How can business help in the building of national coalitions and collaborations to fight COVID-19?

I see three key types of national collaborative platform being mobilized to support people during the Covid-19 crisis and to help with the longer-term recovery and resilience:

  1. Very inspiring are the new coalitions that are being established dedicated 100% to addressing the pandemic – such as Kenya’s National Business Compact and the Nigerian Private Sector Coalition Against Covid-19 and Zambia’s Business Covid-19 Coalition. Local business leaders, often with government ministers or donor, philanthropic and NGO partners taking immediate action to respond. They are very innovative and agile - often building on existing partnerships and trust.
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  1. A1: What examples of national collaborative platforms to fight COVID-19 are there?

At least three different types: advocacy, funding and transformation, several new, some pre-existing and adapted for current crisis - a few examples to follow!

ADVOCACY: eg Garment industry coalition: ten alliances working on better labour conditions for garment workers has collectively released a statement on responding to COVID-19 calling for action by retailers and governments.

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Hi, Rita N. Soni here, an independent consultant working at the intersection of the private and social sectors. Fighting Covid-19 is both addressing the virus itself AND promoting responsible business/CSR in their operations and response efforts. Triple bottom line in crisis mode.

Hey Sam - thanks! This is our current network of programme members who we are currently assisting in our initial 3-month response, which we are hoping to ramp up through partnerships with other partners, i.e. businesses, supporting such work. With planting season underway, it’s essential agricultural communities are able to plant successfully at most by mid-June, or it’ll be too late for harvesting. The crisis is an economic one too.

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Hello this is myriam sidibe, senior fellow, MRCBG Harvard Kennedy School

I’m Tazin Shadid. I serve as the CEO of YY Ventures, which promotes social business globally and backs entrepreneurs who are fighting poverty, unemployment, and carbon emission. I’m also the founder and interim chair for a US based charity organization, Spreeha Foundation, with a mission to break the cycle of poverty through healthcare, education, and skills training. I’m also involved in a series of startups: co-founder of Spider Digital, a fintech company focused on social commerce; co-founder of popular natural and organic food startup Neofarmers and health-tech startup AmarLab.

Companies are being asked by both governments and key stakeholders to identify solutions to address the crisis and support the subsequent economic recovery. Because things are moving so quickly stakeholders are collaborating on the response and recovery phases at speed, testing new approaches and scaling up existing activities.

We have found in our work that each country is different, given what phase they are with the virus and what their local challenges are. ‘One size doesn’t fit all’. Countries need different support and collaboration and we have taken different approaches according to these needs. Some countries may need practical solutions like masks or testing. Others seek research collaborations or volunteering while others need financial support to purchase the items they need.

Looking at collaborative platforms, in agriculture and food security, the following are great examples of collaborative platforms: The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)- FAO, AFRICAN UNION-FAO, AGRA, Afrika Verein and the World Farmer Organization activities.

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FUNDING: AfroChampions (created to help fight Ebola) has launched a COVID-19 response fund in partnership with the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Aims to raise over $150 million to support the continental response and procure the necessary medical supplies. The funds are being contributed by a coalition of African banks, including Ecobank, Standard Bank, and Equity Bank; several private equity firms; and healthcare companies.

In Nigeria, the Dangote Group, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, MTN, and KPMG have come together to form the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID), providing financing for immediate purchase of medical supplies and the creation of isolation centers.

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Another example of national business coalitions is where existing business leadership organizations and multi-stakeholder coalitions that focus on more inclusive and sustainable development are mobilizing their members to support national Covid-19 response efforts at the country level – for example the local chapters of the UN Global Compact and WBCSD; GSMA and some of its leading mobile operator members; the World Economic Forum and some of its platforms such as the Food Action Alliance and Grow Asia (which are doing crucial work on food security in the face of the pandemic);

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Covid-19 has opened up endless possibilities for collaboration at a national and also international level. For example, in Bangladesh a number of businesses, non-profits, and the government collaborated to create a national platform for Covid-19 response through this website http://corona.gov.bd. We contributed on the user analysis and design of the website and it is simply amazing how many partners came together to contribute, which can be found here: https://corona.gov.bd/partners

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There are many examples - at least eight OECD countries which have some form of bi-partite or tripartite collaboration involving business, labour and government, including some with formal agreements. These are mostly countries which have a history of some sort of social democratic tradition. Outside of OECD, the most interesting example for me is South Africa (my own country of origin). This has happened through NEDLAC – a permanent statutory negotiation body involving organised representation of government, and ‘peak associations’ of business, labour, and also community organisations. A NEDLAC meeting a few days ago was led by President Rampahosa with 4 ministers to discuss the economic package – with 60 leaders across the 3 non-govt constituencies.

