Who Should Attend

• NGO teams
• Rural community leaders
• Development Practioners
• Company executives involved with communities
• Activitists
• Policy makers
• Researchers
• Funders
• Development students

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?

• Share best practice in rural sustainable development.
• Hear the latest advances in multi stakeholder approaches.
• Discuss leading edge research in sustainable development in rural and remote areas.
• Consider the applications and policy implications of this research.
• Present your own research and / or practice and experience and gain feedback.
• Interact with leading activists, academics, practitioners and policymakers.
• Develop your networks and establish new working relationships.
• Hands on workshops as well as panel discussions and plenary sessions
• Visits to Rural NGOs working around Udaipur and Rajasthan

There are excellent site-seeing opportunities for persons accompanying delegates. Udaipur is a site of considerable historical and cultural interest.

WHY UDAIPUR?

The Forum will be held in Udaipur, a beautiful small city in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan offers excellent opportunities to learn about rural innovation in a global context. The challenges its rural areas face are similar to those in developing nations worldwide, despite abundant natural, cultural, and social assets. Poverty, along with relatively low education levels and poor health status, is a reality for many rural residents in the state. Farmers have learned to deal with the harsh environment and responded to natural adversity through local knowledge and innovation. The economy in Rajasthan’s urban centres, notably Jaipur, is thriving, thanks to tourism, industry and commerce. A large population of largely rural migrants makes vital contributions to cities, factories, and farms of the state, though they face many difficulties in achieving a fair and stable livelihood. Rajasthan’s skilled rural craftspeople produce high quality traditional goods, including beautiful cottons, embroidered textiles, and leather products, but often struggle for markets and fair prices. Rajasthan is home to many active and able NGOs actively addressing rural challenges and cultivating opportunities for development. In Rajasthan as well as in India as a whole, there are many examples of private and public sector work in the areas of rural cooperatives, fair trade, new technology, poverty alleviation, dry land farming and forestry, land rights, rural health, education and training, and traditional arts and crafts. Thus, the Forum will provide an opportunity to showcase practice and policy in India as well as for Indian and other delegates to network and share knowledge about international experiences.