NGO Forum for Responsible Business
A group of Indian NGOs committed to promoting business accountability to all its stakeholders have come together to form the NGO Forum for Responsible Business. The project is upto March 2008.
A National Consultative Meeting was organized on the 1st of July 2005, to concretise future steps towards the formation of the NGO Forum. For mutual sharing of experiences on Responsible Business Practices, representatives from three major coalitions were also invited in this consultation.
- SOMO Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, Netherlands,
- CORE, The Corporate Responsibility Coalition, UK
- Red Puentes from Latin America
The participants felt that there needs to be a focal point in the form of a Steering Group, in the form of some NGOs who are willing to devote time and resources and are engaged with the issue of responsible business practices. On the 29th of July 2005, in New Delhi, the Steering Group decided that Partners in Change would be the secretariat of the NGO Forum for the initial period of one year.
National workshop of the NGO Forum
Partners in Change facilitated a national workshop of the NGO Forum members on the 12th of January 2006, in New Delhi. Participating NGOs came from across India. The workshop defined the following objectives:
- The Steering Group to report back on the activities undertaken in the year 2005
- To build the knowledge of the members on ISO - Social Responsibility Standard (SR 26000)
- To building awareness of the members on the recent developments related to Business and Human Rights
- A presentation by John Elkington, Founder & Chief Entrepreneur, SustainAbility, UK, (www.sustainability.com) on their approach to NGO-Business engagement.
The meeting resulted in the Steering Group deciding to explore the possibility of a broader base of members. The presentation from SustainAbility, resulted in the participating NGO Forum members being updated on ISO (SR 26000) standards and on Business and Human Rights development.