Introduction

The global Business and Human Rights (BHR) agenda has gained momentum over the past two decades, driven by international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles 2011 and regional efforts across Africa. Yet, much of the discourse continues to focus on formal legal systems, corporate compliance, and state regulation. These models often overlook the realities of informal economies and the lived experiences of communities most affected by environmental harm and corporate misconduct (Begna, 2020).

In Ethiopia, waste governance offers a compelling lens through which to examine these gaps. Informal waste workers, youth activists, and community coalitions are leading efforts to promote environmental justice and corporate accountability. Their work is not peripheral to BHR, it is foundational. It challenges dominant narratives and introduces alternative models rooted in participation, dignity, and local knowledge, as explained in the GAIA, Working with Waste Pickers Guide. 

Eco-Justice Ethiopia operates at this intersection. Through legal advocacy, grassroots mobilization, and coalition-building, we support community-led initiatives that advance both environmental and human rights. Our experience shows that accountability does not begin in boardrooms or courtrooms. It begins in neighborhoods, schools, and informal settlements where people organize to protect their health, livelihoods, and environment 

This contribution explores how African grassroots leadership, particularly in waste and environmental justice, is reshaping the BHR landscape. It highlights practical innovations, critiques orthodox approaches, and offers lessons for strengthening global frameworks. By centering African experiences, we can move toward a more inclusive and transformative vision of Business and Human Rights.

Contextualizing Waste and Justice in Ethiopia

Waste management in Ethiopia presents both a pressing challenge and a critical opportunity for advancing environmental justice. Rapid urbanization, limited infrastructure, and weak enforcement mechanisms have contributed to growing volumes of unmanaged waste, particularly in cities like Addis Ababa (Kassahun et al., 2025). Informal waste workers, often women and youth, play a central role in collecting, sorting, and recycling waste, yet they remain excluded from formal systems and legal protections (BMC Public Health, 2016).

Eco-Justice Ethiopia works at the intersection of law, advocacy, and grassroots mobilization to address these gaps. Our initiatives focus on empowering informal workers, promoting zero waste principles, and strengthening community-led accountability. We view waste not only as a technical issue but as a justice concern that touches on health, dignity, labor rights, and environmental sustainability.

The absence of inclusive legal frameworks has left informal workers vulnerable to exploitation, hazardous conditions, and social stigma. At the same time, businesses operating in high-waste sectors often escape scrutiny, with limited obligations to mitigate harm or engage affected communities. This disconnect undermines both human rights and environmental governance.

Our work demonstrates that community-driven approaches can fill these gaps. By organizing waste workers, facilitating dialogue with municipalities, and advocating for policy reform, we help shift the narrative from charity to rights-based recognition. Waste becomes a lens through which broader questions of corporate accountability, legal pluralism, and social equity can be explored.

In this context, African leadership in Business and Human Rights must reflect the lived realities of those most affected. It must also embrace innovative, locally grounded models that challenge conventional regulatory paradigms and elevate grassroots expertise.

Legal Frameworks: Gaps and Opportunities

Ethiopia’s legal landscape offers a foundation for environmental protection and labor rights, but it remains fragmented and insufficient when applied to waste governance and informal work. The Solid Waste Management Proclamation and the Environmental Policy of Ethiopia outline broad responsibilities for municipalities and businesses. However, they lack clear enforcement mechanisms and fail to recognize the role of informal waste workers in service delivery and environmental stewardship.

At the national level, informal workers operate in legal limbo. They are not covered by labor protections, occupational safety standards, or social security schemes (BMC Public Health, 2016). Businesses that generate or manage waste are rarely held accountable for the conditions under which waste is handled or the impacts on surrounding communities.

International frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) provide important normative guidance.Yet, these instruments often assume formal employment structures and corporate compliance models that do not reflect the realities of informal economies (Begna, 2020). The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1981 and the African Commission’s jurisprudence provide stronger grounding for collective rights and environmental justice, but implementation remains uneven.

Eco-Justice Ethiopia works to bridge these gaps through legal empowerment, policy advocacy, and coalition-building. We engage with local governments to push for inclusive waste policies, advocate for recognition of informal workers, and contribute to national dialogues on environmental law reform. Our approach combines formal legal tools with community-driven accountability mechanisms.(“Beyond the Trash”; Eco-Justice Ethiopia)

There is a growing opportunity to reframe waste governance as a Business and Human Rights issue. Doing so requires expanding legal definitions of labor, accountability, and harm. It also demands that African experiences, particularly those rooted in informal and customary systems, inform the evolution of both national and international BHR frameworks 

Grassroots Innovations in Accountability

In Ethiopia, where formal regulatory systems often fall short, grassroots initiatives have emerged as powerful tools for advancing accountability in waste governance. These innovations are not substitutes for legal enforcement; they are complementary mechanisms that reflect lived realities and community resilience.

Eco-Justice Ethiopia has developed several models that demonstrate how local actors can hold businesses and institutions accountable. One example is our community-led waste audits. These audits involve mapping waste flows, identifying pollution hotspots, and documenting corporate practices. The data collected is used to engage municipalities and push for targeted interventions. It also empowers communities to demand transparency and redress.

