About IBDLP

INTEGRATED BASIN DEVELOPMENT AND LIVELIHOODS PROMOTION PROGRAMME (IBDLP)

Meghalaya is blessed with the abundance of natural renewable and non – renewable resources. The population of the state is primarily dependent on the natural resources for sustenance and livelihood. With the ever increasing stress on the natural resources it thus becomes imperative to adopt a forward looking approach for optimum and productive utilization of the State’s natural resources – via, ‘Water’, ‘Land’ and ‘Biotic Resources’ in order to alleviate poverty from the state

Pressure on natural resources due to increased needs, unsustainable resource utilization, etc. warrants putting in place a developmental framework that ensures sustainable livelihoods, gainful employment opportunities, and inclusive growth. Better convergence and higher participation of the Community in the Developmental efforts will have to be central to any new initiative for a holistic development of the state. In line with the perspective of promoting inclusive growth with a focus on poverty alleviation, employment generation and livelihood promotion, the Government of Meghalaya launched a state flagship programme titled “Integrated Basin Development & Livelihood Promotion Programme (IBDLP)”.

The programme is built around four pillars- Enterprise Promotion, Knowledge Management, Natural Resource Management and Governance.

AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES OF IBDLP

IBDLP- the flagship livelihoods programme of the Government of Meghalaya aims to put the state on a higher growth trajectory and improve the quality of life of all its citizens. It seeks to redefine the relationship between the citizen and state. IBDLP has brought a paradigm shift in the way development is viewed and administered by moving from the current supply driven beneficiary model of development to a demand driven partnership model of development. The focus will be on ushering in a culture of entrepreneurship in the state through working on the attitudes of citizens. It will help create the right eco-systems for entrepreneurship to flourish.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME ARE:

  1. To reach out to every willing citizen of the state and support him/her in improving his/her income by providing whole chain interventions in any of the eleven identified livelihood sectors – Agriculture, Aquaculture, Apiculture, Livestock, Sericulture, Water, Rural Energy, Tourism, Horticulture, Forestry and Plantation Crops, and Services / Non-farm Sector.
  2. To engage with traditional institutions and village communities and formulate all development interventions based on Comprehensive Natural Resource Management and Climate Change Adaptation Strategies.
  3. To document existing traditional knowledge and juxtapose it with the modern knowledge and technology in different sectors and evolve actionable knowledge which can be used to strengthen livelihood enterprise decisions of individuals and communities.
  4. To reengineer the government machinery to be able to act in an integrated and convergent mode and deliver good governance through optimum utilization of available resources – both human and financial.

THE CORE STRATEGIES BEING ADOPTED TO ACHIEVE THESE OBJECTIVES ARE:

  1. Redefining Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship by rechristening all producers of the state as Entrepreneurs to create a sense of confidence and to change the development paradigm from being beneficiary oriented to being partner/ entrepreneur oriented.
  2. Generating demand for enterprise building by systematically engaging with the citizens through setting up of EFCs in all the blocks of the state and putting in place a conducive eco-system for enterprise creation at different levels along the enterprise pyramid.
  3. Building strong partnership with banks and financial institutions to ensure that a significant portion of the investments required for scaling up the development interventions in an entrepreneurial mode would flow from the banks.
  4. Leveraging on the social capital existing among village communities and building village level institutions for financial intermediation and risk minimization.
  5. Investing time and resources in understanding markets and marketability of the produce of the state to ensure a positive correlation between increase in production and increase in incomes to the producers.
  6. Partnerships with national and international institutions and agencies possessing experience and expertise in the various components of the programme to leverage on existing knowledge and to increase the local capacity for faster delivery of services.
  7. Systematic engagement with traditional institutions and building their capacities to be partners in furthering sustainable growth and development of Integrated Village Development Plans.
  8. Capacity building on a massive scale of the different stakeholders – officials and staff of the government machinery, village communities, entrepreneurs and programme implementation team of IBDLP.
  9. Strengthening the role of Deputy Commissioners in delivery of development to ensure integrated and convergent action and making the district as the focal point for convergence.

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

Being a framework programme cutting across all departments of the government, it is essential that the implementation structure of IBDLP has the required authority to drive integrated action. Also, the top political and official executives need to be part of the policy making and implementation process.

The Apex policy body for providing overall direction and strategy to the programme is the Basin Development Council (BDC) headed by the Chief Minister of Meghalaya. The Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) is responsible for the overall implementation of the programme. The Chief Secretary of Meghalaya is the Chairman of MBDA and all the Principal Secretaries are part of the Governing Council of MBDA. The Principal Secretary, Planning is the Chief Executive Officer of MBDA.

At the District level, the District Basin Development Units (BDU) has been set up with the Deputy Commissioner as the Chairman. These BDUs are responsible for district level implementation of the Programme. The EFCs are set up at the block level in order to have grass root level interface with citizens to provide the required intellectual and academic rigor/depth to the different components/ interventions of the programme, the following Knowledge Institutions have also been created:

  1. Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE)
  2. Meghalaya Institute of Governance (MIG)
  3. Meghalaya Institute of Natural Resources (MINR)
  4. Meghalaya Trade Promotion Organization (MTPO)

These Institutions’ primary role is to create actionable knowledge in partnership with other regional, national and international institutions, academia and other stakeholders that can be used by the implementing agencies of the programme.