Business Partnerships for Global Goals COVID-19 Vulnerable Supply Chain Facility Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series
Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Business Partnerships Tackling Climate Change Learning Brief No. 9 By Mehnaz Bhaur, Project Director, BP4GG Business Partnerships for Global Goals is a UK Aid funded programme implemented by Mott MacDonald, with support from Accenture Development Partnerships and IIED. We partner with UK and international retail brands, not-for-profit organisations, farms, and factories to provide economic, social, environmental, and health benefits to around 1 million vulnerable women and men impacted by COVID-19 in 7 countries across Africa and Asia.
This learning brief summarises the three major lessons learned from the Business Partnerships for Global Goals programme where business partnerships are working to create shared value, while building back better and greener from the pandemic. COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 were not only a health shock but continue to cause a major disruption to global trade and economy. Even before the pandemic, the financing gap to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals was estimated to be around US$3 trillion per year (UNCTAD World Investment Report, 2014). Public funds alone cannot fill this gap. Private sector action is required. COVID-19 has pushed approximately 150 million additional people into poverty this year, 47 million of them are women and girls (World Bank Group, 2021).
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Agriculture and garments are two supply chains which have been hit hardest and also employ large number of vulnerable people, including women, across Africa and Asia.
Mott MacDonald | BP4GG | Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series | Learning Brief No. 9.
Evidence collected by BP4GG and our partners shows that in a pandemic, the most vulnerable are impacted disproportionately more and in this group women are impacted further. Vulnerable communities have suffered the health shocks, faced reduced incomes, job losses, lack of operational safety in workplaces, and lack the means and tools that can arm them to weather such a challenge. For women and people with disabilities (PwD), these dismal consequences are more pronounced than men and they face additional challenges. Climate change further exacerbates the situation and impacts lives of the most vulnerable people. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report 2019, we are “sleepwalking into catastrophe” when it comes to environmental risk. The workers and farmers in the agriculture sector are more exposed to the acute adverse impact of climate change. Untimely rains, floods, droughts and extreme weather conditions are all impacting the food and agriculture sector which is also a risk to future food security. In 2017, climate-related disasters caused acute food insecurity for some 39 million people across 23 countries¹.
A Union Leader at Amansie West, Ghana Photo credit: Karen Smith, BP4GG
But the adverse impact of climate change is also being felt by other sectors. United Nations found that more than 500 million people live in areas affected by erosion linked to climate change². European Commission has found that insurance, infrastructure, energy systems, and tourism are also sectors which are likely to be hit hard by climate change, in addition to agriculture and forestry³. Beverage industry relies heavily on water and is likely to be hugely impacted by changes in the climate patterns. The increasing demand from the customers for responsible consumption, healthy lifestyle and reducing waste is progressively increasing pressure on businesses to produce nature-based solutions for not only food and beverages but for all products including but not limited to garments, apparel and fast fashion. Through Business Partnerships for Global Goals, we are learning three key lessons about the nature of this challenge, the kind of impact this can have on lives and livelihoods as well as how the business partnerships can enable effective climate action. Three key lessons are emerging.
1. Climate change impacts lives and livelihoods Climate change impacts everywhere and everyone. It impacts lives and livelihoods. If appropriate action is not taken urgently, climate change can progressively impact the livelihoods of millions of people and is already beginning to do so. The challenge will be harder for the bottom billion due to their lack of resilience and increased vulnerability. Many within this group are workers in global supply chains. They face reduced incomes, job losses, and lower yields, due to the climate change. For building back better, they need additional help and support to also building back greener. This requires adopting integrated so that climate action is mainstreamed through a climate lens throughout programme design, delivery as well as monitoring, evaluation and learning. The holistic nature of it [the programme] also helped to address many challenges at the same time. Everything is inter-related: poverty, climate change, women’s income… all creates a change, when you can tackle these things holistically, this can help drive impact. We were working towards a sustainable solution, a capability that can be built. Cathy Pieters, Senior Director Sustainable Ingredients & Cocoa Life, Mondelēz International ¹ WEF Global Risks Report 2019 ² World food security increasingly at risk due to ‘unprecedented’ climate change impact, new UN report warns | | UN News ³ Sectors affected (europa.eu)
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Mott MacDonald | BP4GG | Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series | Learning Brief No. 9.
