The Community Resource Person Model, a partnership between Government of Odisha and Landesa, was recognized and celebrated last week for its impact and innovative approach. The model relies on minimally-trained local youth to support local officials as they identify poor landless families in remote areas and ensure they benefit from state land allocation programs.

The project was selected by a panel of judges from the government of Bihar, the Government of India, and the World Bank. Already, the project is operating in more than 18,000 villages and 200,000 of landless families have benefited in the state of Odisha alone. Now the project will be rolled out to more than 44,000 villages in the state of Bihar.