Being present helps with the responsiveness in terms of relevance and impact as noted by Andy. Public-Private partnerships are important for sustainable solutions and support from education and awareness to re-investment and financial aid. Some approaches we have taken include:
Participating in active forums like this one and sharing expertise
Working outside the region to support SL effort and beyond to impact the region as well as Internationally; hosting a forum in London to mobilise the public-private sector
Volunteering our core skills and provide in-kind support – such as supporting the #AfricaAgainstEbola campaign (a charity initiated by the African Union, African Development Bank and African corporates) by providing core banking services to a global fundraising campaign
The outbreak has accelerated the need to come up with creative, new ways to address issues that most of the humanitarian actors, Governments and business had not to deal with - at least not within this short timeline and scale - building up digital opportunities for monitoring, tracking and response of cases, has brought World Vision, telecommunication service providers, the Government and other players to agree and build or scale up the use of such tools rapidly. Thus, innovation and not only from technology perspective, but even modeling opportunities of using psycho-social support models integrated as part of livelihoods recovery - working with business on these solutions - has been a very important milestone.
Andy - that is certainly right. There has been (rightly) a lot of focus on the role of the public sector and health systems in promoting resilience to crises like ebola (see the relative success of Nigeria) - but I think that having an effective private sector in place prior to such a crisis is also a very important element in a country's resilience.
Andy Wright said:
The best way to respond is by being there already. If a business has a presence in the country, it can mount a local response. For example, we have a business in the affected countries which reinvests some of its profits back into training healthcare workers. By investing in the infrastructure in this way, we can - in the longer term - help create a more resilient healthcare system that can respond to outbreaks and mitigate them when they do.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Thanks for all the insights so far. Let's move on to question 2:
Q2: What have we learned from the on-going ebola outbreak about how to successfully mobilise a business response, and where are the business innovations happening?
Sharing examples of innovation or rather survival tips helps too supported by sound communication flow in and out of affected countries ... some examples that resonate with us are
Adel Suliman, the CEO of Afcom, one of Sierra Leone’s largest telecoms companies, and a long-standing client of Standard Chartered:
When the crisis hit, Suliman set up an Ebola response centre within two days. For the first 24 hours, he personally staffed the emergency phone line alongside Sierra Leone’s Minister of Health, using just mobile phones.
The centre became integral to the country’s Ebola response strategy, and still handles more than 10,000 calls each day.
Arne Johansen, CEO of local cement manufacturer Leocem, who reacted swiftly to make sure that staff were protected throughout the crisis. When Ebola broke out, ships stopped docking and supplies were disrupted. Yet, Johansen and his company managed to maintain production, providing cement for the construction of temporary treatment centres and other crucial infrastructure.
Kathryn Taetzsch said:
The outbreak has accelerated the need to come up with creative, new ways to address issues that most of the humanitarian actors, Governments and business had not to deal with - at least not within this short timeline and scale - building up digital opportunities for monitoring, tracking and response of cases, has brought World Vision, telecommunication service providers, the Government and other players to agree and build or scale up the use of such tools rapidly. Thus, innovation and not only from technology perspective, but even modeling opportunities of using psycho-social support models integrated as part of livelihoods recovery - working with business on these solutions - has been a very important milestone.
I am the Head of Public Health International SOS and I have been involved in a program on emerging infectious diseases (EID) and extractive industries - IDRAM - over the last 3 years funded by USAID.
We worked on a pilot project in DRC with a group of mining companies to assess their vulnerabilities to EID and then to better understand what was the attitude and practice of different mining departments towards infectious diseases. The findings are very relevant as we found that most companies were implementing best practices inside the fence to reduce the risk of transmission. However, all companies stressed the difficulty (or impossibility) of controlling the area outside of the project facilities, namely the wider concession area and the communities living at or close to the site. Therefore a clear gap was the establishment of joint outbreak response plans and exercises. We ran a series of outbreak scenarios involving mining companies and health authorities and the results were really exciting.
Q3 It needs to be linked in with what is already happening, such as UPS linking into the humanitarian logistics cluster in order to avoid duplication of effort. We need more private sector groups engaging with humanitarian clusters.
a) Public sector can facilitate that regulatory frameworks create an enabling environment for quick and solution-based response to a humanitarian crisis
b) No entity has "all the answers" nor solutions - only jointly can we address pandemics and other humanitarian crisis effectively
c) creating a new model of strengthening local ownership and sustainability of interventions
If the public and private sector combine their respective resources and expertise, the overall impact is potentially much greater. This was evident in the way different sectors pulled together to react to the Ebola outbreak. The crisis caught the world off guard and the pace of the emergency meant that no single organisation was able to solve it – we needed the complementary skills of different sectors to adequately respond. There are lessons to be learnt here. We need to move beyond the traditional models of corporate-charity partnerships, which are about philanthropy, and think about how we can combine our respective strengths to tackle the underlying causes of ill health and poverty. That’s why for example, we formed a five-year partnership with Save the Children in 2013, where we combine our skills and expertise to help develop child-friendly medicines and train health workers. These partnerships are not always easy, but they are necessary.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Really useful insights being shared here! Let's move on to our third and final question:
Q3: How can public-private collaboration enhance the impact of business’s contribution?
