The NRCDP is hosted by the Planning Commission (PC), Government of India. State Governments Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, who are also designated as Implementing Partners (IPs) under the GoI-UNJPC, support this effort. The positioning of various institutional partners is as follows:

The Planning Commission:

The Planning Commission brings about inter-sectoral coordination with other relevant ministries and departments of Government of India. Apart from providing strategic guidance and technical support to State governments, it facilitates generation of feedback on relevant national policies and programmes, including inputs into the five-year-plan processes.

State Governments

State Governments and the nodal departments assume responsibility for taking forward the objectives of decentralised planning and implementation in respective States. They generate valuable policy and practice related information in relevant programme domains. State level capacity building and institution development are areas where they make sustained contributions.

UN Agencies

Although a number of UN agencies are associated with the intervention, UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA play direct and leading roles in it. They provide financial and technical support and also play an overall advisory role. Each of them is active in specific programme areas and brings expertise and experience specific to them.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): The UNDP strengthens state and district level institutions, enhance their capacities, demonstrates innovative and replicable approaches to inclusive planning and monitoring, and develops sustainable partnership with Administrative Training Institutes (ATls)/ State Institute of Rural Development (SIRDs) and other sectoral training institutions for district planning. Supports transformation of district planning to be outcome oriented through Change Management initiatives and Results Based Management trainings.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): The UNICEF deploys 'district facilitators' - multi-skilled development professionals as part of the 'district technical support team' to the District Planning Committees in 35 districts, reporting to the district collector, and upwards to the State Planning Boards / Departments. It facilitates analyses of district budget processes, and analyses of effective human resource management and service delivery in flagship programmes.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA): The UNFPA conducts training programmes and provides technical inputs on data needs for the development of MDG-oriented plans of the districts and for the orientation of senior officials at state and district levels. It utilizes the agency and expertise of national resource institutions for such exercises.

State Training and Resource Institutions

NRCDP targets to embed itself in a polycentric knowledge network to develop and share knowledge and information related to decentralised district planning. It works towards building up partnerships with State level training and resource institutions, which demonstrate, among others, the following features:

• Focus on promoting decentralised planning as a strategic process for governance and development;
• Demonstrated expertise in the functional and thematic domains linked to sectoral and integrated development planning at the State and sub-State levels;
• Experience of partnering with government on capacity development of government functionaries and/or implementation of government programmes with significant components of decentralised planning, monitoring, and evaluation;
• Proven track record of training and capacity building of planning institutions and functionaries including the Panchayat and / or Municipal representatives.