On February 26th 2010, the Foundations for Peace (FFP) network hosted a strategic Conference in New Delhi entitled 'The Role of Philanthropy in Peace Building Efforts to tackle Social Injustice in South Asia'. Facilitated by the Dalit Foundation, the event focused on structural injustices in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and looked at the many innovative efforts undertaken at the differing levels of the chain of interventions to build peace and equality. South Asia is a region where violence, injustice and conflict have become entrenched in societal, political and economic structures. Caste is an overarching issue plaguing the region, entwined with divisions caused by gender, ethnicity, religion and economic disparities.

The conference drew on the efforts and experiences of grass-roots activists and the role of indigenous and external philanthropic contributions in effecting a sustainable impact on social justice and peacebuilding work. FFP members, their representatives and grantees spoke passionately about the need for further support and resources to enable them to deliver their work on the ground as well as the need for policy makers, politicians and others to act in tandem with them to tackle structural injustice.

FFP members from Serbia, Georgia and Northern Ireland also participated in the event.
Truly unique, the event had keynote inputs from Avila Kilmurray from Northern Ireland, Gagan Sethi from the Dalit Foundation, Syeda Hameed from the Planning Commission, Government of India and Sharmila Tagore, a renowned Indian film actor. Representatives of four philanthropic bodies – The Ford Foundation's Vanita Mukhergi, Christian Aid's Belinda Bennet, the MacArthur Foundation's Poonam Muttreja and SDTT's Nayana Chowdhury- all made very thought provoking contributions.

Setting the thematic framework of the conference, Gagan Sethi (Board member, Dalit Foundation, India) used these inspiring words: 'You are in India – the land of contradictions. This country contains some of the most beautiful examples of peace and some of the most violent forms of human indignity. For those of us living this dialectic, we have to maintain a balance between experiencing these two extremes.'
Elaborating on the Dalit Foundation, he said that it responds with compassion to centuries of caste conflict and while initially the Dalit struggle had to be exclusionary to establish identity, there is a need to not only fight the caste battles but compassionately reach out to all those who believe in equality. For this reason, they changed the definition of 'Dalit' to mean not just the beaten-down lowest-of-the-low castes but instead all those who believe in and fight for equality. 'This is a move,' he said, 'from an exclusionary to an inclusionary position, part of building an India free of identity politics, and DF represents the peacebuilding process within the Dalit movement.

The conference also presented an opportunity for Foundations for Peace to launch its case studies publication – Small Money Big Impact – which features very relevant case studies showcasing the groundbreaking work of the members. A major policy publication was also launched – Social Justice, Peacebuilding and the Contribution of Philanthropy and is summarised in the editorial. Both publications are available on the FFP website http://www.foundationsforpeace.org.

We take this opportunity to extend the thanks of the FFP network to the Dalit Foundation staff and in particular, its Executive Director, Santosh Samal, and his very able assistant, Chandrika Sahai, for the sterling work they put into the organisation of the event.