Sindhanai

In recent times, we have seen Collectivisation gaining recognition as an important approach among development aid programmes. Collectivisation is seen as a strategy to enable sustainability and the scaling- up of social initiatives. There is an acknowledgment that community-led efforts play a critical role in the success of facilitating systemic shifts and structural change. One may see emergence and mainstreaming of a number of terms- participatory grantmaking, localision, intersectionality, dignity, systemic shift, structural transformation, social movement. They are very political terms, but often become victim of depoliticisation. The measurement community plays a role in depoliticising these terms. As more stakeholders turn to collectives to steer social change, there is a risk that this platform is treated as a ‘silver bullet’ without a thorough understanding of the ups and downs and power contestations inherent in collectives. Often, measurement community opens a track parallel to that of collectivisation and of grantmaking. There is a need to embed measurement within collectivisation process. Sindhanai (in Tamil, the term means Thinking and Reflection) is seen not only as a continuous journey of critical thinking within collectives, but also an evolving of self-assessment measurement of movement and change. "சிந்தனை", as contemplative pedagogy, encourages open-mindedness and the inclusion of different voices through thoughtful reflection. Through "சிந்தனை", collectives adjust their strategies and messages as needed to remain effective. The initiative, Sindhanai, recognises the need to build even a collective of Evaluators who have lived experience of marginalisation to inform evaluation as well as norms that define evaluation ecosystem. This initiative aims to mainstream tools, methods and perspectives that evolve within Collectives, especially in the Global South to inform the politics of evaluation as well as of grantmaking.