IACD Practice Exchange India 2016. Conference report

Abstract

Put 18 Community Development specialists on a train together in India and you have much more than a mobile party. You have the international professional development experience of a lifetime. The International Association for Community Development (IACD) held a practice exchange in India in March 2016. Participants came from India, Kenya, USA, Scotland, Wales and myself, deputy editor of this journal, from New Zealand.

The trip began with a roundtable conference on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) held at the India International Centre, (IIC), in New Delhi where we met with senior NGO leaders, community development (CD) practitioners and were far too well fed. The roundtable explored the implications of the goals for CD practice in India. We had a stunning line up of senior leaders and some very bright and enthusiastic younger presenters who were already well on the way to incorporating the goals in their organisation’s practices. Leaders from the northern states told alarming tales of the impact of climate change, in particular the decline in snowfall that is so essential for downstream agriculture.