Youth engagement is another cornerstone of our approach. Through school-based campaigns and creative media, young people raise awareness about plastic pollution, toxic exposure, and corporate responsibility. These efforts have led to local bans on single-use plastics and increased scrutiny of packaging waste from major retailers (The Guardian, 2023). Youth voices are not only mobilizing change, they are reshaping the narrative around environmental rights.

We also work closely with informal waste workers to build collective power. Many of these workers operate without contracts, recognition, or protection. By organizing cooperatives, facilitating legal literacy workshops, and advocating for payment mechanisms, we help shift their status from invisible laborers to rights-holders. In some municipalities, this has led to pilot programs where informal workers are formally contracted and compensated.

These grassroots mechanisms challenge the assumption that accountability must come from top-down regulation. They show that communities can monitor, report, and negotiate with businesses using their own tools and knowledge systems. They also highlight the importance of legal pluralism, where customary practices, local norms, and informal governance structures play a role in shaping outcomes.

African leadership in Business and Human Rights must embrace these innovations. They offer scalable, context-specific models that go beyond compliance. They center justice, participation, and dignity. Most importantly, they prove that accountability is not the exclusive domain of courts or corporations. It belongs to the people most affected.

Challenging the Orthodoxy – Decolonial and Inclusive Approaches

Mainstream Business and Human Rights frameworks often rely on formal legal systems, corporate self-regulation, and compliance checklists. These models assume that accountability flows from institutions to communities. In many African contexts, the opposite is true. Communities create their own systems of monitoring, enforcement, and redress, often in the absence of functioning state mechanisms.

This disconnect reveals a deeper problem. Global BHR discourse tends to prioritize Western regulatory traditions and corporate governance models. It overlooks the role of customary law, informal economies, and community-led accountability. These omissions are not just technical gaps. They reflect a broader failure to recognize the diversity of legal systems and lived experiences.

Decolonial legal thought offers a pathway to address this imbalance. It challenges the dominance of Eurocentric legal norms and calls for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge, collective rights, and alternative governance structures. Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) further emphasize the need to center voices from the Global South in shaping legal norms and institutions.

In Ethiopia, informal waste workers and grassroots coalitions are already practicing these principles. They negotiate with local authorities, set community standards, and enforce environmental protections through social networks and customary norms. These practices are not peripheral. They are central to how accountability works on the ground (CCAC, 2025)

Eco-Justice Ethiopia integrates these approaches into our advocacy. We support hybrid models that combine formal legal tools with community-driven mechanisms. We also push for recognition of customary practices in municipal waste policies and national environmental law reform.

To strengthen Business and Human Rights in Africa, we must move beyond imported frameworks. We need models that reflect local realities, value informal systems, and promote legal pluralism. This shift is not only necessary, it is transformative. It opens space for justice that is participatory, context-specific, and rooted in the lived experiences of African communities.

Lessons for Global BHR Frameworks

African grassroots leadership offers critical lessons for strengthening global Business and Human Rights frameworks. These lessons are not theoretical. They emerge from daily struggles for recognition, dignity, and justice in contexts where formal systems are limited or inaccessible.

One key lesson is the need to recognize informal workers as central actors in corporate accountability. Waste pickers, recyclers, and community monitors are not passive victims. They are environmental stewards and rights defenders. Global frameworks must expand their definitions of labor and stakeholder engagement to include these groups.

Another lesson is the value of community-led monitoring and enforcement. In Ethiopia, local audits, youth campaigns, and cooperative organizing have produced tangible outcomes. These mechanisms are often faster, more trusted, and more adaptive than formal regulatory processes  (UNDP Africa Spotlight Report 2023). International standards should support and validate these approaches, not replace them.

Environmental justice must also be integrated into corporate due diligence. Waste, pollution, and toxic exposure are not just environmental issues. They are human rights concerns. Companies must assess and address their impacts on health, livelihoods, and ecosystems, especially in vulnerable communities (The Role of Informal Waste Pickers in Plastic Waste Recycling, IDOSR Journal, 2025).

Finally, global frameworks must embrace legal pluralism. Customary norms, informal governance, and hybrid accountability systems are part of the legal reality in many African countries. Ignoring them weakens enforcement and alienates communities. Recognizing these systems strengthens legitimacy and effectiveness.

Eco-Justice Ethiopia’s work shows that accountability is most powerful when it is rooted in local knowledge and collective action. By learning from African experiences, global BHR frameworks can become more inclusive, responsive, and just.

Conclusion

African grassroots actors are not peripheral to Business and Human Rights, they are central. Their daily work in waste management, environmental protection, and community organizing reflects a deep commitment to justice and accountability. These efforts challenge dominant models and offer practical, locally grounded alternatives.

Eco-Justice Ethiopia’s experience shows that informal workers, youth leaders, and community coalitions are shaping the future of corporate responsibility. They are building systems of accountability that are inclusive, adaptive, and rooted in lived realities. These systems deserve recognition, support, and integration into national and global frameworks.

To advance Business and Human Rights in Africa, we must move beyond compliance and toward transformation. This means embracing legal pluralism, elevating grassroots expertise, and centering environmental justice. It also means listening to those most affected and trusting their capacity to lead.

The path forward is not only legal, it is collective. By working across sectors and borders, we can build a more just and sustainable future. One where waste is not a burden, but a starting point for rights, dignity, and systemic change.