CONTENTS About PDDP Fostering Decentralised Policies DDCs with a difference Communities surge ahead - Increasing Participation of Men & Women - The Benefits of Being Organized - Breaking Stereotypes - Education - Health - Caring for the Environment - Infrastructure for Development - Rural Electrification - Improved Technologies - Sharing and Caring - Experts in the Village - Extra Income: Better Lives - Reversing Migration - Women in the Forefront - Women in Action List of Abbreviations

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About this Publication

This Report presents the difference that PDDP has been able to make from the village and district levels to the central level. It primarily focuses on presenting a kaleidoscope of the changing face of the districts and villages of Nepal where PDDP is being implemented. The assortment of success stories and snippets of information collated within these pages reflect the changes that are taking place in the field, and the impact they are making in the lives of Nepali men and women, including those that have been traditionally marginalised from the mainstream of development.

We have even reported the smallest of change... the flicker of a smile in a widow’s face that was not there before, or the DDC that decided not to bundle up its official papers in cloth. These are little changes that add up to bring about a surge of improvement in the lives and times of the people. We have tried to focus on stories that reflect the ‘happiness’ people feel with the improvement in their lives as an outcome of programme interventions. These could be due to the various income generating activities that the people have taken up, and which have helped to get them out of the mire of poverty, or the sense of achievement they feel at working collectively for the good of their neighbourhoods. They could be the impact felt by the villagers with the completion of small infrastructure projects, or simply the benefits they are reaping from skill enhancement training. Many members living in the tarai or far west Nepal say that they now have a reason to stay back home and not leave the country in search of jobs.

Every individual has a tale to tell. Most households have been impacted in one way or another. This publication contains random glimpses into a few of those lives touched by PDDP’s support in these districts and villages. Read on...