community participation

A non-local nonprofit shares insights from their solar electrification programme, on why trust and local partnership matter more to work in Northeast India.

Growing pressures on land and ecological changes have made jhum cultivation difficult for Manipur’s farmers. Alternative practices offer a way to improve soil fertility and build sustainable livelihoods.

In June 2025, government officials reached Delhi’s Naraina Village for an ‘unprecedented’ public hearing. What unfolded revealed decades of neglect, but also new forms of resistance. 

Communities already carry deep knowledge of the commons through oral traditions, customary practices, and lived experience. The question is whether data systems are designed to recognise it.

From identifying patients to mobilising donors, health-related fundraising demands sustained effort from nonprofits.

From sanitation to livelihoods, five nonprofits discuss how their work reflects Amartya Sen's ideas of development as freedom, as the realisation of people's aspirations, as access to basic goods and services, and as meaningful, democratic participation in decision-making.

Courts, communities, and the state are turning to geospatial tools to monitor encroachments, restore commons, and land governance but challenges remain.

The decades-long fight for water rights in Mumbai's informal settlements shows what it takes to sustain a social movement, and why the work doesn’t end with policy wins.

Citizen science can help document Northeast's rich biodiversity and ecological knowledge, while also ensuring community participation in environmental policymaking.

To effectively track progress and evaluate results of community-driven initiatives, funders and nonprofits must start by asking what success looks like from the community’s perspective.