Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition

Overview

Welcome to the “Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition”, a competition which aims to document and disseminate motivating case studies in an attempt to increase awareness and knowledge on the livelihoods sector and making markets work for the poor. These case studies will also provide insights to the practitioners to help them improve models of livelihood interventions. The competition is dedicated to Mr. Sitaram Rao, mentor and guru of the Indian Microfinance and Livelihoods movement, who passed away recently.

The “Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition” is a collaboration between ACCESS Development Services, a not-for-profit company that offers specialized technical assistance under two verticals - microfinance and livelihoods, and Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, a premier business school.

This competition is being introduced this year as part of the Livelihoods India Initiative, which is organized every year in conjunction with the Microfinance India Summit, a flagship national initiative of ACCESS Development Services. It is a platform styled as a global annual conference which provides the development community the opportunity to meet and learn from each other, participate in discussions and debates on key issues and be exposed to the international experiences and innovations.

For more information on entering the competition, the evaluation process and prizes, please view the competition criteria and timeline below or contact us at casecomp@accessdev.org.

Applicants

  • The competition welcomes entries from Indian as well as foreign nationals.
  • Applicants may be management professionals, practitioners, academicians, researchers or B- school students.
  • Case entries may have more than one author, and each applicant may submit one case only.
  • Employees of ACCESS and MDI and their blood relations are not eligible to participate in this competition.

Theme

All cases must reflect the 2009 theme of the competition “Making Markets Work for the Poor”. Under this broad theme, cases dealing with public private community partnership will be encouraged.

The Public Private Community Partnership(PPCP) can be understood as a business entity in which three partners come together to eradicate poverty and improve the living standards of the community at the 'bottom of the pyramid' (with the business development approach) and in due course share mutual benefits. In this partnership model, public relates to government including PRIs, private relates to an individual entrepreneur as well as a large corporate sector firm and community relates to the poor including their groups or associations.

Assessment Criteria

A review committee will be constituted by the organizers for review of the entries. This committee will shortlist the 10 best cases and hand them over to the Jury comprising of eminent practitioners, academicians and corporate representatives to adjudge the best 3 cases. A blind review process will be followed. The screening of the case study will be based on the following criteria:

  • The relevance of the case to the theme
  • The novelty of the case (The entrant must either describe a case that has not been documented earlier or in case describing a case published earlier, must ensure that some new perspective not recognized earlier is brought out)
  • The process/ unique features of the case
  • The impact and outreach
  • The sustainability aspect
  • The replicability
  • Key insights

Process

  • Interested participants must fill in their registration forms and submit the same maximum by 6pm on September 18, 2009.
  • The final case studies must be submitted maximum by 6pm on October 4, 2009 to casecomp@accessdev.org.
  • The submitted entries will be evaluated based on the assessment criteria and the 10 best will be selected by the review committee. Thereafter, the top 3 entries will be adjudged by the constituted Jury.
  • The top three entries will be awarded cash prizes, and the best 10 (including the top 3) will be given citations on the Livelihoods Day of the Microfinance India Summit 2009 (October 28, 2009 at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi).

Awards

  • First Prize: Rs. 75,000
  • Second Prize: Rs. 50,000
  • Third Prize: Rs. 30,000
  • Best 10 entries (including the top 3) will be given citations.
  • The best 10 will be invited to the Livelihoods Day of the Microfinance India Summit 2009 and will be awarded at the Summit.
  • A compendium of the 10 best cases will be released at the Summit.

Jury

The Jury will constitute of the following experts:

  • Deep Joshi, Magsaysay Award Winner 2009
  • Padmashree Prof Pritam Singh, Professor of Eminence, MDI, Gurgaon
  • Biswajit Sen, Rural Development Specialist, Agriculture and Rural Development Unit, South Asia Region, World Bank
  • Dr. NCB Nath, Chairman, PIC and FAIR
  • Bindu Ananth, President, IFMR Trust

Rules

  • All entries should be submitted in English.
  • The case study must not exceed 5000 words (excluding tables).
  • All entries should be submitted in a word document, with font times new roman (12), line spacing (1.5) and margins (1” on all sides).
  • All submitted cases must be accompanied by a scanned or hard copy of the declaration form, with the signature of the authors.
  • The cases documented must related to an Indian experience.
  • All cases must be based on real life situations.
  • All cases must be focused on a recent situation or development (after January 2006) and should typically avoid cases already written about extensively.
  • In the event that the case being documented is based on a practice of any institution/ organization, the applicant must take written permission from the concerned institution/ organization and provide a copy of the same.
  • The case must be unpublished at the day of submission and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, even in a slightly modified form.
  • All cases submitted will be the copyright of MDI, Gurgaon and ACCESS Development Services and may be published as a compendium/ book with due acknowledgement to the author(s).
  • All entries will be screened for plagiarism.
  • The veracity of the cases may be checked.
  • The decision of the Jury will be final and binding.

Important Dates

  • September 18, 2009 – Submission of registration form
  • October 4, 2009 – Submission of final case studies
  • October 28, 2009 – Awards Distribution at the Livelihoods Day of the Microfinance India Summit 2009

Forms

The registration and declaration forms can be downloaded here.

Further Information

For additional information please contact casecomp@accessdev.org or

Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon

ACCESS Development Services