CWS works in five states across the country with its registered Central office based in
Secunderabad. Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are CWS’s Operational areas where Resource Centres have been set up. Currently CWS has 186, partner NGOs, 24, Networks and 16 fellows supported to work on the different programmatic focus
CWS’s Value addition to Partnership is by:
● Mainstreaming Rights Perspective: Promoting and integration of the rights based approach with partners and into the different programmes.
● Mainstreaming Gender: Women’s empowerment has graduated to underlining mainstreaming of gender and gender concerns which is a flagship programme of CWS. To translate this into action effectively, a CWS Gender Policy has been developed. Partners are required to set up an SHCC and encouraged to formulate gender policies.
● Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS: Recognising HIV and AIDS as a development issue, CWS
is emphasing the need to mainstream HIV and AIDS interventions in all the programmes. A CWS initiative in this was to develop a workplace policy on HIV and AIDS and encourage partners to develop similar policies for themselves.
● Mainstreaming Dalit Perspectives: Mainstreaming dalit concerns is another of CWS’s unique initiative. An outcome of this effort is the emergence of NDF, an independent entity to
address macro level dalit concerns, while CWS continues to support micro interventions for
protection and promotion of dalit rights. A draft Dalit Policy has also been developed which will
be adopted as CWS Dalit Policy.
● Promoting decentralized local governance: Efforts have been made to integrate PRI
initiatives with other thematic programmes.
● Networking and Alliance Building: CWS has promoted a number of networks for collective
intervention on issues and facilitated linkages and collaboration with other like-minded networks, organizations and institutions for advocacy efforts. Recently a new network was facilitated, called ‘Primitive’ Tribal Groups Network (PTG) in Andhra Pradesh. Attempts were also made to promote a Dalit Women Network in Andhra Pradesh.
● Promoting Good Governance among NGOs: CWS handholds partners to strengthen and build their self image as public institutions. Emphasis is laid to have proper mechanisms in place,
including for financial and management systems, based on principles of transparency, accountability and democratic and participatory governance. This helps partners to seek alternate funding support from various resource agencies and government.
