North East CSR Forum 2019

Introduction

Mandatory CSR has made a lot of change in India’s development landscape. It has gradually formalised the corporate philanthropy and corporate giving with emphasis on impacts on the ground. With an average INR 14,000 crore CSR fund annually, there is a lot that can be done to further the agenda of social development in the country.

Going by the CSR data analysis of previous four years, beginning from FY 2014-15, states with high concentration of industries and businesses have been receiving substantial amount of CSR fund while states like Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir and entire region of North East has been at the lower rung of CSR priorities for businesses. Eight states of North East (including Sikkim) have received just 7.32% of India’s total CSR spend in previous 4 years while Maharashtra alone has received 15.60% of the country’s total CSR spend.

North East region present good opportunities for businesses to undertake development interventions, engage with government agencies and collaborate with like-minded institutions and organizations to design and test innovative social impact models.

Given the facts that the region has rich natural resource-base, relatively higher literacy rate and less population intensity, it becomes easy to engage with communities and co-create solutions that lead to sustainable impacts. With collaborations of impacts at the crux, CSRBOX and Dalmia Bharat Foundation have come together to host the mega forum ‘North East CSR Forum’ in Guwahati on 26^th February 2019.

The forum focuses on:

• Scope for engaging businesses in development agenda of North East region
• Identification and deliberation of thematic interventions and modalities
• Leveraging existing community institutions and social fabric
• Different models of collaborations and engagement
• Feasibility of setting up single window-assistance system to help businesses other organizations
• A few successful interventions by companies and non-profits and scaling up
• The way forward for time-based action-plan

The forum brings together:

• Companies and CSR foundations
• State governments from North East states and associated agencies
• Non-profits
• Impact investors and social incubators
• Social enterprises
• Academic and technological institutes

Highlights of the Event:

The Summit provides a platform to showcase projects and programs; to learn from peers; to initiate new partnerships; to find new resources; and to understand how CSR is playing a vital role in developing Deccan. The key highlights of the event are:

• Conference
• Exhibition
• Thematic tracks
• Workshops
• Masterclasses
• Networking
• B2B, B2G, B2NP collaborations

Expected Outcomes

• Learning
• Networking
• Partnerships
• Sustainable Solutions for societal issues.