As the Global South charts its own development path, India's self-help group model offers Africa a proven, people-first template for sustainable rural livelihoods
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Despite Agenda 2030 having improved millions of lives over the past two decades, the Global South is still grappling with challenges of unemployment, lack of access to formal and affordable finance, and sustainable livelihoods. An estimated 52 percent of the population in the Global South depends heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods. For example, as per NITI Aayog, in 2026, 46 percent of India's workforce engaged in the agrarian sector comprises small and marginal landholders. For Africa, the number is pegged at around 50 to 55 million smallholder farmers, where an estimated 9 out of 10 of the world's poor by 2030 are expected to farm in the region. In addition, poverty continues to be a major barrier, reinforcing inequalities and structural imbalances in both the Asian and African contexts. Also, rural livelihoods in the Global South — such as agriculture, livestock rearing, farming, and fishing — are deeply rooted in the interaction and productive relationship shared by humans with the environment.
Fostering innovative partnership frameworks in peer-learning formats under South-South Cooperation (SSC) can be a game-changer in instilling local change grounded in inclusive growth.
Although livelihood diversification from farm to non-farm activities is slowly gathering pace, income generation still depends largely on smallholder farming and livestock rearing. Climate risks such as rising heat levels, heightened rainfall variability, and increasing pressure on natural resources are limiting the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in both India and Africa. Despite being at different stages of development, both India and African nations face similar vulnerabilities that pose long-term threats to sustainability and resilience. For India and Africa, the challenge lies in leveraging agricultural development as a pivotal pathway to poverty alleviation and food security, alongside sustainable diversification to achieve export competitiveness and global market integration.
Fostering innovative partnership frameworks in peer-learning formats under South-South Cooperation (SSC) can be a game-changer in instilling local change grounded in inclusive growth. The rising agency of the Global South, combined with innovations in digital and community transformation emerging from these geographies, is steadily charting a development trajectory of its own. Here, India's Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) is an appropriate case in point. Based on the idea of promoting self-help groups (SHGs) for the rural poor, especially women, the NRLM initiative is designed to build strong community institutions for sustainable livelihoods (Figure 1). For a continent grappling with acute climate vulnerabilities and deep structural constraints, the NRLM offers a practical and contextually adaptable model for building or expanding rural livelihood missions.
Figure 1: Key Components of India’s NRLM
Source: PIB, 2025
The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) was introduced in India in 2010 as a mission-mode programme, restructured from the earlier Swarnajayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY). In 2016, it was renamed the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM). Regarded as one of the largest poverty alleviation and livelihood enhancement programmes globally, it aims to improve the socio-economic conditions of rural populations living in poverty. The Mission seeks to alleviate poverty by facilitating access for low-income households to productive self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, thereby creating sustainable and diversified livelihood pathways. It pursues these objectives through four key pillars: strengthening social mobilisation and fostering self-managed, financially viable community institutions led by rural women; promoting financial inclusion; supporting sustainable livelihood opportunities; and advancing social inclusion, development, and access to welfare entitlements through convergence mechanisms. Three key aspects of the initiative merit consideration for replication in a comparable Global South setting such as Africa.
First, the DAY-NRLM emphasises the creation and strengthening of robust community institutions — particularly Self-Help Groups (SHGs) — to empower economically disadvantaged populations, especially women, while facilitating their access to a broad spectrum of financial services and livelihood opportunities. A significant share of the Mission's interventions are implemented and expanded by SHG members themselves, who are trained as Community Resource Persons (CRPs). The SHGs established under the programme are designed to facilitate access to formal credit systems, support the diversification and strengthening of livelihood opportunities, and improve access to welfare entitlements and public services.
Second, the NRLM has strengthened women's agency by ensuring their financial self-reliance and community participation. It has also made a deep social impact by promoting awareness and behaviour change communication on issues including domestic violence, girls' education, gender-related concerns, nutrition, sanitation, and healthcare — thereby facilitating the holistic empowerment of women. The Mission promotes sustainable agricultural practices among women farmers, or Mahila Kisans, through a network of trained Community Resource Persons such as Krishi Sakhis, who provide continuous extension and advisory support. It also encourages entrepreneurship through initiatives such as the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), which promotes micro-enterprises in sectors including handicrafts and food processing. According to the latest available data, DAY-NRLM has mobilised 105 million rural women households into more than 9.09 million SHGs and supported 46 million Mahila Kisans.
Third, the institutions created by the NRLM contribute to financial inclusion and micro-enterprise development in rural regions. These serve as long-term support systems that help members diversify income-generating activities, increase earnings, and improve overall living standards. DAY-NRLM supports both farm and non-farm livelihood activities to enhance rural incomes and has created 374,000 enterprises through entrepreneurship programmes.
