ABOUT HCS:
The Himalayan Consensus Summit (HCS) is a multi-stakeholder event involving members of the civil society, government, development institutions and the private sector across the Himalayan region. The agenda of the HCS program is to design and create sustainable alternative solutions based on grass root and alternative efforts that are being developed.
The entire focus of the Himalayan Consensus Summit is to look over the 2,500 kilometer range across different political boundaries that face common challenges, especially in the context of access to natural resources and capital, disaster mitigation and preparedness and scaling up. The Nepal Earthquake and the current economic crisis in particular has focused urgency upon this process and it will be critical to examine how future disaster and conflicts can be prevented with economic systems relevant to the region.
GOALS
a. To build an alternative discourse around economic development from the perspective of areas that stand on fragile ecology and difficult geographies.
b. To dive deeper into understanding of economic development of such areas, especially in the context of hardships caused due to natural and human induced disasters.
c. To stimulate a discourse that provides access to global capital, knowledge and technology, that leads to social equity.
d. To build a discourse around key issues of sustainable development that will shape policy, as well as bring about institutional and legislative transformation in the Himalayan Region.
OUTCOME
The Summit will provide a platform for global thought leaders ranging from innovators to people having access to capital to explore new opportunities to scale up environment friendly, sustainable and social businesses. The Summit hopes to achieve the following:
a. The Summit envisages to provide a platform for people and institutions pursuing common areas of interest to set the stage for future collaborative modalities.
b. Considering the biggest constraint for innovation being financial resources, the Summit will provide a platform for potential investors/agencies to meet with innovators, and people engaged in developing home grown products and services.
c. The Summit will provide critical input towards long term planning and development of goals for areas in the Himalayan region, given ecological fragility and key challenges relating to access to water and energy.
d. Following the Summit, a publication will be released that catalogs key learnings from existing interventions, and provides a laundry list of ideas, projects and opportunities for people to pursue.
e. This first edition of Himalayan Consensus Summit will be the first of an annual event that will take place across the Himalayan region. The second event will be held in Thimphu, Bhutan.