 Hello, I'm Carrie Spindler-Ranta, Public Diplomacy Advisor for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State. Last November, the U.S. government and the Republic of India co-hosted the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India. The summit brought together some of the world's most dynamic entrepreneurs and investors. The theme of the summit was Women First Prosperity for All, and diversity in business was a central area of the discussion. We previously hosted two Facebook Live webchats to explore this important topic area, and we continue the discussion today. Our panel of experts will discuss how incorporating human rights, best practices, build stronger, more successful businesses. We'll also explore how the empowerment of women, people with disabilities, religious minorities, LGBTI individuals, and other marginalized groups advances both rights and profits. We have with us today three experts who have an extensive and diverse set of experiences as entrepreneurs and advocates. Joining us from Milwaukee is Dominique Samari, co-founder of P3 Development Group, which designed strategic solutions for businesses, government, and NGOs seeking to drive equitable and inclusive community change. And sitting to my left is Diego Mariscal, founder, CEO, and Chief Disabled Officer of TogetherInternational.org, an organization which empowers and unifies young disabled people to become actors of change. We have another member of our panel, Dina Fidas, joining us in the comments section on Facebook to help answer some of your questions. Dina is the director of the Workplace Equality Program at the Human Rights Campaign. She is consulted with large companies on the implementation of equitable employment policies. And lastly, also participating in this chat, is a group assembled at the U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad, India. We will introduce them in a moment and are happy to have their voices in this conversation. I just want to mention that if you have questions for our panelists, please ask them in the comments section next to the video player, or on Twitter using the hashtag BIS Human Rights. We'll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. I'd like to start by asking Dominique and Diego if you can briefly define business and human rights and the concept of doing well and doing good. Each of you works within a different context of this topic. So can you share from your perspectives why the work you do is important and why this is a vital conversation? Dominique, let's start with you. Thank you, Carrie. So P3 Development Group, as you said, is a consulting firm based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we engage diverse individuals to design strategic solutions for our clients who are looking to create equitable and inclusive change either in their organizations or in their communities. So both my partner and I came to this work when we realized that there were a bunch of well-intentioned individuals and organizations who were looking to design strategies, programs, initiatives for the benefit of ethnic and racial minorities and women, but were stumbling along the way. And so they were not including and having inclusive participation of the individuals that they were seeking to serve. And so there weren't women at the table in the design. There weren't the ethnic minorities in the table in the design and at the outset of the planning processes. And the result of that was that they really weren't getting the outcomes that they were looking to achieve. They didn't have buy-in. And these programs and initiatives just weren't sustainable because they really didn't meet the needs of the population. And so we see the importance of this work really as twofold. So first, I feel like people really do recognize the value of diversity inclusion in our organizations and in our communities, but sometimes they just don't know how to get there. But two, we think that since we've been engaged in this work, it's become really clear that diversity really is where the gold, as we say, or the brilliant lies. And so while we focus on kind of these core dimensions of diversity around race and ethnicity and gender, sexual orientation and disability, we really believe that when you get different perspectives, views, opinions, beliefs, backgrounds, experiences in the room, that that is where innovation and creativity are born. So it is a benefit not only for the individuals that you're including, but for organizations and communities overall. And your second question about why this conversation is so important right now, I think we are more connected now than we have ever been. And so we have global economies. We're connected through technology. And now is really the time, I think that businesses are starting to focus on diversity inclusion because they realize that we have to learn ways to work and live together and embed the policies and practices that allow everyone to do that and contribute to their highest ability. Okay, thank you so much. Diego, what's your thoughts on this? Yeah, so I think this is a very important question. Like we were discussing earlier, especially given how connected the world is right now and specifically looking at my work on disability perspective, I think primarily it's really important because disability is the largest minority in the world. About one billion people have a disability. And the beautiful thing about disability is it spans across all economic backgrounds, gender, sexual orientation, and so, and within the disability community it's very diverse, right? You have people like I have several policy, you have people who are blind, you have people who are deaf, so that community in and of itself is very diverse. So it's really important for us to talk about, especially in the disability community, to talk about diversity as a whole because the disability community is so diverse in and of itself. And the other really important point that people don't often think about is people with disabilities are the largest minority in the world and collectively with our friends and family, we have a disposable income of around, or we influence a disposable income of around $8 trillion. So that is a huge amount that's influenced by the disability community that is normally