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PROJECT REPORT
ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT FOR KILA
SUBMITTED TO KILA
PREPARED BY - IRMA FACULTY
Prof. DEBIPRASAD MISHRA
Prof. SASWATA NARAYAN BISWAS
Prof. NIVEDITA KOTHIYAL
Prof. AJAY DANDEKAR
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1. BACKGROUND
Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) is a unique institution in several
ways. Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), the lead institution in
capacity building of local governments was established in 1990, on the pattern
of a national institute, with the main objective of strengthening local
governance through training, research and consultancy. With a view to
develop it as an institution of excellence, KILA was registered as an
autonomous institution under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and
Charitable Societies Act 1955. Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA)
is synonymous with decentralisation and local governance. The best of its
kind in the third world, KILA aims to address the emerging issues of
decentralised governance at the grass roots through a plethora of divergent
activities like training, research, consultancy, policy advice, publications and
information services. KILA thus became a harbinger of the emerging dawn of
vibrant local democracy.
KILA is the only Institution in India that functions with the sole mandate of
promoting decentralised governance both in urban and rural areas. As a result
of this, efforts are on to establish KILA as an international training centre on
local governance and declare KILA as the SAARC centre of excellence in
local governance
As the nodal institution for training, research and consultancy for the Local
Self-Government Institutions in Kerala the Institute engages in different
capacity building activities of the local governments, both rural and urban.
Training continues to be the dominant activity of KILA, with an out turn of
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around one lakh trained manpower in Kerala. The institute also conducts
research studies and has brought out a number of reports and working papers
on the related issues of local governance and developmental paradigms. KILA
has been engaged in the capacity building activities for local governments in
Kerala since its establishment in 1990.
KILA actively collaborates with many national and international agencies like
Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC), United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), UN-HABITAT, and Housing and Urban
Development Corporation (HUDCO) with a motive of deepening local
governance. KILA collaborates with the Sri Lanka Institute of Local
Governance and All India Institute of Local Self Governments, Mumbai to
conduct international course in decentralised governance and poverty
alleviation.
The primary stakeholders, i.e., the local governments, were among the
founding members and have a sizeable representation in its governing
council. Growth in its institutional profile has happened in tandem, and also in
conjunction, with one of the largest initiatives in decentralisation undertaken in
the country. As a result, KILA has been a key participant and also a
repository of direct knowledge of the decentralisation process and local
governance as it has unfolded in Kerala. Lastly, it has in recent years
emerged as a major training centre for the peoples representatives and local
government officials in the matters of institutionalising local governments, both
in the rural and urban areas. The democratic decentralization process in
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Kerala is also an innovative developmental initiative for the developing
societies of the world.
The capacity building strategy adopted for decentralization in Kerala with the
support of SDC has attained wide currency and its learning can be adopted in
other States and other countries in the South Asian region. There is a
massive demand from other States of India and the countries in the South
Asian region for organizing study visits and training programmes at KILA on
democratic decentralization, decentralized participatory planning, local
governance and democratic accountability. Therefore, it is an urgent need of
the day to strengthen KILA and SIRD as a Centre of Excellence in
Decentralization and Local Governance.
Though KILA had a remarkable trajectory until now, it is engaged in the
process of taking stock of its past and looking ahead towards its future. One
of the future agenda is congregate the activities of KILA and SIRD and to
ensure effective and more fruitful functioning of the organisation as a lead
institution of excellence in decentralization and local governance.
In April 2008 KILA organised a vision workshop to build the perspectives for
future and also to build a road map towards 2020. The workshop focused on
the present context in which KILA was placed as well as looked at the future
critically in the newly emerging context. It identified six thematic areas and
the discussions resulted in identifying the goals, objectives, outputs and
activities relating to the specific themes. KILA has invited the Institute of Rural
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Management, Anand (IRMA1
i. IRMA would undertake a Comprehensive Strategic Planning exercise
as part of OD Study for KILA and SIRD. This exercise would have a
build in understanding of the history of KILA and SIRD, also address
the evolving demands and possibilities to create a comprehensive
roadmap to realise the shared vision of the primary stakeholders of
KILA and SIRD.
) for conducting an Organisational Development
(OD) Study for KILA and SIRD. Based on a days consultations at KILA the
following terms of reference have emerged;
a. IRMA would facilitate the process of generating organisational
configurations/designs that would enable the stakeholders of
KILA and SIRD to make a suitable choice in terms of creating an
organisational structure and mechanism required to walk the
path as outlined in the Strategic Plan Document to realise the
desired vision.
ii. IRMA would prepare a comprehensive OD Report for the reengineering
of these two institutions and integrating them into a common entity to
create a Centre of Excellence in Decentralization and Local
Governance with all modern facilities and requisite human resources.
