Over the past few decades, countries of the Global South have played an increasingly important role in the world economy and emerged to become active participants in global policy-making. The Global South has experienced high economic growth as well as improvements in the levels of human development, albeit with variations among regions and countries. According to UNCTAD, the Global South contributes to more than half of the world’s growth. The trade volume between developing countries is now higher than between developing and developed countries. Southern countries are also helping to drive world investment. The outflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) from the South represent a third of global flows. Countries of the Global South are increasingly using their influence to shape the normative framework.

They have emphasized the need for fairness of international negotiations, ethics to guide development financing, addressing concerns of health, climate etc., and fostering a better balance between growth and development as well as public and private interests.

At the same time, the Global South faces various challenges including poverty, economic instability, climate change, and growing inequalities. These issues are often interlinked and complex, making it difficult for governments and communities to address them effectively. These challenges require concerted efforts from both local and international actors to address the root causes and find sustainable solutions. Countries of the Global South have the potential to foster stronger cooperation on climate adaptation by mobilizing finance, by sharing know-how and by collaborating on capacity-building initiatives.

The Conclave would be guided by the overarching goals of envisioning strategies and policies for promoting inclusive and equitable economic growth and enhancing human development in the wake of contemporary challenges in the Global South. The world has recently faced a range of uncertain and disruptive situations including the Covid-19 pandemic, unprecedented climate changes such as extreme weather events, to name a few. The global Human Development Index, which had been rising through the years, for the first time on record declined for two years in a row during 2020 and 2021, following the Covid-19 pandemic. There is therefore a need to understand the new forms of challenges and uncertainties that increasingly shape the world today, devise coping strategies, and forge new opportunities for advancing human development.

The time is right for the North and the South to enter into negotiations on redesigning global governance to resolve the many challenges. Better approaches and strategies are needed for all to realize national public policy interests in establishing fair and effective international cooperation. The world today needs to recognize the critical importance of global public goods needed for establishing a well-functioning system of multilateral cooperation and well-regulated international markets.

With less than seven years left for achieving the 2030 Agenda, special attention will be paid to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focusing in particular on strategies for inclusion and equity so that the objectives of ensuring ‘No one is Left Behind’ and ‘Reaching the Farthest First are within reach. Drawing on the pandemic experience, the Conclave shall also focus on strengthening and developing safety nets and addressing vulnerabilities during local and global crises. In the process, the adequacy of the existing conceptual frameworks, policies, institutions and governance will be re-examined for their impact on people’s lives. Although the focus of the Conclave is on the Global South, it will be beneficial to learn from the experiences of the North as well as the challenges being faced by them.

The major aim of the Conclave is to provide an objective and broad-based forum for dialogue on critical issues facing humanity, particularly in the Global South, in the realms of human development, inclusive and equitable economic growth, and sustainable development.

The specific objectives are:

• Enlarge knowledge about different conceptual frameworks and methods available to inform policy design for strengthening the linkages between economic growth and human development in the Global South;

• Encourage evidence-based discussion on innovative social policies that promote human development;

• Augment the opportunities for cross-country learning and knowledge sharing, especially among countries of the Global South; and

• Enhance the capacity of young researchers and policymakers, particularly from the Global South, to assess the potential impacts of various policies, particularly innovative ones, on human development, poverty alleviation, equality and social inclusion;

• Promote partnerships between governments, academia, civil society, multilateral institutions, and other stakeholders to work jointly towards promoting equitable growth, fostering inclusion, and ensuring sustainability.

This three-day Conclave will explore the analytical and institutional dimensions of human development and policy formulation with a particular focus on the Global South. It will include Plenary Sessions featuring leading experts, public intellectuals, senior academicians and policymakers; thematic sessions including a rich mix of presentations both invited and selected through a competitive ‘call for papers’ spanning both empirical and theoretical subjects; and specially organized panel discussions and roundtables. Interactive sessions with the audience will be a prominent feature of the Conclave.

Invited to the Conclave will also be experts and scholars who can present and share the experiences of the North. Invited presentations and lectures from eminent scholars, researchers and public intellectuals, both from the developing and developed world, would be a special feature of the Conclave.

A half-day Pre-Conclave Symposium will be organised in the afternoon of 10 January 2024 to deliberate on the measurement issues in human development. Leading experts from around the world will revisit the key challenges facing the measurement of human development, including the choice of indicators and dimensions of human development and identify ways of strengthening its relevance for policy analysis and priority-setting.

The participation in the Symposium is by invitation only. Those who wish to contribute and participate should contact the Conclave Organisers.

A Panel is a 120-minute session on a specific topic but with different perspectives and/or settings relevant to the conclave. During the conclave, a number of panels will be organised in addition to a Pre-Conclave symposium. Panels will take place during conclave hours and a panel session will comprise of around 4 paper presentations. Proposals for organising the panels are invited from institutions.The proposals should be sent by 15 October 2023 with subject line “Panel Proposal Submission’ to info@ihdindia.org. Institutions whose panels have been approved must ensure that the full papers are submitted by December 20, 2023.

Each panel proposal should contain the following:

1. Concept note including title, overview of the panel’s theme,authors and key questions that will be addressed, within a word limit of500-700 words.
2. Titles, authors and abstracts (500-700 words) of the papers to be presented.
3. Names, affiliations andbrief biographies of 100-125 words along with a digital high-resolution picture must be submitted for each proposed panelists/speakers.
4. Social media handles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) of participants and institutions.

During the conclave, a booklet containing details of the panels and resource persons will be circulated among the conclave participants and will also be uploaded on the Conclave website.

Important Information:

The organisers / coordinators of each panel sessions are expected to be in charge of the Panel including raising resources for speakers’ travel, registration and other expenditure. Additionally, these charges include panel registration fee of Rs.50,000 for institutions within India or $1500 in case of institutions outside India to cover overhead costs including printing, photography, videography, documentation, booklets containing details of the panels, branding visibility, promotions etc.

A Conclave Report containing the main deliberations and conclusions of the Conclave will be brought out and disseminated widely by social, print and electronic media. Three high- quality edited volumes containing the selected and revised papers presented at the Conclave will be published by a reputed publisher. In addition, the papers will also be considered for publication as special issues in the Indian Journal of Human Development, published by IHD and Sage; Indian Journal of Labour Economics, published by the Indian Society of Labour Economics and Springer Nature; and a few other peer-reviewed journals. The authors are free to publish their papers elsewhere.