not considered and not talked about. And so it's really important that companies think about that work because it's an on-tap resource of not just customers and not just economic power, but it's also a talent for hiring, it's also a talent for innovation because we as people with disabilities are, because we have been marginalized, we tend to be more resilient, we tend to be more creative, how we're going to get dressed in the morning, how we're going to drive, how we're going to communicate, all those things that we have to figure out along the way can make us better employees, better managers because we have to learn how to communicate and innovate on a day-to-day basis. And so while that may be particular to the disability community, when we think about diversity as a whole, it just makes the complex problems have different types of solutions to that. Interesting. Thank you. I'd now like to report the responses to a poll question we shared on social media over the past couple of weeks. We asked, what aspect of business and human rights are you most interested in hearing about? We'll show the results here on the screen. As you can see, positive examples of companies committing to human rights best practices was the highest response, followed by strategies for businesses to incorporate responsible human rights policies and why diversity in business is a human rights best practice. So I think we should spend a couple of minutes digging into these important topics within our broader conversation about business and human rights. Dominique and Diego, what are your thoughts on this? Dominique, why don't you go ahead? So I think if we're talking about examples, a couple come to mind. Johnson and Johnson, Unilever and AT&T have all made diversity inclusion a priority in their business model. And they've done so by making it a priority that leadership is both committed to visibly and accountable for. And so I think when we think about how you integrate diversity inclusion best practices into your organization that first and foremost, it really has to come from leadership and it has to be touted as a priority and it can't be isolated to just an HR function or a function for that specific minority or other group. It has to be broadly implemented and integrated across the organization. Some of what we've seen and how that can be done effectively is by creating either diversity advisory councils or steering committees that have representation from leadership across the organization who are responsible for kind of carrying the water, setting the example and holding employees accountable for whatever new strategic diversity direction that you have. The other thing that we've seen work really well and I would say that's probably the case for all three of those organizations is that they really rely on and continuously implement a qualitative research agenda. So they're constantly checking in through survey, focus groups, interviews to determine how people are showing up, if the inclusive environment is starting to stick, if there are changes, how people are bearing in the new workplace where there are troubles and concerns so they can trouble shoot and tweak when necessary. Thank you very much. Diego, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Sure. Well, it's funny that you mentioned those companies, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson because when we were looking at, when I was looking at disability companies that are doing well in disability, many of them are the same. And so it's funny that when we start to look at either disability or diversity as a whole, if companies are getting it right and if companies are thinking about it in the right way, it doesn't just help one group, women, it doesn't just help LGBT, but it tends to help diversity as a whole. So I think that's really interesting. From the disability perspective, there's an organization called the US Business Leadership Network and they hold an index that classifies what are the best companies looking at disability. And so AT&T is on there, bunch of other companies are there and so that can give you a better sense of who's doing specifically on the disability side a really good job of inclusion throughout their practices. But I think a really good point that was mentioned is really we need to look at disability holistically. I was approached by a multinational organization a couple of months ago and they said, we really want to hire more people with disabilities, help us identify pipelines. And I looked at them and I was like, well, that is important. But there also needs to be a strategic approach where middle management is trained, where HR is trained, where the application process is accessible and diverse, where recruiting is diverse, leadership is thinking about diversity critically. So when a company is trying to look at this diversity and disability, it's not just one approach. We have to think about how is the company holistically through its different touch points, thinking about disability and diversity. And like I said before, when you start to think about disability and we'll get into it more later on, but when you start to think about disability, you're inevitably thinking about diversity because making things accessible for people with disabilities will inevitably make it accessible for more marginalized communities as well. Yeah, thank you very much. So the multifaceted approach as well. Exactly, exactly. It's not just the one department, one voice problem. It's really how do we look at it holistically from an organizational standpoint? Can I just add to that briefly? Sure, please. So I completely agree with Diego. It is a holistic approach. Usually when we are approached about looking at diversity strategies to Diego's point, it's all about the pipeline. So how do we get more of this person, of that type of person, of this type of person with these kind of diversity indicators into an organization or a company, but the strategy is really twofold to Diego's point. So some of it is actually, how do you get people into the organization? And that's the diversity part, that's the who. But the inclusion part is how do you create an environment where those people feel comfortable, where they're welcome, and where they can thrive and contribute to their