1IRMA shares several similarities with KILA. A product of the Operation Flood movement, IRMA was
founded by its most significant stakeholders, i.e., Dairy Cooperatives, who continue to constitute the
most significant proportion of the membership of its General Body.
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iii. The OD Report would give recommendations for developing KILA and
SIRD as lead learning institutions in the country and in the South Asian
region in the area of decentralization and local governance.
iv. IRMA would facilitate the process of Organizational Development of
KILA and SIRD and give clear insights to strengthen these institutions
as national and international resource centres in the area of Gender
Planning and Budgeting, Natural Resource Management,
Decentralized governance and Social Inclusion.
2. METHODOLOGY
The study team visited KILA and SIRD to understand the background, origin,
structure and process the study team consulted various published documents.
During the first visit, the faculty team interacted with the Director and other
members to firm up the Terms of Reference of the study. During this period it
was agreed that IRMA would examine the present structure and functioning of
KILA as well as the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and examine
the possibilities of merger of the two Institutions and suggest a suitable
structure of KILA after the merger.
The IRMA faculty team, in its second visit has carried out intensive structured
and free flowing interviews with all the faculty members (except one on
deputation), the Director of KILA, the two Deputy Directors, the Finance
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Officer, and other staff members of KILA. Besides, the team members also
examined various documents prepared by the faculty members and the
training contents of different training programmes. The structured interviews
focussed on understanding the participants views on the following:
a) Historical origins of KILA
b) KILAs existing structure
c) The problems the faculty members encounter in discharging their
duties; particularly in relation to training and research
d) Problems faced by support staff in their day-to-day functioning
e) The process flow of different activities like training, research, and
consulting
f) The thrust areas of training, research and consulting
g) The way through which KILA ensures quality in its three focal activities;
training, research and consulting
h) The desirability of merger of KILA and SIRD and consequences thereof
Apart from this, the faculty and staff members responded to a structured
questionnaire measuring motivational climate within KILA.
During the third visit, the IRMA team conducted a one-day workshop with the
critical stakeholders of KILA. The workshop was carried out in a free-flow
dialogical mode and all the participants actively participated. The focus of the
workshop was to initiate a discussion on future of KILA. It was focussed on
the existing institutional arrangements as well as shared vision of KILA within
its existing structures, the arrangements of its training programmes, possible
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focus areas of research, its relationship with other Institutions within and
outside the state.
Apart from this the Chairman of the KILA executive Council, Mr. Vijayand was
interviewed by the study team in Trivandrum. Similarly, at SIRD a one-day
workshop was conducted where all faculty members, the few key staff
members were present. The focus of the workshop was to gain an insight into
the workings of SIRD, its different programmes, the internal structure of the
organization. The issue of the possible merger with KILA was discussed. The
focus was on the consequences for the institution as well as the individuals
within the institution.
3. KILA, ITS PRESENT DESIGN AND FUNCTIONING
KILA as an institution was mandated to strengthen local government and such
was created by the Department of Local Self Government. However, its origin
lied in the Peoples Planning Process that was carried out throughout the
state of Kerala. Its mission is to facilitate the process of strengthening the
local self-government through capacity building of such institutions. The
capacity building measures comprise of extensive training of elected
representatives as well as officials of local self-government, action research,
and dissemination of the knowledge through publications, seminars, etc. The
Institute has also carved a niche identity in facilitating participatory planning
process at the local level. However, the ultimate mission remains as
facilitating and accelerating socio-economic development of the State through
Local Self Government Institutions (LSGIs). It functions as a nodal agency for
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the state to strengthen local democratic governance through capacity building
programmes. From this perspective, it is fully supported by state and remains
a state organization.
KILA is primarily funded by the Government and hence has the presence of
government all over its administrative and academic set up. However, it has
actively maintained strong relationship other external organizations. It has
strong ties with international agencies like Swiss Agency for Development and
Co-operation (SDC), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN-
HABITAT, and national agencies like Housing and Urban Development
Corporation (HUDCO) with a motive of deepening local governance. KILA
collaborates with the Sri Lanka Institute of Local Governance and All India
Institute of Local Self Governments, Mumbai to conduct international course
in decentralized governance and poverty alleviation.
