GHR Foundation
  • Impact Areas
    • Global Engagement >
      • Children in Families
      • Prepare The Future
      • Programs in Transition >
        • BridgeBuilder >
          • Overview
          • 2017 Top Ideas >
            • Peace Direct
            • BioCarbon Engineering
            • LIFT Chicago
            • Local Youth Corner Cameroon
            • NaTakallam
          • 2018 Top Ideas >
            • This is My Backyard
            • Found in Translation
            • Producers Direct
            • War Child Canada
            • My Choices Foundation
          • 2019 Top Ideas >
            • Top Manta
            • Five One Labs
            • SAMA for All
            • Talent Beyond Boundaries
            • FaithAction
        • Inter-Religious Action
        • Sister Support
    • Catholic Education
    • Twin Cities Racial Equity (TCRE)
    • Alzheimer's Initiative
  • News
  • About Us
    • The Foundation
    • History & Legacy
    • Team >
      • Staff
      • Committees
      • Board
    • FAQs
    • Grants & Financials
  • Contact

To achieve the Great Reset, we will need more than just the actions of the powerful

9/23/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
  • Even before COVID-19, global progress towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals had fallen behind.
  • Social entrepreneurs and other front-line actors have a key role to play and need to be given greater prominence and support at this time.
  • Collaborative movements and alliances in the social enterprise sector are critical to building a sector wide agenda with collective messages to influence key stakeholders
Just as the COVID-19 healthcare worker is at the front line for the protection of human life, so the social entrepreneur is at the front line for the protection of socio-economic wellbeing. As such, they have their work cut out for them. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed critical flaws in our social and economic systems, with particularly devastating consequences for the billions who are marginalized.

Global goals to reduce poverty and curb climate change have stalled or gone backwards in the face of COVID-19. Even before the global pandemic, few countries were even close to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the target date of 2030, with the Social Progress Index estimating last year that this date had been pushed back to 2073. The pandemic is likely to set progress back even further, unless drastic action is taken. The World Bank projects that the global economy will shrink by 5-8% predicting that over 100 million people are at immediate risk of slipping into poverty. Already, education inequality and food insecurity are rising due to the lack of resources and widespread school closures. And glaringly, healthcare systems are being overwhelmed, erasing the hard-fought gains in public health. Now is the time to do things differently.

If there are rays of encouragement that reflect the resilience of the human spirit, it is in the collective actions that are arising as the world reacts and responds to the pandemic. One such response is the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset initiative, a commitment to jointly and urgently rebuild the foundations of our economic and social system for a more fair, sustainable, and resilient future. International organizations, such as the IMF and UN, have been joined by private corporations, like Microsoft and Mastercard, to support the Forum’s call to reevaluate global social and economic systems.

But to achieve the Great Reset, it will be necessary to bridge the gap between public and private interests and institutions. This is where the social entrepreneur and the social enterprise sector can make an impact – they have already been active in this space for decades, although their work is not often recognized or supported. Social entrepreneurs serve as a crucial social safety net for the systemic weaknesses, inequalities and market failures that are now apparent. In recent months they have repeatedly demonstrated that, as first responders in this crisis, they have been able to adapt at speed and share their knowledge and assets where they are needed most.

While governments enact policies and launch national-scale initiatives with multilateral partners and donors, corporations and impact investors funnel resources to address a variety of challenges, it is social entrepreneurs who often have the trust of those in vulnerable communities required to bring about lasting change on the ground. After all, they have been delivering significant progress on challenges like food security, employment, gender equity, sanitation and health in those communities for many years already.

Top-down ecosystem players must recognize the role of these front-line leaders and empower and align resources to reinvigorate progress towards the goals of economic inclusion, health, education and social cohesion.

In mobilizing these important actors at this critical time, initiatives such as Catalyst 2030 – an international consortium of more than 200 NGOs, social enterprises, intermediaries, funders, and other social change innovators that have pledged to collaborate to help countries achieve the SDGs by 2030 – are doing critical work. In its recent report, “Getting From Crisis to Systems Change,” Catalyst 2030 outlined the central role that social enterprises must continue to play in achieving the SDGs.

The COVID-19 Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, hosted by the World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation, is also fostering collaboration across impact-focused companies and global leaders. Comprising more than 60 global organizations – collectively representing over 50,000 social enterprises globally and touching the lives of close to 1 billion people – the Alliance has set itself a dual goal of supporting social enterprises during COVID-19 and its aftermath, and of injecting their voices and expertise into the ‘great reset’ agenda. Its belief: The decades of experiences of these social entrepreneurs are vital in supporting vulnerable communities and in forging a ‘new normal’ in how capital markets and international development actors operate.

To achieve the Great Reset, we will need more than just the actions of the those considered powerful. The proximity of social entrepreneurs to the needs of communities as well as their unique innovative power of social entrepreneurs, may just be what we all need to achieve a shift-change in our ability to transform our world and to guarantee a sustainable future for generations to come:

Through support and recognition of their critical role, social entrepreneurs can be the bridge to recovery and the adoption of new models in education, workforce participation, gender empowerment, expanded access to life-saving products, and digital livelihoods, providing the socio-economic equality that our world needs. The time to get behind social entrepreneurs and let them play their part is now.

To join in action with us, visit and share your commitments with the COVID Response Alliance.

Janet Longmore, Founder and CEO, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT)
Jonathan Jackson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dimagi
Carolien de Bruin, Lead, COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, World Economic Forum
Amy Goldman, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, GHR Foundation
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    A4
    Alzheimer's
    Alzheimer's Association
    BridgeBuilder
    C2N
    Catholic Schools
    Children In Families
    COVID-19
    Develop Diagnostics
    DIAN Primary Prevention
    DIAN-TU
    Education
    Global Development
    Higher Education
    Inter-Religious Action
    La Jolla Institute
    Mayo Clinic
    Mayo Clinic Study Of Aging
    NIH-NIA
    Observational Studies
    Prepare The Future
    Prevention Trials
    Sister Support
    Twin Cities Racial Equity

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    October 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

CONNECT WITH US

IMPACT AREAS  |  NEWS  |  ABOUT  |  JOBS  | ​ CONTACT  
Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
©2023 GHR FOUNDATION
All Rights Reserved.