Some billion people rely on water sourced in the hills of Meghalaya, in North East India. One of those responsible for water conservation in the State, Aibanshngain Swer, took part in the Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate in Caux in June 2019.

Aibanshngain Swer is Director of the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, CEO of the Meghalaya Water Foundation, Divisional Officer of the Conservation Training Institute and General Manager of the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency. He is also Director of the Meghalaya Institute of Governance, which works to promote good governance in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

He describes the Summer Academy as ‘a fantastic initiative that honed the skills of dialogue with which we approach situations of conflict, environmental degradation and climate change. Conversations during the Summer Academy have already sparked new project prospects.’

The participants in the Summer Academy interacted with the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS), which ran concurrently. They spoke of the harsh realities of climate change, climate refugees and the need for dialogue and collaboration to safeguard the natural environment and to maintain good relations between neighbours. ‘Dialogue was recognized as one of the key activities for trust building which will open the way for good governance, peace and security,’ says Aibanshngain. ‘We shared examples of communities pioneering their own solutions to the challenges of land degradation, conflict and climate change.’

Following the CDLS, Aibanshngain joined others from Caux at the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP14) in Delhi. They presented the implementation of the Meghalaya Water Policy, which addresses the conservation and protection of the state’s water sources. The policy is the first to be approved by any state in India and aims to involve communities in conservation and sustainable development.

‘Our goal in Meghalaya is to build a low-carbon economy through complete involvement and ownership of communities,’ Conrad Sangma, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, told the opening session of the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) in June 2019. ‘I acknowledge that we have a long way to go, but we have definitely taken some significant steps to restore our land and build climate change resilience amongst our communities.’

Conrad Sangma, who also launched the first Summer Academy on Land, Security and Climate, which ran alongside the CDLS, spoke of the long-standing link between Initiatives of Change (IofC) and Meghalaya. In the 1960s, the guiding principles of IofC were used by leaders of the non-violent movement which eventually led to the creation of the State of Meghalaya in 1972. More recently, many officials and leaders from the State have been trained at Asia Plateau, Panchgani, the IofC headquarters in India. In 1994 Meghalaya sent a government delegation to Caux. ‘Our engagement with IofC is long and continuing,’ said Sangma, ‘and I am glad to have added another chapter to this through participation in this year’s Caux Dialogue.’

As in the rest of the world, Meghalaya’s traditional ethos of environmental conservation and community governance has been diluted in the last few decades, leading to land degradation in some regions. In addition, the impact of climate change is being felt in multiple ways. The rainfall pattern in the state has become erratic and extreme weather events have become more frequent. Against this background, Sangma’s government has placed sustainability, environmental conservation and strengthening community-level governance at the centre of its development efforts.

Under his leadership, Meghalaya has become the first state in India to draft a comprehensive Water Policy. In recent years the state has also strengthened community governance through nurturing new village-level bodies that are in sync with traditional institutions. Some Meghalayan villages are lighthouses for rural communities across the globe, and the state government’s efforts have been appreciated both by the Government of India and by international donor agencies.

Now Sangma wants the experts he met at CDLS to deliver sustainable projects which will enable the Government of Meghalaya to provide green jobs for its people and revenue for industry, government and communities. ‘I extend a warm welcome to all of you to visit Meghalaya and to help us with more thoughts and ideas to better solve the challenges of environmental conservation,’ said Sangma. ‘I am also certain that there is much to learn from the sustainability-related interventions of both the government and the communities of Meghalaya. I urge the CDLS to engage with Meghalaya and to extend this engagement to the whole of North East India in times to come.’

As a first step in this direction, Meghalyan officials worked alongside the IofC international delegation to the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP14) in Delhi, where they presented the implementation of the Meghalaya Water Policy.

“I am aware of the impact of digital technology on my everyday life.” Do you agree or disagree with that sentence?’ Rainer Gude, Partnerships Manager of Initiatives of Change (IofC) Switzerland, asked the audience. The participants reflected. Then they moved to position themselves on Uni Mail’s wide stairs with most of them standing in the middle, slightly towards the right, showing their agreement with the statement. So began IofC Switzerland’s interactive session for Swiss Digital Day, at Geneva’s Uni Mail on 3 September 2019.

The Geneva festivities, which carried the theme of ‘human beings at the heart of digital transformation’, were co-organized by the University of Geneva, the state of Geneva, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross. As a partner of the event, IofC had the honour of launching the event.

During the interactive session, Christophe Barman (co-founder of Loyco) introduced participants to Fabrice, a fictional character who uses many forms of digital technology in his personal, professional and social life. The aim was to create a dialogue between citizens and experts on the impact of digital technologies.

The exchanges started on the individual level, with the ‘smart me’. Fabrice has a digital watch and depends on social media and on smartphone apps. Like him, people rely more and more on artificial intelligence (AI) to make everyday decisions for them. Jean-Henry Morin, Professor at the University of Geneva, highlighted the importance of digital literacy and of educating people ‘to learn to live with digital technology’.

At home, Fabrice is accompanied and aided by his automated personal assistant, Alexa. The ‘smart home’, with this kind of digital device, is a response to our search for comfort, affordable energy and for safety, explained Daniela Sauter from Resideo. This ‘allows one to have more time to be more happy’. The audience expressed worries about data protection and recent scandals linked to such devices. Sauter assured them, that data protection is a priority: ‘Evolution is underway’.

In the fictional Geneva where Fabrice lives, digital methods optimize the management of traffic, lighting, waste and security. The Geneva of tomorrow may resemble it. ‘The smart city knows how to use new technologies to serve the town, the canton, the country of tomorrow,’ explained Patricia Solioz Mathys, Executive Director of Smart City, SIG. Data protections depend on ‘each person supporting the democratic system’, she added.  

Finally, the participants learnt that Fabrice’s role at work will soon be taken over by a chatbot. According to Christophe Barman, 30-40 per cent of jobs at Loyco are at risk of disappearing within the next five years. The team is encouraging employees to think about the potential evolution of their roles in the light of robotization and to start gaining the skills they will need in the future.  

Before proceeding to the next session on the subject of work in the digital era, the participants were asked to position themselves again in response to the same questions as at the beginning of the event. The positions they chose – with most of them standing towards the end of the spectrum –  indicated an evolution in their awareness of the impact new technologies will have on society. 

Once again, IofC demonstrated its experience in creating a space for reflection and discussion on the subject of these new technologies, with thematic input from experts on the subject. ‘It was a fun method of facilitation and I’m going to draw inspiration from it,’ one participant said at the end. ‘It was interesting to note that smart technologies can be important for the control of energy use,’ said a student, Mathieu Ghanipour.

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