KILA is committed to be a top ranking institution for local governments in the
country. Nevertheless, it aspires to become a national and an international
level organization of eminence in the field of local democratic government and
play a much bigger role than at present. It has several achievements to its
credit to be already counted as one. Deepening democracy, taking democratic
governance to the local level and simultaneously ushering in sustainable and
equitable socio-economic development through participatory, bottom-up
planning are the key aspirations of KILA. Much like democracy which is
always an evolving/ emergent project KILA is also conscious of the maxim
that an effective organisation is not a stable solution to achieve, but a
developmental process to keep active. In walking this talk KILA has engaged
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in numerous consultations and deliberations among its key stakeholders. On
27th April 2008 KILA had organised a Vision Workshop which was attended
by a cross section of the major partners, associates and friends. The resultant
has been a 2020 Vision document, which clearly spells out the guiding
principles and concerns as under.
The philosophy underlying KILAs vision is to create an alternative
culture of people-centred participatory governance. The focus is on the
transformation of systems and practices away from the current forms
and methods which have their origins in the feudal as well as colonial
past of the country. Absorbing and inculcating the aspired new ethos is
a gigantic responsibility and a Herculean task. KILA will first equip
itself with the absorption of the new vision before attempting to promote
it among the functionaries of the local bodies and the citizens.
It is a part of KILAs vision that decentralization should lead to the
empowerment of the disempowered. This is achieved through
preparing the masses and their leaders for a new democratic culture.
KILA recognizes that political devolution will benefit only the powerful,
unless there is social transformation. A success indicator of KILAs
capacity building attempts will be an extension of participation of those
sections of the polity which have been traditionally excluded from the
processes of decision making.
Learning/knowledge creation will be the core process which entails
unlearning and re-learning, reinforced by critical reflection. The core
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theme of learning is decentralization and local governance, in their
multifarious meanings and implications.
Learning, to be promoted, will be both intensive and extensive and will
be rooted in the soil of social and historical experience. KILAs
initiatives will be rooted in the local culture, while aiming at national and
international out-reach and partnership,
KILA will strive hard to maintain an autonomous address as well as
identity.
Policy decisions and programmes will be supported by reliable field
data, for which a data base will be created and updated continually.
Documentation is the mirror of an institution. As such, KILA will ensure
proper process documentation as an integral part of consolidating
learning.
KILA should address not only promotional demand but also
transformational demand. New models should be explored and
created. New inputs should be given, leading to new perspectives.
Quality will not be sacrificed to accommodate quantity. The institution
will insist on quality of faculty and results.
Meticulous planning of the programmes will be done well in advance.
There will be strategic planning every year.
Staff development and team building will be a priority concern of KILA
For creating an improved learning environment, facilities will be
restructured and redeployed. For instance, the library will be kept open
even after the office hours.
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The summary sheet of Action Blueprint for 2020 annexed to the KILA vision
document enumerates the following goals for KILA to pursue.
To develop KILA as a centre of excellence and premier learning
institution of decentralization and local governance in India and in the
South-Asian region;
To equip KILA with all the necessary facilities, resources and ambience
for enabling it to function as an international centre of excellence;
To expand the space and enhance the efficacy of KILA in its
multifarious interventions at the national as well as international level;
To enable KILA to excel in ventures of collaboration with prestigious
national and international institutions;
To enable KILA to effectively fulfill its function as disseminator of
scientific and technological advancements in the service of the local
governments;
To transform KILA into an institution of excellence capable of doing,
promoting and coordinating research and offer high quality consultation
in the area of local governance and democratic decentralization;
To showcase the achievements of KILA in order to get a global
interaction and acceptance.
The goals have been broken into specific objectives and further elaborated in
action terms to create a set of deliverables to be realised over the coming
years2
2
KILA Vision Document 2020
. Particular citation may be made here of KILAs intent in establishing
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specialised resource centres such as; (a) Centre for governance; (b) Centre
for sustainable development; (c) Centre for gender development; (d) Centre
for participatory poverty management; and, (e) Centre for micro-level
planning. These resource centres are envisioned so as to keep the
institutional engagements in the front and centre of the emerging needs of
strengthening participatory development planning and local self-governance
goals of the State.
4 MERGER WITH SIRD
The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), located at Kottarakar, is the
premier training institute in Rural Development in the State. Its mission is to
impart training to various official and non-official functionaries, directly or
indirectly involved in the process of rural development, to carry on research-
operational and policy and to create an awareness of the potentialities of
modern management3
It is clear from the foregoing that there is a strong overlap between the goals
and mandates of the KILA and the SIRD. The overlap becomes even more
apparent when seen in the context of huge strides made by the State in
devolution to local governments including devolution of funds, functions and
. The Institutes mandate includes training in rural
development, Panchayati Raj and Decentralisation process and poverty
related sector with the objective of socio-economic well being of the rural
people.
3Perspective Plan for Comprehensive Development, Vision Document, SIRD, Kottarkara.
