During the year 1995, the State Rural Development Agency (SRDA) was disbanded, re-organized and constituted District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) in all the then 7 districts of the state to achieve greater decentralization in the planning process, taking into account the local need and suitability of schemes and to make supervisory services more accessible to achieve greater and effective implementation of the various Poverty Alleviation and Rural Development Programmes in the state. In addition, with the creation of Dimapur district during 1999-2000 and subsequently, Kiphire, Longleng and Peren during 2004-05, 4 DRDAs have also been created accordingly. Presently there are 11 DRDAs in the state. The DRDA has the sitting MLA as Chairman of the Governing Bod. The Deputy Commissioner of the district functions as the Chief Executive Officer assisted by Project Director and Officers and Staff for administrative control, implementing and monitoring of all Rural Development Programmes within the district.

The Government of India created 15 Tribal Development Blocks during 1955-56 and 6 Community Development Blocks in 1964-65. All these 21 TD/CD Blocks were manned by Junior NCS officers and Agri Officers till as late as 1983. Subsequently, the existing Blocks and subordinate staff were brought under the control and administration of R.D Department after its creation. A further 7 more Blocks were created during 1986-87. Finally, 24 Blocks were created during 1995- 96. During 2012-13 the existing 52 Blocks were bifurcated with the additiona of 22 new Blocks. Presently, there are 74 Rural Development Blocks in Nagaland. The Block is headed by a Block Development Officer assisted by Junior Engineer/SO (Engineer) and Staff. The responsibility of BDO is to achieve personal and direct contact with the VDBs, ensure proper schematic implementation, coordination and monitoring activities of the VDBs, assist in the selection of priority based schemes, issue completion certificates after personal verification and submit the same to the Chairman for fund release.

The Village Level Development Agencies called the “Village Development Boards” (VDBs) has been formed in 1980 under Clause 12 of Section 12 of the Nagaland Village and Area Council Act 1978. The VDB is a concept based on the traditional lines of the Village Councils (VCs) which appeared in the form of the Village Common Fund Committees (VCFC) in Phek District of Nagaland in 1976. The initiative for the formation of VCFC and keeping the fund in banks came from the innovative initiatives of Shri. A. M. Gokhale, IAS, the then Deputy Commissioner, Phek. He took this concept further for the formation of VDBs in all existing 918 recognized villages during his tenure as the Secretary to the Rural Development Department in 1980-81.

All permanent residents of the village form the General body of the Village Development Board. A Management Committee is formed from the General Body, chosen by the Village Council concerned and a Secretary is selected to manage the affairs of the VDB for a period of three years. The Deputy Commissioner of the District functions as the Ex-officio Chairman of all VDBs in the District. The VDBs are the grass-root level Development Institutions in the state and are responsible for implementation of all programmes/schemes of both under State Plan and Centrally Sponsored Schemes under Rural Development Department. Apart from Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the village-wise allocation was introduced under State Plan from 1980-81 under which every village receives funds under the Grant-in -Aid according to the basis of the number of Households of the village at a specified rate per tax paying household of allocation for implementing schemes for community development. Initially, the allocation to the villages under this scheme was made at the rate of Rs.100/- per tax paying household with a minimum of Rs.5,000/- during 1980-81 and through subsequent enhancements, currently the rate is Rs.1000/- per tax paying household. With this fund provided by the Department, developmental activities best suited to their requirements are taken up by the villagers themselves for implementation every year. At present there are 1175 recognized villages with 2, 27, 917 number of households having constituted VDB in all recognized villages in the state.