NEW DELHI: India Development Coalition of America (IDCA) organized its Fourth International Conference on the theme 'Transforming Development to Alleviate Poverty and Climate Change' at Indian Medical Association Conference Center, New Delhi on January 10.

The conference was organized to promote cooperation, networking, learning, volunteering and giving between the organizations and individuals to transform Development in India for alleviating poverty and climate change. The day long Conference began with a welcome address by Dr Mohan Jain, Trustee and Founder President of IDCA.

He shared the vision, mission, objectives, activities and achievements of IDCA. He also broadly spoke about the theme of the conference. This was followed by keynote speakers from various organizations. Popatrao Pawar, Sarpanch, Hivre Bazar spoke about how he transformed his village of 1200 people over a period of 15 years from a poor to a prosperous, ideal village.

Anjali Makhija, Group Leader of the Sehgal Foundation, Gurgaon, Haryana, spoke about heir upcoming Institute of Rural Research and Development. Dr Narendra Kale, Advisor of SVJC Trust spoke about the Total Social Transformation project of SVJC Trust's Walawalakar Hospital by providing healthcare, education and community empowerment service to people in Dervan, in Konkan region of Maharashtra. Dr Ashok Khosla, Founder of Development Alternatives spoke on designing development to alleviate poverty and climate change.

He said India is suffering from diseases of Affluenza and Povertitis. He said the fundamental choices are: Copy-cat? Piggy-back? Or Leap-frog? He concluded that we can alleviate poverty and climate change by effectively using the services of five kingdoms of Nature i.e. Animals, Plants, Algae, Fungi, and Bacteria.

Dr Nandita Pathak, Director of Deendayal Research Institute shared the approach, and achievements of her organization in creating sustainable livelihoods for the people in 200 villages. Each session was chaired by experts from respective fields.

The Healthcare Management Session was chaired by Dr Akhil Sangal, Chairman of ICHA, New Delhi; It had four speakers: Dr Siddarth Agarwal from Urban Health Resource Center, New Delhi, spoke about their work with the urban poor living in Slums of Delhi and Indore; Dr Archana Chowdhary from the Sehgal Foundation; K. K. Varma from the Smile Foundation, New Delhi, and Dr Akhil Sangal from Indian Confederation for Healthcare Accreditation (ICHA). All of them shared valuable experiences.

The Sustainable Livelihoods Session was chaired by Jiwan Prakash Sondhi of People to Support People Foundation, Detroit, Michigan, had 5 speakers from varied backgrounds. The prominent areas covered under livelihoods were: Gram IT by Mario Ordonez of the Byrraju Foundation, Hyderabad; Mangesh Hoskote from Rural YES Solar Energy Initiative; Manoj Dabas, Regional director of A TREE spoke on preserving biodiversity and agricultural interventions affected at the grassroots team of CSOs. Satyan Mishra of Dhrishtee Foundation spoke about training rural youth for BPO work, and Pawan Kumar from the Sehgal Foundation spoke about various activities they are doing in rural Haryana to promote livelihood.

A group of 20 students from St. Catherine College, Minnesota who are part of a two week learning journey to India under the direction of by Prof. Deep Shikha Gupta attended the conference very attentively and were very enthusiastic to learn about issues facing poor in India.

Some of them shared their thoughts on the conference and the learning drawn from the same in the concluding session. Dr Prakasam Tata, Vice President, IDCA delivered a vote of thanks to Pooja Murada (Convener), Jagdish Prasad (Food and Facility), Arti Manchanda (Publicity/Registration), from the Sehgal Foundation, speakers, moderators, event manager, caterer, the delegates and all others who made this lively conference possible.

The meeting was attended by more than 100 people that included a NRIs /PIOs from US and Canada and delegates from different parts of India. Following the conclusion of the meeting a delicious dinner was served that also provided additional opportunity to network and build relationships.

The conference certainly gave a forum for networking and partnerships with like-minded organizations so that they can work together to accelerate sustainable development in their own areas and alleviate poverty and climate change.