Examples from the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark COVID-19 study: How some companies are responding to the crisis in a meaningful way
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit businesses hard, wiping out the equivalent of 255 million jobs in 2020 alone – four times more than the 2009 financial crisis. Unskilled labourers, minorities and women have been particularly hard hit. In February 2021 the World Benchmarking Alliance released a COVID-19 and human rights study of the same 229 […]
India and COVID Response
I’m sure, like me, you have been shocked to see the scenes in India of people being turned away from hospitals in Delhi due to a lack of oxygen. On 24 April, India reported nearly 350,000 new cases of COVID-19, a world record for the number of new infections during the pandemic. By early May, […]
Business and COVID-19 One Year On
COVID-19 has impacted us all, but the most severe impacts are being felt by the most vulnerable people. On March 12 2020, Business Fights Poverty launched a programme to accelerate global learning and local action to support the most vulnerable people and enterprises in companies’ value chains, communities and beyond. We started by developing a Response Framework with […]
Fighting COVID in Kenya: A New Blueprint for Rapid Collaboration?
Over the past year, we have seen people and organisations come together in new, innovative and inspiring ways against a seismic, global challenge not seen in a generation, the COVID-19 pandemic. Our news feeds are filled with heartfelt examples of human beings helping one another, increased community engagement and volunteerism, and new types of partnership. They […]
Gender is a significant factor in private sector and disaster management
One of the key considerations of gender in private sector disaster management is that women are overrepresented in the economic sectors that are hit hardest in disasters, as well as in the informal sector which is specifically vulnerable to disasters. Some might say the selection of career is a personal choice. But is it? The World […]
Will you partner with us to help small businesses survive the pandemic, thrive in the aftermath, and build self-reliance?
In late November 2020, a mother, and low-income garment worker in Bangladesh, called the Maya helpline. Her nine-month-old baby had severe stomach pains and she didn’t know the cause or what to do. Amidst the pandemic, the Maya team gave expert medical advice via a free telephone consultation, judged the severity of the issue, and […]
COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
Cuba hopes to inoculate its entire population against COVID-19 with a home-grown vaccine this year. The country has four potential vaccines in development, the most advanced of which – Soberana II – is due to start Phase III trials in March with 150,000 volunteers. If it clears this final clinical hurdle, the Cuban vaccine will […]
Two Unusual Low-Cost Chicken Feed Options for Some of the World’s Poorest Entrepreneurs
In rural parts of Odisha, India, backyard chickens scavenging on farms and eating kitchen waste are a familiar sight. Scrawny birds patrol gardens freely, snatching up worms and insects, but they often become prey to larger predators. And since they don’t live in a coop, free-range chickens succumb to diseases that could easily be prevented […]
Five mantras for effective COVID-19 vaccine communication
As scientists move closer to an effective COVID-19 vaccine, the global health community is preparing for how it will build trust in its safety and efficacy. GAVI (The Vaccine Alliance) Civil Society Constituency recently convened a webinar on Keeping Trust in Immunisation: Community Perceptions of Vaccination in the time of COVID-19 to explore the communication groundwork required to ensure […]
Business Fights Poverty Fortnightly Round Up
New Insights Report: How can self-care help health systems rebuild better during COVID-19? COVID-19 has placed enormous pressures on already fragile health systems. Developed with life sciences company Bayer, our new Insights Report explores how wider uptake of ‘self-care’ approaches can reduce pressure on strained health systems, improve vulnerable people’s health outcomes and empower individuals […]
Fast + Fair: Vaccine plans must be inclusive and leave no one behind
The comprehensive vaccine program, at a cost of $2 per person, will help ensure that frontline health workers have appropriate training and equipment, vulnerable populations such as women, girls, and refugees have safe access to medical services as well as the vaccine, and that communities receive critical information and advocacy to promote uptake. CARE’s approach draws from 75 years of experience in emergency […]
Enabling greater inclusion of PWD’s amid the pandemic
The World Health Organization offers a definition of disability that encompasses three dimensions: 1) Impairment in a person’s body structure or function, or mental functioning 2) Activity limitation such as difficulty seeing, hearing, walking or problem-solving 3) Restricted participation in normal daily activities such as work, social interaction and recreational activities. Over 800 million people […]
Primary health workforce learning in an era of COVID-19: is digital delivery here to stay?
Continuous professional development (CPD) is essential for clinicians and health managers responding to rapidly changing epidemiology: from the rise of NCDs to the onset of new diseases like COVID-19. The strengthening of primary health workforce capacity is a key pillar of health systems strengthening and Universal Health Coverage, and is particularly needed in resource-poor and […]
Corruption, Covid-19 and Inequality: the vital role of companies in preventing this deadly mixture
So far, there are almost 40 million cases of COVID-19 globally and more than one million deaths. Despite these staggering numbers, we now know the virus does not affect us all equally. Failing to address corruption risks in this environment can make that inequality so much worse. And alongside policymakers, businesses arguably have the biggest […]
A sustainable equitable food system needs to be nourished at the source
COVID-19 has exposed many of the vulnerabilities in our food system, one of which is just how reliant global supply chains are on people’s well-being at every step of the journey. The small-scale farmers in emerging markets who produce much of the world’s food ingredients, live in countries that face high rates of malnutrition, with […]
SEMINAR VIDEO: WHY IS THE PANDEMIC DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS?
PROFILE Ute Stephan is Professor of Entrepreneurship at King’s College London, Visiting Professor (Organizational Psychology) at TU Dresden, Germany, Honorary Professor at Aston Business School and at UCL, and a Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology. WHAT THIS SESSION COVERS In this session Professor Ute Stephan talks about her research project on Entrepreneurship […]
How Africa is using medical drone delivery to combat COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced extraordinary challenges for health systems and communities around the globe. Countries are faced with surging demand on hospitals, keeping vulnerable populations safely at home, and effectively managing scarce resources like test kits, personal protective equipment, and, someday hopefully soon, a vaccine. As policymakers search for solutions in real-time, many are […]
How solar-powered tablets are educating rural communities about COVID-19
“We use solar-powered tablets to conduct community education campaigns on financial education, contraception and HIV, health, vaccinations, civic education, and now to inform communities about measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” says Dayn Amade, founder of the Tablet Comunitário/Community Tablet. In the wake of the outbreak of the novel corona virus and realizing the need to […]
Saving the lives of the rich and the urban poor through cross-subsidisation
LifeBank is a medical company based in Lagos, Nigeria. It uses data, technology and a smart logistics system to deliver blood and oxygen from labs across the country to patients and doctors in hospitals. LifeBank is also building a movement of 1 million voluntary blood donors to improve Nigeria’s blood supply. Since 2016, LifeBank has […]
Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for all
Among the major inequities in the food system is the accessibility and affordability of nutritious and healthy foods across the world. Currently, around 26% of the global population experiences moderate to severe levels of food insecurity and lacks regular access to nutritious and healthy food. Vegetables, fruits, and nuts that are high in essential nutrients are often less […]