UN SG Launches Road Map to Address COVID-19
Alongside this, the Secretary General has established the United Nations COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund to support low- and middle-income countries in the face of the pandemic. All businesses have a crucial role to play in supporting the global response. “The world is facing an unprecedented test. And this is the moment of truth. … […]
How Can Businesses Support their NGO Partners Through the Impact of COVID-19?
Many NGOs are facing multiple operational and business continuity threats from the COVID-19 crisis and the efforts to contain it. A new Action Toolkit has been developed following a recent Business Fights Poverty online discussion to explore how business should respond: what factors should they consider, and what actions can they take to support their […]
COVID-19: Delivering Critical Information and Behaviour Change at Scale
Endcornavirus.africa and endcornavirus.co.ke are interactive one-stop-shops for COVID-19 prevention and management information in English for users across Africa using WHO guidelines, with the first language localised site in kiswahili for Kenya. Abi Gleek, Our Director of Digital Strategy, will be presenting the sites at the online ICT4D Conference in a session called ICT for COVID-19 Response: […]
Working and Learning Online During a Pandemic
According to UNESCO’s latest statistics, >91% of the world’s students are impacted by school closures; that’s more than 1.57 Billion learners in more than 192 countries who are out of school! In this uncertain environment we’re facing during the COVID19 pandemic, it’s important that learning continues, even if it can’t happen in person. Pearson, the […]
COVID-19 is a Chance to Invest in Our Essential Infrastructure Workforce
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps millions of people home and many businesses shuttered for social distancing, up to 62 million essential workers are still reporting to their jobs in hospitals, grocery stores, and other critical industries. They are on the frontlines against the coronavirus, vital to our public health and economic survival. Of them, the 17 […]
Business Collaboration to Fight COVID-19 in Kenya
Kenya reported its first case of COVID-19 on March 16. That same day, private companies, the government of Kenya, members of the UN family, and civil society organizations came together to form a National Business Compact, a platform for collaboration for all of the stakeholders to coordinate and collaborate on tackling the outbreak. It was […]
Launching the Business and COVID-19 Response Centre
Today, we should have been coming together in Washington for Business Fights Poverty DC 2020. If you have ever been to one of our flagship events, in Oxford or in New York, you will have heard me talk about the power of purpose and the importance of collaboration. Purpose can enable us to become the […]
Don’t Allow the Coronavirus to Open Up Another Front
WHO has called for a “whole of government, whole of society” approach to combatting the pandemic. Beating COVID-19 requires more than just a health system response; it involves every person, everywhere, and every sector. We are all in this together. Food is our most basic need, and we must defend our food systems and the […]
Shaping a New Social Contract Through the Pandemic
In the midst of our COVID-19 pandemic, there are rising calls for government and business to form a ‘new social contract’. This would tackle the immediate economic hardship, and more fairly share the burdens and benefits from our economies. This comes from actors as diverse as the International Trade Union Congress and the Financial Times. In contrast, too […]
Covid-19: ‘We Won’t Get Back to Normal Because Normal was the Problem’
The crisis is set to generate a loss of at least 1.5% or $1 trillion worldwide, which would technically mean a global recession with all major regions affected and a devastating impact on the poorest countries. Plans for recovery are already being discussed, with a focus on the financial stimulus needed to help economies recover. But […]
In the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic: Do Non-Profits need to Rethink Sustainability?
‘Sustainability’ for Non-Profits For at least two decades, the term ‘sustainability’ has been at the centre of discussion about non-profits. While people fairly quickly accept the notion that non-profits, or NGOs, should be sustainable, there’s often little analysis of what the term means. Should non-profit finances be sustainable? This is what people usually refer to: the glorious […]
Why We Need Social Intrapreneurs More than Ever During COVID-19
The COVID-19 crisis illustrates the need for innovation from within companies by “social intrapreneurs.” A new report from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Yunus Social Business and Porticus presents best practices from these employees who are working to address environmental or social problems. Beyond providing societal benefits, corporate social intrapreneurship motivates employees, increases innovation and incites […]
An Old Movie For Our Times
The first op-ed I ever published, with The Chicago Tribune, applied Albert Camus’ The Plague to corporate scandals in the early 90s. Later I watched the film version of the novel and showed it to several of my ethics classes. Frankly, I had not considered it as something for this series of the Cultural Foundations […]
How Researchers Can Aid the COVID-19 Response
As the world reacts to the ongoing spread of COVID-19, private businesses have already been stepping in to help. From restaurants voluntarily shutting down to manufacturers and other companies shifting their focus to produce personal protective gear, ventilators, and hand sanitizer, the private sector is playing a key role in stopping the spread of this […]
Coronavirus measures will hit women harder than men, charities warn
Although death rates appear to be slightly higher among men, a study by aid organisations CARE International and International Rescue Committee (IRC) found women were more at risk of suffering domestic violence while quarantined. They were also more likely than men to take on the burden of caring for family members who were sick, and […]
What Can We Learn from Early Corporate Responses to COVID-19?
To keep things real, I often remind myself of my prior role when I was an in-house CSR manager of a company and ask myself what I would do in that position. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, however, I have found myself wondering how I would respond now, when there is no roadmap, and we […]
The Urgency of a New Social Contract
In the United States, the crisis we are experiencing has laid bare the failure of the current social contract in many ways: the lack of access to healthcare owing to the tying of health insurance to paid employment; the extreme vulnerability of gig-economy workers to a sudden downturn of business; and for many workers, the absence of paid sick leave, inadequate childcare, and insufficient unemployment […]
COVID-19 Requires Gender-Equal Responses to Save Economies
Why are women so at risk? Firstly, women are more likely to lose their jobs than men. In many countries, women’s participation in the labour market is often in the form of temporary employment. Across the world, women represent less than 40% of total employment but make up 57% of those working on a part-time […]
How businesses respond to Coronavirus has massive ramifications – now and for the future economy that emerges
Here are 8 ideas on elements that are important right now for responsible business practice, despite highly-varied and fast changing contexts: 1. Even if the workforce is being downsized, rapid reactions should not come at the cost of worker rights and representation. Companies should ensure they are working with unions and other workers’ representatives to […]
Responding to Coronavirus: Low-Carbon Investments Can Help Economies Recover
Emissions reductions caused by economic downturns tend to be temporary — and can lead to emissions growth as economies attempt to get back on track. After the global financial crisis of 2008, for example, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production grew 5.9% in 2010, more than offsetting the 1.4% decrease in 2009. With […]