India is still a long way from enabling access to ‘choice’ to women in some pockets of the country. Empowering women is a key factor to achieve Sustainable Development. In this March issue of our newsletter on 'Empowering Rural Women', read an article on STEP programme that is helping adolescent girls to develop soft skills. Development Alternatives has started initiatives that are building an entrepreneurial culture in the hinterlands of the country. Know about Brave Space, a tool created to build solidarity among women to enable them to overcome socio-economic barriers. Women have been always closely associated with sustainable livelihoods. The editorial discusses the role of gender balance and the need to equip women everywhere to fight the harmful effects of climate change.

As the world suffers from the detrimental effects of climate change, we realise that communication has a very important role to play in provoking a response to climate change. Communication is used to demystify climate change at various levels, create awareness among people in their language and urge them to act upon. The recent Development Alternatives Newsletter issue on 'Communication for Climate Action' discusses this in detail. Read the issue, wherein various communication tools, training programmes, and a community-owned radio station, among others that have become more important than ever in sensitising people about their resources and helping them develop solutions to their problems are discussed.

Across India, people are showing more inclination towards entrepreneurial instincts. In rural India too, aspirations are changing and many young women and men now look to entrepreneurship as an alternative to employment. Read this newsletter on building an enabling environment for youth, where we discuss various programmes to champion local enterprises to drive economic growth. Know more about our interventions that are helping people to pursue their dreams and create job opportunities for others as well.