Loyola Joseph, Executive Director

LOYOLA JOSEPH
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FOOD INDIA

Date of birth: 26/06/1946

EXPERIENCE

Loyola Joseph is the Founder/Executive Director of FOOD and has been involved in all departments of FOOD's projects including planning, project formulation, financial planning, management and monitoring & evaluation.

Loyola Joseph has over 30 years experience in applied multi-disciplinary research and consultancy work. He has worked at all levels from Government to NGOs and has extensive regional field experience in India and Asia. His work has covered a range of environmental and social fields together with education, health and development issues. He has specialized particularly in ICT and micro enterprise development with a focus on indigenous communities. He has a strong history of consulting for major international donors, development agencies and Governments. His services are presently being utilized by World Bank, infoDev, IDRC, UNDP, APDIP, UNOPS, SAPAP and local governments.

Assignments taken up by him include the provision of specific information and advice to governmental and non-governmental organizations on ICT, social development, sustainable livelihoods, community networking, Project/policy design and evaluation, workshop facilitation, participatory appraisals, institutional development and appraisals. He has also provided project evaluations according to established guidelines and procedures to the Government. He has assisted in the design, planning, implementation, management and evaluation of international inter-disciplinary development projects from a socio-economic perspective since 1977.

Increasingly, he has been appointed team leader of missions and has had an involvement in the formulation of policy. He has worked for Governments, NGOs and the private sector in India and Asia as well as conducting desk studies for development projects in Asia. Assignments have covered a wide range of development objectives including improved urban and rural healthcare, water and sanitation, urban waste management, rural co-operatives, agricultural extension, and conservation initiatives.

He has considerable experience in using established social development and project-cycle methodologies to assist Inter-governmental agencies funded initiatives. His work has involved assessing and stimulating the participation of local people in project design and implementation, conducting stakeholder analysis and identifying risks, designing and managing public consultation exercises, and undertaking institutional appraisals. Assignments often draw on the use of participative appraisal methodologies and entail preparing and facilitating workshops using Team Up techniques to ensure stakeholder participation and local ownership.

Loyola Joseph has applied logical framework approaches to social development projects, incorporating measurable indicators of project effectiveness into design and implementation. Recent assignments have involved applying sustainable rural livelihoods methodology to inform project design.

He has over 5 years experience working on issues of public policy reform and the institutional aspects of sustainable development for multilateral donor agencies in the region. Recently, he has taken a lead role within the World Bank, to consider the scope for partnerships between the private sector, Governments and civil society to further development objectives in India . His analytical skills are founded in a strong understanding of the regional political economy together with detailed knowledge of the principal donor agencies.

Having lived in India since 1963 he is familiar with a broad cross section of Asian society, from Government to grassroots leaders, in a number of countries of the region. Community organizations and the urban poor are a principal focus of his work, in the context of their relations with government (local and national) and non-governmental organizations. Another area of professional interest is education reform, considering the institutional constraints to implementing effective policy change

Amongst other socio-economic methodologies Mr Loyola Joseph is familiar with conducting stakeholder analysis, sustainable rural livelihoods analysis, participatory rural appraisals, gender analysis, institutional appraisals, and managing stakeholder meetings to facilitate project design and evaluation .

He has combined an excellent knowledge of analytical and social development methods with a senior management track record of applying them successfully in the non-governmental sector. including poverty reduction, emergency relief, He has also been responsible for developing guidelines for strategic planning, impact assessment, information systems, project management and budgetary reform, and has directed their change management in the Asian region.

His technical expertise includes: Strategic management - developing strategy through participatory techniques in strategic and scenario planning, and implementing strategy through project management techniques; Project Cycle management - improving project/program effectiveness at design, appraisal, monitoring and evaluation stages; Institutional development - strengthening organizational performance through reviewing and aligning human resource policies, financial systems, knowledge management, and governance; Organizational development - building more effective teams through organizational self assessment and design, identifying the right behavioral competencies, delegation and succession planning; Participatory methods - involving stakeholders in shaping the vision of the project or program through, for example, stakeholder analysis, participatory monitoring and evaluation, logical framework analysis; and Strategic alliances - increasing impact through strategic alliance, value-added partnerships and effective networking.

