Mumbai, January 23, 2023: Global leaders and top social investors deliberated issues hindering sustainable development in South Asia and possible collective actions during the South Asia Social Investment Summit 2023 organised by Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) in Mumbai on January 20.
The two-day summit concluded at the Jio World Convention Centre, and hosted eminent speakers including Karen Klimowski, Deputy Mission Director, USAID; Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive, British Asian Trust; Shirish Sinha, Director, Climate, Children's Investment Fund Foundation; Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India; and Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO, AVPN. Leaders across policymaking, social investing and the management of impact organizations also attended the event and discussed ways to streamline transformative collective action in the region.
AVPN is the world's largest network of Social Investors in Asia, with over 600+ diverse members across 33 markets. Its mission is to close the SDG gaps in Asia, by enabling their members to increase the flow of financial, human, and intellectual capital towards impact. Through sharing knowledge and innovating collaborations between policy makers, family offices, foundations, and the private sector, AVPN is working to improve the effectiveness of capital deployed; bringing to bear the local field needs, regional expertise, and policy insights.
This year, the fourth edition of AVPN’s signature event aimed to highlight issues hindering sustainable development in South Asia. These included concerns around the slow pace of progress of developing countries towards achieving United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and collective efforts required to promote gender equality, livelihood opportunities for the youth, energy transition, ecosystem development and health equity.
On the occasion, Naina Subberwal Batra, Chief Executive Officer, AVPN said, “AVPN makes possible catalytic collaborations between policy makers, family offices, foundations, and the private sector to collectively increase the impact and flow of capital deployed towards closing the SDG gaps in Asia. Our endeavour with the event was to support the Indian Government with their SDG realisation, by identifying where capital needs to be moved to make the most impact. Due to India’s immense influence over Asia and its role as the G20 President for this year, it is vital to make the country the centre of conversations among venture philanthropists. “
Through this event, AVPN aimed to forge bold collective action for social development and unpack the role of the private and social sectors in contributing to not just India’s development but also the Asia region. Keeping crucial conversations going from Indonesia’s G20 Presidency to India’s G20 Presidency, AVPN is working to champion the Asian voice and provide Asian solutions to global challenges.
