By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 25 Dec: The Project Management Unit of JICA supported ‘Uttarakhand Forest Resources Management Project’ (UFRMP) took the initiative of participating in the ‘Sankalp Global Summit’, organised in Mumbai, recently.
The theme of the 10th Global Summit was to build the enterprise ecosystem to address the 3 billion underserved populations across 5 key sectors. These are Livelihoods, Agriculture, Clean Energy, Health and Sanitation, and Financial inclusion.
Vineet S. Sarin, Additional Chief Development Specialist, JICA India, participated in the session on “Co-creating Enterprise Ecosystems to Catalyse Rural Economy in Uttarakhand” organised by the UFRMP at the Summit. The primary objective was to explore engagement with Entrepreneurs, Foundations and Social Impact Investors for enduring project investments in community-based organisations, seeking innovative financing mechanisms, technology-based interventions for Natural Resource Management investments, and market linkages under the JICA financed project in Uttarakhand.
The session saw active participation of about 100 participants comprising entrepreneurs, impact investors, foundations, private banks, NBFCs and social impact investors. The deliberations and active interest expressed by the participants augurs well for the post project sustainability of the JICA supported forestry and livelihood projects in India.
Sarin gave a brief outline of its forestry sector portfolio in India and also stated it was very keen to explore the potential of this initiative which could be a credible step towards strengthening sustainability of the livelihood interventions not only under the URFMP but across all JICA supported forestry projects in the 14 states of India, to sustain the impact and measurably alleviate poverty in rural areas of the country. Thus there was enough potential for investors under JICA supported forestry projects. In this regard, JICA requested UFRMP to have another more detailed session with the interested participants later in Uttarakhand and that JICA would be keenly looking forward to receiving the results of the follow up session and whatever improvements are required under the livelihood component of UFRMP to take this initiative forward, JICA would be keen to consider.
Established by a specific law as an independent administrative institution under the Government of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) aims to promote international cooperation as the sole Japanese governmental agency in charge of ODA implementation. JICA is the world’s largest bilateral donor agency. JICA works as a bridge between Japan and emerging countries, and provides assistance in the form of loans, grants and technical cooperation, so that the emerging countries can strengthen their capabilities.
