Following the Inception Workshop, research will be conducted on various aspects of the National Foreign Trade Policy (NFTP) of India to prepare inputs for the advocacy and networking components. Various actors at the local, state and national level of governance in India will be involved to obtain research outputs on globalisation and its effects on the poor, with special attention given to women and other marginalized sections of the society. The research objectives during the first project year will be centered on the involvement of the State Governments and other stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of the National Foreign Trade Policy. In the second year, the impact of the NFTP on products as specified in the thrust areas will be analyzed. In the third year, the project partners will conduct a similar research on a different set of products.
The advocacy component of the project aims at seeking changes at the local, state, national and international level, which are necessary to ensure better economic literacy in India, particularly at the grassroots, and to enhance positive linkages between good economic governance and human development in India. The advocacy efforts will start by spreading the key findings of the conducted research to the grassroots and state levels and then to the national level, using outreach meetings, informal Policy Forums and State and National Level Seminars as platforms for information dissemination. The total number of beneficiaries to be reached by the advocacy component will be 3,600 at the grassroots and 1,350 at the policy level.
Finally, the networking aspect aims at connecting the targeted beneficiaries and project partners with state and national level policy-makers on issues related to economic governance in India and its effects on the livelihoods of the poor. Specific activities will include State and National Level Conferences inviting targeted beneficiaries, government officials, civil society groups, business groups, media representatives and academics. Finally, all research, advocacy and networking activities will be documented and the major findings will be distributed through publications. The total number of beneficiaries to be reached by the networking component will be between 5,000 and 8,000 people.