BUSINESS & COVID-19
Harness your core business, philanthropy and policy engagement to support the lives, livelihoods and learning of the most vulnerable. Find out how, and access 200+ examples.
Use our Response Framework, Rebuild Better Framework, topic-specific Action Toolkits, and regular peer group and expert events to guide you.
LEARN & SHARE
Access resources to inform immediate and future action.
FEATURED RESOURCES
While efforts are rightly focused on the immediate impacts, we need to start thinking about how to recover and rebuild, because action taken now will have long-lasting effects on people's wellbeing and resilience. This Rebuild Better Framework builds on the Response Framework to highlight ways in which business can play a role, individually and in partnership.
Government leadership is crucial, but companies and civil society organizations also have a vital role in working together to respond to the immediate crisis and develop plans for longer-term recovery and resilience. This Response Framework highlights ways in which business can play a role, individually and in partnership.
Businesses are stepping up in a variety of ways to support the most vulnerable in their value chains, communities and beyond. We map these against the Response Framework, to inspire new business action and collaboration.
ACTION TOOLKITS
A Guide to Effective Planning
This Guide is designed to help you plan out what to do, how, where, and when. Though this Guide can be applied in a number of different planning scenarios, it is specifically tailored to assist with navigating planning during a crisis; when traditional corporate planning processes may take too long or require too many certainties.
Building Back with Better Jobs
This guide, published by Business Fights Poverty, with support from the The Lab Project at the International Labour Organization, aims to stimulate thinking and exchange within companies and external partners about what business models for more decent jobs should look like and how to mainstream these into business practice. It includes examples from leading companies including Hermes, Anglo American, Unilever, and others.
The guide demonstrates how fundamental changes can be made to improve job security, equality, health and wellbeing without impacting business competitiveness, growth and profitability. It provides practical case studies and a framework for both evaluating the quality of jobs and also enhancing them.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and ‘stay at home’ regulations, domestic violence and online bullying and harassment are expected to rise. What can companies do to support employees internally? What can they do to harness their core business strategies including marketing and innovation as well as philanthropy to respond to the increase in violence?
Many NGOs are responding to a complex set of operational and business continuity stresses arising from the pandemic and from the efforts to contain it. The demands on many NGOs are increasing, just as their capacity to respond to those demands is being undermined. How can businesses support their NGO partners through the impact of COVID-19?
This document seeks to explore the collective leadership of the mining and metals industry in rebuilding better in the wake of COVID-19. It seeks to connect the immediate crisis response to the long-term sustainable development challenges of communities and nations, focusing on practical action, and opening up new collaborative opportunities within and beyond mining.
EVENT RESOURCES
SUMMARY REPORT: Rapid Innovation Partnerships
COVID-19 requires rapid action often in the form of partnerships with competitors, other businesses, NGOs and Governments. This online written discussion on 22nd April looks at how these partnerships can be rapidly formed in days and weeks.
VIDEO AND SUMMARY REPORT: Respond and Rebuild Better
This online written discussion on 30th April looked at how we can bring together businesses, networks and civil society behind governments' efforts to curb the pandemic and what can we learn from efforts already under way, such as the National Business Compact on Coronavirus in Kenya.
SUMMARY REPORT: Supporting NGO partnerships
On April 9th an online written discussion on how businesses can support their NGO partners also looks ahead to the future beyond the crisis, examining whether actions now can have a beneficial impact for NGO-company partnerships in the longer term.
On 19 March, we hosted an online written discussion looking at the role of business in tackling COVID-19. Read the written summary of the key insights shared by our panel and participants.
VIDEOS
BE INSPIRED BY ACTIONS OTHER COMPANIES ARE TAKING
Get inspiration for how your business can take action to support the most vulnerable in your value chains, communities and beyond.
See the examples of AB InBev, CEMEX, GSK, Morrisons, Safaricom, Sanofi and Unilever.
CONNECT & MOBILISE
Hear about events and other opportunities to engage with peers and experts to scale your impact.
FUND & SUPPORT
Donate your time or money to accelerate local action.
The Coalition is accelerating a hand-washing campaign and implementing other preventative solutions. Donate to the Flexi-Fund to fight COVID-19 in Kenya and share learnings globally.
Amref is providing urgent support to health professionals and communities that need it the most. Donate to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Africa.
Social distancing, for people who survive on daily wages, means starvation. Millions in Bangladesh have lost their livelihood. BRAC will support 100,000 families, but the need is far greater. Please come forward.
The WHO is leading the global effort with partners, to support countries to prevent, detect, and respond to the pandemic. Donate to support this crucial work.
CARE is already delivering lifesaving aid to places where COVID-19 is quickly spreading. Donate now and your gift will be matched x 2.
OXFAM has substantial expertise from past disease outbreaks. Donate to protect the most vulnerable communities in poorer countries across the world.
OTHER RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Find other valuable tools, insights and resources on these sites.
B Lab is providing COVID-19 resources to help businesses build resiliency, navigate federal programs, access sources of capital, and manage cash flow.
CBi engages the private sector strategically before, during and after emergencies. Find links to useful resources from UN-OCHA, WHO, CDC and others
GlobalGoals.org showcase examples of how the Business Avengers and other companies are responding to COVID-19.
McKinsey looks at scenarios for the economic impacts of COVID-19 and calls for business action across 5 stages from the crisis today to the next normal.
The National Business Compact on Coronavirus, a multistakeholder collaboration in Kenya, is contributing to global best-practice sharing.
NextBillion is providing COVID-19 information and links to other resources to help impact-focused businesses and initiatives weather these challenging times.
OXFAM shares its COVID-19 resources on WASH. These include tools for community engagement and a checklist of actions for those displaced and refugee camps.
TPI has a free helpdesk to support new COVID-19 partnerships, and existing partnerships affected by COVID-19, and is developing new 'rapid partnering' protocols.
The United Nations Global Compact is #UnitingBusiness to respond to COVID-19 and providing guidance and support to companies.
USCIB have a dedicated COVID-19 page on business continuity with messages from their CEO, press releases, member-driven initiatives, and more.
WBCSD members share examples of how they have put aside business as usual and instead taken steps to address the impact from the coronavirus.
The World Economic Forum urges all stakeholders to come together to minimize the impact of COVID-19 to lives and economies around the world.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS
Special thanks goes to the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School who have provided invaluable input into the content. We would also like to thank and all our supporters and partners who have stepped forward in the spirit of collaboration at this important time.
If your organisation would like to sponsor an Action Toolkit or other activities, please get in touch.
Business Fights Poverty is an award-winning, business-led collaboration network focused on social impact. For 15 years, we have been bringing together organisations and individuals to collaborate on questions that matter to business, people and planet. Along with over 100 international companies, NGOs, universities, and government bodies, we have a global network of more than 25,000 professionals who share their collective insights to move the needle on pressing global challenges.
Business Fights Poverty is proud to be a Founding UK B Corp. To find out more about our work visit businessfightspoverty.org
