New Delhi, August 25, 2025
Trickle Up, in partnership with key government, civil society, corporate, and development stakeholders, convened a closed-door national dialogue on “Reimagining Pathways to Economic Inclusion and Resilience” at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.
The event brought together senior policymakers, development practitioners, donor organizations, academics, and community representatives to deliberate on innovative and inclusive strategies to address extreme poverty and build resilient livelihoods at scale.
The Dialogue opened with welcome remarks by Sushant Verma, Asia Regional Director, Trickle Up, followed by a keynote address from Smt. Smriti Sharan, Joint Secretary, Day NRLM, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, who underlined the government’s commitment to inclusion, innovation, and multi-sectoral partnerships.
This Dialogue has been convened at the most opportune time. Extreme poverty has declined from 16% to 2%, lifting nearly 170 million people out of deprivation. MGNREGA has generated 3 billion person-days of income and assets, strengthening the resilience quotient of our villages. The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has connected 64,000 locations with all-weather roads. This is the new face of rural India—where inclusion means enterprise and resilience is built from within.
As Professor Banerjee reminds us, ‘all they need is a little push’—and we are those agents, those changemakers who can continue to drive this push toward resilience. The potential of this program makes the vision of a truly resilient India possible,” said Smt. Smriti Sharan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
Across the day, participants engaged in thought-provoking sessions, including a panel on designing for inclusion, impact, and scale, a fireside chat on translating evidence into storytelling, and a second panel on reimagining roles and responsibilities in multi-stakeholder collaboration. These sessions highlighted the intersections of digital innovation, gender equity, and climate resilience, while also examining how diverse actors can work together more meaningfully to deliver impact at scale.
A key moment of the dialogue was the sharing of lived experiences by Smart Sakhis and Coaches from Jharkhand and Odisha. Their voices grounded the discussions in community realities, offering powerful lessons on what works and what must change to address poverty and exclusion in India.
“At Trickle Up, we believe that the most powerful solutions emerge when communities themselves are at the heart of the design. This dialogue is a step towards co-creating sustainable pathways for women and families in extreme poverty,” said Sushant Verma, Asia Regional Director, Trickle Up .
The event concluded with an interactive session in which participants collectively reflected on the day’s insights and proposed bold shifts for future collaboration. “We are committed to advancing meaningful partnerships that help scale inclusive and climate-resilient livelihood solutions,” added Sushant Verma.
The dialogue reaffirmed the urgency of cross-sectoral action that integrates gender equity, digital inclusion, and climate resilience into development strategies, ensuring that the most marginalized women and communities are not left behind.
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