Why some companies leapt to support the COVID-19 response
Many companies acted to assist the public response to the pandemic. Companies that already had established relationships with community organizations, governments, business partners, or others, leveraged those connections to channel resources. High risk and poor coordination impeded many companies’ early response. The first phase of the COVID-19 crisis posed an unprecedented challenge for the private […]
5 lessons from the pandemic: Agility, clarity, and sincerity define game play today
The most successful businesses continuously evolved to stay relevant and remain competitive. Yet sometimes it takes a crisis to jolt our best intentions into action. Whether that crisis affects a business, an industry or, in the case of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the systemic problems it has exposed, the world, it’s essential to reflect […]
Integrated Corporate Governance: Six Leadership Priorities For Boards Beyond The Crisis
The Covid-19 crisis is accelerating a shift toward a more integrated approach to corporate governance that has been gathering force for some time. The pandemic has put people’s lives, livelihoods and learning at the center of the public policy and business response in almost every country and industry sector. It has dramatically underscored the need […]
Scalability, Sustainability and Participation in Value Chain
This is the second in a three part series, published in the lead up to Standard Chartered’s Futuremakers Forum online events 2020. Join the conversation exploring innovative ideas and tangible solutions for financing young entrepreneurs. Supporting youth-led enterprises is good for business and vital for inclusive economic growth. According to the World Bank, SMEs represent […]
Unlocking systems transformation – A business view
The term “systems transformation” is increasingly being used to describe what is needed to achieve sustainable development. Players across government, industry, academia and civil society are more and more aligned in their position that the sustainable development challenges we face are complex, highly interconnected and systemic, and that incremental change will not be enough to […]
The post-Covid-19 world presents an opportunity for better business, but will it happen?
The global outbreak has not only exposed the frailty and complexity of human needs, but also how quickly they can evolve – and thus how quickly organisations must adapt to keep up. Without diminishing its devastating impact, if this crisis has a silver lining, it is the opportunity it provides businesses to prepare for a post-pandemic world: […]
Finding Innovative Ideas and Tangible Solutions for Financing Young Entrepreneurs
This is the first in a three part series, published in the lead up to Standard Chartered’s Futuremakers Forum online events 2020. To join the conversation exploring innovative ideas and tangible solutions for financing young entrepreneurs – the live event will take place on 30 July 2020. Please click here to register. Globally, more than […]
The post-COVID-19 world presents an opportunity for better business, but will it happen?
As COVID-19 wreaks havoc on lives and livelihoods around the world, fulfilling a social purpose has never been so important to businesses or their customers. The global outbreak has not only exposed the frailty and complexity of human needs, but also how quickly they can evolve – and thus how quickly organisations must adapt to […]
Early Insights From Four Practitioners in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis
This article is a follow-up to the webinar “Resilience for Inclusive Businesses – Early Insights from Practitioners” that took place on April 9, 2020. For the video recording, please click here. To be updated on future webinar installments, please check out the Hystra website or the Global Distributors Collective’s dedicated COVID resources page. As the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Holding Course in the Middle of a Storm: Navigating the Deeply Disrupted Decade Ahead
Predicting the future in any detail is hard at the best of times, but in the middle of a pandemic, it actually might become easier – even though volatility has increased dramatically, our focus and options have necessarily narrowed. Existing vulnerabilities have been tangibly and tragically exposed – rich as well as poor countries have […]
How Can Partnerships Create Rapid Innovation During COVID-19 Crisis?
Business Fights Poverty convened an online discussion to explore what we can learn from these new partnerships and the innovations they are creating – both to inspire and strengthen the short-term response to COVID-19, and to help make innovation partnerships the “new normal” in a post-COVID world. In the face of adversity, businesses have taken […]