Chennai, 18th October 2022: With the support of the European Union, the “National Network of Women-Focused CSOs” launched in Chennai today. This initiative is being implemented by Tiruchirappalli Regional Engineering College – Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (TREC-STEP).

The newly launched network will provide effective reach-out for delivering unique and leveraged value to the most vulnerable people and women of the society, through the broad Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Community, Policy Makers, Women Entrepreneurs, Financial Players, and other Women empowerment Institutions.

The one-day Regional Workshop on“Women Entrepreneurship Promotion for Climate Change Resilience through CSOs” showcased the Policy, Practice and Enabling Environment of Women Entrepreneurship. Around 200 participants from Civil Society Organizations from the 8 states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal participated in the workshop.

Ms.DelphineBrissonneau, Senior Programme Manager – EuropeanDelegation to India and Bhutan, New Delhi, Mr. S. Rajarethinam, IAS (R), Chairman – Tamil Nadu Foundation, Mr. R.M.P. Jawahar, Executive Director, TREC-STEP and other officials of TREC-STEP graced the launch event and inauguration of the workshop.

Mr.Arun Roy, IAS, MSME Secretary, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Ms.Shantha Sheila Nair, IAS (R), Former Vice Chairman of Planning Commission, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Ms.JayashreeRaghunandan, IAS (R), Former Addl. Chief Secretary, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, and officials of State and Central Governments, Policy Makers, and Women Entrepreneurs spoke in the day-long workshop and panel discussions.
Mr. R.M.P. Jawahar, Executive Director, TREC-STEP said “Climate Change is a huge crisis facing humankind and especially bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) sections in developing countries. These climate challenges need to be converted into suitable opportunities for building resilience in adaptation ventures, besides bringing in other solutions to combat climate change impacts. With the support of the European Union, TREC-STEP has promoted this project’s mission for women’s enterprise development, climate resilience, and organizational enabling systems. The project aligns a network of dedicated organizations across 8 states, with a lead role of Tamil Nadu and also a specialized ecosystem to achieve this mission”.
Nearly 600 members of the civil society organizations have been trained in innovation and entrepreneurship skills from December 2019 through the TREC-STEP EU GENIE project, despite the pandemic challenge during this period. Through them, the process of promoting 1000 women ventures in climate space, to improve their resilience by improving their livelihood capacities, is already on the anvil.

TREC-STEP EU GENIE project is promoting three layers of Women’s social ventures as follows:
(1) Women led Stand-alone ventures
(2) Women-based Cluster ventures
(3) Women Light House Ventures – Integrating Supply Chain Micro Ventures

These ventures will be trained to effectively use and capitalize on digital tools and systems for their growth prospects. TREC-STEP will be providing the following support, a series of Capacity Development Programmes, Incubation Facilities, Funding support, Mentoring, Handholding, an ICT Platform for Knowledge-share, etc., among CSOs and women entrepreneurs.

The EU GENIE Project Sponsors and Implementing Agency:
The project ‘Gender Enabling Network of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GENIE) CSOs for Climate Ventures’ is financed to the tune of One million Euros (INR 8.2 crores) up to 89.99 % by the European Union (EU), under the Thematic Programme India – Civil Society Organizations: Enhancing CSOs’ Contribution to Governance and Development Processes and the balance 10.01% is funded by TREC-STEP. This project is being implemented by Tiruchirappalli Regional Engineering College – Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (TREC-STEP), as the implementing agency.