SAS 1000 Promoting Livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of Small and Marginal Farmers and workers in the non-farm sector

Social Audit Standard (SAS) 1000
Promoting Livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of Small and Marginal
Farmers and workers in the non-farm sector
(SAS 1000 should be read in conjunction with the “Preface to the Social Audit Standards” and
“Framework  for the Social Audit Standards”, issued by the ICAI)

SECTION I – INTRODUCTION

Objective and Scope

1.10 This Social Audit Standard relates to the thematic area of “Promoting Livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of Small and Marginal Farmers and workers in the non-farm sector’’. The Standard aims to provide the Social Auditor with the necessary guidance about independent impact assessment engagement of Social Enterprises engaged in promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector and the audit steps and procedures that should be applied while conducting the social impact assessment. The standard sets out the minimum requirements to be followed while conducting impact assessment. Laws or Regulations may establish additional requirements which should be followed as applicable.

SECTION II – PROCESS OF SOCIAL AUDIT

Data Collection

1.20 The stakeholders that may be approached for obtaining data include:

• Direct beneficiaries e.g., small and marginal farmers, women representation, education level representation, and representation from disadvantaged sections of the society, and workers in the non-farm sector
• Immediate family members of the direct beneficiaries
• Trainers imparting training
• Management/ personnel of Training Partners
• Monitoring Agency
• Recruitment Agencies
• Employers
• Key Program officials of the reporting entity

The overall activity of conducting a survey and collecting sample data should be reviewed in terms of the following factors to assess relevance and reliability:

• designed by an in-house team or external specialized agency or an area specific expert
• conducted by an in-house team or external specialized agency or an area specific expert
• coverage: number of villages/districts/ total distance (km) covered
• The sample chosen for conducting the survey by way of Questionnaires, In-depth Interviews (IDIs) or Focussed Group Discussions (FGDs) must be representative of the diverse target communities and geographies, in order to cover a wide range of the stakeholders involved and give due representation to each category. Each such category should be analysed to assess the percentage composition represented by it, for e.g., small and marginal farmers, women representation, education level representation, and representation from disadvantaged sections of the society, and workers in the non-farm sector.
• The assessment rate or the response rate i.e., the number of actual responses received against the targeted number of respondents in the survey. A high assessment rate shall provide reasonable assurance that most of the targeted respondents have been largely covered under the survey and that the sample responses considered for the study are fairly representative. Identify the reasons for the gap between respondents contacted and responses received. Such gaps may be due to the candidates not being reachable, or the respondents having migrated to another place or due to incorrect contact details in the database.
• The Social Auditor should review the procedure for identifying the participants considered for the sample study. The respondents targeted for the survey should be selected on a random basis so that the incidence of biased responses, which may unfairly influence the impact assessment, is mitigated

Desk Review

1.30 The Social Auditor should conduct a desk review of existing documents to gain further insight into the evaluation procedure and impact assessment. Such documents, about promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non­farm sector, may include the following:

General Documents:

• Policy papers by institutions such as National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD),
• Reports and Policy papers on Doubling the farmers’ income
• various schemes by Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW), and
• Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Scheme documents by the Ministry of MSME, amongst others.

Programme Specific:

• Inception Report,
• Implementation Plan,
• Overall Project Report,
• Baseline Reports, amongst others
  Inspection & Personal Interviews

1.40 Besides desk review, the social auditor should also consider conducting physical inspection and personal interviews to get first hand assessment of impact.

Evaluation Questions

1.50 The social auditor should review the evaluation questions addressed through Questionnaires, In -depth interviews, and Focused Group Discussions to assess the responses received from various stakeholders and to understand what has changed. This would help the Social Auditor in forming his views on the following aspects:

• Did the target people attend the awareness campaign/ programmes/ workshop?
• Do they think differently after the awareness campaign/ programmes/ workshop?
• Did they learn something they did not know?
• Did they use/apply the knowledge and gain from it?
• Did they share it with others?

Such questions, in relation to promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector, may cover the following aspects:

(a)  Composition of the participants:

• Whether the program objectives were found to be consistent with the composition of the trainees?

(b) Quality of awareness campaign/ programmes/ workshop

• How was the quality of awareness campaign that was imparted?

Social Audit Standards

• Were the participants satisfied with the awareness campaign that they received?
• Has the training been useful to their present engagement?
• Are the participants satisfied with the assessment procedure?
• What was the frequency of awareness campaign once a target group was identified? Was there a follow – up session / engagement activity to assess implementation of the training?
• Were the concerns / issues of the target group adequately addressed in future awareness campaign?
• Were suitable solutions provided during future awareness campaign?

(c) socio-economic factors

• What impact did the program have on a person’s life after receiving awareness campaign?
• Has the income of beneficiaries increased after receiving awareness campaign?
• Has the training improved the well-being of the participants?

(d) Suggestions / Feedback

• What were the constraints or challenges faced in imparting the awareness campaign?

Key Metrics for Evaluation of Project / Program

1.60 The Social Auditor should review the project/program documents to frame the evaluation criteria for assessing impact. Such key metrics may be collated from baseline, mid-line (monthly/quarterly), and end-line assessment (if available), respectively at the beginning, middle, and end of the reporting period/project/program to effectively understand and evaluate the impact.

