Launch of India Livelihoods Collective - India’s first non-financial and non-funding commitment based collaborative platform
By CSRBOX
June 9, 2020
India. 9th June 2020. Over 23 organisations from different sectors including businesses, CSR foundations, non-profits, think-tanks, tech-innovators and incubators have come together to create India Livelihoods Collective (ILC). Smt. Vimala Ramesh (IAS), CEO MSRLM, Govt. of Maharashtra and Shri. Govinda Rajulu Chintala, Chairman, NABARD graced the virtual launch of the platform as the Keynote Speakers with presence of more than 550 attendees.
The Collective is a first ever programmatic partnerships platform for multiple agencies to connect with each other and collaborate for scaling-up livelihoods interventions in farm, non-farm and urban jobs ecosystems. The Collective brings together various entities playing different roles in farm value-chain to ease the process of farm-based interventions, supporting farmer producer organisations and then facilitating the procurement of produce through forward market linkages. Similarly, it aims to bridge gaps in non-farm value chains to provide better livelihoods opportunities in India. When a large section of rural workers, who have reverse migrated from urban areas, are facing severe livelihoods challenges, the Collective is an effort to alleviate their problems by connecting them back with the livelihoods opportunities, be it through rural entrepreneurship or through linking-back to industrial-jobs.
The Collective has direct relevance with Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, recently introduced by the Government of India to emphasize local products and building resilient rural economy. NABARD and the state-level agencies such as MSRLM play a crucial role in implementing this mission, and the Collective pledges to work in alignment with this through research and data on livelihoods, district-wise mapping of benchmark solutions and replicating those solutions through collaborative efforts. The Collective will also facilitate innovative solutions in rural livelihoods opportunities in partnership with technology incubators and social businesses.
In his address, Shri. G.R. Chintala said, “Helping to re-build the livelihoods is the responsibility of the entire nation, working together. ILC could play a pivotal role in this by collating ideas of high impact benchmarked projects which could then be incorporated at the regional level through our networks.”
Smt. R. Vimala, shared a special goodwill message for the launch of the Collective. She said,” There is more emphasis on ‘Local Livelihoods’ and ILC has the potential to spearhead this across the rural and urban areas, strengthening the objective of existing national priority and the self-reliance programme.”
Explaining the impact achieved through MSRLM over last couple of years, she said, “Working in to in unison is the key, and ILC looks like a fantastic platform to converge and come together to achieve this.”
The Collective is a joint initiative of 23 organisations, where CSRBOX, Dalmia Bharat Foundation, Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation, MicroSave Consulting, Arvind Limited, Apollo Tyres Foundation, BPC Banking Technologies and Sterelite Technologies, serve as the Founding Partners. While CInI (Tata Trusts), BAIF, PRADAN, Swades Foundation, Swayam Skikshan Prayog, Seva Mandir, ISAP, Dr. Reddy’s Foundation have joined as the Thematic Partners, organisations such as CropIn and Indigram Labs have collaborated as the Innovation Partners of India Livelihoods Collective. Entrepreneurship Development Institute and Accion have joined as Knowledge Partners and Strategic Partners, respectively. The Collective is also supported by its Associate Members including Lupin Foundation, Schneider Electric, Magma Fincorp Limited.
Altogether, the India Livelihoods Collective marks its footprint across 25 states with a cumulative experience of 494 years, 18000+ collective livelihoods workforce and about 100 ongoing large programmes for reviving the livelihoods sector in India.
Talking about the need for a platform like India Livelihoods Collective amidst the economic slowdown and pandemic, Bhomik Shah, the Curator and one of the Founding Partners of Collective says, ‘India has a lot of potential to create livelihoods in rural economy where CSR foundations, philanthropic organisations and non-profits can work on local entrepreneurial system by enhanced financial inclusion, capacity building, market-linkages and extension of social security programs. Our local farms and markets have immense potential to create jobs and livelihoods”
Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj, CEO of Dalmia Bharat Foundation says,
“Livelihood has been a focus area of work at Dalmia Bharat Foundation (DBF). We have been working on leveraging opportunities in both farm and non-farm sectors. We are very excited to be the part of India Livelihood Collective and are sure that the Collective will help us achieve our goal faster”.
Mr. Anurag Saxena, Global Head-Strategic Initiatives at MicroSave Consulting says,
"We are proud to be part of India Livelihoods Collective. Collaboration and co-creation are the most critical enablers of sustainable livelihood in rural and urban India. We are keen to leverage our learnings, partner with a diverse set of organizations to solve the most complex challenges, and thus realize the full potential of ILC. We see an opportunity to strengthen the CSR investments further and also support the initiatives by Government and philanthropy organizations."
Mr. Pramathesh Ambasta, CEO of Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation says, "ILC is a first of a kind platform to explore opportunities of working together on a scale to transform the livelihoods of the poor and marginalized in partnership with the governments, an idea close to our mandate”.
Ms. Rinika Grover, Head - CSR and Sustainability, Apollo Tyres Limited says,“It’s our ethos to foster partnerships and work out collaborations to implement rural livelihood programmes. This approach assists us to scale up and brings about a more tangible impact at the grassroots level. “
Mr. Neeraj Lal, Head-CSR, Arvind Limited says, “India Livelihood Collective has successfully brought together the organisations with diverse knowledge, skills and experiences but common intent of impacting positively the Livelihood landscape. I believe the ILC will steadily bring noticeable and trackable change in the lives of the people it works with through the collective strengths of the partners. Our best wishes…”
Mr Debarshi Dutta, Head of SME Marketplace at Safal Fasal by BPC, says,
“As a technology group driven by inclusion, we could not be more proud that BPC and our agritech marketplace, Safal Fasal, are joining the India Livehoods Collective. Through this Collective’s cultural drive, I am confident that we will deliver a greater impact on the lives of millions of people in India.”
About India Livelihoods Collective:
India Livelihoods Collective is India’s first non-financial and non-funding commitment based collaborative platform to leverage cross-sectoral expertise of organizations, enabling collective action towards creation of sustainable and local livelihoods in rural and urban India.
About CSRBOX
CSRBOX is India’s leading CSR knowledge and impact intelligence driven partnership platform for the development community. It serves as an enabler, encouraging collaboration and partnerships between CSR stakeholders.
Contact: Bhagyashree Patil (Mob. 9967755067 ) bhagyashree@csrbox.org
For more information about India Livelihoods Collective, please visit https://www.ilc.org.in/
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