Brief Descrip­tion

The Equa­tor Ini­tia­tive brings together the United Nations, gov­ern­ments, civil soci­ety, busi­nesses and grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions to rec­og­nize and advance local sus­tain­able devel­op­ment solu­tions for peo­ple, nature and resilient com­mu­ni­ties. The Equa­tor Ini­tia­tive seeks to:

• Rec­og­nize the suc­cess of local and indige­nous initiatives,
• Cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties and plat­forms to share knowl­edge and good practice,
• Inform pol­icy to fos­ter an enabling envi­ron­ment for local and indige­nous com­mu­nity action, and
• Develop the capac­ity of local and indige­nous ini­tia­tives to scale-up their impact.



The case study will focus on some of the key chal­lenges faced a devel­op­ment partner/agency and is intended to pro­vide valu­able inter­ac­tion and broaden aware­ness among atten­dees in the areas of social inno­va­tion, devel­op­ment and com­mu­nity participation.

Case Pre­sen­ters

http://www.undp.org

http://www.equatorinitiative.org

Brief Descrip­tion

The U.S. State Depart­ment works closely with Solar Sis­ter, a social enter­prise busi­ness, towards achiev­ing the shared objec­tive of empow­er­ing women eco­nom­i­cally and erad­i­cat­ing energy poverty.

Solar Sis­ter erad­i­cates energy poverty by empow­er­ing women with eco­nomic oppor­tu­nity. Solar Sis­ter com­bines the break­through poten­tial of solar tech­nol­ogy with a delib­er­ately woman-centered direct sales net­work to bring light, hope and oppor­tu­nity to even the most remote com­mu­ni­ties in rural Africa. Invest­ing in women is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. Solar Sis­ter cre­ates sus­tain­able busi­nesses, pow­ered by smart invest­ment in women entre­pre­neurs. Solar Sis­ter uses a mar­ket based pro­gram to dis­trib­ute solar tech­nol­ogy that pro­vides income to women entre­pre­neurs and is the most effec­tive dis­tri­b­u­tion for new tech­nol­ogy to rural households.

The case study will focus on some of the key chal­lenges faced by Solar Sis­ter and is intended to pro­vide valu­able inter­ac­tion and broaden aware­ness among atten­dees in the areas of social inno­va­tion, devel­op­ment and gen­der inclusiveness.

Case Pre­sen­ters

http://www.state.gov/

http://www.solarsister.org/

Brief Descrip­tion

‘Almost nine mil­lion chil­dren still die each year before they reach their fifth birth­day. The causes of child deaths are related to mal­nu­tri­tion and lack of access to ade­quate pri­mary health care and infra­struc­ture, such as water and san­i­ta­tion, in many devel­op­ing coun­tries’ — UN.

Sev­eral ini­tia­tives have been launched by Gov­ern­ments glob­ally to address the issue of mal­nu­tri­tion and early edu­ca­tion. Inte­grated Child Devel­op­ment Scheme (ICDS) in India is one of the world’s largest and most unique pro­gramme for early child­hood devel­op­ment. ICDS is the fore­most sym­bol of India’s com­mit­ment to chil­dren – India’s response to the chal­lenge of pro­vid­ing pre-school edu­ca­tion on one hand and break­ing the vicious cycle of mal­nu­tri­tion, mor­bid­ity, reduced learn­ing capac­ity and mor­tal­ity, on the other.

The case study will focus on some of the key chal­lenges faced by ICDS and is intended to pro­vide valu­able inter­ac­tion and broaden aware­ness among atten­dees with a focus on eval­u­a­tion and fund­ing from a donor perspective.

Case Pre­sen­ters

http://www.heinz.cmu.edu