Apart from anchoring this knowledge portal and maintaining a resource centre at its given address, the National Resource Cell for Decentralized District Planning (NRCDDP) acts like a professional support centre for district planning interventions and institutions. For institutional networking and collaboration in seven states, the NRCDDP works with identified institutions in different thematic areas. The major functions of NRCDDP are as follows:

A. Operating the Knowledge Repository

Develop and maintain an adaptive and easy-to-access state-of-the-art knowledge based on decentralized planning, monitoring and evaluation containing details of relevant theory and practice in India and other countries in a subject-specific manner and in a comparable perspective:

(i) Information, articles, analyses on policies, acts, laws and rules related to decentralized planning, monitoring and evaluation in India and other relevant developing countries;

(ii) Documentation (written and audio-visual) on methodologies, training modules and research conducted on community-based monitoring and citizens’ oversight of planning and programme implementation;

(iii) Documentation of good practices on decentralized district planning by government, inter-government and civil society agencies;

B. Building up Training Capacities

• Building up capacities of identified training institutes in States on decentralized district planning in areas of training need assessment, impact assessment, quality assurance and demand-driven skill up-gradation.

• Building up capacities of State institutions for training government officials and elected representatives.

C. Conducting Action Research

• Action research focuses on various aspects of district planning and associated subjects,

• Contributes to broader advocacy for necessary changes in policies and implementation mechanisms/processes;

D. Recommending ICT/GIS options

• Assessing needs for customized ICT / GIS applications for their utilization in district planning (e.g. spatial planning, etc.) and

• developing required package(s);

E. Conducting Evaluations

Conducting evaluations of district plans and their execution in each of the seven states;

F. Facilitating Knowledge Sharing

Organizing forums/processes of learning and sharing on decentralized planning and programming solutions:

• Sharing of relevant documents and reports among similar resource centres within India and other countries through electronic means;

• Flagging off emergent issues from country-wide practice of decentralized planning; and, bringing out and sharing technical inputs with people and institutions concerned through electronic communication means;

• Conducting at least one national workshop every year on one of the priority issues/theme areas in a problem-focused manner.