Programme Brief: Scaling Innovations for an Inclusive Care Economy

Co-designed by UN Women and Dharma Life, the ‘Dharma Life Community Learning Centre' aims to increase women’s economic participation while providing their children with a space to learn, thrive and grow.

This Center offers integrated vocational skilling, livelihoods training for women in India whilst also providing Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in interventions targeted to low-income populations in rural and semi-urban India.

Implemented as part of the Gender-Inclusive Care Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Programme (GICEEP) funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), Visa Foundation, in partnership with SAFEEM and Bopinc and on-ground partners Dharma Life and Tilti, the UN Women and Dharma Life Community Learning Centre is currently piloted in three locations, namely, Ranchi, Satara, and Vadodara in India.

This initiative will build evidence of innovative models that support the creation of livelihoods for women, while improving children’s learning outcomes. It will generate crucial evidence of care delivery models which can sustain themselves with public, private or blended financing to benefit communities at scale. The second phase of the programme is planning to increase the number of centers to include 18 more villages and conduct a randomized controlled trial to measure their impact on women's economic empowerment. Please join us investing into this innovative approach.