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functionaries. As a result of sustained efforts in decentralisation, the local
government bodies have come to assume central responsibilities in rural
development. The functionaries of development departments are placed with
the local government institutions and work in tandem with the elected
representatives of Panchayats. There is thus a strong ground for the two
institutions to collaborate and work closely so as to continually play their
strategic roles within the relevant policy frameworks of the state government.
What is more, such collaboration could create synergies which would allow
both the institutions to emerge as Centres for Excellence participatory
development planning, and institutional strengthening of local self
governments.
The core of what KILA and SIRD do could be stated as knowledge-based
support to the efforts of the State in decentralisation, participatory planning
and (rural) development. KILA also additionally has the urban development
space within its institutional mandate and scope. Both have similar and unique
strengths as well as weaknesses4
4
The vision documents of KILA and SIRD contain analysis of respective Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunties and Threats.
. While having high calibre academic staff
who have also distinguished themselves through their dedication and
commitment to the institutional goals is common to both, as also utilising a
network of resource persons who contribute to the efforts of the respective
institutions, both share a common weakness in quantitative terms. Both are
constrained by limited number of core academic staff, which would be the
most limiting factor as the two institutions move forward in realising their
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respective visions. Presently KILA has 4 full time faculty positions while the
same for the SIRD is only 3. It would therefore appear that the best way to
collaborate would be to merge the two institutions; the merged entity would
have, to begin with, 7 full-time core faculty members. The jump in number
could be expected to have qualitative multiplier effects and with some
additions in future, the new entity would be far better placed to address the
combined future vision.
5. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS WITHIN KILA
KILA has a Director who is both the administrative and academic head of the
Institution. The director is overall in-charge of all affairs of the Institute, is
assisted by seven faculty members, and on the administration side is
supported by two Deputy Directors; one, Deputy Director, administration and
the other, is the Deputy Director, training. Apart from this the key functionaries
of the Administrative wing of the Institute comprises of one Assistant Director,
one section officer, one finance officer who are assisted by about 50 support
staff.
6. DECENTRALIZATION OF FUNCTIONING WITHIN KILA
Keeping with the spirits of good academic institutions KILA has made efforts
to decentralize the functioning of the institute to bring about more participation
of the faculty members and staff by constituting different committees; such as,
Research Advisory Committee, Training Advisory Committee, Library
Advisory Committee, Grievance Redressal Committee, .Monitoring Committee
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for Public Works, etc. However, when faculty members were asked about the
formation and functioning of the committees and the decentralization process
within the Institute; they were of the opinion that the decentralization is only in
letter not in spirit. Few committees have convenors who are not core faculty
and most of the times the committees never meet. For most administrative
purposes and facilities the faculty members are wholly dependent on the
administration and have no real power to enforce certain disciplines. For
example, if a faculty member requires certain number of photocopied material
for some programme or research, she/he has to seek permission of the
Deputy Director (administration) for the same. Similarly, the faculty members
have very little say in the library matters. The Librarian is the convenor of the
library committee and the faculty members who are in the committee say that
the librarian has not called a meeting of the committee. In fact, when the team
visited KILA library and was talking to the Library Assistant about the function
of the library, it was made clear that books are ordered and procured only on
the basis of the indents given by the Director and the Chairman of the
Executive Council. When the team members asked what happens when a
faculty member sends a requisition? Her only answer was that it has to come
from the Chairman or the Director.
7. KILAs THRUST AREAS
The Institute disseminates the insights of research and recommendations of
its various training programs and workshops through a number of
publications. The Institute over the years has acquired expertise beyond its
immediate focus and has imparted training in several related areas. The
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diversity of the training program imparted is very impressive. Every year, on
an average, KILA conducts about 50-60 program in more than 10 different
core areas. It has conducted training in the following major areas:
Decentralized Participatory Planning
Local Governance and Administration
Inclusive Urban Development
Local Economic Development
Participatory Poverty Alleviation Management
Gender and Development
Development of Marginalized Social Groups
Natural Resource Management and Watershed
Development
Development of Trainers Training Skill
Community Participation and Social Accountability
HIV/AIDS-related interventions through local governments
Data Based Planning for Human Development
Asset Mapping and Management of Assets
However, the study team, after analyzing the contents of different training
programs offered by KILA has broadly classified it into five major domains;
decentralized governance and management, poverty alleviation, gender and
development, natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods,
urban governance. As a nodal training institute, KILA has trained more than
twenty-two thousand elected representatives of the local self government
apart from delegates from other SAARC countries. To make its reach national
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KILA has embarked upon developing expertise in other states and has
translated several documents in English and other Indian languages like
Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Kannada.