highest ability. And that is the second and in my opinion, most important part of the equation. Right, great. Thank you so much. Now let's go to our online viewing group at the U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad, India, where Public Affairs Officer Gabrielle Hans-Olivier will briefly introduce the group. Then we'll take a couple of questions from the audience. Hi, Gabrielle. Yes, hello, Peri and Dominique and Diego. Thank you so much for doing this. I think I'm too close, okay. Yeah, so for this website, we have invited about a dozen activists here who are from NGOs, from corporations, from the academic institutions, as well as the legal firms. Some of them are, they are alumni of State Department exchange programs. And they will introduce themselves. Five participants will ask questions and they will introduce themselves. Each participant is working to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities into corporate or non-government. The U.S. Consulate has worked with most of them in December 2016 when we did a day-long workshop on inclusivity and disability. Most of our participants are very familiar with the ADA Act and they follow the news and development in the U.S. very carefully. A few of our participants today have worked and provided inputs toward the Disabilities Bill, which is currently tabled in the Indian Parliament. Some of our participants today are entrepreneurs who are working on creating products that empower people with disabilities. So I will now give the microphone to them and I would like to introduce our first participant, Mr. Rara Shekhar, who is going to ask the first question. Thank you very much. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Raj. I teach at a university in the city where I live. I also officiate the Disability Services Department at the university where we provide services and other support systems to our students who are admitted to our university. And especially the question will be more in terms of the academic angle. I would like to know how colleges, universities, departments and business establishments think in terms of policy formulation and create modules of inclusion and universal design and try to impart such aspects for all the students so that they, once they go out either as entrepreneurs or CEOs, how they would create that kind of ambience in the classroom to take the message to the larger community. Thanks so much, Raj. I think the question was how do universities and colleges, higher educations of learning incorporate inclusive modules into their learning and how students can therefore take those lessons into the workplace after they graduate? I'd like to start with Diego on that question. Sure, sure. I think it's a very challenging question even in the US. I participated or I went to school in the US. I grew up in Mexico. I'm a dual citizenship Mexican and US citizen and I went to school in the US. And I think that is a very challenging approach. We're starting to see more and more schools implement offices like Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Disability Culture. So we're starting to look at schools thinking more critically about diversity as a whole. I think one of the biggest challenges, particularly when we look at disability, is that we have historically, in the US included, we have looked at disability from a medical standpoint. So we look at disability for how can it be fixed or overcome or how the colleges and universities comply with the ADA regulations, right? How do we make sure students have accommodations when they need? How do we make sure they have their material in Braille? How do we make sure they have sign language interpreters when it's needed? So that's really important, right? Because that ensures their inclusion in the classroom. But that's not really looking at disability in terms of a diversity perspective and in terms of how do we bring disability as an asset to the conversation, right? And so I think there is definitely challenges there. I think one of the best approaches that I've seen from the disability perspective is, again, looking at the implementations of diversity centers, of also looking at, specifically when it comes to disability, disability cultural centers, because different than disability support service offices, disability cultural centers look at disability from an identity perspective. So, and I think, again, the role of advocates such as yourself and civil society and students with disabilities is really important. And having conversations like this one is really important because we can reframe disability and diversity not from a compliant perspective but from an identity perspective, which I think is really the key point. Thank you so much. I really like what you said about diversity as an asset. I think that's something that we don't often think about. Dominique, do you have anything to add related to inclusion and diversity in the higher education setting? Well, the only thing I would add is that, historically we've seen kind of business lead the way and academia kind of lagged behind a bit. And I think we're seeing that around this phase too. And so businesses are a little ahead of the curve because they recognize the value in diversity and it gives them a competitive edge. And as they continue along this journey, I think the hope is that they will kind of circle back to universities and insist that they emphasize diversity inclusion in their staff and training and their curriculum development and overall and how they approach their students on campus in hopes that they can prepare students to enter into these diverse and inclusive companies when they come out of school. I agree with Diego that it is harder in universities and college settings because you have them for a brief period of time. It's kind of spread over a ton of coursework and really trying to identify where you can have these touch points that start to at least give them some insights into the value of diversity inclusion is key. And so places like Diego said, like diversity inclusion centers, making a part of the coursework and making sure that professors and associate professors are trained up and are really integrating that into their approach around teaching these students. Thanks so much, Dominique. Hydrabad, did