Grameen Development Services (GDS) was established in February 1993 with the mission to empower the marginalized communities living in the areas of structural poverty in India, through the economic pathway, i.e. promoting and strengthening the livelihoods of its targeted communities.
From its initial steps at the time of its inception, the organization, over the course of its thirty one years of existence, has evolved into a premier, mature and a competent institution working in the field of livelihoods promotion, with substantial outreach in the three states of India: Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar and Rajasthan. The journey of the organization, though, has not been without challenges, as it had to, time and again, respond to the ever-changing external environment, by the way of adaptation and course corrections in the face of many transformations. This has not only meant that it evolved the philosophy and strategies of its core mandate- that of the livelihoods promotion- by incorporating multiple approaches from time to time (for instance, non-farm based livelihoods promotion, rural entrepreneurship promotion, agriculture development, livestock-based livelihoods promotion, promotion of migrant workers’ livelihoods, etc.) but also had to integrate several other elements into its strategic approach, like the social empowerment of women; promotion of community based institutions; disaster risk reduction (DRR); and, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), in its quest of continuously enhancing the effectiveness of its services to the people. The life journey of GDS, therefore, can be divided into phases as explained below (this however does not mean that the passage from one phase to the other was abrupt, and needed a total shift in strategies; instead, many relevant components of a phase were continued with into the subsequent phase/s.) It is not surprising, therefore, that many of these phases are overlapping.