2. Thinking long term about people and the planet! In the context of a pandemic, time is of the essence and it is critical to deliver support to those who need it most at a time when they need it most. But in doing so, we should not lose sight of the long term. As the world recovers from the impact of the pandemic and we strive to consolidate our efforts in building back better, it is critical to think greener. Global response to the pandemic is progressing from immediate responses of providing food, health and safety packages to medium- and long-term recovery. We need to provide the tools, skills and the means whereby workers are equipped to move towards greater resilience such as diversification, climate smart approaches to doing business; and suppliers at all stages of the chain are cognizant of and contribute to circular economies and cooling down the planet. Greener supply chains need thinking green. They need thinking long term. This needs investing in tomorrow. And for a better tomorrow, we need to consider people and the planet today. A lot of this work will fit into our ways of working as part of our strategy on human rights and our work on fairer trade. We will work with our strategic partners, on what we can use from the experience of this project, including on gender, to scale that up. Longer term, there is potential opportunity to collaborate on a living wage. Good that we are not doing interventions in one site but testing pilots which can be scaled up across our supply chain. Aisha Aswani, Senior Human Rights & Ethical Trading Manager, Co-op
3. Unleashing the Power of Partnerships Resources are scarce in an emergency situation and urgent action is critical. Therefore, the modality used for programmes that aim to build back better and greener needs to be one which can deliver more with less. Partnerships are central to building back better and greener. Our programme believes that the sum total of a partnership is greater than the sum of its individual parts. When we work together, we deliver faster, wider and deeper impact which is critical for building back better and greener. The Business Partnerships for Global Goals programme has demonstrated how business partnerships are tackling climate change through a number of ways including exploring, testing and scaling up greener trade routes, greening the supply chains, climate smart farming, and empowering women.
Preparing a box of flowers for sea freight transport Photo credit: Flamingo Horticulture
The programme has benefitted more than a million vulnerable people, more than half of whom are women. This was possible because of the partnerships modality. Partnerships need trust, flexibility and clarity. This was a great project to be part of. Everyone has done a wonderful job, especially being able to do this remotely and digitally is a phenomenal achievement from my point of view. I am very proud that we were part of this. Fiona Sadler, Global Head of Ethical Trading, M&S
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Our Conclusion There is no one size that fits all. Staying flexible, responsive and adaptive to an ever-changing context against the backdrop of the pandemic can help enhance impact for the most vulnerable people including women. During times of crises, partnerships can serve as a credible modality to rapidly reach those in need, to build back better and greener and can act as a force for good in the world yielding economic, social and environmental gains for the most vulnerable people in the global value chains.
3 lessons learned from BP4GG on how business partnerships can effectively tackle climate change 1. Climate change impacts everything and is likely to impact livelihoods of millions of most vulnerable people. This requires adopting a climate lens throughout design, delivery and impact measurement of all solutions to enable building back greener. 2. As the world recovers from the impact of the pandemic, it is critical to think of medium to longer-term investments in people and the planet to build back better and greener leading to circular economies and greener supply chains. 3. Partnerships are a very effective modality for tackling climate change. By working together, we can leverage the combined influence, outreach and strengths of businesses, government and not for profit organisations to work in innovative ways which can reduce time to wider and deeper climate related impact.
Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series VSCF Vision “To enable vulnerable people and supply chains to recover from and remain resilient to the economic and social impacts of COVID-19, by leveraging the reach and influence of responsible businesses through partnerships.”
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Ghana
VSCF Mission
Ethiopia Kenya
“To enable recovery and resilience from the COVID-19 pandemic by forming strategic partnerships with global businesses. Working within supply chains in Africa and Asia, we will test and scale approaches to provide additional health and safety support, increase incomes, safeguard jobs, and ensure continuing access to markets. We will support vulnerable people within supply chains to recover from COVID-19, and support responsible businesses to build on these experiences to become more sustainable.”
Tanzania
Zimbabwe
VSCF countries
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Myanmar