Technical Advisory
We bring expert advisors on gender, sexuality, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI) who can guide your team on embedding gender lens into your work. Some of the process we use that help us customize solutions based on your needs include:
Diagnostics/ Assessment/ Audits based on gender integration – identifying current gaps, challenges, strengths and opportunities at both organisational and programmatic levels.
Technical Assistance – through mentoring support and/or advising organisations during the gender integration process within the workplace as well in your programmes.
Working with teams to build a Gender Action plan for greater alignment
Support in build monitoring and evaluation tools for your organisation
Project Implementation
Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (the “Act”) specifies certain CSR requirements that need to be mandatorily undertaken by corporates. These regulatory provisions impose responsibilities such as setting up a Board level CSR committee, planning and approving CSR activities (for the year), as well as ensuring their implementation. Every company having net worth of rupees 500 crore or more, or turnover of rupees 1000 crore or more or a net profit of rupees 5 crore or more during the immediately preceding financial year.
Samya provides end-to-end CSR advisory & consulting services especially focused on gender and women empowerment. Experts, composed of chartered accountants and professionals from the social sector background, assist companies in meeting their CSR obligation by providing end-to-end support through all stages of the CSR life cycle. Specifically Samya provides the following CSR services:
Preparation of CSR policies, annual action plan and other supporting documents – We work with clients to draft a comprehensive CSR policy covering the required elements in accordance with the CSR law. We also review the action plan & disclosures mandated by regulations & suggest modifications.
Baseline studies and needs assessment for inclusive CSR programs – Our consultants conduct baseline studies to identify the social, economic, and environmental challenges in the targeted areas. This ensures CSR programs address the specific needs and contribute to sustainable development.
Identifying implementing agencies – Part of our CSR consulting services includes identifying and selecting suitable implementation agencies & NGOs. This involves evaluating the agencies’ capabilities, track records, and its alignment with the company’s CSR goals.
Undertaking due diligence/fact finding reviews of the implementing partners – We conduct due diligence and fact-finding reviews of implementation partners covering areas such as performance on past programs, staff skill set, systems and processes, data flow and management, governance and compliance related matters.
Concurrent monitoring of CSR activities – We monitor CSR activities by conducting regular field visits and review of project-related documents submitted by implementing partners. Regular monitoring enables us to identify gaps in project outcomes and address issues promptly.
Impact assessment studies for large projects to aid future strategies – Our CSR consultants conduct impact assessment studies to measure tangible outcomes of the CSR programs by deploying various quantitative and qualitative methods. This data helps in refining future CSR strategies and demonstrating the company’s social impact.
Advising on year-end reporting of CSR activities as required by the regulations – As a CSR consulting firm, we provide guidance and support in maintaining comprehensive records, preparing annual reports, and disclosure of CSR initiatives. This ensures our clients are well-prepared for audits, and any regulatory scrutiny.
Capacity Building and Toolkit Development
We provide training / hold workshops to build perspective and strengthen capacities of teams on addressing the issue of:
Gender and Gender based Discrimination
Sexuality
Inclusion within the workplace
Our trainings are based on adult learning principles and sessions are created on an instructional design framework. They are interactive, building onto our lived experiences to facilitate a learning journey from “me to we”. We carry out a training needs assessment and the capacity strengthening plan is co-created along with the clients to address their organisational/ company needs. we also experts who can build specific curriculums, based on instructional design principles and hold Training of Trainers (ToTs) for staff so that they can roll out the curriculum on their own.
Organisation Development
For any development effort to be sustainable and effective, it must consider the needs of all people, including those who don’t typically have a voice in decision making. That’s why gender equality is not only fundamental but is critical to achieve sustainable development goals. By addressing and challenging root causes of gender inequalities, we collectively take action to build more inclusive and fair societies. Organizations are important components of social and physical environments, and they exert considerable influence over the choices people make, the resources they have to aid them in those choices, and the factors in the workplace that could influence their wellbeing. Hence it is critical to look into the culture and environment of the organisation. By adopting a gender-transformative approach, i.e. an approach which seeks to tackle structural and historical barriers to gender equality, organisations are better able to understand and address these barriers to strengthen their work environment and culture, people strategies, processes and systems.
It is Samya’s mission to bring the knowledge and experience gained by its people to strengthen the work environment and culture, people strategies, processes and systems of organisations to have greater societal impact. Specifically Samya adopts a three phase process which is participatory and embedded in co-creation.
The first phase is Assessment and Diagnostic. The gender assessment process is a reflection process that provides insight into how gender is currently integrated into the organisation and the work it does. It helps in understanding where there is scope for improvement and capacity strengthening towards transformation of gender inequalities and power relations.
The second phase is that of Rumination where Samya helps organisations to reflect on the findings of the survey and to encourage self-reflection and dialogue to think of ways to contribute to organisational development.
The third phase is Co-creating the Gender Action Plan. A plan of action is developed to provide concrete targets, strategies and (budgeted) activities to achieve gender transformation. In this phase monitoring and evaluation tools are also co-developed to measure annual progress and results.