More than 20,000 people here have suffered from the disease, and more than 10,000 have died – this, in a country that has spent more than a decade recovering from a devastating civil war. The numbers don't quite stack up to the common cold, however what can we do to expedite R&D into delivering a vaccine / immunisation? Your thoughts on the need to build on the work done by ISOS and WHO to educate and create better awareness around EVD?
Andy Wright said:
The best way to respond is by being there already. If a business has a presence in the country, it can mount a local response. For example, we have a business in the affected countries which reinvests some of its profits back into training healthcare workers. By investing in the infrastructure in this way, we can - in the longer term - help create a more resilient healthcare system that can respond to outbreaks and mitigate them when they do.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Thanks for all the insights so far. Let's move on to question 2:
Q2: What have we learned from the on-going ebola outbreak about how to successfully mobilise a business response, and where are the business innovations happening?
Zaid, public-private partnerships are critical. Mercy Corps has been particularly focused in Liberia - we've pulled togehter some key ways we feel the private and not for profit sectors can continue to support recovery: - Keep investing directly in economies and supporting existing investments. - Procure local services and buy local goods. This can help stablize the local economy.
- Support economic development programmes by focusing on areas hit by the crisis. For example, Chevron continued to support the Mercy Corps Liberia’s employment and skills development activities throughout the crisis. - Find ways to channel the recovery or crisis funds locally through small businesses and seize creative opportunities to put small and medium businesses to work.
- Focus on long-term recovery. Medium and long term business investments can support economic development and address some of the factors/systemic constraints which have been issues all along but which are pronounced in crisis.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Really useful insights being shared here! Let's move on to our third and final question:
Q3: How can public-private collaboration enhance the impact of business’s contribution?
Can I ask people what they felt *didn't* work well in terms of collaboration?
I wasn't in Freetown or Monrovia during the crisis, but from speaking to those who did, it seemed that coordination between different actors (understandably) wasn't exactly perfect and there were instances of overlap and people pulling in different directions.
I am following the discussion from Sierra Leone, and i do want to register that public-private collaboration is essential for business effectiveness most especially post ebola. the public sector is expected to create the enabling platform for the private sector to survive. thinking of market linkages for eg, the public sector needs ensure that investor and and external market player's confidence is assured, then the private sector business can have an open platform to collaborate with external/market counterparts...
It is critical to establish robust engagement platforms for all key stakeholders on a more permanent basis - that opens opportunities to discuss, challenge, work on solutions! We see this as an emerging trend and support these platforms, as well as striving to work with our corporate partners, such as MasterCard Corporation with our Last Mile Mobile Solution (www.lastmilemobilesolution.com), to drive innovation that can be effectively used during future crisis.
Jo-Ann, I would say that the private sector can play a powerful role in social mobilization -- for example, through technology to reach far-flung communities with information on how to keep themselves safe. This outbreak has seen impressive use of mobile technologies to spread messages and capture real-time data.
Jo-Ann Pohl said:
More than 20,000 people here have suffered from the disease, and more than 10,000 have died – this, in a country that has spent more than a decade recovering from a devastating civil war. The numbers don't quite stack up to the common cold, however what can we do to expedite R&D into delivering a vaccine / immunisation? Your thoughts on the need to build on the work done by ISOS and WHO to educate and create better awareness around EVD?
Andy Wright said:
The best way to respond is by being there already. If a business has a presence in the country, it can mount a local response. For example, we have a business in the affected countries which reinvests some of its profits back into training healthcare workers. By investing in the infrastructure in this way, we can - in the longer term - help create a more resilient healthcare system that can respond to outbreaks and mitigate them when they do.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Thanks for all the insights so far. Let's move on to question 2:
Q2: What have we learned from the on-going ebola outbreak about how to successfully mobilise a business response, and where are the business innovations happening?
well the material ISOS colleagues developed were translated by NGOs in all local languages and this was a great example of collaboration. There were many collaborations that have happened that never made the news. We developed material to raise health awareness of staff working at private companies as part of safety inductions. and then the staff in turn become health champions in their communities. This is something very powerful and very cheap.
Jo-Ann Pohl said:
More than 20,000 people here have suffered from the disease, and more than 10,000 have died – this, in a country that has spent more than a decade recovering from a devastating civil war. The numbers don't quite stack up to the common cold, however what can we do to expedite R&D into delivering a vaccine / immunisation? Your thoughts on the need to build on the work done by ISOS and WHO to educate and create better awareness around EVD?
Andy Wright said:
The best way to respond is by being there already. If a business has a presence in the country, it can mount a local response. For example, we have a business in the affected countries which reinvests some of its profits back into training healthcare workers. By investing in the infrastructure in this way, we can - in the longer term - help create a more resilient healthcare system that can respond to outbreaks and mitigate them when they do.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Thanks for all the insights so far. Let's move on to question 2:
Q2: What have we learned from the on-going ebola outbreak about how to successfully mobilise a business response, and where are the business innovations happening?
