To commemorate 30 Years of Advancing Responsible Business Practices, Partners in Change (PiC) concluded a three-day conference from January 9–11, 2025, which ended triumphantly. The PiC-propelled conference’s main topic was transition, with particular attention paid to its prospects, challenges, and ramifications in the Indian context.
Workshops were held on the first day, roundtable talks took place on the second, and PiC’s 30th anniversary was celebrated on the third. More than 150 people participated in in-depth discussions of important Just Transition-related subjects, including businesses, grantmakers, policy researchers, attorneys, and civil society organizations.
Key Sessions of Advancing Responsible Business Practices Included:
- Nature-Based Solutions to Balance Social Justice and Climate Action: Showcased grassroots innovations that blend traditional expertise with technical science to create climate-adaptive models.
- Worker-Led Models Centering Voices for Equitable Change: Emphasised the necessity of engaging workers as active partners in decision-making processes to ensure that the benefits of sustainability are equitably distributed.
- Intersectionality in Gig and Sanitation Sectors: Highlighted the need for inclusive systems that uphold dignity, safety, and justice for all workers, acknowledging how intersectionality shapes vulnerabilities in these sectors.
- Cultivating Change: Pathways for Equitable Development in Agriculture: Called for contextualised and localised solutions to address the rising challenges and vulnerabilities in agriculture due to global temperature increases.
- Grounding Child Rights and Business Principles in Local Communities: Stressed the importance of simplifying the vocabulary around business and human rights to resonate with those working in the informal sector, particularly from a child rights perspective.
- Sanitation Work, Health, and Responsible Business: Focused on eliminating manual scavenging through affordable technology and raising awareness about caste-based discrimination in sanitation work.
- MSMEs Driving Inclusive and Sustainable Change: Discussed the existential importance of ESG for MSMEs and the need for meaningful partnerships and investments to help them navigate global sustainability demands.
- Inclusion Beyond Caste Barriers in Workplaces: Addressed the ongoing impact of caste-based discrimination on workplace opportunities, advocating for policy and collective action to promote dignity and inclusion.
- Safe Workplaces: Integrating Occupational Health and Safety into Sustainable Practices: Reiterated the need to include mental health in OHS conversations, especially in the informal sector and lower tiers of the value chain.
The keynote speech by Professor Surya Deva, a professor at Macquarie Law School and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, was one of the event’s highlights.
According to Professor Deva, “Such norms are created in the Global North in a non-participatory manner and implemented in the Global South without considering the societal and cultural contexts.” He criticized the exclusionary aspect of existing corporate and human rights norms. He pushed for a paradigm change in development models that prioritize meaningful participation, highlighting the necessity of “principled partnerships” between companies, international agencies, academics, civil society, and grassroots organizations.
Tom Thomas, CEO of Praxis – Institute for Participatory Practices, highlighted the evolving nature of the markets and its implications for economic democracy. He remarked, “It is not enough that we have political democracy… economic democracy is more critical today.” He underscored the necessity of addressing power asymmetries and creating a level playing field to ensure true democratic participation in economic processes.
The symposium reaffirmed how critical it is to dismantle organizational divisions and promote inclusive discourse. Sessions focused on participative methods to promote change, addressed the intersectionality of gig and sanitation labor, and elevated women’s voices in government.
Participants were reminded that answers to urgent problems frequently lie in the collective wisdom of grassroots organizations and community leaders who shared decades of experience.
As PiC celebrates its 30th anniversary, the organization instils more involvement, more solid collaborations, and creative solutions that put people, the environment, and advancement first. The conference’s success acts as a springboard for accomplishing these objectives.