How We Work
SARD works alongside a Gram Panchayat for 36 months — not as an external implementing agency, but as a structured facilitation partner that builds the GP's capacity to plan, converge resources, and sustain outcomes on its own.
What SARD does — and does not do
SARD does not run parallel service delivery. SARD does not build its own water pipelines or run its own schools. SARD works by improving the performance of the government systems, institutions, and schemes that are already mandated and funded to serve a village.
Where government schemes do not reach — the last-mile households, the institutional gaps, the behavior change that hardware alone cannot produce — SARD mobilizes and coordinates partner resources. The distinction between what schemes cover and what partners cover is always documented in the Village Development Plan.
At the end of 36 months, SARD exits. The Gram Panchayat, its elected institutions, and its Village Development Committees are expected to own and continue what was built. Exit readiness is tracked as a programme outcome from month one.
The 36-month delivery cycle
Three phases, each with defined outputs and transition criteria. No phase begins until the previous phase's outputs are in place — community planning before delivery, delivery before consolidation.
Community Entry & Baseline
SARD establishes working relationships with the Gram Panchayat, Gram Sabha, SHG Federations, and frontline government workers. A structured baseline assessment documents conditions across all seven pillars — infrastructure, WASH, health, education, livelihoods, environment, and governance.
The Village Development Plan is produced through a participatory process involving Gram Sabha sessions, ward-level meetings, and institutional consultations. The VDP maps baseline conditions, applicable government schemes, and the work programme for months 5–36. It is adopted by the Gram Sabha and forms the basis for the GPDP submission.
- Gram Sabha resolution adopting the VDP
- Scheme mapping and application schedule
- Baseline data across all seven pillars
- Village Development Committee constituted
Convergence-Led Delivery
The primary delivery phase. Government scheme applications are submitted and tracked. Physical works — roads, drainage, toilets, water infrastructure, community buildings — are executed in the sequence established in the VDP execution calendar. Infrastructure and WASH works are jointly scheduled to prevent construction conflicts.
Alongside physical works, institution building proceeds in parallel: Water User Groups, School Management Committees, Village Health and Sanitation Committees, and the Village Development Committee are strengthened. SHG enterprise and livelihood programming runs through NRLM/SERP channels with SARD facilitation support.
Partner-supported components — the gap-filling work that schemes do not cover — are executed alongside scheme-funded components, with documentation of which fund covers which element.
- Quarterly VDC review against VDP work programme
- Bi-annual Gram Sabha progress presentations
- 18-month midline assessment across all pillars
- Scheme fund utilization and compliance tracking
Consolidation & Handover
The handover phase focuses on transferring accountability from SARD facilitation to village institutions. Water User Groups are managing their own billing and maintenance. School Management Committees are operating independently. The Village Development Committee is preparing the next cycle of GPDP submissions without SARD prompting.
Endline assessment across all seven pillars is conducted in months 33–35. A Programme Completion Report documents outcomes, pending gaps, and the sustainability framework agreed with the Gram Panchayat. The final Gram Sabha session formally receives the PCR and records handover of all documentation and institutional responsibilities.
- Endline assessment against baseline across all pillars
- Programme Completion Report adopted by Gram Sabha
- All documentation transferred to GP
- Post-exit follow-up schedule agreed (months 42, 48)
Accountability structure
Three actors, three roles
SARD's model is explicitly designed around three distinct roles. Conflating them — SARD acting as implementing agency, or community groups acting as government — undermines sustainability.
The Gram Panchayat
Owner, planner, and accountable institution
The GP owns the Village Development Plan, submits the GPDP, manages scheme funds, and is accountable to the Gram Sabha for village outcomes. SARD does not substitute for the GP — it builds the GP's capacity to exercise its legal mandate. All works are executed under GP authority; all documentation is GP property.
The Community
Planner, overseer, and beneficiary
Gram Sabhas set priorities, review progress, and accept or reject programme outputs. Village Development Committees maintain ongoing review between Gram Sabha sessions. SHG Federations, Water User Groups, and School Management Committees exercise sector-specific oversight. Community participation is not consultation — it is governance.
SARD
Facilitation partner and gap-filler
SARD provides structured facilitation — for planning, scheme convergence, institution building, and measurement. SARD directly funds or coordinates partner support for the specific gaps that government systems do not cover. SARD is not a contractor, not a service provider, and not a permanent fixture. Its presence is time-limited by design.
Where partner resources enter the cycle
Partners — CSR, philanthropic, research, technical — do not fund the whole programme. Their resources are scoped to the specific gaps that public systems leave behind, identified through the scheme mapping process in months 1–4.
This means partner investment is always preceded by a clear map of what government will cover — so the same component is never funded twice, and partner capital is deployed where it creates the highest marginal difference. A partner funding what a scheme already covers wastes resources. A partner funding the gap between a water pipe laid and a Water User Group that can maintain it produces durable outcomes.
Partnership conversations begin after scheme mapping is complete — not before. This is a design principle, not a scheduling quirk.