CFAs: WomenLeaders India Fellowship 2024-25

Women’s leadership in India is pivotal to drive social and economic progress. From grassroots to governance, women are catalysts for change. Embracing their leadership fosters inclusivity, equity, and sustainability, crucial for India’s prosperity. India’s G20 presidency marked a significant shift in the global conversation on gender equality placing a strong emphasis on “women-led development” rather than just “women’s development”, prioritizing areas like digital access and entrepreneurship to empower women as agents of global progress.

The Fellowship aims to empower women leaders in the social sector with the knowledge, skills, and network necessary to spearhead transformational changes in society. Through leadership development workshops, mentorship opportunities, and industry exposure, the programme helps social sector leaders and social entrepeneurs to refine their vision, build their capacity and accelerate their impact.

Applications are now open for the next Women Leaders India Fellowship. Selected Fellows will start the programme in September 2024. Over ten months, the Fellowship aims to empower 50 exceptional women leaders from across India, each dedicated to driving transformative change within their communities.

Focus Areas

• Sports for Development: By designing and implementing sports programs that advocate for or facilitate increased access to sports facilities and resources for marginalised communities, or build partnerships with stakeholders in the sports ecosystem to harness the potential of sports to promote gender equality, foster leadership skills, instill values such as teamwork, resilience, and fair play, and maximise the impact of sports for development initiatives.
• Livelihoods Generation: Developing, implementing and facilitating innovative programs and/or running social enterprises across farm or non-farm sectors, that equip women with essential skills and resources through various interventions such as increasing their incomes or establishing and growing their businesses, fostering digital and financial inclusion and access to micro-credit, and/or developing policies and practices that promote women’s economic participation.
• Education: Strengthening early childhood care and education (ECCE) and addressing foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills for children between 3 to 8 years old, including through interventions such as curriculum enhancements, teacher professional development, parental engagement programs, integrating technology to design and deliver programs, making them accessible even in remote geographies and fostering a sense of inclusivity.
• Climate Resilience: Enhancing the resilience of communities to adapt to climate change and reducing vulnerability to disaster risks through sustainable resource management, resilience infrastructure development, community capacity building, developing innovative solutions to address climate vulnerabilities, promoting sustainable agriculture and policies, environmental conservation, early warning systems and the use of technology to strengthening resilience at the grassroots.

What you will get?

• The fellowship focuses on leadership capacity building and skills development and is designed to strengthen the participants’ leadership and increase the success of their ventures and efforts. Support services include mentoring, peer-to-peer engagement, and visibility. Beginning and ending with in-person convenings in India, the fellows will be integrated into the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network through the VV Community Hub. Webinars and community gatherings will be hosted over 10 months between the two meetings. In the final meeting, fellows will participate in an SDG pitch where selected winning projects will be awarded up to USD 60,0000 combined.

Features of the Fellowship

• Immersive experiential learning experience
  • Fellows participate in both in-person gatherings and virtual leadership webinars specially designed by global industry leaders including Reliance Foundation experts.
• Community Gathering
  • Fellows engage in interactive discussions, share best practices, and learn from their peers’ experiences in a supportive online environment that fosters connections, collaboration, and mutual support.
• Mentorship & Support
  • Fellows gain invaluable personalized guidance from experienced leaders through one-on-one mentorship during dedicated office-hours and engaging mentoring circles.
• Sustainable Development Goals in Action
  • Fellows develop and implement impactful projects aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making a real-world difference.
• Grant Opportunities
  • Fellows will participate in a pitch competition at the end of the programme, where they will have an opportunity to be awarded a grant to support scaling their project’s growth and impact
• Alumni Hub
  • Fellows become part of a vibrant alumni network, gaining access to ongoing resources and opportunities for collaboration

Who can apply?

• Women leaders in the social sector or social entrepreneurs
• Indian nationals working and living in India
• Having 5 years of work experience in the space of livelihood generation, education, climate resilience or sports for all
• Are enthusiastic about participating in 10-month fellowship
• Able to dedicate 6-8 hours of a month to their professional development
• Available to participate in an in person symposium being hosted in Mumbai on the 13th and 14th of September
• Employees of the Reliance group of companies, Reliance Foundation, and Vital Voices Global Partnership are not eligible for this Fellowship.

Eligibility Criteria

• Criteria for selection of Fellows for the Social Entrepreneurs track
  • Applicants to this track must be entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, or are key decision makers at a qualifying business or social enterprise in one or more of the 4 thematic areas listed above; OR work at a for-profit organization to drive social change in one or more of the 4 thematic areas listed above
  • Have demonstrated leadership and key decision-making authority within their business, social enterprise, or initiative, and show high potential for future leadership development
  • Have demonstrated impact and a commitment to incorporating innovative solutions within their business, social enterprise, or initiative
  • The business, social enterprise or for-profit organization should employ at least 3 full-time staff (or the part-time equivalent) and the business, social enterprise or for-profit organization should have been in operation for 5 years at the time of submitting the application.
• Criteria for selection of Fellows for the Social Sector Leaders track
  • Applicants to this track must be spearheading programs at development sector/non-profit/civil society organizations in one or more of the 4 thematic areas listed above
  • Have demonstrated leadership and key decision-making authority within their organization or initiative, and show high potential for future leadership development
  • Applicants to this track must have a record of at least 5 years in carrying out activities in thematic areas listed above at the time of application
  • For applicants to this track, the organization they work at must be registered with the Government of India as a foundation, trust, non-profit organization, or a Section 8 Company (erstwhile Section 25 Company) registered under the provisions of the Companies Act 2013 with a track record of at 3 years in carrying out activities in in areas listed above, at the time of applying.

For more information, visit Reliance Foundation.