What is the best way to ensure that your program addresses the needs of the community you work with? Is it primary research through surveys or stakeholder consultations or secondary research? We believe that in addition to all of this, it is critical to simply ask the community and listen.

In this session we will discuss our learnings from Saamuhika Shakti, a pioneering collective impact project working with the informal waste pickers and their families in Bengaluru, India. We will also touch upon a critical aspect of equity among the different stakeholders and how power dynamics between the donor, implementing non profits and community can be balanced to ensure that the voices of the primary actors are incorporated into the project  

Actively engaging with and being mindful of waste pickers views is also a way of ensuring they have agency over their needs and lives. It is important to not just do this at the beginning of the project but also build mechanisms within the project to make this a continuous process.