The Hunger Project (THP) India is a non-profit organization focusing on empowering women as leaders in rural governance to combat hunger and poverty. Since 2000, THP has trained over 100,000 elected women in panchayats, providing them with skills and knowledge to drive local development and improve community issues. The organization collaborates with 40 partners across seven states to strengthen leadership, build awareness, and enhance service delivery in their communities.

1. MODEL - NON PROFIT
ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
The Hunger Project, India (THP) is a subsidiary of a global organization working in 14 countries to end hunger and poverty.
In India, THP is focused on strengthening local governance in rural areas. It mobilizes and empowers women as elected
political leaders in village councils (panchayats), to promote more effective local governance, social change and gender
justice. THP works through 40 partner organizations across seven states.
THE PROBLEM
A majority of the 1.3 million women leaders in
panchayats in India lack the skills or know-how to drive
local development and social change, even though
they are typically more inclined to invest in community
issues such as health and education than their male
counterparts.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Since 2000, The Hunger Project has trained more than 100,000 elected
women in panchayats, working with them over a five-year term.
Strengthening the capacities and leadership of elected women:
Electoral process campaigns are carried out over six months in the
run-up to an election. The aim is to tackle voter apathy and educate
women about the roles they can play in panchayat elections.
Information is distributed via posters, radio and village meetings.
Workshops are held for potential candidates.
Three-day residential women leadership workshops are carried out
following elections, to help new representatives develop an
understanding of their roles, responsibilities and powers, and to
improve their confidence, self-respect and dignity.
Need-based workshops are carried out to address specific issues
and knowledge gaps, for example, MNREGA, RTI, PDS and other
important social schemes and entitlements.
THP facilitates the formation of federations of elected women at the
block level, which allows women to come together to tackle
common problems they face in their communities.
THP Global founded
in the wake of the
rising debate on
world hunger
THP India founded to
work on hunger-related
issues from an education
and advocacy perspective
Made a strategic shift to
governance to best address
issues of hunger and poverty
following the passing of the
73rd Amendment; started
working with elected women
representatives in panchayats
through 20 partners
Conducted panchayat
level pre-election
campaigns with the help
of 100 partners;
expanded work to
14 states
Refined interventions
after monitoring and
evaluation of strategies,
consolidated scale of
work to seven states with
40 partners
THP’s RESPONSE
THP strengthens the leadership of elected women
representatives in panchayats, to help them be more
empowered and effective. It does this by improving
their capacities and understanding of their powers,
roles and responsibilities, and building an enabling
environment for them to work in.
The Hunger Project, India
www.thp.org/india
Founded: 1984 | Head Office: New Delhi | Coverage: Bihar, Karnataka, M.P., Odisha, Rajasthan, T.N.,
Uttarakhand | Full-Time Staff: 40 | Budget (2013-14): Organization – INR 8.9 crore; Governance – INR 8.9 crore
HOW DID IT EVOLVE?
1977 1984 2000 2006-2010 2010-2014
The Hunger Project, India
Gram Sabha mobilization campaigns, media workshops, meetings
with Parliamentarians are some of the additional activities THP
conducts to enable elected women to achieve desired policy and
service delivery outcomes in their villages.
Building an enabling environment for elected women:
KEY INTERVENTIONS
1. Building awareness and mobilizing citizens
2. Training citizens for public engagement
3. Creating knowledge and evidence
4. Advocacy for policy design and
implementation
5. Technology platforms and solutions
6. Facilitating independent and inclusive
journalism
7. Capacity building of government officials
8. Capacity building of local partners
9. Facilitating platforms for multi-stakeholder
engagement

2. WHAT’S NEXT?
“Trained elected women leaders are working towards ending hunger and poverty from their communities and villages.
These are the change agents committing themselves to usher in a new India.”
- Rita Sarin, country director & global vice president
citizenvoice policy law servicedelivery thinktank transparency RTI
elections budgets urbangovernance panchayatiraj accesstojustice
technology humanrights independentmedia
When I participated in the training
programs and other activities of The Hunger
Project, I felt confident in my own ability to
lead. Only in these trainings did I under-
stand the role of a panchayat member and
therefore started conducting Ward Sabhas
in my constituency.
- Elected village leader from Rajasthan
Improving service delivery: Facilitating the building of new roads; re-opening of primary health centres, schools, and
crèche centres; building of toilets and housing for poor communities.
Building a more equitable and just society: Using redressal mechanisms to check corruption and pilferage in schemes;
guaranteeing payment to daily wage laborers under the MNREGA scheme.
Strengthening the democratic process: Ensuring women from all castes are represented and participate at Gram Sabha
meetings; motivating women to vote and contest in elections.
The achievements of elected women representatives working with THP are wide-ranging and include the following:
Roll out an intensive program in at least 100 panchayats to ensure food security and address malnutrition. The focus will
be on strengthening existing institutions to address the issue on the ground.
Develop training-of-trainers modules on pre-election campaigns, federations, advocacy etc.
Introduce a functional financial literacy training component to its workshops, to educate and train semi-literate or
illiterate elected women representatives on basics of budgets.
Over the next few years, THP wants to focus on deepening its work in existing geographies, as well as expanding into new
ones, such as Jharkhand. It also aims to:
12 A 80 G FCRA
WHAT HAS IT ACHIEVED?
VOICES FROM THE GROUND
M.Phil in Development Policy from the University of
Nottingham, UK; 15 years at the Swedish International
Development Agency.
Serves on the Boards of leading organizations such as PRIA,
Action Aid and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.
Key funders: Royal Norwegian Embassy, THP Global,
UNDP.
Key member of the Government of India’s High Level
Committee on the Status of Women in India and the
National Steering Committee for Sustainable Nutrition
Security.
Awarded EdelGive Social Innovation Award in 2010,
under the governance category.
QUALITY INDICATORS
The Hunger Project, India
Leadership
Rita Sarin, country director.
Partnerships
Endorsements