10^th August, New Delhi: EdelGive Foundation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today, to strengthen and accelerate outreach initiatives with respect to women entrepreneurship in India. Through this year-long collaboration, both organizations aim to support women in their entrepreneurial journeys, by adopting a multi-stakeholder approach to facilitate capacity building. Through mentorship, community sensitization at a school level, establishing grass-root level awareness initiatives, increasing corporate support for women entrepreneurship endeavors, and by creating ‘champions’ across sectors for the cause, with specific focus in the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the campaign aims to positively impact the ecosystem in a holistic manner.

                          Through a multi-stakeholder participatory model – corporate stakeholders, government (hyper local, local, and state) bodies and officials, and local NGO partner networks of both the organizations, will jointly conduct workshops, enhance learning, and provide skilling and training facilities. Additionally, women-led enterprises will be promoted through active engagements with state governments, which will encourage young girls to gain industry experience. Also, a digital education series will be leveraged via social media platforms to encourage innovative learning.

Vidya Shah, Executive Chairperson, EdelGive Foundation said, “Through this partnership, both EdelGive and FICCI have come together to boost the upskilling of women entrepreneurs at the grass root level, create a linkage between them and the larger ecosystem, and enable them to build a business/ entrepreneurial network of their own. As there is an existing and clear synergy between our work via the #UdyamStree campaign and FICCI’s Greater 50 campaign, the purpose of the present MoU is to set up a system of cooperation based on the expertise of both the organizations, to ensure the further strengthening of our initiatives to support and empower women.”

                                    Dr. Sangita Reddy, Immediate Past President FICCI and Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd, said, “FICCI – FLO Empowering Greater 50% programme lays a special emphasis on enhancing entrepreneurial and decision-making skills of existing and aspiring women entrepreneurs through need – based Mentorship programmes and Mentor-Mentee matchmaking. Since UdyamStree has similar objectives of boosting women entrepreneurship in the country, we believe that combining the expertise of both organizations will yield fruitful results, and we look forward to an enriching collaboration. We value this partnership. We will make every effort to give more power to the women of India to be the best form of themselves and contribute to a women-led development of the country as a whole”.