Other areas of interest is the local motorbike transport sector where we have promoted positioning of hand washing water in small containers with running water and soap. The ridees have been shown through demonstrations on how to wash their hands properly. They are also encouraged to demonstrate the same to thier memebrs of their family. With this chain- effect we will be able to reduce the illness in the families and prevent spreading to the larger communities.
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Good points, Zahid. What do tangible approaches to point 3 look like? and what can be done ahead of the curve?
And third, I think that the focus should be on the short-term who are most vulnerable in their supply chains, and in the communities in which they operate - including on short-term health and their long-term livelihoods.
Firstly, those involved in media and communications must play their part in ensuring correct information about the virus and how to prevent its spread is heard. Panic and fear driven by rumour and fake news is the number one enemy here. Correct information will be key to minimising damage. This responsibility lies with media and social media companies, creative agencies, and brands with a media budget could align with these priorities.
Secondly, businesses must work collaboratively with other agents, playing to their strengths to achieve a common aim. This should include governments and international organisations, with whom businesses can work to ensure access to necessary goods and capabilities, such as putting to work their creative know-how, and having access to distribution networks.
We must unite our efforts to address the crisis. We should make sure that structures and processes are in place to deal with similar situations when they arise in future. Local coalitions promoting handwashing, like what weâre seeing in Vietnam and beyond combining the government, soap manufacturers and influencers, have proven impactful in halting the spread of Coronavirus. And what gets handwashing to stick is powerful, coordinated and consistent communications and coalitions.
Another successful campaign to take inspiration from here is Global Handwashing Day, marked on 15th of October, which last year reached over 500 million people in 100 countries with handwashing messages. This has been achieved by competitors like Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Colgate Palmolive coming to the same table with international organisations like Unicef, USAID amongst many others. This has already inspired many similarly impactful initiatives. But much more is needed, especially at community levels and in hard-to-reach areas where more resources are required as well as running water in some cases.
Lastly, businesses must become resilient. As the markets shift with every announcement from the World Health Organisation or national leaders about the virus within their borders, businesses must consider how best they can safeguard their employees, and their role in the wider economic system itself. We have seen banks offering mortgage breaks for those affected, we also need to look at how businesses responding to basic needs of those going into self-isolation to avoid further spread of the virus.
This crisis has the potential to reshape business and society, one way or another. The direction that takes depends in a large part on how business reacts with regards to emerging opportunities and wider social responsibilities
The key points ICC believes are important are the following:
. only a truly coordinated global response from the worldâs largest economies will be effective in mitigating the potential human and economic toll of the pandemic.
. business sees an urgent need for G20 governments to agree on a set of cast iron commitments to get essential medical products into the hands of those who need them most. This means immediately curbing all trade restrictions on essential medical supply chains.
. we see significant potential for coordinated action by G20 economies to accelerate the development of COVID-19 vaccines and ensure appropriate support for the worldâs poorest economies.
. as evidenced by the 2009 financial crisis, only a collective intervention by the G20 will be effective in stabilizing increasingly volatile markets.
. G20 leaders must pledge to do all they can to restore confidence, growth and jobs in the global economy.
Link to open letter to G20 - https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-issues-call-for-g20-leaders-to-respond-to-covid-19-pandemic/
Matthias, great re IOE and B20 cooperation, and beyond.
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I would be interested to know how businesses in this group are dealing with/supporting employees homeschooling their children and taking care of babies.
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Many businesses are of course focused on mere survival. Beyond that, they need to be thinking about stakeholders not shareholders, like never before.
My thoughts focus on 5 areas
1 Businesses must protect health of workers of course, but also do what they can to protect the livelihoods of workers. This is not just about salaries. Itâs about ensuring sick pay, reducing uncertainty, facilitating their care roles, smoothing income, clear communication, listening to what workers most need, co-creating solutions. Lots of people will earn less in coming months, but there are better and worse ways of doing that.
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For so long the care responsibilities of workers, particularly women workers, have been regarded as âover thereâ - not part of employersâ concern, not part of the paid economy. The current situation shows us so vividly the value of caring responsibilities and the support and investment it needs. Businesses need to radically expand approaches to flexible working and support for carers. eg paid time for care roles.
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Gig economy and zero hours workers are hugely at risk. There is plenty of talk in the UK about government talking to business and unions - but those conversations risk focusing on the secure workforce. Businesses need to engage with their zero hours workers to stabilise income.
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Beyond the workforce, the entire supply chain is vulnerable. Shocks are most likely to fall on those at the bottom of the supply chain. Market actors need to join up to share risk amongst all. e.g. if the fresh food market in seafood dries up in favour to dry goods, what happens to shrimp farmers? How can businesses throughout the supply chain support them to adapt -perhaps to dried products. Start those conversations now.
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Consumers - if the business is supplying essential goods and services, whether that is finance, food, or energy, the business needs to think about how they can maintain access and smooth payment.
Of course what is needed varies hugely by type of business - some are fighting for survival, a few are overloaded. But the common principle is to think about stakeholders not just shareholders.
In Europe at least, many businesses globally will be getting state support. They have a duty to use that to protect people, not just balance sheets.
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Agree. But we must also ensure the link between international and national level. That is why we closely engage with our more than 150 national business and employers federations, representing nmore than 50 million companies, to ensure that the is coherence between all levels.
Hi Katie, business and brands can also help by shifting peopleâs behaviour
Looking at the current communication and conversation, I noticed that the majority of it is from a âweâ perspective: #strongertogether #inittogether
It is understandable that in a moment of crisis, social cohesion and emotional support are what people are seeking the most!
