Seven Sisters Development Assistance

Approach & Strategy


SeSTA is driven by the belief that true sustainability in community systems and processes begins with empowering society’s most vulnerable. That’s why marginalized women stand at the heart of everything we do. Acting as a catalyst for change, SeSTA focuses on four key pillars—Time, Effort, Resources, and Alliances—to ignite lasting, transformative progress.

SeSTA’s Typical 6 Year Journey In A Block​​

Year 1

Year 1

Deploys a block level team to reaches out to target population to carry out value chain Studies, Participatory Rural Appraisal exercise, baseline studies. The team has a senior person and a freshly trained executive

Year 2

Year 1-2

Identifies and trains community cadre, builds their knowledge, vision and creates a pool of Community Resource Persons (CRPs) (Agriculture and Animal Husbandry facilitators)

Year 3

Year 1-3

Household level livelihood planning done; interventions executed based on resource availability and future visioning; provides technical support, resource investment and allied services to the households

Year 4

Year 4

Interventions focused on stabilising incomes, food security and strengthening groups to be platform for women to address issues of violence and governance

Year 5

Year 5

Build on Farmer producer Organisations. Trainings on capacity building to office bearers. SeSTA staff deputed to work for Farmer Producer Organisations . Build Backward and forward linkages

Year 6

Year 6

Continue to work with Farmer Producer Organizations with strong focus on outcomes and targets. Prepare for exit or further support if required

Scale Up Plan​

SeSTA envisions further strengthening of its operations and scaling up in inaccessible areas, directly or by supporting other agencies, across all NE states by 2030 to reach out to more than 7,00,000 poor and vulnerable women and as many households. This will mean working with about 5,000 interior villages on the overall development including food security and sustainable incomes through intensive livelihoods engagement, nutrition and health, women’s empowerment and grassroots governance. These women will be collectivized into Community Institutions including 45,000 SHGs, 6000 Village Organizations (VOs) and 45 Producer Organizations, which will work on entire rural value chains. A set of community cadres will also be groomed to provide quality services at the doorstep. Over a period of six years, SeSTA plans to enhance the income of a family by Rs 50000 per annum. Internal organization strengthening and different external partnerships will play a pivotal role to reach this goal. Apart from strengthening field teams, this will also call for streamlining of Executive Traineeship Programme (ETP) so that well trained human resources can be placed at the grassroots.