Abstract for: If the hillock does not survive, the community does not survive: Insights from the SD Winter Institute in Andhra Pradesh

This paper is a documentation of the process and insights from a two-week intensive course in Andhra Pradesh India through the Winter Institute. This course was attended by students from Washington University in St. Louis, and staff members from the Foundation for Ecological Security based in India. The authors will detail the specific village setting in which the work took place. Next, we will elaborate our research and skill-sharing process using participatory rural appraisal, group model building and systems thinking. This will be followed by an explanation of the reference mode, system dynamics model and results of simulation runs. Finally, we will conclude with the pivotal insights we learned throughout the entire process, and ideas for next steps.