EXPOSURE

Travelled to Asia, Africa, Latin America, Japan, USA, UK and Canada as resource person to address seminars and pre- & post-implementation assessment of social development projects.
Attended international conferences and meetings and presented papers on Appropriate Technology Development, ICTs, Solar Energy, Housing, Water management and Environmental Sanitation.
Attended seminars as participant speaker on ICT, Water and sanitation, poverty alleviation, women development and Appropriate Technology.
Number of countries visited = 15
Number of foreign travel undertaken in last 15 years = 55

MORE INFORMATION

On completing my education I started as a businessman heading substantial enterprises and manufacturing operations. Due to unscrupulous behaviour of my business partners, I gave up business in the year 1976.

During the gestation period, on looking around at the number of educated unemployed youth I realized that once they were out of school or college their future was blank. I hit upon the idea of implementing self-employment programs that could stand by and assist the unemployed till they had established themselves.

With the assistance of the Madras University, I established an organization known as NAESEY (National Association of Educated Self Employed Youth).

Kiosk

First on the list of schemes implemented by NAESEY was to set up kiosks to serve coffee, tea, milk, snacks, soft drinks etc in a hygienic condition initially to the citizens of Madras.

This was my idea and according to this scheme unemployed persons interested in self-employment had to become members of NAESEY by remitting a sum of Rs.12/- per annum as membership fee. They would then be screened and their aptitude tested. If it was found satisfactory, they would be sponsored by the Bank and after an investment of Rs.1000/- each would be granted a loan of Rs.9000/- by the Bank for setting up a kiosk.

With stipulations, every member should maintain strict discipline in his/her conduct and sell only at prices fixed and above all strive to become an independent and useful citizen of the nation through hard work, discipline and integrity.

Depending on the sales, the kiosk holder would start repaying the Bank loan with interest from the day he/she starts the business and 1% of the turnover would be handed over to the organization.

As a result of this scheme, each kiosk-holder was able to make a profit of Rs.30/- to 60/- per day. Further this was only a kind of apprenticeship which would prepare them to establish and successfully run their business in a large scale. This scheme was accepted as a unique approach for the person who not only got trained in running a business but made a small profit too.

Through this program, I was able to create self-employment and employment for about 2000 persons.

Village Renaissance Programme

This is yet another program that was conceived by me and launched by NAESEY. Under this scheme a village, 15 km from the city was converted into a model town.

Janitor Service

Encouraged by the response and progress of the kiosk scheme, I hit upon yet another scheme to help the unemployed. This was the Janitor service. Under this scheme, one Graduate would be in-charge of 600 houses and each household will have to pay Rs.5/- as Janitor service charges. The graduate will have five people under him and they will ensure safety of the 600 houses in the locality. The uniqueness of this scheme is that one can earn as much as Rs.2000/- per month without investment.

Through this program I was able to create employment for 500 persons.

Solar Kiosks

With the experience gained and with the objective of implementing state-level, national-level programs, I established another social development non-governmental organization by name FOOD (Foundation Of Occupational Development). I implemented the same kiosk project through FOOD in other parts of the state to benefit semi-urban unemployed, by adding a technology to the kiosk of converting the roof into solar panels to enable it to be a source of dissemination of solar energy technology to the public. The National press claimed that I was the first person in the country to commercially exploiting solar energy in the year 1979.

Lowcost Housing

As a part of my social development strategies as early as 1980, I was conducting research on low-cost housing technologies and concepts for the poor to enable them to construct affordable houses.

I have developed more than 50 low-cost housing designs and a good number of alternative construction materials. Much of my developments are oriented on pre-fabrication to enable rapid construction to facilitate mass housing.

Much of the technologies developed by me are presently adopted by Government agencies. Further few of my technologies are approved by the Government and we are entrusted with the responsibility of constructing houses by the Government. FOOD is the only NGO in our State who is working individually and with Government in housing programs.

Water Management & Environmental Sanitation

I have specialized on water management specially sectoral use of water and low-cost environmental sanitation and implemented mass low-cost sanitation scheme i.e. construction of low-cost leach-pit toilets for the rural poor throughout the state.

Also I am involving in implementing the Jeevandhara Million Well scheme i.e. providing wells in three of the Districts of Tamilnadu.

