HER+ Stakeholder workshop paves the way for piloting Learning Labs in India

NEW DELHI, INDIA, 27-28 November 2023 — The CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality, HER+ convened for workshop with stakeholders who are playing a pivotal role in designing and piloting Socio-technical Innovation Bundles (STIBs) in learning labs in West Bengal and Odisha in India. This workshop was part of the process of co-designing and implementing STIBs. These bundles, designed collaboratively together with women farmers, aim to enable them to gain better access to climate-smart innovations that suit them best. This participatory approach ensures a strategic combination of social, technical, and technological innovations, meticulously tailored to address the diverse needs and perspectives of the communities.

The workshop created a space for implementing partners to align their efforts seamlessly, as they engaged in discussions about their roles and responsibilities in the learning labs. It was represented by our partners, which include the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), Society for Equitable Voluntary Actions (SEVA), and Change Initiatives in West Bengal and the World Vegetable Center, and Sahabhagi Vikash Abhiyan (SVA) in Odisha, as they are piloting the learning labs to implement STIBs in Odisha. Sattva Consulting Pvt. Ltd. is partnering for framing of the comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) system for a systematic implementation and measuring the impacts of STIBs in the learning labs. The Theory of Change, co-designed by the partners led by Sattva Consulting, provided a common ground for creating a shared vision for achieving the outcomes of the learning labs. The Theory of Change has been a joint effort of all the learning lab and MEL partners and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which started in the previous stakeholder workshops to make the process participatory, demand driven, and context specific. At this…