A1: I think its hard to point to concrete ‘best’ practices at this time – companies are developing bespoke responses informed by their specific place in the value-chain and operating context. In the short-term, putting people first – employees as well as local communities and other key stakeholder groups – is obviously essential, as is focussing on safe business continuity. In the longer-term and for agribusinesses 1) weaving a solid understanding of the interdependency (systems thinking) into business resilience and 2) investing in inclusive business models will be key.
Answer to Q3: Businesses are at risk of becoming irrelevant, post COVID-19 unless they get involved and provide support in a crisis. They will not be respected nor trusted by their customers.
Some of the risk factors include human capital, management capabilities, financial status and ownership of the business to sustain it. This will be mitigated though capacity development and partnerships between businesses to sustain the man power and resilience of the business. This will bring about business ownership.
Another risk will be the lack of political commitment to initiative and review the policies around the business sector. This can be mitigated by business bodies such as the private sector coming together and advocating for change!
Some of the opportunities to factor in is investing in technology and e-infrastructure of business development for a more sustainable and resilient economies. For businesses to step up during and after COVID 19, Promotion of SDG 3 ‘Good Health and Well-being’ needs to be emphasized and a cross cutting goal in all the SDGs. This will ensure resilient yet sustainable development in all the sectors of the society while integrating partnership.
A3: There are new opportunities for companies to build trust with their partners (NGOs and others), which will strengthen partnerships in the long-term. The way companies behave, communicate and involve partners in decision-making during the crisis will have a lasting effect on the future partnership. By demonstrating how the company will act in good faith, supporting each partner’s future as an organisation, and enabling the partnership programme to succeed in the changed context, a company can contribute directly to tackling the crisis and at the same time can invest in better future partnership relationships.
A2: SMEs are the backbone of economies. They represent about 90% of businesses and account for more than 50% of employment worldwide. The BFP Covid-19 Response Framework identified SMEs as a particularly vulnerable community. GAA is developing an agri-SME digital finance platform (using existing infrastructure to facilitate interoperability between systems)
One major risk for individual CEOs, companies or even industry associations stepping up is a political risk in certain countries. In many countries there is strong national cohesion and shared vision for responding to and beginning to reopen and recover from the pandemic. In others, including here in the United States, there are very different political views at different levels - especially federal and state - which make it difficult for business leaders to be outspoken in ways that are not see as being politicized. In most places, the most coordinated action are being taken at local leadership levels or round very focused national agendas, such as the great work of the Kenya National Business Compact on Coronavirus and other similar dedicated public-private action platforms.
2 practical risks are weak and inadequate governance, and lack of trust. Dysfunctional or inadequately resourced institutions, lack of rule of law and enforcement, bribery and corruption: these deficits aggravate the hurts caused to the vulnerable. Business is stepping up to do more, but it cannot substitute for the responsibility and accountability governments are due their citizens.
Trust (and lack thereof) is a crucial consideration and certainly hampers the full-on wide ranging response needed – eroding trust in government in some countries, and also counter-productive mistrust of scientific advice and vaccines is a hurdle. USCIB’s Business Partners for Sustainable Development (BPSD) will be partnering with other academic, health and NGO organizations to get out in front of what we call in the U.S. “anti-vaxxer” sentiments, to provide education and encourage people to seek protection from infection when it becomes available.
A question from the Business Fights Poverty community:
Marina Novelli asks: I would be interested to know if there is any opportunity to collaborate on specific evaluations such as on tourism related contexts. The impact of crisis and Covid on livelihood in poor and marginalised communities…I would be delighted to know as I am collaborating with colleagues in Kenya to pilot the development of recovery toolkits from SMEs and informal sector.
If we waste the opportunity of this crisis to build back better, we will end up with the same unsustainable and inequitable systems we know. If we want to change these systems, be it food, energy or health, and make them truly regenerative and inclusive, we need to innovate together. Government, business, civil society, academia all need to work together to make that shift. Innovation is critical, but innovation on the system level is also quite tricky because of the interconnectedness.
A2: We’re also working with leading supply-side companies to strengthen their capacity to tackle field-level losses which can equate to significant lost incomes as well as exacerbate food security challenges – you can read more here https://docs.wbcsd.org/2019/07/WBCSD-Case-study_OLAM.pdf
Business should look for partners and define an area they can actively influence on the systems level. In an era of transformation, co-creating future systems also means finding your future business model. So, for example, we know that the future of food must be much less resource intensive AND more healthy. So working with small farmers and understanding how you as an insurance, credit provider, trader or retailer can help increase and improve their output and income, and who else needs to come on board to make it sustainable, can open up long-term growth markets.
One area of both risk and opportunity for companies is in how they think about deploying possible in-kind support, for example through NGO partners. Communications or other in-house technical expertise may well be valuable for the partners in this crisis. The risk arises because it is easy to be supply-driven in this situation: employees are often eager to volunteer their skills, but there may be a mis-match between what is on offer and the real needs of an NGO partner and the communities they serve. It is important that any volunteered support of this kind matches real needs identified by the partner. Even long-term partnerships in less-stressed times can struggle to get this right.
Another risk and challenge for business is the very obvious one of allocating scarce management time and financial resources to policy dialogue and partnerships at a time when business leaders are also having to focus on their own business continuity and financial resilience. That is why so many of the most effective collaborative responses we are seeing are happening where there was an existing partnership or platform between specific companies, NGOs, trade unions etc. and they can build immediately on that. Once again, this is a valuable lesson going forward - invest time and money in building development partnerships for the long-term so that they can be both more resilient and more responsive and agile when there is a crisis.
Two questions from the Business Fights Poverty community on the topic of gender based violence:
From Fernanda Munhoz: How do you see this as an opportunity to get buy-in from Businesses to commit to addressing GBV as part of duty to protect their employees? I have been working on this for the past 2 years and it’s been a very slow uptake from businesses, I’m hoping this will push them in the right direction, but they need to understand it’s an ongoing issue not just Covid
Response from @AliceAllan : @fernanda sounds like you are doing great work. GBV is increasingly being seen as a duty to protect staff in some contexts, and using the health and safety lens. I also think that as we move towards ratification of ILO convention 190 things will shift further.
and
Question from Frances Abouzeid: please do send those links on GBV examples from rio tinto/vodaphone
Adding my agreement - but we must steer clear of the sector by sector silos, and collaborate up and down the value chains…whether on essential needs like food and energy or in consumer products.
One tool for businesses and others to innovate on the systems level is our www.ii2030.com methodology. Based on a concrete tech-enabled opportunity, we curate complementary players into an innovation process that leads to a systems prototype on the ground. At the moment, we are for example exploring how remote sensing can enable integrated risk management for small farmers. And how satellite data can inform government action to strengthen health systems.
Hi Marina - It would be great to hear more about your work in Kenya on SME recovery. We will soon be launching a new guide that highlights the need and opportunity for stronger collaboration between sectors to tackle the underlying barriers that hold back MSMEs.