ISDM to co-create management frameworks for grassroots organisations 

New Delhi: Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Jharkhand CSO Forum, a consortium of 50 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the state under Mission Sahyog, a transformative initiative to co-create scalable management frameworks for small social purpose organisations. 

 
The MoU has been signed at ISDM’s Noida campus to formalise a knowledge creation and sharing platform that aims to support organisation development for all CSO partners. The vision is to work with grassroots CSOs, and other potential partners to strengthen organisational systems and mechanisms to transform the lives and livelihoods of 2 million people from rural communities.  
 

This MoU marks the beginning of a journey that will lead to management models or frameworks co-created through a set of cognitive, strategic and practical procedures. This process is likely to conclude by July-August 2023.  
 

The initiative is aimed at creating more resilient CSOs, with enhanced impact and effectiveness in the communities they serve and enabling improved collaboration and coalitions between the CSOs and key stakeholders such as the government, partner organisations and donors.   
 

Speaking about the initiative, Ravi Sreedharan, Founder and President of ISDM, said, 
“Numerous Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) located in rural India are the backbone of civil society space. ISDM is committed to ensuring that all CSOs, regardless of location, funding size, type of work, and operational models can benefit and be empowered by the tenets and principles of Development Management. This joint endeavour is both pioneering as well as vital to looking beyond ‘challenges’ towards ‘opportunities’. We are using principles of design thinking and collective wisdom to work with these 50 CSOs and co-create Management Models and frameworks for small, rural, community-based organisations. This will allow them to become resilient and have a sustained impact at scale. This project is dedicated to the state of Jharkhand. If this succeeds, the model can be exported to other Indian states too.” 
 

Speaking on the importance of the partnership, Director, VB Net Foundation, Nandlal Maity said, “The CSOs present on the forum bring in a diverse set of experience and expertise. The 50 organisations that are part of the forum belong to at least five diverse regions in Jharkhand and their initiatives and work are strongly anchored in the need for sustainable impact in the communities. However, in the face of changing times and challenges, they often require constant evolution to enhance their impact. This partnership will support and nurture these organisations preparing them to be more resilient.” VB Net Foundation is a not-for-profit company promoted by NGOs working in Jharkhand.  
 

The MoU was signed in the presence of CSO Forum representatives including Nandalal Maity, Director, VB Net; Vivek Roy, In-charge, VB Net foundation; Amitava Ghosh, Vice President of Kalamandir; Ravi Sreedharan, Founder and President, ISDM; Sharad Agarwal, Chief Strategy Officer; Trisha Varma, Director (Global Knowledge Hub) and Ronith Banerjee, Project lead.