Future of Livelihoods – AIF’s Annual Livelihoods Knowledge Event unpacks the Role of CSR in Building Women’s Livelihoods

The eminent panels consisted of foremost thought leaders and ecosystem stakeholders such as Ashish Chaturvedi, Head – Environment, Energy and Resilience, UNDP; Poonam Chandok, Head – HR, L&T Energy; Praveen Saxena, CEO, Skill Council for Green Jobs; Richa Singh, VP HR – D&I and CSR, Max Life Insurance; Vivek Misra, Director – Customer Support and India lead for Disability ERG, Microsoft; Sunil Dahiya, Executive Vice President Skilling, Wadhwani Foundation; Madhu Bala Sharma, Sr. DEI Business Partner – International Markets, Amazon; Rupali Kathuria, Lead, Social Impact for South Asia at Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Mastercard; Rishikesh Patankar, CEO, CSC Academy; Nithyanandam Yuvraj Dinesh Babu, ED – Power and Utilities and Climate Change Assurance & Sustainability Services, E&Y and Kamesh Sanghi, Director, Livelihoods, American India Foundation (AIF) among others distinguished speakers.

With an overarching theme of ‘Unpacking the Evolving Role of CSR in Building Women’s Livelihoods in the Post-COVID Era’, Future of Livelihoods’ first session ‘Building the Women Entrepreneurship Ecosystem – Enabling the Next Leap’ kick-started with the discussion on how India’s growth story has left behind a key demographic: women! It threw light on how women entrepreneurs can be enabled as drivers of this growth and their success will not only boost the economy through job creation but also deliver transformational social and personal outcomes for women.

The second panel ‘Leveraging technology – Mainstreaming disability at workplaces’ emphasized the need for a multidimensional approach to catalyze accessibility while keeping women with disabilities at the center of this mediation. The session set the stage to discuss how the ecosystem must enable and empower them by promoting inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Panelists also reflected on the need for innovation in this space and how the government, both at the national and state level, along with NGOs, and CSR partners can come together to institute systemic change. The event’s last and concluding panel ‘Women as Enablers of the transition to a Green Economy’ drew from a rich tapestry of leaders and practitioners in the space, to examine the multitude of challenges to the ones on the front line of climate change impact, especially vulnerable women and communities living at the edge of environmental disasters. It deliberated the need for resilient pillars of development,
to prepare for an imminent and urgent shift towards green and sustainable livelihoods while nurturing women to be the catalysts, who enable and lead this transition to the green economy. ‘It is incumbent on all of us to galvanize women’s economic empowerment which is deeply connected with poverty reduction, climate change, and an increase in the economic growth of the nation. Increasing women’s role and participation means greater voice, choice, and power at home and in the economy. AIF, empowering women since 2001, is honored to partner with key ecosystem stakeholders to further our mission.” said Mathew Joseph, Country Director, AIF.

 Learn more at www.AIF.org

If you have any objection to this press release content, kindly contact pr.error.rectification@gmail.com to notify us. We will respond and rectify the situation in the next 24 hours.