As the whole process of implementation of the programme activities solely lies on the community institutions, the primary activity of this component is “Institution building”. Special care should be taken for organizing the communities into groups and to familiarize them with the concept of the programme activities.
 

As per the programme design, the basic community level organizations at the village level are the Self Help Groups, the Village Level Sub Committees at the village level and the Village Development Committees at the micro watershed level. Besides, community organizations like Village Social & Financial Audit sub committee, Vana Sangrakhana Samiti, Common Interest Groups, User Groups etc. will also be promoted during the programme implementation. It is essential that the FNGOs are to establish a good working relationship with the community members through frequent visit to the villages and conducting general as well as focused group discussion and disseminating the information pertaining to their roles and responsibilities in implementing the programme.
 

Entry point activity is a major activity which brings community’s ownership to the programme and establishes mutual trust. The fund allocation for this is Rs.100/- per ha which comes to Rs.50000/- per MWS. During this activity, the FNGO will facilitate the community to take up low cost (small investment) but critical activity at the villages so as to address the immediate need of people. As the name envisages, this really gives an entry for the FNGO staff to the community. Broadly, the EPA activities include improvement of drinking water, facility, village road repair, bathing place, community meeting centers etc. The approach of the programme is to plan as well as implement the activities through the communities in a participatory mode. So entry point activity gives the community a platform to take decisions on their own development and also boost their confidence to take up larger responsibilities. The community mobilization at the villages within the micro watershed will start with frequent field visits, night halts inside the villages and winning the confidence of the people by conducting small mobilization camps such as human & animal health camps, school admission drives, enrolling children into Anganwadis, facilitating several Govt. run programmes in the village, conducting street play for disseminating information about the programme etc. During these initial activities, the FNGO staff has to identify the potential community members to be promoted as village level volunteers. These volunteers will be trained on the concept of the programme and its methodology of implementation. They will work as link persons between the communities and the FNGO staff. Once the community achieves a minimum level of understanding on the programme concept and design, the Village Development & Livelihoods Plan (VDLP), for their village will be prepared in a participatory method by conducting household survey, baseline survey, PRA etc. After the VDLPs are prepared for each village within the MWS, it will be consolidated at the VDC level.

The VDLPs  should be  reflect  a holistic plan  for  over all  development  of the  villages  under  all sectors.  At the same time the FNGO staff has to promote the village organizations and simultaneously capacitate them in order to take up responsibilities for implementing the programme. Different trainings for the

beneficiaries would include the trainings of the SHG and CBO leaders on gender sensitization, leadership, maintenance of village infrastructure, PRI, rights of tribal, communications, self evaluation, group dynamics, grass root organization management, funds management and accounts etc. Besides, the members of the SHGs and other CBOs will also be exposed to the successful community based organizations implementing similar programmes outside their village. The total fund allocation apart from the EPA is Rs. 2.00 lakhs per MWS, which will be spent by the FNGOs against approved yearly plans.