Home to some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Africa — with a 1.4 billion population comprising largely young people — accounts for 17 percent of the global population. With diverse economies at varying levels of development, economic growth across the continent remains uneven and uncertain. Differing political economies, geographical contexts, regulatory frameworks, and local social milieus create a fragmented development landscape. However, cross-sectoral and cross-geographical learning can offer meaningful room for inclusive development. This is where India's NRLM model holds potential as an avenue for Global South countries to collaborate through a shared learning platform.
Through its community-led institutions — involving a minimal workforce and harnessing local rural capacity — the NRLM offers a replicable model for scaling programmes, particularly in resource-constrained economies.
Given India's long history of development partnerships and its organic orientation towards sustainable development, the NRLM initiative provides a suitable entry point for deepening South-South Cooperation. The scale and macroeconomic impact achieved by the NRLM — in terms of poverty alleviation in rural areas, market strengthening, and social safety nets for households — can offer peer-learning templates for African economies, particularly Nigeria and Ethiopia. For example, an Ethiopian government delegation visited India in October 2025 to study the operational and implementation strategy of the NRLM, with a view to leveraging collective action, local governance, and financial inclusion. For Africa, low-cost and cost-effective development models appear both feasible and practical for driving economic growth. Through its community-led institutions — involving a minimal workforce and harnessing local rural capacity — the NRLM offers a replicable model for scaling programmes, particularly in resource-constrained economies.
Yet, drawing on its own experience of safeguarding autonomy and sovereignty as an emerging Global South country, India's partnerships reflect a middle path. While conventional North-South partnerships are characterised by routine resource transfers, Global South actors have consistently voiced concerns about being subsumed within the aid frameworks and conditionalities of the Global North. To preserve their diversity and distinctiveness, South-South Cooperation emerged as an innovative framework — one that complements rather than substitutes conventional North-South partnerships. This also informs India's considered approach to fostering partnerships with African nations. In accelerating cross-sectoral learning and addressing the development concerns of the Global South, India's NRLM can offer meaningful insights for strengthening rural livelihood structures and facilitating women's empowerment.
Livelihood programmes in Africa — such as the Nigeria for Women Project (NFWP), now known as the Nigeria for Women Program Scale-Up Project, and the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP) in Ethiopia — are acting as institutional enablers, combining women's financial inclusion and capacity-building mechanisms with gender-sensitive outcomes. The NFWP and WEDP were established by the Governments of Nigeria and Ethiopia, respectively, in collaboration with the World Bank. With the primary objective of providing women entrepreneurs a dedicated line of credit, the WEDP has, since 2012, registered more than 60,000 women-owned businesses across 18 Ethiopian cities. The NFWP, on the other hand, is distinguished by its creation of Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) that serve as hubs for members to access financial services, training and mentorship, and other solutions tailored to women's needs. Between 2018 and 2024, the NFWP benefited over one million people in Nigeria and supported roughly 458,208 women through 22,094 WAGs. Given its successful implementation, the NFWP advanced to the Nigeria for Women Program Scale-Up Project in 2024.
Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), launched in 2005 and now in its Phase VI (Productive Safety Net Project 6), is another significant example. Having transitioned from a largely cash-focused initiative to a comprehensive livelihood enhancement programme — with digitalisation entry points to improve service delivery and accountability — the PSNP offers key lessons for India on linking human capital development with employment.
With financial inclusion remaining a challenge for rural Africans, especially women, both WEDP and NFWP offer innovative, gender-sensitive pathways to enhance productive livelihoods and improve socio-economic standing in the global economy. These initiatives could equally offer critical policy directions for India in its pursuit of sustainable livelihoods, particularly for women. As a two-way learning process, India could share its NRLM experience with African partners — not to replace or compete with existing frameworks, but to position itself as a supportive platform through which countries can pursue their own paths to sustainable rural livelihoods.
Given the diversity of political contexts and socio-economic conditions across the continent, and the absence of a unified regulatory framework, India must carefully account for African interests and specificities when presenting the NRLM as a template for community-led development.
Yet, challenges remain in replicating the NRLM model in the African context. Given the diversity of political contexts and socio-economic conditions across the continent, and the absence of a unified regulatory framework, India must carefully account for African interests and specificities when presenting the NRLM as a template for community-led development. Short-term pilots can be an effective starting point for gauging the challenges and prospects of such an adaptation.
Given Africa's on-ground constraints — limited economic resources and varying degrees of institutional capacity — building from the ground up is essential. India should lead by sharing its own story: how it launched the NRLM at a stage when resources were yet to be mobilised and institutional structures were still nascent. This formative chapter of the NRLM's history may well be the most instructive reference point for the African context.
Swati Prabhu is a Fellow with the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at the Observer Research Foundation.
Ambar Kumar Ghosh is an Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Dr Swati Prabhu is a Fellow with the Centre for New Economic Diplomacy at Observer Research Foundation. Her research explores the idea of aid, role of ...
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Ambar Kumar Ghosh is an Associate Fellow under the Political Reforms and Governance Initiative at ORF Kolkata. His primary areas of research interest include studying ...
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