The minimum number of trainings in each core area is 2 and 15 trainings have
been provided in Urban Governance area. The 272 days were involved
technically to provide 63 trainings in 11 different core areas ranging the
duration from 1 day to 30 days (1 month). The KILA training calendar shows
that during the 2009-2010 financial year 310 trainings were conducted
successfully and the duration was ranged from 1 day training program to 6
days training schedule. As per the KILA training calendar around almost 962
days were invested to train people from different sectors and in different
areas.
The core faculty of the KILA has been actively involved in conducting various
training programs such as gender and development, local economic
development, financial management, decentralized planning and local
development, panchayat administration and governance. One of the core
faculty Dr. Retna Raj has successfully conducted 28 number of training
courses ranging from the area panchayat administration and governance to
HIV/AIDS. Dr. J.B.Rajan and Dr. Abey George have been actively involved in
14 and 16 numbers of training programs respectively. Dr Sunny George has
been delivering his expertise on urban governance; also he has conducted 18
successful trainings on urban governance. So far the KILA faculty and their
support staff have been keenly involved in conducting 76 numbers of training
courses in different areas at the state level.
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To conduct such a large number of programmes not only on campus, but also
throughout the state, KILA has, over the years created a large pool of trained
persons who actively participate as resource persons. Presently, there are
more than 150 master trainers who conduct training of trainers programmes
and Institutional training programmes at KILA. Additionally, KILA has about
900 district level trainers who organize and conduct district level training
programmes. The resource persons comprise a vast array of talent pool for
KILA as they include; policy makers, academicians, administrators,
researchers and practitioners in the field of decentralised governance and
development. However, time to time KILA core faculty members organize
training and consultation workshops of resource persons which also includes
documentation and standardization of training materials. The core faculty is
more involved in designing, documenting, and training the potential trainers to
have a snowball effect.
8. EVALUATION OF TRAINING PROGRAMMES
Evaluation of training is important, and particularly so in the context of KILA.
The fundamental objective of evaluation of any training programme is to
assess whether the basic objectives of the training programme have been
achieved or not. The focus of the evaluation is to demonstrate whether the
expected learning that was determined before the training programme was
conducted has taken place after the conclusion of the training programme or
not. Secondly, the objective of any training is to improve organizational
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performance i.e. to ascertain that the training programme has achieved to
bring about a change in the organizational functioning.
In KILA, every training programme is evaluated. However, the training
programmes largely evaluated are based on the subjective responses of the
trainees at the end of the programme. This is a good practice but for
substantive improvement of training, its effectiveness should be measured by
follow-ups with the local level institutions. The training evaluation component
has to go beyond the immediate response on the participants and the
changes that they have brought about at the ground level should be
investigated. It is important to note that though the core faculty is largely
involved in designing and training of the master trainers. The ultimate delivery
of training is done at several levels and has varying degrees of effectiveness.
It was suggested that for at least training conducted within KILA campus, the
core faculty should be involved in delivery of such programmes. External
resource persons are great strength of KILA however, solely depending on
the external key persons for the delivery of the programme may raise certain
quality issues. It was also found that that the subjective evaluation of the
training programmes is also not being compiled regularly and stored in
electronic format for easy retrieval.
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9.RESEARCH
In academic institutions of excellence research forms the backbone for
teaching and training activities. It is important that KILA engages in action
research projects as well as strong grounded research to develop alternative
theoretical models of local governance, poverty alleviation, gender and
development, etc. There are only five core faculty members (two members
listed under faculty are library staff) whose core functions involve
development, design and delivery of effective training and also to document
and organize workshops for dissemination. Thus, the core faculty is extremely
tied up and consequently research has fallen behind. It is true that most
Institutions concentrate on their core strength, but training without being
informed by research will lose its sheen.
This becomes important when KILA aspires to play a significant role in the
SAARC region. For example, we have very little knowledge about the impact
of strong independent NGOs in the functioning of local governments (i.e.,
Bangladesh). Similar, research across the country as well as other SAARC
countries will form the backbone of KILAs training efforts. Few participants
from other states, attending KILAs programmes, observed that KILA has
good infrastructure but the programme is Kerala centred and the trainers are
not sensitive to the contextual differences. KILA wants to establish itself as an
international training centre on local governance and declare KILA as the
SAARC centre of excellence in local governance, establish itself as the centre
of excellence in SAARC region by 2020. In order to achieve this, KILA has to
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undertake serious research efforts throughout the country as well as in other
SAARC countries to develop a contextualized understanding, which will go
beyond the socio-politico-economic climate of Kerala.
10. INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructural facilities at KILA are sufficient to accommodate at least five
different groups. The training halls are spacious and can be used for multiple
purposes. There are two hostels for participants and it has a capacity to board
200 participants. However, the maintenance of the rooms for participants
does not have consistency in quality. The Institute has to focus on the
maintenance functions in terms of cleanliness and hygiene of the rooms.
Secondly, participants coming from other states face problems in dealing with
the staff because of the language barrier. The study team had interacted with
one such group coming from outside the state and it was shared by the group
that they had problems in communicating to the staff and no special
arrangements were made for them keeping in view the language problem as
well as food related issues. If KILA wants to serve the national audience then
it has to become sensitive towards the needs of the participants from the state
other than Kerala. The mess is run effectively, efficiently and the food is
appealing.
KILA is equipped with the necessary training equipments like LCD projector,
overhead projector, film projector, slide projector, TV, VCR, etc. KILA has a
computer centre which is networked with the computers of the Faculty and
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Administration. There is a computer lab for conducting training programmes
on e-governance.
KILA has a library which is well-stocked with books not only in the area of
local governance but also in other related social science areas. The library
has a collection of more than 10,000 volumes and over 200 journals. The
development of library, for any academic institution is a continuous process. It
is important that faculty members become actively involved in the
development of the library, it will be better if the library gets into the network of
libraries in the country and also subscribe to electronic databases of journals.
Governance and development is an interdisciplinary area, therefore it is
important to subscribe journals from different social science areas to provide
the faculty access to the latest knowledge bases in these areas. Presumably
the library needs more e-journals on economics, sociology, psychology,
gender studies, organizational management, etc. The library should be
developed into a major information centre on local governance, decentralized
planning. It should have few computer terminals with access to e-resources.
11. ISSUES OF CONCERN
11.1 The distinction between the Faculty and the administrative/support staff
If the Institute has to play a crucial role in both the national and international
academia, it has to closely look into the structure that has emerged in KILA
and align it with the practices of leading academic institutions. For example,
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the KILA Service bye-laws does not specifies faculty; however, it mentions
Academic Staff and includes; Assistant Professors, Associate Professors,
Research Associates, Research Assistants, Librarian, Assistant Directors,
and Deputy Directors. There is no mention of faculty as a separate category.
Interestingly, the study team found mention of faculty in the Annual Report of
KILA (2008-09). The team noted that apart from the Assistant Professors,
Research Assistants, Research Associates, Professors, the Librarian and a
Library Assistant is also included in the list of faculty. In common parlance,
faculty is one whose core responsibility is to train/teach and engage in
research. Other members may contribute but if their core function is not
teaching, training, or research then it becomes difficult to count them as
faculty. Secondly, to become a faculty in a niche Institution one has to
possess the requisite qualification and experience to be considered as faculty.
11.2 Issue of the Deputy Directors on Deputation
Both the Deputy Directors are on Deputation from the Panchaytraj
department. One is Deputy Director (Training), who overlooks all training
related functions; and the other, is the Deputy Director (Administration), who
overlooks all administrative functions.
The role of Deputy Director (Training) many times overlaps that of the faculty
and often creates conflict. The Deputy Director (training) also coordinates
training programmes and is also in-charge of the training logistics. There
seems to be a conflict of interest arising and it is shared by the faculty
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members that the in the programmes conducted by the Deputy Directors extra
care of participants comfort and other logistics are given and this is not in the
case of programmes coordinated by the faculty members. It is alleged that
this is done to receive good feedback for the programmes coordinated by the
deputy directors. It should be noted that whether this is done or not there is a
conflict of interest arising when the support service provider themselves the
direct service provider. Secondly, the Deputy Directors who are deputed to
the Institute are usually at the end of their career and often they come to
serve the institute for a year and less. Their long-term stake with the Institute
is absent. Recently, there have been frequent changes of the Deputy
Directors. Thirdly, the Deputy Director in-charge of training does not report the
faculty member who is coordinating the programme. The Deputy Director is
not accountable to the faculty concerned for any negligence in the
arrangements made. It is argued, that faculty members on the other hand
have a long-term interest in the Institute. People on deputation always have
the privilege of going back to the parent department if something goes wrong
with the Institute. But the faculty members have full stake in the health and
growth of the Institute as they are directly recruited for the position and cannot
go back to their earlier jobs.
The motivational climate survey revealed that due to the administrative
matters the faculty feel that it is the most neglected group within the Institute
and they have very little say in the running of the Institute. They also felt that
there are no growth opportunities for them; the promotion policies do not take
the faculty interest in consideration. Similarly, the faculty pay structure is not
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in commensurate with what other state and national level academic
institutions offer. This was also accentuated by the overwhelming presence of
the Deputy Directors who control most of the resources which should have
been primarily under the control of the faculty. The faculty members also
observed that they most often fell stifled by the system and very little time and
resources available for them to engage in research and related activities.
