History
1991 is widely regarded as the year that saw, in India, the launch of an era of economic reforms and globalization altering the roles, responsibilities and expectations of the state, corporate and government organizations. Responding early to the increasing debate on the role of business and concerned about the absence of any established mechanism to proactively engage with business to minimize its negative and maximize its positive impact on the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalized stakeholders, ActionAid International- India (AAI) India established a “Corporate Partnership” unit in 1993. In order to better focus its resources in a dedicated manner, Partners in Change was established as a separate not-for-profit organization in January 1995 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
PiC was amongst the first organization in India dedicated to promoting pro-poor CSR through partnerships. During the first decade PiC received its core funding support from AAI-India. Other major funders of PiC during its initial years were The Ford Foundation and Department of International Development (DFID) of the British government. AAI- India’s support for PiC continued till December 2005.
During the initial years PiC focused its energies on building sustainable partnerships between the corporate sector and social development initiatives in India at that time. At that time PiC’s goal was to become an organization that is recognized both by corporate and civil society as a reliable facilitator for building partnerships for social development.
Over the first two strategy plan periods PiC recognized that there was the need to identify a few thrust areas in the coming years to focus its work and make it more effective. These thrust areas were:
- Put disadvantaged and marginalized communities at the centre of all corporate social responsibility; and
- Advocate for more businesses to commit themselves to getting involved in social and human development by putting together written policies and priorities on the issues and ensuring that they are implemented.
Hence, disadvantaged communities were and are central to all partnerships that PiC gets involved in. Equitable social development is the purpose for which PiC engages with business. Though Businesses may have various legitimate agendas, PiC would engage only if the involvement would better the lives of the disadvantaged people.
The period 1995 to 2000 can be described as the first phase of the organization. It was an institutional building phase and in this phase PiC’s was able to promote the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by raising awareness among the corporate sector of the work being done to achieve sustainable development amongst the poorest sections of society and by helping create conditions for corporate involvement in social development. At the micro level PiC was able to build a long term and sustainable partnerships between specific companies and NGOs / communities involved in social development.
The second strategic phase was from 2001 – 2005 by this time PiC had established itself as organization dealing on CSR. During this period there were emerging opportunities and challenges for CSR in India like:
- Increased awareness amongst businesses to be socially responsible
- Decreasing power of the state because of globalization
Hence it became apparent to change the strategy from “building sustainable partnerships between the corporate sector and social development initiatives in India” to “increase the understanding and active participation of business in equitable social development as an integral part of good business, disadvantaged communities, development initiatives and government”. The tangible results that Partners in Change have achieved during the earlier strategy plan period clearly describe and validate PiC’s theory of change over two strategic phases that will continue in the future phase, which is the third strategy plan period.