However, to slow down the spreading of the virus we need to shift the perspective from âweâ to âIâ. We must now grasp that it is no longer others who are spreading the virus - it is each and every one of us.
Therefore, brands and business can help by communicating and shifting our deeply ingrained social behaviours, recognizing that every person must act from the standpoint that she or he may have the virus.
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Employersâ and Business member organizations EBMOs are largely working on three areas to respond to COVID-19. (1) Providing communication to their member companies and business associations on how to make workplaces safe and prevent the spread of the virus, (2) Assessing the business impact â particularly small businesses and businesses that are heavily value-chain dependent â and developing business contingency plans, and (3) Working with the government on offering business subsidies or preferential policies for businesses, especially SMEs, to maintain their operations.
EBMOs are critically channelling guidance provided by the Government to member companies to ensure that the right information reaches them. In addition, many employersâ organizations are looking into how best to respond to COVID-19 â both those in the more affected countries and those that are still at the infancy of the virus but taking cautionary and preparatory measures.
Weâre seeing the situation evolve so quickly. Last week we were advising companies to offer sick leave, this week the goal is to keep people on the payroll.
For what itâs worth hereâs some ideas my organization, GlobalGiving, published advising: employee giving, virtual volunteering, and corporate grants.
Like Scott Ratzan, Iâm also heartened to see the efforts with Ad Council to do PSAs.
In response to Mari-lou Dupont, Weâre hearing from companies that want to do Employee Assistance Funds (not an area in which my organization is equipped to support). Iâd be curious to hear who is doing this.
Good points, Scott. There are also a number of advertising agencies working with the media channels to leverage available advertising space to post PSAs and other important health communications to the public. As advertisers pull out their dollars - there is space to communicate consistently and effectively to the public.
Getting ahead of Covid-19 by ensuring that only accurate information and scientific guidance takes control of the narrative is crucial.
Everyone will benefit if they heed the wise counsel of CS Mutahi Kagwe (https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZlvWsQGryDs).
For example, he emphasizes the importance of frequent and thorough hand washing. Hand washing saves lives and is the best defense against communicable diseases.
For many years I have been a strong advocate for the power I see in 21st Century Public Private Partnerships to leapfrog development around the world. Especially in times of uncertainty, we need to come together, in order to leave no-one-behind. As the SDGs are everyoneâs business, fighting COVID-19 will certainly be as well. For this reason also weâve supported the launch of the National Business Coalition in Kenya.
Business can play a significant role in driving home accurate health information and promotion messages through their marketing and communication channels and use their expertise in making sure everyone is informed and encouraged to take effective measures to prevent and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, including handwashing
I want to thank the Government of Kenya, Business Fights Poverty, and Myriam Sidibe for leading this initiative, as well as The Marketing Society of Kenya, KEPSA, KAM, AMREF, and all partners for putting their shoulders to the wheel.
The Government and people of Kenya can be assured of our full support to fight COVID 19â.
Q2. What is the role of business and its brands in driving effective measures to prevent and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, including handwashing?
At AB InBev, our brands have 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 and away from other people.
In parallel we are shifting the operation of some our breweries to produce hand sanitizer from the alcohol extracted of the production of non-albohol beer (de-alcoholization).
It is the case of Ambev in Brazil.
There is a big shortage of hand sanitizer in the Brazil and we have a large surplus of alcohol in our plants.
We put together an operation that will produce 500,000 bottles of 8oz of Alcohol in Gel to donate to public hospitals in SĂŁo Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and BrasĂlia.
This production will use the alcohol from our plants (mainly extracted from our Brahma Zero- non- alcohol beer) together with our PET bottles and package them in partnership with a co-packer
Coordinating with the local government the best way to supply the hand sanitizer to areas of greatest vulnerability and need
We will use the label to communicate actionable advice and sources of information (WHO)
We are replicating the experience of Brazil in other countries.
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Yes Crispin these are amazing initiative. my biggest worry is how long it will take to move at country level. Businesses are worried about preserving their business continuity right now as well and the leaders in health (WHO amongst others) have to give clear guidance on what they can actually do to make a difference.
One of the best places to start is by focusing on making sure handwashing facilities/sanitiser are widely available both at your business and more widely in the community. This should really be the first priority for businesses in low and middle income countries at the moment. We have to enable people to do the right thing! Every building should have a handwashing facility near the entrance and so should every bus stop or marketplace.
Thatâs a good point. In years to come, people will remember which businesses worked for stakeholders, and which simply looked after themselves. When I lived in Tunisia, I did research in the tourism sector in 2006. All the tourism players told me which tour operators helped them through the crisis caused by the Djerba bombing in 2002, and which just abandoned them.
A2: Partial answer only: once the âshockâ and the volatility passes, companies should ensure, and invest enough resources to bring the business back to normal, ensure the most vulnerable in their value chains are prioritized for payments, orders⌠to help them bounce as fast as possible and re-build the cash-flow and other critical foundations to stay afloat in the future.
A2.1: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has several recommendations for businesses, and small companies in particular, such as: 1) establish a remote work option, 2) reduce/eliminate meetings and travel, 3) give employees maximum flexibility, 4) be obsessive about hygiene (no handshakes, handwashing, try not to touch your face, disinfect surfaces, practice proactive cleanliness), and 5) shift business strategies/engagements to online platforms.
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I know of one charity that has built itâs own hand washing station in Skid Row. At the same time, they are struggling to find food to donate to the houseless. These people are victims of the stockpiling that has been allowed untethered until quite recently in the UK at least. There are more people who will end up houseless unless evictions are prevented and a UBI safety net is introduced - and quickly