Last week, Business Fights Poverty NYC Online 2020 brought together people from across our network and from all over the world. We were delighted that so many of you joined us to learn from one another and to identify what the common mission to Rebuild Better will mean for us, in practice. We are grateful to the more than 70 inspirational and thought-provoking panellists, and to the many of you who joined us for the webinars and deepened the debate through our online discussions.
In total, we hosted 16 events throughout the week. To get a flavour of the varied discussions, read the daily summaries by Business Fights Poverty’s Researcher, Daniel Alves, here:
- Day 1: Imagining the Future We Want , with sessions on The Future We Want and Measuring and Maximising Social Impact – A Focus on Learning and Digital Opportunities
- Day 2: Creating an Equitable World , exploring Creating an Equitable World and Driving Digital Equity for the Most Vulnerable
- Day 3: Helping People Survive and Thrive , particularly in terms of how business coalitions can fight COVID-19 through Hygiene and Behaviour Change: Business Coalitions to Fight COVID-19 and build inclusive opportunities in the Future of Work
- Day 4: Building Resilient Livelihoods , asking how businesses can tackle Poverty in Global Value Chains and develop a new understanding of the Value of Nature in International Supply Chains
- Day 5: Shaping System-Level Partnerships – exploring how we can collaborate on Business Donor Partnerships for System-Level Impact and create System-Level Partnerships on Food Systems.
Zahid Torres-Rahman, Founder and CEO of Business Fights Poverty, reflected “ I am optimistic about the road ahead; with the collective energy, commitment and insight of this community, I know we have the foundations needed to rebuild better ”.
The conference has generated a wealth of insightful content that is both practical and inspiring. Recordings of the opening sessions, daily musical performances by Afro-Soul artist Jade , live illustrations by Sophie Ong, and video highlights of each session are available for free on our Event Site.
You can also replay our fireside chat sessions, which are half-hour one-on-one conversations exploring the work and personal reflections of leading academics and practitioners from our network. In addition, 11 practical “How To” Videos draw from the wealth of knowledge in the Business Fights Poverty community, and cover topics from the big questions we are asking ourselves – such as how to integrate soul purpose and innovation for a better future , or how to stay motivated during stressful times – to the practical details of how to qualitatively measure social impact , or integrate gender equality , human rights and intrapreneurship in our businesses. Each one is around 20 minutes long, but packed with good ideas.
One particular highlight was hosting a session with Business in the Community and One World, for the official UN SDG Action Zone . For this, we focused on intersectionality – the multiple dimensions of inequity, such as race, gender and disability – and the role of business in helping drive inclusion for all. You can watch the full discussion here .
You can also watch the full recordings and access written summaries for the remaining 15 sessions with a Digital Pass .
Of course, building the future we want relies on all of us continuing to drive change in our own spheres of influence. To find out more about the work of those in our community, we’ve done Spotlight interviews with Nicky Black, Director, International Council on Mining and Metals , and with Peg Willingham, Executive Director, Fairtrade America .
We’ve also published some brilliant pieces that highlight other work that is happening, and what can be learned from it.
- Businesses are experts in finding and implementing solutions. Making the invisible, visible: the roadmap to gender equality and women’s empowerment calls on business to treat gender inequality as a problem to be solved.
- An eye from the sky to view impact: Case of satellite imaging makes the case for how recent developments in satellite imaging offer new options for measuring impact.
- If it is broke, do fix it highlights the severe impact of COVID-19 on farmers in developing countries, and suggests priorities for action to build more resilient agricultural and food production systems.
- To achieve the SDGs, business needs to grapple with its inequality footprint – requiring substantial change of contemporary business practices and models.
- Scaling the Impact of Digital Financial Services: The Opportunity and Imperative during COVID-19 explains how a rapid shift to digital payments has helped to support the vulnerable during COVID-19. In the future, wider adoption of digital wages offers great potential to drive financial inclusion.
- Business calls on governments to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and accelerate SDG progress for refugees reflects on the impact of COVID-19 on refugees’ economic inclusion and the role of business in ensuring refugees are not left behind.
- Four lessons for businesses wanting to build more equitable supply chains through sustainable sourcing offers recommendations for businesses to achieve impact for farming communities, in addition to commercial and sustainability goals.
- Lessons Learned from COVID-19: How the Private Sector can support disaster prevention, response, and recovery highlights the value of the local private sector joining with others to respond to societal challenges.
- Investing in inclusion delivers green and fair outcomes champions investment in small enterprises as a key strategy to build back better.
Thank you to all of the contributors for providing such informative and uplifting insights into your work.
Looking forward, we’re excited to be starting a new Challenge with life sciences company Bayer, exploring How Can Self-Care Help Health Systems Rebuild Better During COVID-19? We would love you to join us for an online discussion on 15th October , to kick-start a discussion on how wider uptake of ‘self-care’ approaches can reduce pressure on strained health systems, improve vulnerable people’s health outcomes and empower individuals and communities in the process.
Finally, if you attended the conference last week, we encourage you to send us your feedback on the event, and what you would like to see in future. You’ll be receiving a survey by email, or you can get in touch with us here.
