At the IOE we have now several webinars per week with our global constituents to support them in the crisis management at national level. Next week on tele-work, stimulus measures and health measures. Guests are welcome to join.
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Fantastic examples, Catalina!
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Retaining staff will be tough and businesses need to be in solidarity and explain to employees to take pay cuts I think
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Catalina, is there a link to see your “Together we will win” campaign?
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At the moment we are also at risk of all of us focusing so much on COVID-19 that we forget some other critical aspects of healthcare. For example we need to make sure that vaccine uptake doesnt decline because mothers are scared to go to health centres. We see a situation like this unfloding in DR Congo with a massive measles outbreak following the end of the Ebola outbreak.
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Let’s do this together - partnerships are key!
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Is there a link to view your existing IOE videos, Matthias?
100% agree Caroline.
At AB InBev, our brands around the world are having an active role to engage with consumers and communities. The focus of the** messaging and marketing communications is related to behaviours to slow the spread of COVID-19 and actionable advise. Encourage and support more people staying at home.
Collective action and partnerships are key to tackle coronavirus.
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Fully agree Caroline! most companies and government are trying the best to protect livelihoods now, the challenge for me is for the staff that have no long term contracts or for the temporary staff or the supply chain as these are the vulnerable groups
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From: * Ali Karami Ruiz, Senior Director for Strategic Engagement and Communications, Business, OECD
We had never seen such a strong link between short term actions taken today by governments and their impact on mid and long-term strategies. Very much agree with the comments from Matthias at IOE. If we are to preserve employment, boost global health, and keep the number of deaths at its lowest, we must ensure that appropriate action is taken now—learning from what worked, and what didn’t, in the first countries to face the epidemic. More on that in the next question.
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Yes. But the space race of the last century didn’t benefit the poorest and most vulnerable 50%. This time our moonshot solution needs to work for them. So Government, business, and other voices too please.
Call me, Amanda…I can tell you which online videos our son connected with best versus others on that lesson a couple weeks ago!
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This is a good point Myriam. What I have observed both on the ground and in the media is that little is being talked about on the effectiveness of soap. People are being told by the media to use acohol based products and evem how they can make thier own santizers leaving out the use of easily available soap! I beleive for us in Kenya simple effective aproaches to hand washing will do magic in preventing spread of COVID-19!
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I mentioned earlier the call for action as a part of the collaboration with WHO – this is one specific collaborative partnership we are engaged in. The specific actions are:
• ICC strongly endorses WHO’s call on national governments everywhere to adopt a whole-of government and whole-of-society approach in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reducing the further spread of COVID-19 and mitigating its impact should be a top priority for Heads of State and Government. Political action should be coordinated with actors in the private sector and civil society to maximize reach of messaging and effectiveness.
• Governments should commit to making available all necessary resources to combat COVID-19 with the minimum of delay and to ensure that cross-border medical and other essential goods supply chains are able to function effectively and efficiently
• ICC and the WHO encourage national chambers of commerce to work closely with UN country teams, including WHO country offices where they exist, and to designate mutual focal points to coordinate this collaboration.
• ICC encourages its members to support their country’s national response efforts and to contribute to the global response efforts coordinated by the WHO through www.covid19responsefund.org.
As the pandemic evolves, ICC Secretary General John W.H Denton AO and WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will continue to coordinate their efforts.
Link to joint statement - https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-who-covid19/
ICC is also in the process of identifying other stakeholders and potential partners with whom we can work to scale action across countries. We are very grateful to this BFP initiative, and look forward to follow up contact.
I would also like to mention the need for dialogue around longer term policy questions.
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There have been some very inspiring examples of action - from Morrisons in the UK deciding to pay suppliers immediately, to Safaricom in Kenya waiving money transfer fees, to AB InBev in Brazil repurposing their manufacturing facilities to produce hand sanitizer and donating it to public hospitals, to Zoom remove the limits on it free video conference service for schools in several affected countries.
We want to crowdsource more examples from this community, and we’ll share them widely.
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It’s crucial to offer a platform where companies cross-sector can dialogue on challenges and best practices. We are organizing at the UNGC to offer different channel of communications so that companies can learn from each other.
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From: Justin Apsey, Managing Director East Africa, Unilever Kenya
Current situation is very VUCA. The government has acted swiftly and citizens are very informed. But we are seeing the same trends from around the world. Businesses are being impacted in every area. Some are experiencing huge demand eg. Retailers and Health/Hygiene manufacturers. While other industries have been hit very hard, particularly in the services sector. The biggest challenge has come in the SME sector and parts of casual employed workforce. Which rely on a healthy and stable commercial sector and at the moment have seen demand completely disappear in many areas.
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The Glow Germ approach works wonderfully however not everyone in the world has access to a UV light or the glow germ powder/liquid (particularly right now). So if you can do it great but if not these activities are simple and use ingredients from everyone’s kitchen.
Completely agree. Governments will have step in more but businesses should not just focus on the formal workforce. At the least, think about those in the supply chain can protect their assets, or diversify in some new way.
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