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Citizen's Actions Research
To influence and reorient development policies and practices, CYSD has initiated policy research and advocacy in alliance with various stakeholders including civil society organizations, legislators, government authorities, and the media to enable poor and voiceless people to assert their rights.
The aim of research and advocacy is to demystify government processes and create awareness among people on government policies and programmes, and to sensitize various stakeholders on issues affecting poor people. Civil society actors are mapped out and constitute a multi-stakeholder forum on monitoring governance in Orissa.
The Three Areas of Focus of Research and Advocacy are
Making the Governing Process more Accountable to people from Panchayat to Parliament. Field research is undertaken to understand the realities of power devolution and finding gaps to feed into the advocacy efforts for decentralized and accountable local governance system in the State.
Improving the primary education delivery system This is done by creating opportunities and forums for citizen participation, at different level that is District, State and National levels, to play a watchful role on the institutions of governance on the parameters of their performances of duties.
Strengthening rural livelihood by enhancing citizen’s participation in the governance process and strengthening civil society to supplement and complement the roles and functions of citizenry watch processes.
People driven advocacy: People Driven Advocacy is a mode of planned social action by communities:
Advocacy Initiatives:
Based on these study findings, advocacy initiatives are taken up to empower communities to bring about change. Consultations and workshops are organized with stakeholders, to create awareness and generate debate to advocate for pro-poor policies. Efforts are made to bring gender issues into focus by improving the collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data, in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development.
People’s Campaigns:
Initiatives are taken by various civil society organizations including CYSD to generate awareness at grassroots level and build a sustained people's campaign in Orissa. The campaign in Orissa, known as "Daridrya O Kshudha Mukti Abhiyan", primarily focuses on the proper monitoring and implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Rural Health Mission, and Education for All. In addition to this, youth cadres in different districts are built to carry forward the campaign’s initiatives.
The state budget is analyzed every year to examine the state’s commitment to the social sector in regard to the real needs of the most deprived, and advocate prioritizing pro-poor elements in the budget. The budget documents are simplified to enable the civil society actors to understand the implications and to pressurize the government to increase spending on the poor. Instrument of governance such as budget are analyzed to find out anomalies in the priorities set and in the utilization and allocation of resource, in the context of Social sector and issues affecting the development of marginalized.
Research Study and Analysis on Budget and Budgetary Trends:
Budget analysis is used as a tool to monitor the financial commitment of the Government of Orissa towards improving the conditions of poor and marginalized people. Its aim is to research and analyze budgetary trends in terms of allocation and spending, provide information to the legislators and help them understand the process of budget making and budget allocation. The study also creates awareness among citizens on the budget and budgetary trends, and builds pressure groups to influence policy makers.
To support these aims, the following research studies have been undertaken:
(a) Budget Watch: Trend Analysis of Social Sector Spending of Orissa: A trend analysis of social sector spending of Orissa (since 1997/8) in comparison with 14 major states of India was carried out. The objective of the study was to influence the Orissa Government to increase spending on the poor. Within the social sector, the focus is on the trends of spending on primary education and health, with a detailed analysis of the allocations given to various items including textbooks, medicine, school building and hospital building. Study findings of the trend analysis of social sector spending of Orissa are published every year. Budget Watch 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been published to increase the understanding of different stakeholders on budgetary trends. Workshops at different universities in the state are conducted to sensitize the students on the budget making process and governments spending on the social sector. To promote a pro-poor agenda in the budget, the media and legislators have also been extensively targeted.
(b) Dialogue with Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) on their role in budget formulation and implementation: A study to understand the involvement of the MLAs in the budget formulation and discussion process was undertaken. The study analyzed the interest areas of the MLAs, their involvement in the budget discussion process and the type of information they want on budget related issues. CYSD collaborated with the Orissa Legislative Assembly to run a workshop with members of the Assembly, including ministers. The workshop was on the role of Standing Committee in the budget discussion process.
