This article talks about the new initiative from the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors aimed at SDG's in India. There are a few key points the article emphasizes with the initiative. The initiative emphasizes the importance of working in collaboration with local government to roll out SDG plans. The focus areas for this initiative are: healthcare, education, geneder equality, and environmental sustainability. The initiative also aims to track the impact of different projects in order to make sure that they are being as effecient as possible. It's a long term comittment from the RPA toward advancing SDG's in India.

A new initiative to achieve the Sustainable Development 

Goals in India

As India marked its national holiday of Diwali, the SDG Philanthropy Platform, a growing collaborative promoting sustainable development, announced its second founding supporter for the initiative in India – the Avasant Foundation. The Platform in India will connect and catalyze partnerships between philanthropic organizations, grantees and partners, the UN system, government, academia, impact investors and the broader business community in order to accelerate achievement of Agenda 2030 – a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – agreed by all the world’s governments in September 2015. The Platform’s website www.sdgfunders.org will also document how philanthropy is investing in the SDGs across India and promote exchange across those working on shared goals.

Work in India will focus on ending poverty, ensuring inclusive, quality education, achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment, and promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all. The Platform was launched in 2014 with support from the Conrad N. Hilton, Ford and The MasterCard Foundations, with a number of other funders joining over the last year, including Oak Foundation support for the work in India. Kevin Parikh, Chairman of Avasant Foundation, noted that “advancing the Sustainable Development Goals is critical to Avasant Foundation’s mission of empowering disadvantaged youth across the globe. The partnership with the SDG Philanthropy Platform illustrates how we are aligned in our mission for India given our focus on quality education, gender equality, and decent work and economic growth.” Avasant Foundation’s Executive Director Chitra Rajeshwari sees the “challenges, but even more the opportunities, to make real progress working together – not only in India but in other countries around the world,” and is helping to plan the 2017 launch.

Radhika Shah, Co-President of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs and an Advisor to the Platform, linked the vision of Agenda 2030 with India’s most famous visionary – Mahatma Gandhi. “We are excited to launch the SDG Philanthropy Platform in the land of Mahatma Gandhi to advance his vision of a world that respects the dignity of every human being via self-reliance. We aim to bring together very different but equally committed stakeholders from within India and outside. We will draw on outstanding entrepreneurial and systems-change approaches from Stanford University and UCLA, and link technology innovation from networks such as Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs, the South Asian diaspora in Silicon Valley, and universities in India including the IITs.” Heather Grady, a Vice President at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, welcomed Avasant Foundation into the SDG Philanthropy Platform. “We applaud Avasant Foundation for being the first member of the India Founders Circle and, along with the Oak Foundation, helping to catalyze philanthropy’s commitment to collaborative approaches to the SDGs in India.”

This week’s announcement follows a commitment made by the Platform team at the 7^th Annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted by President Obama, in Silicon Valley in June 2016. The 8^th Summit in 2017 will be held in India. (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/24/fact-sheet-global-entrepreneurship-summit)

For more information, and to find out how to become a supporter of the SDG Philanthropy Platform in India, contact Radhika Shah at radhika@cs.stanford.edu or Karolina Mzyk-Callias at karolina.myzk@undp.org.

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About The SDG Philanthropy Platform

The SDG Philanthropy Platform informs and catalyzes collaboration through building awareness and connections between those working in the philanthropy sector and beyond. Launched by the United Nations Development Program, Foundation Center, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in 2014, the Platform has brought together hundreds of foundations and philanthropists across many countries to create new partnerships to increase funding and create programs that will have greater, and more sustainable, impact on people’s lives. For more information, visit sdgfunders.org.