Hi Jo-Ann, yes, the most important factor in accelerating the R&D of our candidate vaccine was partnership. Collaboration of different sectors was fundamental to GSK being able to accelerate R&D. Support came from numerous organisations, including – for example – Wellcome Trust, WHO, the University of Oxford and others. By working together with each of these partners from an early stage we were able to expedite the development of the candidate vaccine (which is still in trials). We’ve learned from this process that when the world is very clear about what it needs, such as a rapid response to Ebola, business has shown that it can work quickly and robustly in partnership with international agencies, governments and academia. But we must continue to work together in collaboration to ensure we can respond better, faster and more effectively going forward. As for education and awareness, Save the Children did a brilliant job of educating communities and health workers in affected areas. This kind of health education is integral to sustainable community health activities- not just for emergencies.
Jo-Ann Pohl said:
More than 20,000 people here have suffered from the disease, and more than 10,000 have died – this, in a country that has spent more than a decade recovering from a devastating civil war. The numbers don't quite stack up to the common cold, however what can we do to expedite R&D into delivering a vaccine / immunisation? Your thoughts on the need to build on the work done by ISOS and WHO to educate and create better awareness around EVD?
Andy Wright said:
The best way to respond is by being there already. If a business has a presence in the country, it can mount a local response. For example, we have a business in the affected countries which reinvests some of its profits back into training healthcare workers. By investing in the infrastructure in this way, we can - in the longer term - help create a more resilient healthcare system that can respond to outbreaks and mitigate them when they do.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Thanks for all the insights so far. Let's move on to question 2:
Q2: What have we learned from the on-going ebola outbreak about how to successfully mobilise a business response, and where are the business innovations happening?
One more comment on the importance of energy, and the opportunity in Liberia. Medium and long term business investments can support economic development and address some of the factors/systemic constraints which have been issues all along but which are pronounced in crisis. Mercy Corps is launching a program called ‘Light up Liberia’ later this year which will invest in local capacity for solar assembly and distribution of improved solar home products and small community grids through partnerships with private sector energy service companies. Currently, only 2 per cent of Liberians have access to modern sources of electricity and are paying some of the highest tariffs on the continent. Our research has shown that households save considerably when they have access to basic lighting and charging with solar. These household savings were important before the Ebola crisis and remain even more relevant now when households are struggling to meet basic household needs.
The crisis also saw a big leap forward for mobile payments, at least in Sierra Leone. It forced the networks to work together and allow interoperability which allowed the rapid payment of thousands of rural health workers who otherwise weren't being paid (and understandably, weren't willing to work until they did). Hopefully an improved mobile payments infrastructure will be a positive legacy of the crisis.
Penelope Anderson said:
Jo-Ann, I would say that the private sector can play a powerful role in social mobilization -- for example, through technology to reach far-flung communities with information on how to keep themselves safe. This outbreak has seen impressive use of mobile technologies to spread messages and capture real-time data.
Jo-Ann Pohl said:
More than 20,000 people here have suffered from the disease, and more than 10,000 have died – this, in a country that has spent more than a decade recovering from a devastating civil war. The numbers don't quite stack up to the common cold, however what can we do to expedite R&D into delivering a vaccine / immunisation? Your thoughts on the need to build on the work done by ISOS and WHO to educate and create better awareness around EVD?
Andy Wright said:
The best way to respond is by being there already. If a business has a presence in the country, it can mount a local response. For example, we have a business in the affected countries which reinvests some of its profits back into training healthcare workers. By investing in the infrastructure in this way, we can - in the longer term - help create a more resilient healthcare system that can respond to outbreaks and mitigate them when they do.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Thanks for all the insights so far. Let's move on to question 2:
Q2: What have we learned from the on-going ebola outbreak about how to successfully mobilise a business response, and where are the business innovations happening?
Long term recovery is key and builds on David's point on FDI.
Support and investment in infrastructure now to supplement medical facilities capable of dealing with the virus and number of cases / patient care can transition into general and commercially viable institutions long term. This would impact the country positively with sustainable infrastructure one of the positive outcomes if the input is right at the time of crisis. This investment has to considers public-private partnerships and new funding models.
The fundamental issue though relates to education and behaviour, back to the point on de-stereotyping this.
Penelope Anderson said:
Zaid, public-private partnerships are critical. Mercy Corps has been particularly focused in Liberia - we've pulled togehter some key ways we feel the private and not for profit sectors can continue to support recovery: - Keep investing directly in economies and supporting existing investments. - Procure local services and buy local goods. This can help stablize the local economy.
- Support economic development programmes by focusing on areas hit by the crisis. For example, Chevron continued to support the Mercy Corps Liberia’s employment and skills development activities throughout the crisis. - Find ways to channel the recovery or crisis funds locally through small businesses and seize creative opportunities to put small and medium businesses to work.
- Focus on long-term recovery. Medium and long term business investments can support economic development and address some of the factors/systemic constraints which have been issues all along but which are pronounced in crisis.
Zahid Torres-Rahman said:
Really useful insights being shared here! Let's move on to our third and final question:
Q3: How can public-private collaboration enhance the impact of business’s contribution?