Development issues, including training of fellows and other Misaal actors, whilst developing, through mutual consultations, systems and processes required for fellows and Misaal NRC to deliver on the agreed action plans. The objective was to arrive at a commonly agreed set of SOPs, that would have the buy in of fellows, local mentor teams and NRC, facilitating performance,

Individual sessions included:

i. Internal communication

This included discussions on periodic guidance and mentoring support by NRC to fellows; that between NRC and state/regional/local mentoring teams; and monitoring and reporting system of fellows’ performance. The following was agreed:

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The monthly reports, also provide opportunity for local mentoring teams to review fellows’ work and the challenges of delivery, to suggest capacity development

ii. Local mentoring platforms

This session, taken by Raja Bhaiyya of VDS, and supported by Action Aid representatives, was aimed at understanding, collectively, how a good local mentoring and handholding platform for fellows could be set up; what specific tasks it should performs; and what systems should govern the paltform’s engagment with both its designated fellow, as well as Misaal NRC.

The following was agreed in this context:

For Uttar Pradesh fellows:

Afkar India (for Shamli fellow), Sakar (for Bareilly fellow) and VDS (for Fatehpur and Banda fellows), all supported by Action Aid UP; would use their existing system of programme monitoring and supervision for their respective fellows. A similar system would be set up for Aligarh fellow.

Fellows submit monthly reports of performance, on agreed workplan.

These reports should provide information at various levels – activity level, to include efforts made, and results obtained on those. But along with that , the reports also provide opportunity for fellows to reflect on their own work, the challenges and opportunities that exist, and their capacity development needs.

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Action Aid UP and their aforementioned partners also agreed to include respective fellows in their ongoing capacity development programmes, based on ongoing review of fellows’ capacities.

For Bihar fellows:

Misaal will set up a monitoring and review system for Bihar fellows, on the lines of those set up/in practice in UP. This will require NRC to devote resources for the same, beyond that for UP fellows.

In the absence of any institutional capacity support to Misaal in Bihar, effort would be made to reach out to state –level development actors in the state, for adopting individual fellows, for mentoring and capacity support.

Bihar fellows would also be included on periodic training/capacity building programmes organised outside the state, but these would entail costs to Misaal.

iii. Misaal Portal and functionalities

This session, taken by Satendra Singh of Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), was aimed at introducing Misaal website/portal (www.misaal.ngo) to Misaal actors (fellows and others); demonstrating use of the portal for internal communication and other purposes; and obtaining feedback from participants for improving website quality. DEF is Misaal’s digital partner.

It was agreed that the website would be further developed to enable Misaal key actors - fellows, mentors and NRC - to use Misaal for internal communication (sharing periodic reports, guidance notes and communiques among others). Also that each fellow would be provided a profile page on the webspage. These would be linked to blogsites each fellow would be helped to create, for putting out news and stories. NRC would also explore possibility of obtaining from DEF, Misaal webmail accounts for all fellows, and key Misaal personnel. Finally, Misaal on0line donation functionality would be fianlised, and integration of PayUmoney gateway on the website completed.

iv. Focus themes for 2nd Quarter: RTI and Minority programmes

This session, on use of RTI for information collection and its advocacy use for minority programmes, was taken by Salim Baig, RTI activist and Akram Akhtar, of Afkar India Foundation. The resource persons talked about the various schemes of central and state governments for Minority development, and how RTI could aid in their better working. They spoke of their experience with use of RTI, and the challenges and opportunities there for promoting minority rights. The attempt was to provide practical how-tos and

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The session concluded with agreement on the outlines of an action plan, for NRC to support fellows use RTIs actively in their work, and for Misaal to partner with state level RTI partners, both in UP and Bihar, to this end.

iv. Media documentation and oureach

This session, on use of RTI for information collection and its advocacy use for minority programmes, was taken by Salim Baig, RTI activist and Akram Akhtar, of Afkar India Foundation. The resource persons talked about the various schemes of central and state governments for Minority development, and how RTI could aid in their better working. They spoke of their experience with use of RTI, and the challenges and opportunities there for promoting minority rights. The attempt was to provide practical how-tos and

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It was decided that fellows would, at first, begin writing regular blog pieces on their blogsites, supported by NRC; and then

5. Conclusion and Next Steps:

The review event concluded with a finalisation of the focus areas of each fellow; and an agreement on next steps, for realisation of the goals and objectives. Next Sreps Action Plan at Box below.

