Author: Zahid Torres-Rahman

Business Fights Poverty is a free-to-join professional network for all those passionate about fighting poverty through good business. Read more about Business Figths Poverty here.

Inclusive Business Solutions to Poverty, Post COVID-19

While corporate philanthropy and development aid will be necessary for the short to medium term, the economic recovery agenda demands collective and coherent action from businesses, including corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). If ever evidence was needed that inclusive business should be higher up the agenda, this is it. Inclusive business and COVID-19 […]

How Financial Inclusion can Build Economic Resilience in the Wake of COVID-19

COVID-19 has impacted nearly everyone around the globe, but its impacts are particularly acute for people in poverty. As governments restrict gatherings, health authorities recommend social distancing, and markets panic, the outbreak poses a disproportionate threat in the Global South. At the same time, many microfinance institutions (MFIs) face threats to staff safety and operational […]

Would Workers on Boards Make Corporations More COVID-19 Resilient?

COVID-19 has become the window frame through which we now view so much of our lives. Certainly, high on that list is our work and workplace. For many who are fortunate to be employed and work from home, there have been annoyances and stresses in managing our home life and work life at the same […]

The Fortnightly Business Fights Poverty Round-Up

Following three busy months establishing the Business and COVID-19 Response Centre, our attention is turning to how to rebuild better. With the launch of our survey, we are entering into a period of listening – to our members, supporters, and the wider debate – so that  our efforts to help build a more resilient and […]

From Response to Rebuilding Better

Who are vulnerable people, what is recovery and why is rebuilding so important? Millions of people are enduring a devastating impact to their lives, livelihoods and learning opportunities due to the pandemic. Among them, vulnerable groups, such as informal workers, women, black people and other ethnic minorities, and those with underlying medical conditions, have been […]

New Ways of Thinking, Convening, Leading

It feels like a lifetime ago that WWF and many other organizations identified 2020 as a potential ‘Super Year’ for nature and people. Big United Nations decisions under international conventions on climate change and biological diversity were to take place, complemented by negotiation of a Global Oceans treaty; and in its 75th anniversary year, the […]

Coronavirus, “Hunger-Virus” & The Lived Experience of Slum-Dwellers in Lockdown

NOTE: the situation globally and especially in the low-income urban communities discussed in this article is evolving rapidly. The survey and conversations informing this article were primarily conducted from 15 April, 2020 to 15 May, 2020. At Archipel&Co, our inclusive business work has been committed to collaborating with residents from low-income communities whose creativity, courage […]

Fighting Our Other Pandemic: Racism

Like you, we have looked on with horror and anger at the events that have been unfolding in the US. The horrific murder of George Floyd, the latest in a sad history of black people being killed by those meant to protect and serve. As the lawyer of the Floyd family put it at yesterday’s […]

TWO WEEKS IN ONE!

For me, this coming week is two weeks in one! Let me explain. One of my volunteering roles is as chair of the charity Carers UK. We are the co-ordinators of, and a partner in, Carers Week in the UK. This is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges unpaid carers […]

Put Collaboration at the Heart of Global Efforts to Re-build MSMEs Post COVID-19

The global pandemic has triggered an unprecedented surge of support for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), both in recognition of the critical role they play in national economies and global value chains, and because of their vulnerability as global economic activity grinds to a halt.  COVID-19 is making an already challenging environment for MSMEs […]

Technology and the Workplace: Putting People First

Work is the engine at the center of our economies. Shaping a future of work where people can thrive is essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Over 20 global member companies of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have collaborated to develop shared business principles aimed at putting people first when it […]

Purposeful Collaboration to Fight COVID-19

It was just before 6 o’clock on 11 March, and I was on my last call of the day when news broke that the WHO Director-General had declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Sometimes life-changing moments are only recognisable as such in retrospect, but sometimes – like this one – you recognise their significance […]

Lessons for COVID-19-era CEOs

Does having ethics pay off? Jane Nelson has been answering some version of that question for years. As the founding director of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, she has helped shape empathy-driven models of corporate leadership and define environmental, social, and governance priorities across the globe. But the COVID-19 pandemic—wrecking lives, […]