Strengthening institutional capacities for securing biodiversity conservation commitments To mainstream biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use/management into local development planning and budgeting systems in two high biodiversity landscapes in India, and create platforms for replication. Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. Socioeconomic benefits from the project include:o Around 8,000 people with 50% women will directly benefit from the project – either through involvement in small-scale enterprise development centred on forest products, value-addition to products, ecotourism, or through involvement in capacity development programmes for local governance institutions, self-help groups, etc, developing capacity for integrating biodiversity conservation, restoration and sustainable use into rural development planning and budgeting. o Women’s leadership support: develop and deliver women leadership support programme for women participants in district coordination mechanisms, ensuring they have the necessary technical skills and confidence to participate fully and give voice to the interests and concerns of women project beneficiaries.o Development of training materials: gender-responsive training courses/tools developed and customized for two States for integration and institutionalisation in the SIRD training system on, (including simplified versions of GIZ modules): (i) Effective BMC governance by men and women; (ii) Participatory People’s Biodiversity Registers; (iii) Mainstreaming priority biodiversity actions into integrated development planning and budgeting; (iv) Participatory land use planning and management for forest and biodiversity conservation and climate resilience; (v) One Heath approach to resource management; (vi) Promotion of sustainable nature-based and eco-friendly businesses; (vii) Gender, social inclusion and biodiversity mainstreaming; (viii) Outcome based monitoring for measuring integration of biodiversity in local plans.o Training programme rolled out to 445 beneficiary villages, with report backs from the Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) of the relevant Village Employment Councils (Meghalaya) and Gram Panchayats (Tamil Nadu) on completion of People’s Biodiversity Registers and integration of biodiversity actions into development plans.o New opportunities for social inclusion: involve local governance institutions and potential beneficiaries in champion Gram Panchayats in Sathyamangalam landscape to identify suitable underutilized /degraded communal lands and grant special access for men and women participants from Scheduled Castes to these lands for cultivation and processing activities. o Gender training for self-governance institutions: undertake gender training for leadership of champion village clusters (Gram Panchayats, Village Employment Councils and traditional village councils, Biodiversity Management Committees, Self Help Groups and CBOs involved in planning) on how project aims to be gender-responsive and promote women’s empowerment, and equipping participants to facilitate this. o Champion women leadership programme: conduct leadership programme with women participants in champion village clusters, developing confidence in public speaking and giving report backs, use of smartphone and digital applications, taking photographs and notes to record activities and results, and undertaking basic bookkeeping, as well as skills in life planning for family and business.o Business incubation: run a customized training and incubation support programme for each enterprise and its governance group/s, including support on installing processing equipment[1] / accessing Schemes, developing full business plans, including sustainability plan that involves phasing out subsidization of input supply through the project, as cash flow increases.                            [1] Where appropriate for slightly larger scale aggregation and processing, the Community Facilitators and NGOs will engage the Promotion and Incubation of Market Driven Enterprises (PRIME) initiative of the Government of Meghalaya and the Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute (EDII) of the Government of Tamil Nadu for additional technical and financial support.