Today, we should have been coming together in Washington for Business Fights Poverty DC 2020. If you have ever been to one of our flagship events, in Oxford or in New York, you will have heard me talk about the power of purpose and the importance of collaboration.
Purpose can enable us to become the brightest version of ourselves, and can give us the strength to get through the darkest of times. And collaboration allows us to have an impact and overcome obstacles in a way that we could never do alone.
There has never been a time in our generation when purpose and collaboration have been more important.
That is why from the moment the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic on 11 March, we have, like many of you, put all of our time and energy into helping with the response. Our focus has been on providing rapid guidance to inform companies’ immediate and longer-term decision making to support the most vulnerable in their value chains, communities and beyond. We have been working with a wide number of partners, including the Harvard Kennedy School C
Corporate Responsibility Initiative, and are grateful for the support of the UK Department for International Development and a core group of companies.
Today, we are launching our Business and COVID-19 Response Centre – bringing together a range of resources and toolkits that we have produced over the last few weeks. This includes our Response Framework setting out guidance for how businesses can harness their core business, philanthropy and policy engagement to support the lives, livelihoods and learning of the most vulnerable. We have also developed an Action Mapping Tool setting out close to 300 examples.
Today, and over the course of the next few days we are launching the first set of Action Toolkits to provide topic-specific guidance, starting with one of supporting micro and small businesses.
I invite you to visit the Business and COVID-19 Response Centre at https://snipbfp.org/C19_ResponseCentre to access these free resources and find out more about how to get involved.
If you have been to one of our large events, you will know that we always open with a musician. This year, Iain Forrest, a medical student and cellist from New York was due to open Business Fights Poverty DC 2020. Instead, we asked him to perform for a video that we are dedicating to all front line workers helping us #FightCOVID19.
With purpose and collaboration, we can get through this and, importantly, build back better.
Business and COVID-19 from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo.