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Category: Sustainable Livelihoods

Life is About Facing Challenges

Bilal, a Sozni artisan and entrepreneur with disability from Jammu and Kashmir, is driven to face the many challenges that lie in his path and works to emerge stronger from any adversity

Bilal Ahmed Bhat, 39, is a man of grit and resilience. When his father, a Sozni embroidery businessman, retired after 40 years owing to health issues, Bilal took on the bread-winning responsibilities of the family. He worked for a local entrepreneur for a while, but soon decided he wanted to be his own boss. So he started his own business, and also, with enterprising spirit, obtained a Master

Not All Superheroes Wear a Cape

Sole bread-winner Valarmathi Thangaswami, a 55-year-old sanitation worker from Trichy, works to support her struggling son despite all the hurdles that line her path

To the world, Valarmathi Thangaswami is a 55-year-old sanitation worker who lives in a shanty  in Trichy. But at home, she dons the identity of a super-mother. After her husband

Can we distribute the burden of recovery from the pandemic more equitably?

As India and the world prepare for any successive waves of COVID-19, many have still not recovered from the economic impact of the previous ones.

Moving forward, we should keep the needs and experiences of the most vulnerable at the center of our approach. While many have shown and continue to show tremendous self-reliance, there is a crucial need to reduce the burden of recovery on individuals.

This article details policy recommendations to ensure a more resilient future for India’s most vulnerable communities. It follows three business owners in India whose livelihoods have been crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic. All of them are participants of the our REVIVE initiative.

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Reviving India

Just as India was recovering from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second and more vicious wave pushed many to the brink of livelihood loss. As news of the health crisis takes precedence, the economic ravages of the pandemic and its impact on livelihoods has been less documented and discussed. The devastating effects of the pandemic have had compounding negative effects on women

The need to care about the care economy

Both unpaid and paid care work is essential for any society to survive and thrive and the indispensable nature of care work was further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Apart from being necessary for the normal day to day life, the care economy is a huge employer, with serious growth potential.

Ria Kasliwal of the Observer Research Foundation has offered a fresh perspective on livelihoods generated through care work and its socio-economic impact.

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Using Blended Finance to sustain informal workers during Covid-19

According to the International Labour Organization, more than 400 million informal sector workers in India are at risk of falling into severe poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that informal workers have no health, social, or legal protections to fall back on. Without access to formal financing, their ability to survive serious economic shocks is handicapped.

This is the challenge that the REVIVE Alliance aims to address at its core. By bringing together industry leaders and philanthropic capital, REVIVE provides zero cost Returnable Grants and skill training to help India’s workers bounce back from the most severe economic crisis of the 21st century. 

To know more about how REVIVE and it’s parters are helping families and communities build sustainable livelihoods, read this article by our co-funder USAID. 

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Can the Microcredit Model Be Improved?

The problem here is not a lack of microcredit programs or their execution but rather something in the model itself. This leads us to ask: Can we modify or extend certain aspects of the microfinance model to achieve better outcomes for recipients?

Vikas Dimble, Director of Knowledge and Research at Samhita and Ahmed Moshfiq Mobarak, Professor of Economics at Yale University write on how microcredit can be used to help poor communities pull through unexpected shocks if the microcredit model is modified to incorporate inclusivity and flexible lending practices.

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Innovative lending practices can improve traditional microfinance

Research on the traditional microfinance model reveals the alterations that can be made to further small businesses and welfare gains. Vikas Dimble, Associate Director of Knowledge and Research at Samhita, and Ahmed Moshfiq Mobarak, Professor of Economics at Yale University emphasize the importance of flexible lending models, using local information to select eligible beneficiaries and allowing beneficiaries to make use of microcredit beyond entrepreneurial purposes.

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Freedom to earn a livelihood with dignity

Covid-19 was an eye-opener for many businesses in that it revealed the importance of migrant and informal workers in a business’s supply chains. Undoubtedly, the corporate sector holds the potential and responsibility to change the dynamics within which workers operate. It is therefore in their own enlightened self-interest that businesses should understand migrant workers