NGO Dialogue

As part of our mission to make connections within civil society, in 2007, MCD organized and facilitated the NGO Dialogue Platform. Over the course of five months, ten NGO leaders representing a range of societal interests came together in a series of 4-hour conversations. Whereas the Indian NGO sector is perceived to be fragmented and non-collaborative, through Dialogue, these leaders engaged in a collaborative and constructive exchange on difficult topics confronting the sector.

Encouraged to learn from rather than oppose each other’s point of view, NGO Dialogue participants grappled with some of the most critical and controversial issues in the Indian social sector today. These issues included:

Social Sector Challenges in an age of Globalization
Sex education in schools: A necessity or a danger for Indian Children?
Dalits and “upper castes”: What prevents dialogue?
Reservations: A bad solution for a real problem or a real solution for a bad problem?

Participants experienced the Dialogue series not only as a chance to network and share ideas, but also as a new way of communicating. Used to seminars and workshops, participants found it a refreshing challenge to have conversations about critical issues in an interactive forum. They also noted the often counter-productive competitiveness and territoriality of NGOs, even amongst those working in the same area. Motivated by the Dialogue, participants identified the need within the social sector for more open communication and enhanced collaboration on important initiatives.