you have another question for us? Yeah, my name is Cherian and I'm an operations leader with Sincerity Financial in us for G capital business. I completely agree with Dominique on the concept diversity makes a lot of business sense for us. And what Diego said, without inclusion diversity means nothing. So the thing that we talked about is when we focus on a lot of education, one of the things that I see in the market is people when they're hired, they don't get hired at the level they are supposed to be from a peer perspective. So if you have a management degree and engineering degree, they're not hired into the roles equivalent to their designation but probably are not lower than that. So is there something that you can advise on or what is the US doing with respect to that? Or it's just, it's not an issue at the US. When you- Thank you. I just have a clarifying question there. When you mean, do you mean people in general or do you mean people with disabilities? Disabilities. Oh, people with disabilities. I think, can I take this? I think that is a huge issue. That is a huge issue. And we also see it in the States. People with disabilities are over qualified to take certain jobs. I think that comes again from a culture of underestimating, sorry, yeah, underestimating people with disabilities. I mean, and especially in the US, there's a culture of employment and education and training, but we're starting to see more and more programs coming into fruition that are disability mentoring days where we pair up people with disabilities with a mentor so they can explore what a working environment looks like. We're starting to see shadowing days. As well, mentoring programs from the government sector, also from the public sector, so from multiple angles, but I think at least what I've seen in my own career as a person with a disability, sometimes there can be an over-emphasis on education and training and while that's important, it's also critically important to have on the ground experience and so I think I would say definitely that US is not necessarily, you know, perfect in this terms, but I think we're starting to see movements to start to integrate more practices and the other thing that I would suggest based on my own experiences, looking at entrepreneurship programs specifically for people with disabilities and the reason that I bring that up is because I think, like I was saying earlier, people with disabilities are inevitably problem solvers, right? We have to problem solve in our day-to-day life and actually data shows that people with disabilities are twice more likely to fall into entrepreneurship and so if we can utilize that innovation and creativity that people with disabilities have in an entrepreneurship setting, even if people with disabilities are not successful in their venture because most entrepreneurs may not be, right? Even if they're not, the training and the tools that they're gonna get are gonna make them more competitive in the workforce and so I think two things are critical, making sure that systems and organizations have more mentoring and underground experience and then emphasizing entrepreneurship specifically from a disability standpoint. Great, Dominique, could you speak a little bit to the mentorship model that Diego is referring to? Have you witnessed that in your experience with inclusion and diversity? Yes, and so mentorship and sponsorship are among the best practices that organizations can implement in order to ensure that they're creating a pathway for individuals to leadership up through the organization and so making sure that they have someone who's essentially guiding them along the path within an organization. The other thing I would add about to the gentleman's question about how you can maybe prevent or decrease the likelihood of unconscious bias coming into play and interviewing and hiring practices is that for organizations that are trying to decrease that or trying to put policies in place to decrease the impact of that on their employees that having a diverse set of individuals at interviews making sure that candidates are all being evaluated on a standard evaluation system and so these unconscious biases that we may have for disabled persons or persons, women, persons that are ethnically or culturally diverse, don't actually come into play or at least you minimize them to the effect that you can instead of just having people participate in an interview process that's pretty subjective and allowing individual managers or leadership to make decisions kind of based on whether or not they think the person will be a good fit. That is a recipe for all of our unconscious biases coming into play and I think we can, there are practices that we can implement to minimize that. Great, thank you so much Dominique. Now let's take some questions from the comment section or those following along on Twitter using the hashtag biz human rights. How can a business thrive by incorporating multiple viewpoints and perspectives? And I think Dominique, this is a great question for you based on what you're just talking about having sort of a standard basis for how we look at interviewing but it would be great to talk a little bit about once you have that inclusive workforce how can those multiple viewpoints and perspectives make your workforce stronger? So we are a big believer in diversity. There was a Harvard Business Review article some time ago that talked about kind of the five or six factors or practices that the most innovative CEOs have across the globe. And one of them is called networking and networking is essentially reaching out to and mining the ideas and perspectives from a diverse group of individuals in order to get to the point of innovation. And so we have found that it really is in bringing people again who are from diverse backgrounds who have diverse experiences, diverse perspectives, diverse opinions and letting them operate within a space where they feel they can value to their highest ability that creativity and innovation are born. And that gives companies a competitive edge. The research is pretty clear that when you have I think homogenous teams perform 68% or diverse teams perform 68% better than homogenous teams. And it really is because you have all of these different folks who have all