The main aim of this study is to examine the sustainability level of an environmental
development project called Eco-Village Development that is implemented in India, state of
Rajasthan. The project started in 2002 and will end in 2010. It is cooperation between the
Student Union of the University of Jyväskylä (JYY) and two Indian non-governmental
organizations, Women’s Action for Development (WAFD) and Integrated Sustainable Energy
and Ecological Development Association (INSEDA). The project is mainly financed by the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. Goal of this study is to provide recommendations on
how to enhance the sustainability of the project’s positive outcomes. The study concentrates
on participation and gender and their role in maintaining the project’s benefits.
In this research, participation is presented with Amartya Sen’s and Jean Drèze’s perceptions,
clarifying its role as a freedom and pointing out how social change can only happen through
widespread participat
ion. It can be claimed that high level stakeholder participation is an
imperative for projects’ sustainability. The study has been conducted in a form of
empowerment evaluation and supported with more traditional participatory methods.
Empowerment evaluation provides a philosophy, theoretical framework, and methods to
address the concerns of self-assessment and it employs both qualitative and quantitative
methodologies. Generally evaluations are seen as learning tools to improve the
implementation and particularly the democratic evaluations, such as empowerment
evaluation, enhancing the democracy and contributing to good governance.
The empowerment evaluation disclosed that the participation among the project volunteers is
rather active and both genders seem to have relatively good possibilities to join, plan and
implement the actions. Nevertheless, to enhance the participation level and thus the
commitment towards the project, which again should lead to higher level of sustainability, it
is recommended that as much awareness raising opportunities will be offered to the volunteers
as possible. This is due to the fact that learning is greatly valued among the project
participants. In order to ensure even higher level of sustainability of the positive outcomes,
these trainings should be open for other villagers as well, not only for the volunteers. In
addition, women’s participation through village level women groups should be systematically
given more attention. This is a substantial component that can engage a majority of the
women and thus spread the knowledge into most of the families. Additionally the
empowerment evaluation revealed that more attention should be given for forming well
functioning youth groups and a Farmer’s Cooperative. However, even though awareness has
been well and widely spread, there is still an obstacle on implementing some of the project’s
components; money. For this challenge an answer could be micro-financing. As a last note it
is proposed that the collaborating NGOs continue staying in touch and keep supporting each
other, even though the funding ceases.
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