Interactive KNOWLEDGE UPDATE on ‘The Rationale and Impact of Successful Convening’

‘The Rationale and Impact of Successful Convening’

This March marks one full year since the WHO declared the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic, and countries across the world started to close their borders, impose lockdowns, and prepare for a year of uncertainty. In the process of this preparation, and during the months of adaptation that followed, decision makers in the development sector quickly saw that the magnitude of the problems they were facing was too large for any one organisation to solve on its own. The challenges were, and continue to be, manifold – amongst them, a public health crisis, an economic crisis, a learning crisis, a nutritional crisis and a mental health crisis. Addressing these problems calls for effective collaboration across country and organisational boundaries.

Developmental organisations and governments thus needed to collaborate and act collectively to develop effective solutions. Convening, when done successfully, achieves such collective action. Convening is defined by The Brookings Institute as “bringing together relevant actors to act collectively to address common challenges”. It is imperative that we realise that the challenges our institutions face are indeed common challenges, and it will require us to come together to solve them. This session will aim to give you the rationale for why we must convene more, and how we can successfully convene in a way that leads to tangible, measurable change.

Shanti Ashram & the International Center for Child and Public Health has prioritized children particularly vulnerable children during COVID 19. We have studied the needs of the community, innovated and continued critical services to children through-out the lockdown. A composite 13 intervention agenda for the protection and care of children is being currently implemented by us. The International Center for Child and Public Health shares WHO’s mandate and advances its 2nd program goal to provide comprehensive, integrated and responsive health services in a communitybased setting. A series of community centered interventions, talks by experts, papers and field research continues to form part of the ICPH 2020 action agenda.

About the Speaker: Ms. Ramya Devaraj

Ramya Devaraj is a graduate of King’s College London with a M.Sc. in International Marketing, and of Christ University with a B.A. in Communications, English and Psychology. She is currently interning at Shanti Ashram where she is researching the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable sections of society. Some of her past work includes research in crowdfunding for Indian NGOs, and leading and building a media team for an educationbased NGO. Ramya plans to pursue a career in development, where she aims to drive collaborative action between the public and private sectors to accelerate social change.

Programme