UNDP United Nations Development Programme India : SDG Philanthropy Platform Launched in India Aims to Catalyze Partnerships for the Goals

Jan 24, 2017

Mumbai, India: The SDG Philanthropy Platform in India launched today at a high level meet of corporate stalwarts in India's financial hub of Mumbai, aims to deepen partnerships to achieve the SDGs. India becomes the seventh country to launch the Platform, joining Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia, United States and Zambia.

With support from the Conrad N. Hilton foundation, Ford Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation and many others, the Platform engages philanthropic organizations in countries around the world to contribute actively to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Agenda 2030. Established in 2014, the SDG Philanthropy Platform has established pathways for philanthropy to engage with national and local governments and the UN in SDG processes. It has connected thousands of foundations and other stakeholders globally and locally to facilitate greater awareness of philanthropy's role in promoting the SDGs.

The high-level meeting was attended by a wide range of stakeholders and partners including government, private sector and philanthropy, moderated by Heather Grady, VP of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Participants included Jaco Cilliers, Country Director, UNDP; Indian philanthropist Paula Mariwala, Founder & Co-President at Stanford A & E India; Pragnya Ram, Group Executive President of the Aditya Birla Group; and Radhika Shah, Platform Advisor and Co-President of Stanford A&E.

Speaking at the launch of the Platform in India, Jaco Cilliers, Country Director, UNDP said, 'The SDG Platform can support India in realizing its enormous potential to adopt creative and innovative technological solutions, to address persistent developmental challenges.'

The Platform aims to reduce duplication of efforts around the SDGs and to leverage resources among partners, which includes philanthropic organizations and foundations, the United Nations and other development partners, governments, civil society and businesses (including social enterprises). It intends to give grantees and donors a greater voice in the national plan for SDG implementation, offering an avenue to identify and apply innovative methods from the private sector to UN and government programmes.

India played a pivotal role in shaping Agenda 2030, and is critical to its success. The India Philanthropy Report 2015, which tracks the growth of philanthropy in India, paints an encouraging picture. Since 2009, India has added more than 100 million donors, and donors are contributing more and to a wider array of causes.

The Platform's work in India will focus initially on investing in women and girls as an accelerator across the Goals.

More information is available on SDGfunders.org, a data and knowledge portal on philanthropic giving related to the SDGs.

Follow the discussion on Twitter at @PhilSDGs@AvasantFound