these different experiences who are bringing their whole selves to a process or to a team, bringing their thinking and they're able to look at it in completely different ways and kind of find the goal in that process by playing off of each other. Great, Diego, I see you nodding. So I think you must have something to add. No, no, I just agree. I think it's critical, you know? I think it's very, very critical to think about. And it's proven that diverse teams outperform homogenous teams. And so looking at that data, I think it's really critical. And we're gonna get to specific companies, but when we look at the most innovative companies, Apple, Google and others, I mean, they're starting, because they incorporate diversity principles within their culture, they're thriving off of that. I'm speaking primarily from a disability perspective, but I think we can see it. We can start to see how innovative companies can be when they incorporate disability in diverse perspectives. So what steps can you take to improve workplace diversity? I think we talked about it a little bit in the beginning, right? I think it's not just a one approach. Oftentimes people think, oh, I just need to hire more people with diverse backgrounds. And that's important, but you don't just need to hire more people with diverse backgrounds. You need to do a cultural shift in top management, middle management. You need to make sure that your culture is aware of, and your current employees is aware of what you're doing, why you're doing it so that they themselves can go and find potential candidates so that they can make those candidates feel included and embrace when they come to work so that we know also what type of accommodations and how do we best work with those individuals. Sometimes I get asked, how do I disclose if I have a disability or if I'm an employee, how do I work with somebody that has significant disability that I may be not familiar with, right? And so making sure that we have processes in place so that people feel comfortable disclosing their disability or their sexual orientation or their race because that's gonna create a much bigger culture of acceptance, right? And so to our point earlier, it's really a holistic approach. Great, and Dominica, another question for you from our online viewers. How does diversity foster innovation and creativity? If you could give a few examples of that, that would be great. Sure, so I can give some examples just from our P3 teaming approach, an idea approach. So when we have a new project or we're up against a challenge or we're trying to birth a new idea, we'll bring in a group of probably about 10 people from completely unrelated sectors, completely unrelated geographies who all look at the issue or the problem or the project in completely different ways. And we create an environment that allows them to really express what they think. And sometimes, and I shouldn't say sometimes, there's always conflict, right? So you put people in the room who look at the world differently and there's gonna be conflict. But to Diego's point about creating an inclusive environment, if you set the ground rules around respect and cooperation and accountability and inclusion, then you are able to create the environment that allows everyone to kind of have that tension but in a way that produces the outcomes that you're looking. So when we bring groups like that together, which we do fairly frequently, we almost always get better ideas, better insights, better feedback than if we're just sitting around brainstorming it ourselves because we're all looking at the problem in the same way. And so that's how I, for me, that's how for me diversity breeds innovation and creativity. It's really that space that allows you to see how other people see the world. Right. And if I can add to that point, what I've seen work most when you're setting those standards is really to have people create those standards themselves. If you as an organization impose those standards and say, this is what we want to uphold, you can find some resistance, right? But if you work with your staff or you work with your team and say, what is important to you? And obviously there needs to be a facilitator and you need to have some base points of what you want to set out to do. But the more you can get your team and your culture to come up with those guidelines themselves, the bigger buy-in you're gonna get from them to comply and to make sure that they're following with those procedures. Right. And Keri, can I just add to that briefly? Yes, please. I completely agree with Diego. I feel like what I've seen work particularly well, especially inside medium-sized organizations is allow your employees to experiment. So once there's buy-in on diversity inclusion, strategies within your organization allow them to experiment within their specific departments, within their business lines. There are some best practices that can be carried across the organization. But I think real buy-in occurs and real creativity will occur when you allow them to own some components and really shape the strategies and policies in a way that best fit the people that work in their teams and in their departments. Yeah, I think that's really important. So not only is the model asset-based and we're looking at people's strengths and what they can bring to the table, but that we're allowing employees to experiment and that they're owning the process that they're part of the process and the end result is something they can be proud of. So I'd like to ask Dominique, if you could briefly get a little bit more into unconscious bias. So that's something that you alluded to earlier. I think a lot of us don't fully understand what that means and how we can address it in the workplace. Sure, so unconscious bias is essentially social. So let me first say this, we all have unconscious bias. So that's the good part, right? Like we all have it, no one doesn't have it. So they are the social stereotypes about certain groups that we kind of carry within us unconsciously. For example, that when women sometimes show up and show up as leaders and are assertive, that they're peeing for that, they're viewed as aggressive and kind of it's held against them as opposed to when men do it, it's put that as a leadership asset. And so there