India CSR News Network
AHMEDABAD: Water is highly essential to all three dimensions of sustainability, i.e. social, economic and environmental. It is interlinked to crucial aspects of society, such as food, health and renewable energies. However, it is often overlooked or taken for granted and not explored to a satisfying extent. The UN Secretary General has stressed the importance of national consultations to solve water-related emergencies in the post-2015 development agenda.
Stakeholder consultations have the potential to set the right priorities and trigger solutions to issues on a national level. Recognizing the need for local solution-building, Ambuja Cement Foundation has organised a participatory dialogue on ‘Co-creating water positive communities – Exploring Synergies, Sharing Solutions’. The event will be held on 22nd of March, commemorating World Water Day in 2017.
The one-day event puts knowledge generation and collective action high on the agenda. Besides high-profile panel discussions, there will be three break-out sessions, which will focus on specific themes within the water arena. The sessions will draw on design-thinking principles, conceptualized by the 4th Wheel Social Impact, and aim to enhance creativity and innovation potential of all participants. Each session will generate one specific output that can then be shared with the broader audience and across the country. The three sessions are directed at the following topics:
INVOLVE! Strengthening partnerships for sustainability of drinking water programs
This break-out session aims to co-create a comprehensive stakeholder mapping of development actors involved in drinking water programs. Stakeholders and their interlinkages will be identified, visualized and specific relations explored in detail. This will help participants to brainstorm on solutions to broker and strengthen partnerships in the water sector.
ENERGISE! Participatory program design for water harvesting initiatives
This break-out session will recognise current practices and identify challenges in involving communities, to implement programs. The session is shaped around a programming and planning framework. Post-it dumping and brainstorming activities will trigger participants’ creativity to collaboratively ideate solutions to improve community involvement, participation and ownership.
ENABLE! Building capacities for water conservation
The third break-out session focuses on a capacity building model. Participants will firstly visualize the stakeholders and the capacities which need to be built. They will be urged to think ‘out of the box’ and prototype two tangible ideas to bring innovations and technology to existing capacity building programs.
The dialogue will take place at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) in Ahmedabad on 22nd March, 2017.
Please register here to confirm your participation: https://goo.gl/J4yEZw
