Development Dialogue 2020

The Development Dialogue is the annual conference of the Deshpande Foundation, now in its 13th year that brings together non-profits and philanthropic practitioners, corporates and CSRs, policymakers and social innovators from around India and the world to share their learnings and experiences. The Development Dialogue will be held on 1st February 2020 at Hubballi, Karnataka.

Innovation abounds around the world and people and companies globally have great intentions in helping make the world a better place. Yet, with a few exceptions, the many challenges in the development sector show a little significant impact. To achieve lasting and scalable impact requires innovative new ideas and approaches that align public, private and civic intentions to address common societal challenges. The conference provides such an opportunity for leaders, implementers, and policymakers to share innovative ideas and best practices and to build collaborations through which to achieve scalable social impact.

Motivated by the Companies Act of 2013, corporate CSR programs have sought to address some of these social issues. The Development Dialogue will bring together leading corporate CSR organizations and their partner NGOs to share successful program ideas, novel methods, and innovative approaches and will allow for knowledge sharing and partnering opportunities to build stronger solutions addressing common social issues.

The conference will focus on key strategic changes in the CSR landscape on Saturday morning and then delve deeper in the afternoon into the three verticals - Skill Development, Agriculture and Microentrepreneurship - with leading CSR partners in each area as well as partner nonprofits/NGOs and key governmental players. The sector-specific discussions will allow for peer to peer sharing of best practices - from the corporate perspective as well as from implementing NGOs - and highlight unaddressed challenges and areas for collaboration and provide opportunities to align the efforts of the key participants in the room. Sunday will provide additional opportunities for interaction between startups, VCs, investors, corporate CSR organizations and aspiring entrepreneurs at the Startup Dialogue.

With a strong focus on action-oriented takeaways for participants and all stakeholders, the Development Dialogue agenda brings thought-leaders and experienced practitioners in panels addressing the role of technology, fundraising, business models and organizational practices in achieving impact at scale.