Absolutely! Fully agree with your assessment Sam.
Totally agree - trying to coordinate between and connect different collaborations is complex at the best of times, itâs even harder now - highly networked people and organisations have a critical role to play in rapid sense-making and connection-spotting
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MNCâs like ours are being asked more and more by governments and others to support the health, social and economic recovery ahead of us. The incredibly disruptive nature of this crisis on economic and political systems can provide us with the impetus to make system changes looking at policies and approaches.
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Yes to Samâs great comments and diagram! The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated many of the existing cracks in our health, social and financial systems - and especially inequality of access and opportunity to essential products and services. As we move forward, one if the greatest responsibilities business and government leaders face is to start addressing some of these systemic problems and to build greater resilience in the above systems - including addressing issues such as social safety nets, living wage and hopefully universal health care and universal basic income.
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Absolutely. This will not be the last pandemic of our lifetimes. Anyone thinking that this will be âall over by Christmasâ is kidding themselves. Those who are quickest to pivot to the ânew normalâ, as you rightly put it, will come out stronger.
Our third and final question today:
Q3. How can these coalitions and collaborations be replicated rapidly? And where are they most needed?
Jane, Iâm fast becoming a fan of yours. Great comments, great contribution. And really happy to see social safety nets and the universal basic income being mentioned on a forum like this!
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Q: Where are they most needed? A: Wherever there is most vulnerability: this is where COVID-19 is hitting the hardest. Itâs where the work is most compelx, but also the most urgent. Small Island Developing States. Those living with disabilities. Women and girls. Those lacking access to livelihoods and healthcare. The most efficient way to make progress is to work with local and national NGO partners as well as informal groups that have extensive linkages with vulnerable populations
Thanks Zahid! I couldnât agree more. My personal bias aside though, the Ten Principles are a truly universal, well-established public good thatâs ready to go. No need to reinvent the wheel.
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Okay, so letâs be honest. there isnât a one-size-fits-all solution here and as with everything in the field of emergency response, we WILL make mistakes. How we learn from them will determine how fit our businesses are for the next crisis.
So, an argument might be made on this forum for inspiration from other national coalitions rather than replication. But like multilateral aid organisations (such as the WHO) there is a role for international best practice when responding to global disasters in the private sector. Especially if this can be tailored to LMICs. We learned very quickly that the solution for the UK, will not be the solution for Zambia. This forum is a good step towards understanding how we can learn from each other while respecting the various cultural and society implications of specific interventions (like lockdowns, PPE provision etc)
In purely financial terms, the most developed economies have the most to lose but that doesnât show the full picture. If youâre rich, a 50% reduction in salary is inconvenient. If youâre poor, it can be lethal. LMICs will need additional support, and in particular the informal sector & SMEs.
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Our Covid Radar platform is connect and is able to get info from 65MM devices all over Brazil. The platform will be donated to the federal government for other uses.
Countries, the private sector and NGOâS need to work together and this is needed universally. This crisis has shown how groups can come together and work at speed. We need to keep up this momentum. Collaboration, openness and breaking down traditional silos has to be the new normal.
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As we move forward, I think the challenge is not so much about âreplicating quicklyâ but about âdoubling downâ on the coalitions that have either been mobilized for the immediate response or existing coalitions that have established new initiatives to address the pandemic, and ask how these can best respond to both the ongoing crisis while also looking to recovery and resilience. As we move from crisis response to recovery, there will be benefits for established business leadership coalitions to take the lead and to be able to focus on the combination of protecting lives, supporting livelihoods and supporting learning. Finding healthy and safety ways to get national economies and key industry sectors and job creating activities back on track - and preferably in a manner that is more equitable, inclusive and sustainable - will be essential and established business coalitions are well positioned to do this.
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i think we need to choose speed over perfection and create blue prints that are sustainable and will drive real systemic changes. The other part is to create real road maps and learning platforms like this one to be able to learn quickly. these coalition are most needed when there is a complementarity of skillsets.
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We are all trying to experiment with approaches and partnerships to address systems and supply chain issues and thatâs what we can do om the back of the crisis to have a long-lasting impact.
My colleagues Oxford University - OPHI.org.uk - have been mapping out the most severe poverty deprivations globally and how COVID will exacerbate them https://ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/B53_Covid-19_vs3-2_2020_online.pdf
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The experience of the past 2 months, mobilising business NGOs , and their member companies has been invaluable. I think as some of comments above indicate almost all societies rich and poor are facing a new set of questions regarding income inequality and opportunity. Add to that the challenges of technological disruption (we are now firmly in the arena of logarithmic change, making it very difficult to predict and plan for ever more rapid and fundamental upheavals of many industries) and in many cases slow and inadequate bureaucracy and it becomes clear that in in addition to our CSR duties, we have to look and plan for these issues to create an environment where businesses can thrive. We believe that it is impossible to be truly successful and enjoy a high quality of life in a society rife with inequality and resultant anger and security issues.
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A3:
In Bangladesh, we see huge need in basic necessities such as food and healthcare. While there has been examples of some effective collaborations, there needs to be more. For example, many organizations are now providing food to daily wage earners and low-income families. There could a collaboration between all these efforts so that everyone in need can be reached. The same can be said for healthcare efforts where collaboration can bring in better care and information for patients.
One way of replicating the collaborations rapidly would be to proactively reach out to everyone who would benefit from such platform. There are many cases where multiple groups were collaborating on similar initiatives and the sooner we can start communicating, the faster we can bring everyone together and stop any duplicate efforts.
I would also recommend taking a frugal innovation approach when collaborating to fight Covid-19. We can start with the minimal solution that just works and can gradually make it better by bringing in more partners to the coalition. For example, we recently released a chatbot in messenger that allows people to quickly connect to a doctor, have a video consultation, and then receive a professional prescription via messenger. This was a quick hack that solved the problem where people could not reach their regular doctors due to the lockdown. The solution was a collaboration of our health-tech startup AmarLab (fb.com/amarlab.bd), a tech company Ergo Ventures, and a marketing agency Zanala Bangladesh. Now more and more doctors are joining this platform and as a result people from all over Bangladesh have now access to doctors during this difficult times.
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This all happening in real time, and I think it is so critical that we help different networks and coalitions learn from each other - partly around how to deliver effectively, but also through tangible content such as materials on handwashing and preventative measures. Where possible, we should build on existing networks, but sometimes speed will mean people coming together in new ways - particularly where we are focusing on something so specific as tackling COVID-19.
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The best way to replicate - countries should have collaborative platforms already. Butof course many donât, and it is better to start now than not start â ânever let a good crisis go to wasteâ. Even if collaboration is small and slow, it represents a start an lays a basis for better reaction ânext timeâ - there will be a next time.
It is important to bring in a wide range of groups - otherwise collaborations can be seen to be âeliteâ organisations or set up to protect elites at the expense of the rest, which then reduces trust and legitimacy.
Solidarity funds â are easy to set up, and can be a precursor to more developed forms of collaboration. But they are hard to run properly and well. Concerns about corruption are important.
The forms of collaboration - how it is instituionalised must depend on local conditions - there is no âone size fits allâ recipe â they can be very political in societies where there are deep-rooted social differences or conflict (not necessarily in party sense). Collaboration will initially reflect the pre-existing situation in a country but may provide a basis for changes to it (which will take timeâŚ)
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