BHUBANESWAR: The State government through the Mission Shakti department will partner with the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to advance women’s economic empowerment and drive gender equality. It signed an agreement with the UNCDF for the launch of the Mission Shakti Living Lab on Monday.
The Living Lab, a joint initiative designed by the State government and UNCDF through its Centre for Financial Health, will incubate, scale and drive innovative digital solutions to help women become financially healthy through the creation of fair and stable markets for their products.
The partnership will address barriers that limit women's access to financial security, autonomy and financial freedom with use of digital technologies and the rising e-commerce industry in India. It will help 3.5 million women SHG members and low income individuals to have access to digital financial services and improved financial health.
Besides, it will help 10,000 women-led micro-enterprises get better access to affordable market opportunities, capital for business promotion and market solutions for better linkages. The programme will improve the ability of SHG members and households to plan, save, borrow or spend better.
The agreement was signed by Sujata R Karthikeyan, Secretary in the department of Mission Shakti and Preeti Sinha, executive secretary of the UNCDF. Kathikeyan said that Mission Shakti’s efforts have led to an incremental increase in income of SHG members from Rs 3,000 to Rs 15,000 per month.
Henri Dommel, director of Inclusive Digital Economies practice at UNCDF said that now there is a real opportunity to use new technologies and infrastructure to enhance women’s financial security and freedom and move towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The socio-economic impact of Covid-19 on women can only be lessened if investment is made for them, he added.