Objective

We seek to develop leadership capacities among ICDS staff at District, Project, Sector and Anganwadi levels across twenty districts in Chhattisgarh so that Anganwadis in the state become thriving spaces where young children receive nurturing care.

The Intervention

The Leadership for Nurturing Care program operates in 20 districts of Chhattisgarh, with nearly 30,000 Anganwadis which reach about two million children.

Twenty-one district level officials, about 100 block-level officials, approximately 850 sub-block level officials and about 50,000 Anganwadi personnel including workers and helpers participate in the program.

At all levels the program seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how children thrive and how adults can create a nurturing atmosphere that is required for this. At all levels, the program also develops, among the participants, a deeper understanding of how to inspire and enable the people who report to them to create such an atmosphere in the anganwadis, among parents and the community.

The Story So Far...

The Govt. of Chhattisgarh and FCL signed a 5-year MoU in September 2022, partnering to build capacity of the ICDS system.

The program began with a needs and context analysis and baseline assessment. This has been followed by two cycles of capacity building workshops at all levels and implementation of the content of the workshops at the Anganwadi level.

Program implementation has resulted in a noticeable and significant change in the attitudes of many participants towards Nurturing Care and their roles as facilitators of its provision for the children of Chhattisgarh. This change in attitudes is visible in the quality of the Anganwadi atmosphere and the ECCE activities that take place in them.

Monitoring & Impact assessment

We bring a systems thinking lens to monitoring i.e. each M&E process is not only about understanding whether change is happening, it is about understanding “how” system relationships, dynamics or conditions work, therefore what needs to change, and how this intervention is contributing to that change. We review the reach of the program and process implementation on a monthly basis, reflecting on fostering and hindering factors and incorporating insights into ongoing planning and strategy.  

The program began by thoroughly understanding the landscape through a needs and context study. In January 2023 a baseline study measuring distal variables of quality of ECCE practices in the Anganwadis and child development milestone assessment was conducted in one hundred and seventy Anganwadis across all participating districts. During the currency of the programme, formative assessments will be carried out every two years. At the end of the programme, an end-line assessment will be undertaken.

We are in the process of developing measurement indicators and tools for change in organisational and pedagogical leadership.

OUR PARTNER

Senior State level officials in the Department have strongly endorsed the conceptual foundations of the program.

The capacity building processes that we employ have resulted in visible commitment of DPOs (district level officials), CDPOs (block level officials), Supervisors (sub-block officials) and Anganwadi staff to the idea of transforming anganwadis to vibrant child care centres.