Introduction: Northeast Conclave 2023 for Climate-Resilient Livelihoods
The “Northeast Conclave 2023 climate-resilient livelihoods” was held on 17 February 2023 at NEDFi house in Guwahati. The event, organized by Ashoka, Ashoka Fellows, and SDS (Sesta Development Services), aimed to bring together stakeholders to discuss climate-resilient and contextually relevant livelihoods.
The event aimed to bring together stakeholders to discuss climate-resilient and contextually relevant livelihoods in Northeast India. The conclave was organized by Ashoka, Ashoka Fellows, and SDS, and supported by the IKEA Foundation. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, and NEATEHUB were the knowledge partners for the event.
Organizers and Partners: Ashoka, SDS, IKEA Foundation, TISS, and NEATEHUB
The Northeast Conclave 2023 on climate-resilient livelihoods was a collaborative effort between Ashoka, Ashoka Fellows, and Sesta Development Services (SDS), held on 17 February 2023 in Guwahati. The event was supported by the IKEA Foundation and had Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, and NEATEHUB (an AIC-AAU Incubator) as its knowledge partners. The conclave brought together stakeholders to discuss and create collaborations around climate-resilient and contextually relevant livelihoods. The event featured technical sessions on weather change challenges, sustainable livelihood strategies, co-creating an enabling ecosystem, and scaling up adaptation action. The participants expressed their satisfaction with the event, which provided an excellent opportunity for immersive dialogue and highlighted exemplary public-private partnerships and scalable value chains.
Event Highlights: Celebrating, Connecting, and Creating Technical Sessions
The event commenced with a welcome address by Parag Baruah, Managing Director, SDS, and the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by Krishna Baruah, ACS, State Mission Director, ASRLM, and Chief operating officer, Ashoka Manoj Shettigar. The technical sessions followed, with the first a session focusing on weather Change: Livelihood challenges in Northeast India.
The panelists for this session included Krishna Baruah, State Mission Director, ASRLM, Dr. Jaideep Baruah, Director ASTEC, Dr. Kamal Kumar Tanti, Director, CECAF, Rituraj Phukan, Indigenous People’s Climate Justice Forum, and Mrinal Gohain, ActionAid Association. The session was moderated by Dr. Razdan Sarim Rahman, Assistant Professor, TISS.
The second session, on “Climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihood strategies,” was moderated by Saurav Malhotra, Rural Futures–Cofounder and Designer, Balipara Foundation. The panelists for this session were Pranjal Baruah, Ashoka Fellow, Vishal Mukhia, Director SIRD Sikkim, Sanjoy Hazarika, Managing Trustee, C-NES, Megha Phansalkar, Founder, TISSER Anil Kumar Verma, Executive Director, PRAN.
The third session, moderated by Olee Bora, General Manager NeDFi, was on “Co-creating an enabling ecosystem for NER towards climate resilient livelihoods.” The panelists for this session were Dr. K. Karthikeyan, CEO NEATEHUB, Ramakrishna NK, Co-founder & MD, RANGDE, Ajay Barah, Executive Director, ICCO, and Manish Goswami, Assistant Editor, The Assam Tribune.
The event concluded with a technical session on “Scaling up adaptation action: way forward to climate resilient livelihood.” This session was moderated by Kangkana Goswami, Member, Assam State Wetland Authority, while the panelists were Mita Nath Bora, Member, Assam State Youth Commission, Arijit Sharma, Team Leader, Incubation & Acceleration, CIIE-CO, Samir Bordoloi, Secretary-General, Spread NE, Arpon Bhattacharjee, Project Officer BTR (TRIF), and Dr. Pradeep Ramavath J, Associate Professor, TISS.
Participants’ Feedback: Creating a Climate-Resilient Ecosystem in the Region
The participants expressed their satisfaction with the event, stating that it would enable the creation of a climate-resilient ecosystem in the region. The event provided an excellent opportunity for stakeholders to engage in an immersive dialogue around climate-resilient and contextually relevant livelihoods. The exemplary public-private partnerships and scalable value chains that catalyze sustainable growth in the region were highlighted, and the event served as a platform for celebrating, connecting, and creating collaborations.
Conclusion: Success of Northeast Conclave 2023 in Engaging Stakeholders for Climate-Resilient and Contextually Relevant Livelihoods
Overall, the Northeast Conclave 2023 successfully brought together stakeholders to engage in an immersive dialogue around climate resilient and contextually relevant livelihoods, and provided a platform to celebrate, connect and create collaborations towards creating a climate resilient ecosystem in the region.
