Scenes from the Development Dialogue – Day 1

Last week, we headed back to Hubli for the Deshpande Foundation’s annual conference, the Development Dialogue (DD). The conference is an annual reflection on the Deshpande Foundation's three core themes: (1) Innovation, (2) Entrepreneurship and, (3) Scale. At least 200 people attended the event, although most were from NGOs in the ‘Sandbox’ region of NW Karnataka that are funded by DF. The few others that came from the abroad, especially the Ashoka Fellows from Brazil, South Africa, Nepal, Indonesia, and beyond gave a lot of good insight and were really fun to talk to.

Here are some highlights from day 1 of the event...

Kick-off Event (aka Emil-palooza): The opening event had a mix of live performances and original films that highlighted some of the key programs and NGOs funded by the Deshpande Foundation. It was organized by another Sandbox Fellow and our good friend Emil, who worked on it for weeks. The effort that he and others put on really showed, as it was quite an impressive spectacle, especially for Hubli. Two of the films that were produced by Emil and his sidekick Chetan are available online, and we highly suggest you check them out:

1. Short Documentaries of 4 Deshpande Foundation funded NGOs

2. A day in the life of a sandbox fellow (note that we are not in this because we are living in Bangalore and not Hubli, where it was shot)

Desh’s Speech: ‘Desh’ Deshpande, the founder of the Deshpande Foundation along with his wife Jaishree, introduced the theme of the DD as ‘Changing Perspectives.’ The idea behind it is that NGOs that focus on the development sector in India should run their organization less like a traditional non-profit and more like a business in the corporate sector. He repeatedly stressed the need to produce metrics, follow up with quarterly reports, and strive to make your operation as efficient and scalable as possible. While these ideas are nothing new to those involved with DF (again, the motto is innovation, entrepreneurship, and scale), it was apparent from the reaction from the audience that a lot of the NGOs in attendance are not totally on board. Perhaps this is because NGOs in NW Karnataka have not been exposed to this type of thinking before, or perhaps it is because things are not that cut and dry out in the field when you are working with a variety of different people and conditions as they might be in the boardroom (we believe that it is a mix of both). Regardless, it appears that Desh is going to continue to press these ideas until his model is completely disproved.

Stay tuned for reports on the other two days in upcoming posts.