New Report Documents India’s First Ever Outcome-Led Collaborative for Adolescent Empowerment
by Shrutee K/DNS
Mumbai,
February 24, 2018: Bank of America and Dasra jointly launched a white
paper titled ‘Collaborative Force: Empowering 10 to 19’, which urges for
adaptation of collaborative models to address India’s large-scale development
challenges. The white paper, launched as part of the Dasra
Philanthropy Week 2018, highlights the significance of the collaborative approach
to tackling serious problems surrounding India’s adolescents.
Philanthropists, corporates, foundations,
non-profit leaders, development sector experts and academicians came together and
echoed a similar view and added that the report is a pool of resource material
for the collaborative model in India’s social landscape.
‘Collaborative Force: Empowering 10 to 19’ documents learnings from India’s first-outcome led
collaborative, 10to19: Dasra Adolescents Collaborative. ‘Collaborative Force: Empowering 10 to 19’ shares actionable
insights on designing and facilitating a large-scale multi-stakeholder collaborative effort. It outlines the building blocks and key steps that should be
considered during the formative stages of any collaborative and highlights what
it takes to effectively set up, facilitate, and participate in such
a model to advance India's development.
Bank
of America’s thought leadership in the sector Kaku Nakhate, President and India Country Head, Bank
of America, said: “Bank of America has been a consistent thought leader in
supporting adolescents through research-driven social investments in India. Our
latest research project discusses the advantages and approach of 10to19: Dasra
Adolescents collaborative, a multi-stakeholder platform, which unites funders,
government and non-profits.” She added: “The well-documented report suggests that if properly structured
and adequately resourced, collaboratives have the potential to produce results
with multiplier effect and play a vital role in advancing India’s development
agenda.”
For three years now, Bank of America has
been a committed thought leader for the cause of adolescent girls in India,
supporting two Dasra reports focusing on this topic. ‘Dignity for Her: Empowering India’s adolescent girls through improved
sanitation and hygiene’ featured eight promising non-profits
striving to promote better sanitation and hygiene for India’s underprivileged
girls. ‘Best Foot Forward: Enhancing’ the
employability of India’s adolescent girls featured 10 non-profits striving to
make adolescent girls more employable through a combination of hard and soft
skills demanded by industries.
As part of its continued support towards this
important cause and through its unique research-led approach to philanthropy, Bank of America takes a leap forward this year to support the
report on 10to19: Dasra Adolescents Collaborative with a clear recognition of
the need for a collaborative approach to systemically address the complex
issues surrounding India’s adolescents. This report is the first in series of reports that highlight the significance
of a ‘collaborative approach’ to address to complex issues that surround Indian
adolescents based on the success of 10to19: Dasra Adolescents
Collaborative.
Why
take the collaborative approach for adolescent?
Neera Nundy, co-founder, Dasra, says, “The sheer magnitude of problems faced by adolescents every day in
India, highlight the fact that no one stakeholder is alone capable of
transforming their lives and creating change at the scale and pace that is
urgently required to move India forward. The 10to19: Dasra Adolescents
Collaborative is nurturing a community of practice which leverages shared
experiences to comprehensively tackle some of India’s most pressing development
challenges faced by adolescents.” India is home to about 120 million
adolescent girls, who are characterized as a largely invisible group and an
astounding number of whom are still restrained by poor nutrition and health,
lack of complete and quality education, early marriage, early and repeat
pregnancies, little agency and a compromised potential.
The needs of adolescents are extremely
diverse and cut across several areas such as education, health and livelihoods.
True impact will require addressing all of these needs together while keeping
the adolescent at the center of it all. If this picture does not change
drastically, India will miss out on the unique opportunity of leveraging its
greatest advantage globally – its demographic dividend.
This complexity, coupled with the dearth of
data on what works, the urgent need for non-profits to grow their skills and
capacity to reach more adolescent, as well as the need for enhanced government
involvement to ensure prioritization of adolescents and better implementation
of existing schemes, underscores the fundamental idea that no one stakeholder
is alone capable of improving the lives of India’s adolescents and creating
systemic change at the scale and place that is urgently required.
Previous report links:
About Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world’s
leading financial institutions, serving large corporations, small- and
middle-market businesses and individual consumers in more than 35 countries
with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial
and risk management products and services. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is a
global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad
range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and
individuals around the world. The company provides, through various banking and
broker-dealer affiliates, M&A advice, equity and debt capital raising
solutions, lending, risk management, treasury, liquidity, and payments
management. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New
York Stock Exchange. For additional information regarding
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, please see www.bankofamerica.com/disclaimer.
About Dasra
Dasra meaning ‘enlightened giving’ in
Sanskrit, is a pioneering strategic philanthropic organization that aims to
transform India where a billion thrive with dignity and equity. Since its
inception in 1999, Dasra has accelerated social change by driving collaborative
action through powerful partnerships among a trust-based network of stakeholders
(corporates, foundations, families, nonprofits, social businesses, government
and media). Over the years, Dasra has deepened social impact in focused fields
that include adolescents, urban sanitation and governance and has built social
capital by leading a strategic philanthropy movement in the country. www.dasra.org
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