The evaluation of the project/program information would facilitate the Social Auditor to assess:

• What would have happened in the absence of the intervention?
• How much has the project contributed to the changes that are evidenced?
• Is there any unintended negative impact that happened due to the intervention?

Such information, about promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector, may include the following points in respect of the beneficiaries covered under the survey:

(a) Composition

• Demography, Social Background of the small and marginal farmers and workers in the non­farm sector – e.g., Age-wise distribution, Marital status, social category wise distribution, representation/participation by women
• Ancestral background of the small, marginal farmers, and workers in the non-farm sector
• Selection process of the small, marginal farmers, and workers in the non-farm sector and identification of training needs

(b) Training Program aspects

• Relevance & usefulness of farmer specific training
• Nature of training imparted
• Duration of training and its sufficiency
• Command area, say, village level/block level
• Sectors of training, say agricultural insurances, such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS), etc., Organic farming such as, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS)

Social Audit Standards (SAS) 1000

Certification through Regional Councils/ Zonal councils, etc. and Protection of Plant varieties and farmers’ rights.

• Course content of training
• Certification/assessment test
• Trainer’s competencies
• Quality of the delivery mechanism
• Training infrastructure & equipment

(c) Income Enhancement

• Deployment type (wage/salary/self-employed)
• Nature of first engagement/activities after training (Regular/Temporary/ Casual)
• Current status after receiving training
• Waiting period for employment/gap post completion of training
• Remuneration (before and after specific training)
• Social security benefits after training
• Apart from training, a Social Enterprise may be engaged in creating or improving access to income generation opportunities like
• Creating opportunities for women in the families of small and marginal farmers in dairy farming/ cottage industry e.g. bamboo articles, embroidery, articrafts, food products like pickles, papads, jams, preservatives, etc. – contribution to monthly income of the family units needs to be assessed.
• Arranging for / Improving access to microfinance / farm loans, etc. – Increase in annual production
• Arranging for / Improving access to Agri Insurance – Improvement in insurance coverage
• Arranging for / Improving access to Government Benefit schemes- Reduction in cost of production
• Arranging for / Improving access to fairer markets / cooperative societies/ corporate buyers / Government outlets- Improvement in sales margins
• Arranging for / Improving access to legal assistance to marginalized groups -Reducing unlawful burden on family income/ property-
• Creating / enhancing opportunities for generating income from forests – Income augmentation

(d) Socio-economic factors

• Status of beneficiaries before receiving training / assistance and access to better facilities
• Socio-economic improvement
• Livelihood creation
• Increase in income
• Improved facilities at home
• Changes in socio-economic factors – acceptance / respect in the village/society, decrease in alcoholism / addictions, economic condition, health condition, confidence level, purchasing power, earning avenues
• Capacity building of Panchayati Raj institutions and community-based organisation for sustainable development regarding Livelihood, Health and Education.

(e) Other Factors

• Holistic development
• Entrepreneurial skill development
• Extra-curricular programs offered
• Amenities/resources provided
• Impact on indirect beneficiaries
• Training program for the non-farm sector (includes all economic activities in rural areas except agriculture, livestock, fishing, and hunting), such as vocational training, skill development, entrepreneurial training etc.
• Livelihood generating activities as the outcome of various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and Non-Government Organization (NGOs).
• Realization of Labour rights and regulations, along with the safe working environment

Assessment of Evaluation Criteria (Illustrative Key Performance Indicators)

1.70 The Social Auditor should identify the quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria against which the impact has to be assessed.

Such criteria for promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector may broadly include the following aspects:

(A) Quantitative Evaluation

(B) Qualitative Evaluation Criteria

SECTION III – ASSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES, AND LIMITATIONS

Challenges/Areas for improvement

1.80 The Social Auditor should identify the challenges faced by the stakeholders and the areas for improvement based on the suggestions and feedback received from them, which might influence the impact assessment. Some of the examples of commonly faced issues about promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector, may include the following:

• Lack of co-ordination/support with the other implementing agencies/ Government Departments
• Lack of planning, and pre-assessment, leading to unintended negative impact of the project
• Limited participation from the local population due to social prejudice
• Slow execution of the project resulting in negative impacts
• Selection process of the beneficiaries has not been fair due to various socio-economic and political hurdles
• Beneficiaries falling back into poverty due to an absence of social and financial security system in place

Any significant issues observed during the assessment, that may influence the user of the Impact Assessment in decision making, should be highlighted by the Social Auditor in the Social Audit report.

Limitations of the assessment

1.90 The Social Auditor should identify the inherent limitations of the evaluation process which might influence the impact assessment. Some of the examples of promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector may include the following:

• Cases of no-response in case the questionnaire is not administered in person
• Some of the questions being skipped by the respondents and remaining unanswered
• Non-availability of respondents due to relocation to other places after completion of the course
• Change in contact details of respondents due to which they could not be contacted

Any significant limitations observed during the assessment, that may influence the user of the Impact assessment in decision making, should be highlighted by the Social Auditor in the social audit report.

SECTION IV – APPENDIX

Taxonomic classification of areas and sub-areas for social objectives

(relating to promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal

farmers and workers in the non-farm sector)

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