What We Do
Documenting SDG hits and misses
There exists a knowledge and documentation gap at the bottom of the development pyramid. Stories of hope and resilience that are never told, much less utilised to advocate for catalyzing progress on the SDGs at scale. A Dalit woman in Karnataka leading a self-help group in a village to create light and livelihoods from bio-mass and bio-gas; A farmer in the remote, in accessible parts of Uttarakhand showing the way towards water sufficiency and sustainable agriculture; a barefoot engineer in the parched deserts of Western Rajasthan leading the march on rainwater harvesting and voice empowerment of disenfranchised communities through judicious use of community radio; These and an ocean of other examples from every corner of the Indian sub-continent have the potential to inspire change and set the pace for inspiring action on the SDGs.
Knowledge documentation and dissemination is our core strength. We are heavily into telling small-world stories. We understand intrinsically the power of communication in helping transcend narrow geographic, linguistic and cultural borders to spark off demonstrable progress in addressing development deficits.
Films and documentaries profiling local-level champions for advocacy as well as wider dissemination across OTT and partner digital platforms, Audio-Visual and Written Stories of Change for community, broadcast and social media, Books and Publications to help Children at various levels of pedagogy to assimilate the full potential of SDGs to transform their lives, Broadcast and Podcast Series profiling SDG Champions & Solutions at local and global-levels, Research-based data visualization in the form of Info-graphics on district-level SDGs, Photo-essays , Exhibits and SDG Film Festivals constitute just some of the areas of our 360 degree documentation of SDGs in districts and provinces that have been identified by the Governments to be the focus of SDG implementation.
Advocating Change in Aspirational Districts
A key ask that we have committed to is to bridge the distance between providers and recipients of basic service delivery. The Guftugu Foundation signature ‘SDG District Dialogue’ series is designed to put development champions at the district level at the centre of the development dialogue.
The District Dialogues provide a forum for sharing local solutions to multiple development challenges, inspire action at the meso and macro scales, and make a case for community-centric participation in schemes and initiatives rolled out by the state and central governments, often with support of international development partners. The District Dialogues are designed to spotlight enabling and constraining factors for the implementation of the SDGs that are being observed at the district level. The Dialogues help in unleashing the full potential for credible participatory processes and instruments, backed with adequate funding. Our Development Advocacy is focused on making the SDGs a priority for the government. However, the same applies the other way around. Governments are less likely to make the SDGs a priority if there is not enough demand from civil society.
Training and Coaching Future Leaders
Transformative Change demands that we invest in continuous capacity enhancement. The Foundation brings custom-designed capacity enhancement initiatives to the Aspirational districts. Workshops target local news, folk-media and social media leaders for comprehensive orientation in SDGs, with illustrative modules of enriching various distinctive and popular media of communication in the villages, with content focusing on development change at the local level.
