The Work 4 Progress (W4P) program was launched in India by the la Caixa Foundation towards the end of 2016 and subsequently in Peru and Mozambique. The program seeks to create new employment opportunities for young people and women through open platforms or networks for social innovation formed by civil society organizations, universities and public stakeholder institutions. Currently it is operational in 120 villages across the two program geographies of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand and is working with socially and economically disadvantaged communities and individual women and young adults.

ActionAid Association and Alianza por la Solidaridad joined the platform in 2020 around the time the pandemic induced lockdowns were being announced in the country. As things opened up in the second half of the year, their program team moved swiftly into the field and engaged with the most marginalized in the community. Before they could move to the next stage of co-creating prototypes with the communities, the current wave of the pandemic began leading to lockdowns and restrictions in the rural areas.

In this newsletter, we share with you the social innovation processes as they unfold in the field. The stories reveal how communities and stakeholders are coming together to find solutions to their livelihood challenges, emerging as influencers and energizing the ecosystem, including in the times of the pandemic induced crisis.

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