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Effective impact assessment of development based programmes through quantification of livelihoods
PRADEEP P LODHA1 & ASHVANI K GOSAIN2
1 Civil Engineering Department, L. D. College of Engineering, Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat, India
2 Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi-110016, India
Abstract The qualitative assessment of livelihoods as a tool to analyse impacts of development-based programmes does not serve the purpose of evaluation and monitoring of such programmes, and fails to provide sustainable solutions. Qualitative methods are subjective and involve many uncertainties. In this paper a new technique to quantify livelihoods of watershed community based on the philosophy of the UNDP for assessment of human development is proposed. A new index called House Hold Development Index (HHDI) is constructed using socio-economic indicators like literacy, income, health, cattle holding, and land holding, and has been embedded into a management framework. Based on HHDI, specific derivative indices have been generated to address the issues of equity, development, and sustainability. The technique is employed on the Dudhi micro-watershed, which is located in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh in India.
Key words development; equity; India; livelihood indices; quantification; sustainability; watershed management