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TRANSFORMATION: OHCA’s Connecting Business Initiative brings the UN system together with business in 13 countries ‘to transform the way the private sector engages before, during and after crises’.

Similar to the work done by Myriam and the Kenya National Business Compact - The National Business Initiative in South Africa is working with the government to enable companies to extend access to water and sanitation in informal settlements - COVID-19 provides “a blueprint for how to do things differently.”

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Business in the Community is a business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business.
BITC has recently launched the National Business Response Network. This network helps business meet the urgent needs of communities facing the challenges of COVID-19.

The Network has made over 200 matches since launching in early April, but there are still many more requests for support from communities across the UK. https://businessresponsecovid.org.uk/

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With the Covid-19 pandemic threatening to overwhelm much of Africa, companies on the continent must broaden their perspective. Instead of focusing on short-term returns for owners and investors, they must consider the needs of a variety of stakeholders – employees, suppliers, customers, and the societies in which they operate. This stakeholder capitalism will help companies rewrite their rules of community engagement.

Business as usual will not help countries avert the peak of the epidemic. Across the continent, preventive measures are removing foot traffic from markets and malls. To continue adding value during the emergency, companies need to shift their thinking. Public-private partnerships are emerging, supported by a surge in solidarity funds across the continent. But companies also need to act directly to address the crisis. As former Unilever CEO Paul Polman has argued, the pandemic is an acid test for stakeholder capitalism.

Companies can start with the progress made before this year. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in west Africa, for example, the private sector built a platform to raise resources to send health workers from across the continent to the affected countries. The difference now is that the entire continent is at risk. We know that our health care systems, otherwise occupied with HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, Lassa fever, and other tropical diseases, cannot deal with a Covid-19 peak. Stepping up prevention is the best way to avoid a tragedy.

Fortunately, Africa is a latecomer to the pandemic. We can learn from other countries and change our behaviour. We can flatten the curve of sickness while supporting households who have lost their livelihoods from the necessary social distancing.

Hand hygiene is key to prevention, and Africans can build on existing private-public partnerships to promote handwashing. In Kenya, the National Business Compact on Coronavirus has the leading brands in hygiene working together, not competing. The main soap manufacturers along with other companies are putting their resources into a unified platform of communication. They bring together the best of advertising, media and branding to remind consumers that the preventive actions are a matter of life or death. They’re targetting the estimated six million Kenyans who are struggling to maintain hand hygiene and other key behaviors.

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You can find all the details of the National business compact on https://www.covid19businesscompact.ke

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Sam Abrahams here from First Aid Africa. Currently leading the Medical team at Business Covid19 Coalition Emergency Taskforce over in Zambia. Joining from Lusaka

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A third example of business coalitions is more traditional National Chambers of Commerce, trade associations and business groups that are engaging with their governments to support a national response to the immediate crisis and also healthy and safe re-opening of the economy – for example, Business Unity South Africa; and in the United States, the Business Roundtable. US Chamber of Commerce and American Bankers Association among others; or AmChams in many countries; or Chambers of Energy, Mines etc.

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Another example like this is would be Bangladesh’s first crowdfunding platform www.choloshobai.com. Millions of people in Bangladesh depend on daily income and Covid-19 hit them really hard as the entire country went into a lockdown for the last month and a half. Hundreds of NGOs, social service organizations, and individuals jumped on to help these people by distributing food. However, raising money was hard because there were no integrated platforms where people could go to find projects and donate to the ones they liked. From YY ventures (https://yy.ventures), we partnered with a startup Cholo Shobai that was working on this and an NGO, Spreeha Bangladesh (www.spreehabd.org), which provided us operational support and together we created the platform in less than a week. Now all those who are working on the food and emergency supplies distribution are using this platform to raise fund. Even businesses are coming forward. There is now a campaign to raise funds for Uber drivers who have seen zero income for more than a month. That single campaign raised close to 400,000 BDT from 84 contributors in two days. So now it has become a national platform for anyone and everyone working on fighting Covid-19 to raise fund for their campaign.

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Most of the countries now setting up a " High-level National COVID-19 response committee represented by the various sectors including private sector and business community …

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Sound like you might be interested in our Health Pledge approach to the exit strategy. Responsible businesses should account for the risk tolerances of their staff, but this is being overlooked in the preparations for non-essential staff to return to work.