PIRAMAL ENTERPRISES LIMITED 
By Piramal Foundation partners with Dasra, Kiawah Trust and USAID for the $14 million Alliance to empower adolescent girls and improve health outcomes for mothers and children in India
Other major highlights include:
Over 600 prominent Indian and global philanthropists including Jennifer and Peter Buffett (via webcast), Nadir Godrej, Harsh Mariwala and Roshni Nadar Malhotra came together for strategic dialogues on social change
Dasra's report on Domestic Violence - No Private Matter, was launched
BNP Paribas Wealth Management partnered with Dasra to further its longstanding engagement and presence in the individual philanthropic space
Corporates discussed global best practices to enable better utilization of the INR 18,000 crore of
CSR funds likely to be released under Section 135 of the Companies Act
Prof Marc Epstein of Rice University launched his book on Impact Assessment - Measuring and
Improving Social Impact.
Mumbai, March 7, 2014: Dasra, India's leading strategic philanthropy foundation, hosted the Dasra Philanthropy Week (DPW) from March 5-7th, 2014, in Mumbai. Supported this year by USAID, Omidyar Network, BNP Paribas Wealth Management and Vodafone Foundation, the event brought together more than 600 philanthropists, corporates, foundations, impact investors and policy makers to solve pressing social and developmental issues faced by our country especially around adolescent girl empowerment.
Dasra launched a five-year, $14 million initiative in collaboration with USAID and Kiawah Trust, which was announced at the Dasra Philanthropy Week 2013 last year. Piramal Foundation joins the mission that seeks to achieve systemic change by fostering innovation, improving outcomes and reaching scale to improve the reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child health and empower adolescent girls in rural and urban India. Over the next four years, the Alliance expects to touch the lives of over 1 million girls, mothers and children.
"Work around adolescent girls in India has typically been isolated and scattered and there has been little
or no collaboration among stakeholders. The Dasra Alliance aims to alter this approach and build a
collaborative ecosystem in order to foster, drive and deliver knowledge, innovation, funding and achieve
impact at scale." said Lynne Smitham, Co-Founder of Kiawah Trust.
"With Piramal Foundation joining this Alliance, we strongly believe that they will add a lot of value to this common mission. While Kiawah Trust is already a trusted and important partner, with the onboarding of Piramal Foundation, we hope to leverage resources and expertise from the private sector to improve outcomes for maternal and child health in the country." said John Beed, USAID's mission director for India.
Smarinita Shetty, Director at Dasra mentioned, "Along with USAID, Kiawah Trust and Piramal Foundation, we plan to develop and strengthen engagement with the private sector to drive greater impact for adolescent girls in India. Given Piramal Foundation's stature and innovative approach to corporate philanthropy, their addition as a partner in this alliance allows us to showcase the manner in which corporate foundations can engage more effectively and develop solutions at scale."Dasra Philanthropy Week, founded in 2010 and in its fifth edition this year, featured a high profile gathering of over 600 leading philanthropists, business and social change leaders. As Dasra's partner, BNP Paribas Wealth Management hosted a discussion on Next Gen philanthropy by interviewing Roshni Nadar Malhotra. For the past seven years BNP Paribas Wealth Management has awarded major philanthropists the BNP Paribas Prize for Individual Philanthropy. In 2013, Mr. Shiv Nadar, founder of the Shiv Nadar Foundation was the recipient of the BNP Paribas Prize.
Stephane Honig, Head of Indian Markets, BNP Paribas Wealth Management spoke at the event, "For BNP Paribas Wealth Management this partnership with Dasra is a step towards furthering its longstanding engagement and presence in the philanthropic space. Globally, BNP Paribas' civic engagement is manifested in the corporate philanthropy work done by the BNP Paribas Foundation, whose charity initiatives include educational, cultural and public health projects. BNP Paribas Wealth Management, which is the business line dedicated to the service of high net worth and ultra high net- worth individuals across the globe, the philanthropy initiatives consist in advising our clients to give back to the society either through personal advice or through our Fondation de l'Orangerie."
The day also placed the spotlight on social change stories, insights from Bain & Company on ecosystem building, presentations on Dasra's upcoming research including the launch of the Domestic Violence Report - No Private Matter. The report found that Domestic Violence accounts for 50% of all reported crimes against women in India. One in every three women is sexually, psychologically and physically violated by her male partner. Another startling fact that the report highlights is that violence in India kills and disables as many women between the ages of 15 and 44 years as cancer.
Flavia Agnes, Advocate and Co-founder of Majlis and also a victim of domestic violence mentioned, "Remaining silent on domestic violence is itself giving impetus to the crime. Officially, domestic violence accounts for 50% of all reported crimes against women; however there is gross under-reporting of these crimes and the actual numbers are said to be higher." Speaking on solutions, she further added, "If these victims of violence are aware of their rights and can get easy access, then we will be one step closer to tackling the issue. There is also a need for trained professionals who are sensitized to the topic and this will in turn provide the confidence to fight against violence and live a life with dignity."
Other launches included the book on impact assessment - 'Measuring and Improving Social Impact' by Rice University Research Professor, Marc Epstein and Swigert Endowed Chair at Portland State University's School of Business Administration, Kristi Yuthas. The book presents the value of building
impact assessment into CSR for greater social impact and is the perfect guide to The Indian Companies
Act of 2013.
Conversations with leading local and global philanthropists led to sharing of their perspectives on giving. Bringing the day to a grand finale were video keynote addresses by Jennifer and Peter Buffett from NoVo Foundation, who shared the passion behind their giving journeys, rationale for supporting adolescent girls initiatives and advised on creating lasting change.
About Dasra
Founded in 1999, Dasra is India's leading strategic philanthropy foundation. It inspires collaborative giving and partnerships amongst philanthropists, funders, corporates and the Government. Simultaneously, it enables high impact non-profit organizations to scale. Over the past 14 years, Dasra has strengthened the growth plans of more than 200 non-profits and social businesses, engaged with and educated over 500 philanthropists on strategic philanthropy, enabled over $38 million in funding to social entrepreneurs, and published 22 research reports about education, health and livelihoods.
For more information, please visit www.dasra.org
Piramal Foundation strongly believes that there are several untapped innovative solutions that can address India's most pressing problems. Piramal Foundation plays an impactful role in implementing and facilitating such projects. Each social project that is chosen to be funded and nurtured by the Piramal Foundation fits into one of the four broad areas - healthcare, education, livelihood creation and youth empowerment. The Foundation strives to develop transformative, scalable and replicable solutions to address issues that are critical roadblocks towards unlocking India's economic potential.
For media queries: Piramal Group:
Akansha Pradhan: 3351 4082; akansha.pradhan@piramal.com
Riddhi Goradia: 3351 4083; riddhi.goradia@piramal.com
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