are a couple of things you can do for organizations who are looking at how to uncover and address unconscious bias. The first thing is around just being aware. And so recognizing that we all have unconscious bias, that we need to start to spend time and get some clarity around where our bias may be showing up. You can implement training programs that will help employees learn how to address their unconscious bias. And then there are tools, especially in hiring practices that you can eliminate. And some of those I spoke to, I'm sorry, that you can implement. And some of those I spoke to earlier that will decrease the likelihood of your bias showing up. So for example, taking names and ethnicities and pictures off of employment applications. So that when an employment application gets to decision makers, you're really just working on credentials and not anything that would trigger any knowledge about the person's gender, race, ethnicity, et cetera. Also using diverse interview panels. And so making sure that you have diversity in the folks that are interviewing so that they can check each other's biases and job descriptions. So making sure that the language is gender and culturally neutral, so that it doesn't deter someone from applying based on how you're describing the job position. Okay, thanks so much. And Diego, do you have any thoughts on this? Any thoughts on our culture's bias? I mean, so I will tell you kind of what we do and what I find helpful within the organization, within my organization. So I think specifically talking in the disability perspective, oftentimes people that have a disability such as myself, we might have, I have cerebral palsy, right? That's my primary disability. But because of cerebral palsy, sometimes I deal with mental health issues, sometimes I deal with other sort of issues that are influenced by my cerebral palsy. And so what happens is when I'm interviewing a candidate, we will tend to level the playing field or have a more honest conversation where when I'm honest about my vulnerability, right? When I can say I am vulnerable in this way or that way, it makes the candidate feel more comfortable but it also makes the interview and the job application process feel more real. And so we start to talk about how our limitations or challenges are actually part of our workforce and how they can contribute to our work, right? And so I think purposely or being mindful about integrating your challenges or weaknesses within the application process can make the other candidate feel more comfortable and feel more at ease and accepted into discussing or embracing their own diversity challenges. Thank you. So in addition to promoting a diverse workforce, what other best practices can the private sector take to empower their workforce? Should I take that? Yes, please. Well, I think a primary point really, and this is talking the private sector and again, from a disability perspective, I think really looking at how am I making the organization as a whole accessible, right? So because if you start to talk, there's an example of I met with the disability organization a couple years ago and we had a meeting and I was like, where's the meeting? And they said, oh, the second floor. And I was like, great, where's the elevator? And they said, oh, we have no elevator, right? And so that is a problem, right? Because you're talking about diversity, you're mentioning diversity, but you're not really, and this is specifically disability, right? You're not really kind of showing up to what your principles are. And so if you were going to promote diversity, that means having a diverse application process. Maybe some people are better at video interviews versus in-person interviews, or maybe some people thrive better in a written interview as opposed to in-person interview. So thinking about, and this is just the application process in and of itself, thinking about how can I make my organization as a whole diversity and embrace diversity by setting up processes that will encourage that diverse thinking. Okay, thanks so much. So I wanna make sure we have enough time to get back to India. So Dominique, do you have anything to add briefly related to how the private sector can empower their workforce? So I think just adding to what Diego said, it's for me all about transparency. So making sure that you're being transparent about the process and even the roadblocks and making sure that you lay out the roadmap and the goals so that your workforce can buy in. They have to see the benefit in this for them, no matter if they are part of the diversity that you're trying to engage or part of the majority population within a corporation, they have to be able to see themselves kind of in the strategy and in the solution. Okay, thanks so much. And maybe you can add to that by telling us how you think the private sector governments and NGOs are different and how they can work together to address inclusion in business and how they can implement solutions. Yes, so this is really at the heart of the work that we do, trying to bring government, nonprofits and the private sector together to address these issues. And I think that you can't do it one without the other. And so when we think of what we hear mostly about why there isn't diversity in an organization, what we hear a lot is around pipeline, right? And so we don't have the diverse qualified candidates that we can put in these positions. But if you expand your network and expand, look at partnerships with NGOs, with community partners who have access to diverse individuals, who have training programs, who can prepare diverse individuals to enter the workforce, then you are partnering to meet and fill that need in a way that you couldn't do as a private organization or corporation on your own. And the same with nonprofits and NGOs and community organizations is that they may not have the positions, they may not have the access to the resources, but they have the access and know-how and understanding about the constituents that they serve, they know the challenges they face and they're best prepared to really help them connect to the private industry for these positions. And the government of course plays a key role because they're the in-between in all this. And so making sure that they're at the