Across staff categories, it clearly emerged that the lower level of motivational
climate can be attributed to lack of growth opportunities within the Institute.
It is clear that in the absence of an unambiguous distinction between the
faculty and administrative/ support function there is bound to be many areas
of conflict which may be detrimental to the long term interest of the Institute.
The faculty would like KILA to expand its ambit of activities and emerge as a
leading institution in the SAARC region. They also felt that there is a need for
them to handle administrative responsibility but with commensurate authority
over staff members. They were ready for a stringent academic performance
appraisal of the academic staff as well as similar performance appraisal
system for all other staff. The administrative and support staff felt that KILA is
only a training Institute for the members of local self-government and should
focus only on this activity. Most staff members envisioned keen interest to
impart training. There has to be a distinct division of labour at least with
reference to the core activities of the Institute the faculty will be responsible in
discharging its duties, such as design and directing the training programmes.
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For an Institution to grow as a centre of excellence long term commitment of
faculty is needed, as the contribution is made over the years. The major
challenge is to find the right kind of faculty. Any academic Institution needs to
find good faculty. It has to be understood that academic institutions of
excellence are not built by brick and mortar alone to be effective it needs good
quality faculty. The present faculty at KILA have been selected from reputed
institutions and have the unnecessary disqualifications. And whatever name
kola has so far built for itself can be attributed to the faculty contributions.
However, the small size of the faculty has been accused of concern. Though
KILA has built a reputation in the field of training, but the research side has
taken a beating. The faculty size has to increase to a critical threshold to be
able to accomplish this. KILA does a large number of training programmes
and many training programmes are not designed by the faculty members. In
order to have good quality output it is important that the faculty members are
directly involved in the design of the programmes and development of
teaching materials even if their involvement in delivery is difficult to achieve.
However, it is suggested that the faculty members also involve themselves in
the delivery of most number of programmes.
12. POSITIONS IN THE MERGED ENTITY
The Institution will have a Director, selected through an open selection
process, with relevant educational qualification and or experience (needs to
be elaborated).
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The climate survey suggested that there is low morale among the faculty of
KILA. A section of the staff, because of lack of promotional avenues, is also
dissatisfied. People who are on deputation from the government are
seemingly at best to be apathetic as they were waiting for retirement with the
next couple of months. The overall motivational climate of KILA was at the
lower ebb. Except that faculty members expressed their desire to continue
with their academic work and not get disturbed by the external environment.
There is a need for KILA to develop a system which encourages faculty to
develop their skills and contribute to research and think creatively on new
programmes. However, given the existing structure, it seems KILA has
inherited more from the administrative arrangements of government
department than of a thriving academic institution. In an academic Institution
both academics and administration has to be faculty driven and at the centre
should be the participant organizations and individuals who patronize the
organization. The strength of the non-academic support staff maybe reduced.
13. RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the above discussions, it is recommended that the SIRD may be
merged with KILA.
13.1 However, as SIRD staff members are under a different service rules it
should be seen that there is no detrimental effect on the staff. It is
suggested that the existing service bye-laws be suitably modified to
create a category of staff labelled as faculty. All Assistant Professor,
Associate Professor and Professor will come under the category of
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Faculty including the Research Associate and Research Assistant.
Keeping with the involvement of the participation of faculty in the
governance of the institutions it is recommended that at least two
faculty members other than the Director nominated to the Executive
council of the Institute and they may be rotated every two years.
13.2. The faculty member appointment and pay and other allowances may
be governed by the pay scale and allowances as recommended by
UGC from time to time.
13.3 Policy on Faculty Recruitment Selection Review and Promotion
13.4 Recruitment
The faculty recruitment may be guided by the policy as suggested by
the University Grants Commission, in terms of educational
qualifications and experience.
13.5 Career Advancement Scheme for Faculty
In order to motivate good faculty KILA should adopt a procedure of Career
Advancement Scheme for faculty members. All faculty members who have
completed 8 years of services as Assistant Professor and have the requisite
qualifications, publications and any other conditions stimulated by the
committee will be eligible for apply for career advancement scheme.
The executive council may appoint a committee comprising of the Director
and at least two experts in the field should be empowered to review the
performance of the concerned faculty over the last 8 years and if the
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committee finds for promotion by career advancement scheme may
recommend so.