Vocational Training & Rehabilitation Of Handicapped

I have initiated a project of establishing a Production-cum-Training center in clay bricks making for rural disabled (deaf & dumb). The concept of this program is that we provide training to disabled in making clay bricks. On completion of training we involve them in making bricks. These bricks are collected, baked and sold in the market. The realization of profit is distributed to the disabled. Through this program we have employed 100 disabled in a rural area.

Micro Enterprise Development Program

I have evolved in the implementing Micro Enterprise Development Program of providing employment to 30000 persons. The concept is that we obtain Government land on lease, erect Micro Enterprise cubicles measuring 25 sq. ft. (5’x5’) in row type and motivate the local unemployed to establish his own small business.

Urban Basic Services for the Poor

I was involved in the implementation of UBSP program in collaboration with UNICEF in Cudallore, Nellilkuppam, Villupuram, Chidambaram Municipalities and in Madurai corporation.

We are playing the role of a catalyst in training the community volunteers, conducting benchmark survey, preparing analysis report, assist the community Volunteers in preparing Action Plan, mobilize resource by converging various schemes and departments and operationalize the program.

E-Mail – Electronic Network

We are glad to inform that we have established an electronic network in Madras to enable NGOs to network with NGOs worldwide. For your information hundreds of NGOs are already networking through Electronic media by utilizing e-mail services and by posting their activities on World Wide Web sites.

Rural Telecenters & E-Governance

I have provided technical support and established around 150 telecenters in rural areas of Tuticorin, Kanchipuram and Kanyakumari districts in Tamilnadu. I have also provided technical support to Vellore, Tambaram and Tuticorin municipalities in introducing e-governance and value added service through electronic networking to the citizens.

Disintegrating green manure from plastics and other non-degradable materials piled up in municipality compost yard and marketing the green compost

I have developed a cost-effective 20 tons output capacity mobile sieving machine that could retrieve 100% of the naturally compost green garbage from the digested dumps with minimum human intervention. This machine consist of conveyers for loading the green compost into the sieving machine on a continuous basis which automatically separates the inert and other non-degradable materials and lumps from the green compost and pushes it through a duct which can either be filled directly into bags or loaded into a lorry with the help of other conveyers. This green compost can be either applied directly or further enriched through other available methods or used for producing vermi-compost by involving self help groups (SHGs). This will not only be a value-added product but also be an income generating activity for hundreds of SHGs as well as unemployed youth, and it can also be a small and medium enterprise for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Skill training center on wheels

I have designed a cost-effective solar-powered LED lighting system using a simple manufacturing process. These lighting systems help reduce electricity consumption by 80%. We are now looking for partners to establish training centers on wheels that will train women self-help groups to integrate the LED on to printed circuit board to produce the final product. This will not only provide employment to thousands of women but also promote the use of energy efficient and eco friendly lighting.

Air-conditioned Traffic Police Kiosk

I have designed an air-conditioner kiosk for traffic police for the first time in India. These A/C kiosks help traffic police avoid inhaling noxious fumes that they are otherwise exposed to for over 8 hours a day, provide them respite from the scorching sun during summer, and faciliates an improved work environment for them which results in improved efficiency. The innovative elements are that the structure is made out of stainless steel and the interior is air-conditioned. The unique feature is that the public addressing system fixed in the kiosk can be activated and operated with a cell phone from anywhere in the city and outside. This will help the police to pass on forward information about traffic jams, processions, VIP movements etc. In addition to this we have also facilitate switching on and off the lights and air-conditioner from anywhere with the help of cell phone. We have also proposed to add other features in the near future.

Other areas of expertise

Experience in Operational Research/Intervention program Safe drinking water & sanitary means of excreta
Waste water
Garbage disposal
Universal access to basic education
Early childhood development activities
Non-formal education / Adult Education
Motivation and Community organising
Planning development strategies
Training stake holders and project managers
Implementation of social development programs
Evaluation
Bio farming
Low cost housing & Women empowerment

I am involved in providing consultancy to number of organization in the Asia Pacific region in the field of housing and low cost sanitation

My services were also utilized by the Govt. of Mongolia for developing strategize and implement low-cost housing and sanitation programs.