The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) led to a significant increase in investments in the urban sector. The mission was launched in December 2005 for a period of seven years with an outlay of over Rs 66,000 crores.
Notwithstanding this, the Twelfth Five-Year Plan document noted that the urban sector continued to suffer from grossly inadequate availability of resources and lack of capacity at different levels of the government. A major shortcoming was the limited success in leveraging of JNNURM funds within a public-private partnership (PPP) framework. Slow progress in project implementation is a major concern. Urban local bodies (ULBs) have been able to identify various physical infrastructure project needs for the city through public consultations and inputs. The challenge is to make these projects real and alive for each city. This is where financial resources and organisational skills have proved to be inadequate.
On the other hand, the private sector has typically shown the organisational capacity to implement projects efficiently and on time. In this context, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandate of two per cent of profits provides a significant opportunity. Current CSR spending seems to focus on development activities like health, education and livelihoods and on environmental conservation. For example, in the educational space, food distribution to support mid-day meals consistently for three years wins the company an award. Other channels of spending include building creches for slum children or charity dispensaries or providing resources for HIV/AIDS support groups. The challenge is being able to be consistent with their donations, as the two per cent of profits may vary or may disappear all together. But once funds are available they will generally be expected to be managed with efficiency to get results.
This line of reasoning leads to an important implication. We have cities with predictable funding but inefficient implementation, and companies with the potential for efficient implementation but unpredictable funding capacity. Companies and ULBs are complementary to each other in their strengths and weaknesses.
In some countries, when a marriage is announced, the couple comes up with a list of goods that they want to have after they are married. Some even send this list with their wedding invitations. This gift registry is provided as a service by a website or retail store to assist engaged couples in the communication of gift preferences to wedding guests, including their price tag. Selecting items from the store's stock, the couple lists desired items and files this list with the chosen merchant. The list is then made available to wedding guests; upon the purchase of a listed item, this gift registry is updated accordingly. In addition to providing valuable information for the buyer, the system helps prevent the receipt of duplicate or unwanted gifts, potentially saving time for both giver and recipient.
Expanding this analogy to the partnership between companies and ULBs, it is possible for the mayor or the commissioner of a ULB to sketch a vision of the future of their city with a list of specific infrastructure and service projects that they would like to have in their future. This list of projects can be based on consultation with their constituencies, specific to the project locations. Once identified, a project list, along with the project costs and human resource skills required, could be communicated on their website similar to items in a gift registry. There are many possible financial ways and component modules in which these projects can be broken up into their parts, for corporates to use their CSR resources.
I know of companies encouraging their employees to assist NGOs. My software-specialist friend, through her contribution, was able to help an NGO to keep records of the various batches for skill development courses to create a resource directory. This NGO acts as facilitator to provide short-term training classes for livelihood skill development. The classes are held in the local municipal school rooms after school hours at nominal fees. Another company provides the course syllabus, standardised evaluation, and certificates at the end of the course. Thus the NGO provided the context for the corporate and their employees to help the community to create livelihoods and organise. Everyone has emerged a winner in the process.
After all, urban infrastructure and service projects are the sum total of small, ward-specific project components and actions. These project components are the specific 'gifts' that the wards need for their future and the ward officers can be the facilitators, for making it happen. As in a gift registry, once these 'gifts' are listed, their 'guest' could easily pick up the costs, get full credit and their name on the CSR contribution. Upon committing to a project component, this gift registry too can be updated accordingly. In addition to providing valuable information for other corporate firms the system helps prevent duplicate or unwanted projects, potentially saving time and resources for both corporates and the ULB.
The writer is an independent researcher on urban and environmental issues
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
