A new cohort of Rise Up leaders advancing education, equity and social justice for girls and women in India - the launch of Rise Up’s Leadership and Advocacy Accelerator.

With the support of Cummins Inc., Rise Up is building a global movement of visionary leaders dedicated to advancing gender equity. Rise Up activates women and girls to transform their lives, families and communities through investment in local solutions, strengthening leadership, and building movements. Rise Up invests in local leaders to strengthen their organizations, lead change in their communities, and advance social justice, education, and gender equity through improved laws, programs, and funding for women and girls. In February of  2019, Rise Up will launch the Gender Equity Initiative in Maharashtra, India with a cohort of 22 visionary leaders, to strengthen their leadership, build their advocacy capacity, and enable them to launch strategies that improve the lives of girls and women in their communities.

In India, women and girls face significant obstacles in reaching their full potential and accessing education, health, employment and leadership in the public and private sector. According to UNICEF, almost 27% of girls in India are married off before their 18th birthday. Additionally, despite India’s economic growth women’s participation in the workforce has actually decreased in recent years.

Building on the successes of cohorts of leaders in Nigeria and Mexico, Rise Up has selected 22 civil society leaders to join Rise Up’s Gender Equity Initiative. These leaders are committed to women’s and girls’ rights and wellbeing and will participate in Rise Up’s week-long intensive Advocacy and Leadership Accelerator workshop in February 2019.

Following the Accelerator, Rise Up leaders can also apply for competitive seed funding to launch advocacy strategies to advance education, equity, opportunity and social justice for women and girls, with a focus on both community-level change and national-scale impact in India.

In March of 2018, Cummins Inc. launched the Cummins Powers Women Initiative, a monumental investment in proven programs like Rise Up that create large-scale impact in the lives of girls and women globally. “Cummins’ mission is to make people’s lives better by powering a more prosperous world and Cummins Powers Women epitomizes this purpose,” said Tom Linebarger, Cummins Inc. Chairman and CEO.

This new partnership with Cummins Inc. expands Rise Up’s reach to activate women and girls to realize their own potential and speak out as leaders to create a more just and equitable world. “We are deeply honored to partner with Cummins to advance gender equality globally. Rise Up will leverage this new partnership to invest in the vision of girls and women leaders to transform their own lives, families, and countries,” said Denise Dunning, Rise Up Founder and Executive Director.

For more information contact Vidhu Prabha, Rise Up Program Manager for the India Gender Equity Initiative at [email protected] or by phone at (+91)- 9771404640.

About Rise Up: Since 2009, Rise Up’s powerful network of over 500 leaders has directly reached 7 million girls, youth, and women, and advocated for over 100 laws and policies impacting 115 million people in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the US.