As a convening space for practitioners, policymakers, and ecosystem actors, the Livelihoods India Summit continues to push the conversation towards collaboration, coherence, and scale.

A session curated by the Work4Progress (W4P) India platform on Social Innovation through Collective Action at the 2025 edition of the Summit, held on 3rd and 4th December, brought this perspective into sharp focus. By placing lived experiences alongside system-level insights, the discussion demonstrated how collaboration across communities, institutions, and markets can unlock livelihood pathways for women and youth.

The conversation began with voices from the ground. Neelam Gupta, Founder of Vanshika Life Care from Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, shared her journey of building a sanitary napkin enterprise in a context shaped by stigma, restricted mobility, limited capital, and low self-belief. Programme support through mentoring, peer learning, market exposure, and access to finance helped dismantle these barriers over time. Women who were once confined to their homes are now visible economic actors within their communities. As Neelam put it, “Didi, ghar mein baithi thi, aaj bahar nikal kar atma-nirbhar hokar kaam kar rahi hu.” Her story illustrates that entrepreneurship is as much about dignity and agency as it is about income.

The second panel shifted the lens to scale and sustainability, examining how collective action enables impact to travel beyond isolated geographies. Vandana Priya Prashad, Programme Director at Development Alternatives, highlighted the importance of aligning community institutions, civil society organisations, financial partners, technology providers, and market platforms around shared objectives. When partnerships are grounded in listening, co-creation, and continuous learning, they evolve from transactional arrangements into trust-based coalitions capable of navigating complex social realities.

A central insight from the discussion was that entrepreneurship thrives when ecosystems reinforce rather than fragment efforts. Policies, finance, markets, institutions, and social norms must converge to create enabling conditions for women-led enterprises. Collective action mobilises resources more effectively and strengthens the pathways through which enterprises can grow and sustain themselves.

The session underscored the deep interdependence between grassroots innovation and system-level collaboration.