As we, at Yunus Social Business, are tracking and seeing the devastating effect of the Covid-19 virus in the countries where we work, live and hail from, we have been wondering what are the best ways to use our assets.
The Corona pandemic will hit particularly hard the developing countries with harsh sanitary, social and economic consequences for their populations. The healthcare systems do not have the capabilities to address such a crisis while governments are unable to offer the social and economic policies to protect the most vulnerable individuals.
Hence we fiercely believe in the potential of existing solutions created by social entrepreneurs to prevent the Bottom of the Pyramid from the direct or indirect impact of Covid-19. Supporting the leaders who are racing to build new solutions, we aim to safeguard and accelerate the existing ones.
In addition to the action of social entrepreneurs, we stand by our claim that corporations should better understand, articulate, and act on their purpose. Now is the time to do so in the most meaningful way, by leveraging their assets and resources to contribute to solving the challenges we face as a global, connected humanity — challenges that are so vast & complex, no one can solve them on their own.
Tapping into our resources and love for networks, we are developing the 2 distinct responses :
How should we give? Along with the issue of how much, questioning the model into which we donate our money is becoming more and more pertinent in the modern age. As we seek to optimise the way we spend and invest our money, it’s not surprising that we are also looking to optimise the way we give. There is a scarcity in the philanthropic capital available - so it’s important that it is spent well.
Since 2016, our team in Colombia has been running an accelerator programme in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The goal of the programme is to build the ecosystem around social business in Colombia and help those with a high potential to become ‘investment ready’.
Waste Ventures India has established a formalized market for waste streams which averts waste from landfill and creates higher incomes for the waste pickers, with standardized prices with upfront payments.
Are you a social intrapreneur? Do you transform the way companies think about business? At Yunus Social Business we want to better understand the key challenges and success factors social intrapreneurs are facing. Our work maps out the emerging sector of intrapreneurship in collaboration with leading academic institutions and practitioners.
Once the dust has settled, the Covid-19 outbreak may fundamentally shift everyone’s professional lives. Even before the pandemic, there was a rising demand for more flexibility in the workplace and now with its recent mass scale experimentation, remote work may become the new normal. If that is the case, HR will have to evolve ‘remotely’ and become essential to any small or large business’s conti