21st Wipro Education Partners’ Forum: Capacity building for and by civil society organisations

Social change is a complex process. It needs consistent and long-term efforts. Civil society organizations (CSOs) face multiple challenges in driving this. These include resource constraints and scaling pressures, among many others.

In this context, Wipro Education Partners’ Forum is a three-day residential retreat, designed to bring together a network of CSO partners. They are dedicated to addressing various educational challenges in India.

Partners’ Forum was established in the early 2000s. It fosters collaborations, mutual learning, and informal bonding among  CSOs working in different parts of the country.

In 2024, the 21st Wipro Education Partners’ Forum was held during December 4-6 at the Azim Premji University campus in Bengaluru. Its theme was “Capacity building for and by civil society organizations”. This edition of the Forum explored approaches to enhance the educational, organizational and operational capacities of CSOs to facilitate positive social change. This can happen at three levels: individuals, organizations, and the broader ecosystem.

The 2024 edition of Partners’ Forum brought together 300+ participants from 130 partner organizations. It had a mix of panel discussions, small-group sessions, masterclasses and informal activities. A key highlight was the Teaching-Learning Materials (TLM) mela. Here twenty-one (21) organizations showcased innovative TLMs used in their educational programs.

Over the years, the Forum has offered a space to reflect, review and find a sense of solidarity and common purpose. Catch glimpses of Partners’ Forum 2024 below!

In the Teaching learning material (TLM) mela, the participants had an opportunity to explore and engage with different types of TLMs created by various partner organizations.

‘Strings and Echoes’, a Bengaluru-based band comprising Soumyadeep Dasgupta (lead singer), Saikat Mitra (guitarist) and Ami Roosha, performed a song sequence threaded by a story, based on the works of Gulzar.

Read this issue of ‘Samuhik Pahal’, where we reflect on our experiences of the 21st edition of Wipro Education Partners’ Forum. The pieces in this issue of Samuhik Pahal capture the Forum’s formal and informal events and processes. These included plenary sessions, sub- groups and program groups. Their discussions focused on various aspects related to learning at individual and organizational levels, which make our capacity building journeys possible.

The issue also carries summaries of a couple of master classes (out of the eleven that took place during the Forum) that the partners participated in. It also captures some of the many informal interactions that took place in between, and after, the formal sessions, such as nature walks, musical evenings, and a TLM mela.