It was also decided to organise next Misaal review-cum-training conclave, tentatively in early October 2015, in Banda/Uttar Pradesh, with Vidhya Dham Samiti, Atarra. Also that the forum would be used to review and reflect on the performance of fellows, besides the resilience of systems and processes put in place, for effectove management and oversight of the work of Misaal fellows, and Misaal fellowship as a whole.

Misaal Fellowship Next Steps Action Plan

Fellows’ workplans and project management

The final session of the event, led by Shah Alam, Misaal Media Fellow, was aimed at providing fellows and others, a taste of the possibilities that existed for engaging with media, to communicate their work to the wider world, locally as well as at state and national levels. The focus was on providing practical tips to writing short news and commentary pieces; quality checking those; getting them published using multiple media; and for using media engagment for wider advocacy on issues at

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1.   NRC to finalise fellows' focus areas of work that emerged at Lucknow review. Develop these into workplans, with timelines and indicators, and communicate to fellows within 15th August 2015.2. NRC to develop monitoring & reporting templates against above workplans + guidance notes (based on Action Aid models), and communicate to fellows. Monthly reports of fellows, due by 5th of the following month. First report expected on 5th Sept.3. NRC to obtain sample RTI questions from Salim Baig/Akram Akhtar, RTI activists, and use that to develop an RTI plan (on minority related programs), and guidance notes for fellows to follow.4. NRC to coordinate with Shah Alam/media fellow for a model template on media reporting, and develop a media plan and associated guidance for fellows to implement, including for their blog pages.

Fellows’ capacity building

5. NRC to finalise Misaal Training manual, and share copies in soft as well as hard form, with all fellows within August 2015.6. NRC to develop models for rural and urban service delivery, drawing upon elements of central and state minority development programmes, that fellows would implement in the course of their work7. NRC to develop a proposal for capacity building of fellows, through training programmess and study/exposure visits, and approach suitable funding agencies for support.

Regional mentoring platforms

8. In the context of efforts for setting up state level platform on Minority rights, both in Lucknow and Patna (on 29th July and 1st August 2015, respectively), NRC would set up group mail for UP and Bihar Misaal platforms, and support establishment of systems and procedures, including local anchor team and interactions with Misaal NRC, and Misaal fellows in the state.

Misaal Website

9. NRC to coordinate with DEF to further develop Misaal website, based on Review meet feedback, including creating fellows' accounts and profile and district pages; besides finalise integration of PayUmoney gateway on website. Explore possibility of obtaining from DEF, Misaal webmail accounts for all fellows, and key Misaal personnel.

Capacity, Advocacy, Knowledgewww.misaal.ngoinfo@misaal.ngo

C/o Centre for Equity Studies

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105/6 A, Adhchini, Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi – 110 017, India

August 2015

Annex 1

List of participants at Misaal Fellowship 1st Quarterly Review & Reflection meet

Name Organisation/Affiliation1 Salim Ansari Misaal Fellow, Shamli district, UP2 Arshi Khan Misaal Fellow, Fatehpur, UP3 Asma Ansari Misaal Fellow, Aligarh, UP4 Mohd. Azaz Misaal Fellow, Bareilly, UP5 Majida Parveen Misaal Fellow, Banda, UP6 Md. Mahmood Misaal Fellow, Bhagalpur – Banka, Bihar7 Meraj Ali Misaal Fellow, Patna, Bihar8 Sarfaraz Ahmad Misaal Fellow, Darbhanga, Bihar9 Najmul Hafiz Misaal Fellow, Madhubani, Bihar10 Anzar Bhajanpuri Misaal Fellow, Araria, Bihar11 Shah Alam Misaal Media Fellow12 Mujahida Dept. of Education, AMU, Aligarh13 Raja Bhaiyya Secretary, Vidhya Dham Samiti, Banda14 Akram Akhtar Lead, Afkar India Foundation, Shamli15 Shilpi Lead, Sakar, Bareilly16 Saleem Baig RTI activist, Moradabad17 Satendra Singh Digital Empowerment Foundation, New Delhi18 Rajan Singh Programme Officer, Action Aid India, Lucknow19 Ajay Sharma Peoples’ Advocacy Forum/Action Aid India, Lucknow20 Farhat Salim Misaal National Resource Centre (NRC) volunteer21 Reena Cherian Misaal NRC volunteer22 Ovais Sultan Khan Misaal NRC Coordinator23 Sajjad Hassan Misaal NRC volunteer

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