My Experience at the Fourth Edition of the Development Dialogue by Olamide Akinsola

Ideation Hub Africa hosted the fourth edition of the Development Dialogue on Thursday, 29th November, 2018 at the Techzone park, Gbagada, Lagos. The theme of the event was “Advancing Sustainable Development Impact through effective Human Capital Management”. The concepts that were discussed at the dialogue were social innovation and how the sustainable development goals can be incorporated in the workings of social enterprises by recruiting talents that understand the concepts of social innovation and sustainable development.

The event commenced a few minutes past nine and was anchored by Mr Oyindamola Johnson. The compere directed the attendees to interact with people who they were seeing for the first time. This went on for about 10 minutes and then everyone settled down in the beautifully decorated and well lit hall.

It was at this juncture that the convener of the event Debola Deji-Kurumi came up to give her welcome address where she appreciated everyone in attendance and also prepared our minds for a truly insightful dialogue.

After this, the keynote speaker, Mrs Ini Abimbola, Founder of the Thistle group came up to give her address. In line with the theme of the event, she emphasized how the heart of sustainability is the people. She also shed light on how human capital ensures long competiveness which in turn ensures the sustainability of any organization.

Following the keynote speech, the lead seminar was then delivered by Mr Oluseyi Ojurongbe, who is also the manager of Sahara foundation. He spoke extensively from his wealth of practical experience on the importance of staff being carried along with the sustainability goals that the organizations have. He also spoke on the importance of fostering unison in purpose and objectives amongst the recruited talents.

The lead seminar was then followed by a panel session. The panelists included the keynote speakers Mrs Ini Abimbola and Mr Oluseyi  Ojurongbe. They were joined by Thelma Ekiyo, CEO, Afrigrants and Mr Muyiwa Akintesi. The session was moderated by Debola Deji-Kurumi. The session covered the systems and procedures that make up sustainability, how sustainability goals can be incorporated into the daily running of organizations, the importance of engaging expertise and the place of passion.

The end of the panel session signalled the commencement of the first break period.  At this point, the attendees were served light refreshments and had the opportunity to interact with each other some more and visit the exhibition stands.

At the end of the break period, the attendees were split into classes  were they each learned about a unique concept with the sphere of effective human capital management. Concepts taught include Employee engagement and Staff motivation, Hiring for results, Bottom line to brain power, Public private partnerships, Structure to scale and The Volunteer-Led Model.
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The end of the sub-group teachings ushered in the commencement of the expert talk session. The speakers for this session were, Emeka Ossai, Emmanuel Tarfa and Davies Okeowo and Debola Deji- Kurumi. The session was very insightful as it covered  various concepts including the importance of originality, the importance of leveraging on relationships, the place of building competence and also tha place of monitoring and evaluation.

The attendees were also treated to a wonderful and sumptuous lunch.

At this juncture the talents of the future awards roll call were presented. The awardees were individuals whose work in the social development space has made the most sustainable impact with testimonials to show. There were 15 awardees out of which 14 were present.

The awardees are listed as follows: Abimbola Akinsanya of Lend a Hand foundation, Peter Felix of The Peter Felix foundation, Nkechi Anastasia of Centre for Girl Child research and advocacy, Raphael Tamumemiebi of Fame initiative for leadership development, Isaac Success of Dreams from the Slum Empowerment Initiative, Fasoranti Damilola of Prikkle Academy, Onuegbu Prisca of Autism Awareness foundation, Soyombo Deborah of Ladies Prime Institute, Jackie Light of The Zoeparis foundation, Taibat Aduragba of Rising Child foundation, Temilade Salami of Eco Warriors and Yusuf Temilade Shittu of The Nigerian Child.

The awardees each received a plaque, devices to aid their work, a field trip to an international nonprofit, and a mentorship hangout with industry leaders.

There was a prize which was exclusive to the most outstanding awardee. The prize was a stipend grant worth one hundred thousand naira. The winner of this grant was Mr Isaac Success of Dreams from the Slum Empowerment Initiative.

After the awards were presented, there was a review of the event were the attendees were asked to fill a feedback form while a raffle draw was carried out simultaneously. Winners of the raffle were given books.It was at this juncture that closing remarks were given by Debola Deji-Kurumi.

The development dialogue was a truly insightful and eye opening event which equipped attendees with knowledge for impact and sustainable development.