table and that some of the strategies that are being developed both in the private sector and being supported by the community or NGOs are part of and informing how the government is approaching their diversity and inclusion efforts as well. If I can add to that really quickly. I think we've talked a lot about the private sector, but I would like to specify a little bit more or to add a little bit more on the NGO side and the government side. I think the government is in a really good position to be an example to the rest of the community, right? I think we've seen in the recent years that government really be an example specifically when we look at this ability on hiring a large number of people with disabilities. I mean, in DC and across the country, the federal government is one of the largest employers, right? And so thinking about if the government itself is thinking critically about hiring practices, it can set an example for other programs and other processes, right? And I think that's really critical. And on the NGO side, I think most of the time NGOs are most equipped to know the constituents they're serving, but also sometimes, and this is again specifically in the disability community, I'm shocked by the fact that you have an organization that working in disability inclusion in the workforce, and yet they themselves don't have a person with a disability working in their staff. And this happens a number of times, right? And so we have to remember that as NGOs, and this is across the country, but I've also seen it internationally, we have board of directors that are appointing those directors and that are supporting those initiatives. And so we as a society can be critical and should be critical of those organizations if they're promoting an inclusive workforce. What does that mean within the structure of the organization also? Okay, thanks so much. Let's go back to our viewing group in Hyderabad now. Do you have any more questions for the panel? Morning, I'm Shakil, advocate and human rights activist. Well, my question to the August panel is that, here in India, we have a law where private sectors will also have to, look in private sector also have to take the persons of disability in their employment. But what was our past experience was that when they were promised one lakh with employment, only 640 were taken into consideration, the less were not taken. And I just wanna know what is the positive? I mean, here we have only kind of incentives have been given to the corporates, but not a penal action been given against the partner, the corporates. So I wanna know what are the affirmative actions or positive information, you follow that. And I mean, earlier I have seen the intervention of the consulate here with the transgender issues. There has been a huge change in the attitude of the corporates here, because so many multinational companies are here. So when the intervention of US consulate or other multinational people are there, then definitely gonna be a change and that is also going to have an impact on the Indian industries also. So can you just throw a light on affirmative action and positive discrimination, what you have to follow this? Thank you so much. Okay, thanks so much. I think the question was about what positive affirmative actions have worked in the United States and how can that translate to the Indian model? I'll ask this question to Diego and then we'll go to one more question in Hyderabad. That's a tough question. I think, you know, in my experience, and maybe Dominic, you can add on this, but in my experience, like we were saying before, one thing is the policy or the regulation, but another very different thing is like the cultural buy-in and the organizational buy-in, right? And so making sure that you can anchor a policy or a cultural shift based on a regulation, but it really needs to be about what processes and what systems you're implementing as an organization to have buy-in because a lot of the times we see this in many different countries, there is a percentage of people with disabilities that need to be employed because of a certain regulation, but then those people with disabilities are only employed in a part-time basis or employed in very low-level jobs where they could be doing more or sometimes they're employed but they're not even required to go to work, right? And so it's not enough just to have a regulation. Regulation can be the anchor for policy and systematic change within an organization. Okay, thanks so much. Hyderabad, do you have another question for our panelists? Good morning. I'm working for an institution where we train and rehabilitate hearing impaired RLTOs. We prepare them for workforce in the industry for the companies, but in terms of retaining these guys in the industry is a major challenge. I get lots of feedback from the guys who after the training come back to us saying that, oh, I'm not able to get into the system in the industry or other in the company. What are the best practices that you have in the US to retain this workforce in the industry? Okay, are you talking about retention? I just wanna make sure I fully understand the question. Retention in the industry? Yeah, yeah. Okay, thanks so much. I'm gonna have Dominique take that one. Can you talk a little bit about how you can retain people once you have brought them into what you call pipeline? Sure, so this is a challenge that a lot of organizations face and it kind of goes back to what Diego and I were talking about earlier, which is creating an inclusive environment. So now you've been able to pipeline diversity into your organization, but they are facing all kinds of challenges and are not happy in their workplace, aren't able to contribute and aren't able to show up in a way that allows them to a benefit for them and the company. And so that really goes back to, again, looking at leadership and looking at how you start to create the context for a cultural, I'm sorry, for an inclusive cultural environment. I think in doing that you can, because what happens is people are unhappy and then they just leave. You never really find out or able to dig into the specific challenges that they had in the workplace that forced them to leave. So I think this goes back to what I said earlier about creating a rich qualitative