For the purpose of Career and Advancement Scheme there will be no need to
create new positions as the sanctioned positions are the positions in which
the faculty was appointed. Similarly, for promotion under career advancement
scheme from Associate Professor to Professor the candidate must have
served at least six years in the position of Associate Professor with at least
five publications in ISSN numbers journals and or published books in ISSBN
number s. Similar procedure should be adopted for faculty members who had
applied for under career advancement scheme for professor. Research
Associate/Assistant who have completed 12 years of service on permanent
post and possess the requisite qualifications may be considered for promotion
under career advancement scheme to the position of Assistant Professor.
13.6 Officers on Deputation in SIRD
The Director and Additional Director/Secretary are deputed to the rural
development department of government. These officers have considerable
experience in various areas of rural developments which may be very
profitably used. To retain an employee involvement and stake in the
organization, it is recommended that the period of deputation from the
government to the institute should not be less than 3 years that means
officers who have less than 3 years to the retirement age cannot come on the
deputation to the Institute. All officers on deputation should have minimum
qualification is graduation. To retain the post of joint commissioner the officer
may come on deputation to the Institute as Chief Administrative Officer
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reporting to the Director, KILA. The Chief Administrative officer will be the
head of Administration for all staff members excluding the faculty who will
report to the Director.
13.7 Officers on deputation in KILA
Similarly two deputed directors in KILA are deputed from the department of
panchayati raj. These officers will also play a crucial role in training and other
academic activities of the Institute.
All Officers on deputation to get it into the faculty cadre should at least hold a
graduation degree and 10 years of experience in the class-2 and above
grade.
13.8 Promotion Policy for other Staff Members
There is set of disenchantment among the members of staffs besides the
faculty. There are less promotional avenues for staff members in this support
it is suggested the staff promotion policy to be review in such a manner that
the staff member will have at least two promotion in her career at KILA. It
should be understood that all promotion to the officer cadre should be either
or to direct recruitment or to the deputation. It is suggested that all staff
members other than the people in officer categories will be eligible for
promotion after 7 years of continuous service in the same grade and
promotion will be based on years of service and performance record.
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13.9 Constitution of a Personal Committee
a. A Personnel Committee may be constituted by the Director for regular
periodic reviews of the performance of the staff, to be considered for
promotion. The Committee may have three members; two faculty
members (one of these should be a senior member) and the Head of
the Administration as its Member-Secretary. The faculty members may
be nominated by the Director for every two years. One of the two
nominated faculty members may be appointed as the
Coordinator/Convener of the Committee. The member-secretary
should initiate the process for every promotion of Non-teaching Staff.
The Coordinator/convener may co-opt the respective Sectional Head
as an additional member of the Committee for the review of the
employees of his/her Section.
b. The case of an employee may be reviewed regularly after seven years
of his or her joining date or last promotion. In case someone is not
found suitable for promotion his or her case may reviewed
subsequently on an annual basis till he/she gets promotion.
c. Since the promotion should be performance based, there should be a
system of annual appraisal of the work of each employee by the
respective reporting officers. Such appraisals should be the core of the
review done for promotion.
d. The Personnel Committee should conduct annual performance review
and feedback meetings with all the non-faculty staff members. These
meetings should be used for sharing with the respective employees
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their performance review every year and a appropriate feedback
should be provided to them about their strengths and the areas in
which they need improvement.
e. There needs to be provision for institutional action on the feedback
given to the staff especially in cases where the employees need to
undergo training for improving their performance.
g. For fast track promotion, the committee will review the performance
appraisal report of the last five years of the eligible employees in each
grade/cadre. The Committee will also seek specific recommendation
from the respective reporting officers for the concerned eligible
employees.
h. The personnel committee will recommend to the Director to constitute
an interview panel for promotion of all the eligible candidates i.e., both
under regular promotions and fast track promotions. All the candidates
under consideration for regular promotion (based on a fixed number of
years of service as per the seniority list in each grade) will be called for
interviews. However, in case of fast track promotion, only those
candidates short listed by the Personnel Committee, will be called for
promotion interview.
i. The Interview panel will submit its recommendations to the Director.
The short listed candidates under fast track category will appear for
final interview before the Director. After a decision is taken, the Head
of Administration Group will issue the promotion orders.
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14. PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEM FOR FACULTY
There is a need to develop rigors academic performance indicated for faculty
members for each activity such as directing training programmes, conducting
sessions in training programmes involving in research involvement in
consultancies will get due weight age. As KILAs main area focus has been
training following by research and consultancies it is suggested 50% of work
by the faculty should be in the area of training. The other 50% may be divided
into research, consultancies and other administrative duties. Internally KILA
has to work out a suitable framework for development of academic
performance indicators. The basis of such evaluation must take into
consideration both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the work.