This Social Assessment for the National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) has been prepared after careful review and analysis of the experiences of previous state- and civil society-supported livelihood projects including World Bank-assisted livelihood projects. A comprehensive desk review was carried out of seven previous District Poverty Initiatives /Rural Livelihoods Projects in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. This identified the key social development issues that projects faced and the strategies they used to deal with them. The desk review was supplemented with inputs from consultations carried out at the national level with over 18 states, as well as detailed field consultations in four states (Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar). These consultations obtained the views and feedback on government officials at all levels, civil society partners and, most importantly, of the poor people who are expected to benefit from the NRLP. They
identified constraints to accessing development programs and livelihoods and expressed their views on important NRLM strategies.