SVP India: Recap on the National Partner Meet and SAMVAAD 2020
The world has been profoundly affected by the global pandemic. Not only is it a threat to public health, the economic and social disruption, it has threatened the long-term livelihoods and wellbeing of millions. While all of us grapple with this new normal, SVP India is leading the quest to building a resilient eco-system to support the social sector and build resilient communities.
This September, we hosted our very first virtual event convening all our Partners at SVP India alongside partners from around the globe to discuss how we could advance our work in the context of the global pandemic. Some of our session highlights included a presentation from Dr. Ganesh Natarajan on the SVP India Journey so far and the path forward, and a series of parallel conversations exploring different models that SVP could adopt going forward and bring about change at scale. Each conversation was based around one of three areas of focus: Agriculture, healthcare and livelihoods. Sudha Nandagopal, CEO of SVP International, then led a fantastic panel discussion featuring our global partners Lily Tung, Kenji Hosowaka, Sandra Hughes and Guff Van Vooren. These voices from the broader network helped further insight into how the pandemic has impacted different countries and regions.
Day 2 was a full day of exciting sessions and conversations for both internal and external audiences. The highlight was our program SAMVAAD – which in Hindi means ‘conversations’. The event brought together a variety of stakeholders including practitioners, policy makers, private sector champions, non-governmental organizations, donors, multilateral / bilateral organizations, academicians, researchers, and other support organizations from within the country and abroad for personal conversation about their shared values and aspirations for the world.
SAMVAAD proved a valuable forum to connect as people who wish to catalyze and lead this new resilient world. It presented a unique virtual experience for the participants with its combination of diverse formats that not only included plenary sessions, but also had experience sharing sessions, case studies, short and focused talks on diverse topics, power panels, and more. Discussion topics included CSR both in times of COVID and after, technology for livelihoods enhancement, women led enterprises, and pathways towards social impact at scale.
The day was extremely stimulating and was a great opportunity to learn from the best minds in the social sector and absorb best practices and inspiring examples to drive impact. In addition, it was a great opportunity for all of us to leverage the collective insight and knowledge of the SVP network to generate new ideas on how to grow our impact. We look forward to bringing you more such events going forward and hope to impact many more lives through our work.
SVP India is on a mission – and every act of ours contributes to it and to reimagining the ways in which we can bring equity to the country….and the world!
Submitted by Parul Vaidya, General Manager of SVP Pune, and Ganesh Natarajan, Chair of SVP India.
Bombay Management Association (BMA) is hosting a virtual conclave on November 20, 2020 5-8 pm IST, featuring the experience sharing by corporate and social veterans, challenges and joys of scaling, and building the support eco-system in India. For more information, visit the event webpage here.
