In order to understand and assess the key issues and challenges that the sector faces and also to craft a vision and a strategy for its growth, ACCESS introduced the idea of annually organizing the Livelihoods India Initiative, a national platform on livelihoods. It is a full-fledged platform with its own specific sub – initiatives to allow for a holistic discussion of key challenges faced by the sector in livelihoods promotion of the poor. The fundamental idea behind this initiative is to bring together and discuss key experiences and issues faced by livelihoods promoting agencies. The sub-initiatives in the orbit of the Livelihoods India platform comprise of the Livelihoods India Conference, the State of India’s Livelihoods (SOIL) Report, the Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition and Thematic Livelihoods Retreats.
The first two years of the Livelihoods India Initiative as the third day to the Microfinance India Summit helped it evolve from an idea to a sectorally recognized initiative. Besides the Day Three Conference, the SOIL Report and the case study competition also further strengthened the initiative to a level where it could be spun off as a fully independent initiative within ACCESS. This was reinforced through feedback from several important stakeholders. Appropriately from 2010, ACCESS separated the Day Three Livelihoods India initiative from the Microfinance India Summit altogether, and evolved it into a separate national platform. While it was perceived as a risk by some, the spinning off of the Livelihoods India Initiative proved to be a great success and received a very encouraging response from all stakeholders in the sector.