back base. You really need to interview focus groups, survey people to find out what challenges they're facing that are specific to them, as opposed to the entire organization. And then really design strategies to meet them where they are with the challenges that they're having in your particular organization. Thanks so much. Hydra Baj, you have a final question for us. Yeah, we have a question coming up, right. Loving so many people, seeing so many people with disabilities, by the way. Hi, good morning. Myself, Naseena Bumurala. I work as a web access expert in Hyderabad. My question is, what are the major factors to make a barrier-free environment in workplaces? And what are the challenges and opportunities to make an inclusive society more effectively and for the rural people in India? Okay. Thanks so much, Diego. Would you like to take that one? Yes, but can you rephrase the question? Sorry, I had some trouble understanding parts of it. So the question was, how do you, what are the barriers to remove the barriers in workplaces? Class make them inclusive, number one. And how does making an environment better for the disabled within workplaces affect the rural disabled population? Okay, great. This is a good question. So I think first of all, we have to look at are people with disabilities, and this is again, specifically talking about people with disabilities, are people with disabilities in a position of leadership. And the reason that I think that's really critical is a lot of the times we talk about inclusion work led by and managed by non-disabled people. And that's a problem, because as much as they wanna understand the issues, they're not living it on a day-to-day basis, right? And so making sure that you have a person that has a connection to the disability community and a personal understanding of the issues is really important because they're gonna be able to shape experiences and processes based on their own life experience. That's one thing, having people with disabilities in a position of leadership. And secondly, I think what's really critical is thinking about how do we extend the inclusion practices to the broader community? So when you look at, for example, the automatic doors in the supermarket, right here in the US, those automatic doors are helpful for anyone, not just for people with disabilities. Or when you look at the curve cuts in the street, those are helpful for everyone, not just people with disabilities. Texting, which was originally a deaf invention, now we communicate by text significantly, right? And so thinking about how do we stretch this one practice that we're doing and make the case for its value across the board, not just for people with disabilities, which usually is applicable to any case, right? For example, there was a company that was doing a really big push on hiring autistic people. And for several of their employees, they took things very literal. So if somebody would say, I'll be with you in two minutes, they would come back at exactly two minutes and expect an answer. Or they would ask the manager to make sure that they had a written summary of the meeting so they could go back and have a written summary of what they needed to accomplish, right? And so when you think about those practices in a broader context, they're good practices for everyone, regardless of whether or not you have a disability, being more clear and having a summary after each meeting are really important. So I hope that clarifies a little bit. Thank you so much. It looks like we are almost out of time. Dominique and Diego, would you like to share any final thoughts? I'll go first to Dominique. Sure, so really this is just building off of what Diego said. I think representation is critically important. So seeing individuals from either your gender or your ethnicity or your race in positions of leadership, who you can then model yourself after and say, okay, they did it. That means that I can do it too. I think that is critically important in organizations. And I think it's necessary that we reframe and expand the concept of a diversity. And so that we're not addressing it as a problem, but we're really looking at it as an asset that can be leveraged for the benefit of all. Thank you. Diego? I think that's a really good point. And I think if there's something that I would like to conclude this with, would be really looking at diversity and specifically disability as an identity, as an asset, as something that contributes to the conversation. And when we're talking about businesses and when we're talking about civil society and even government, thinking about the inclusion of people with disabilities and of a diverse workforce as something that is going to make your work better, right? And so it's not something nice to do. It's not something, you know, it's not just gonna make you feel better. It's gonna make your work better, operate better and produce better results. Thank you to our panelists, including Dina from the Human Rights Campaign who did a wonderful job answering viewers' questions and providing links to the resources in the comments section. A special thanks to the audience and organizers at the U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad, India. And thank you to all our online viewers, including those watching with viewing groups across the world at U.S. Embassy Monrovia, Liberia, U.S. Embassy Abuja, Nigeria, American Corners Lusaka and Kitwe in Zambia, American Corners in Bujumbura, Getega, Kenindo, Kamenge in Burundi, and American Corner Pretoria, South Africa. To continue the conversation, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter at StateDRL and at Econ at State. Before we go, I'd like to mention the 2018 Award for Corporate Excellence or ACE Award. The ACE recognizes companies that uphold high standards for responsible business conduct. And this year we have a specific category for women's economic empowerment. The award in this category seeks to recognize companies, policies, programs, and operations that create workplaces where women can thrive, including equal opportunity and non-discrimination policies in hiring and promotion. More information about this program can be found at state.gov backslash ACE and in the comments section. Thanks again for joining us and have a great day.