NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Join Business Fights Poverty for a half-day of insight and connection, as they explore the latest thinking on how businesses can partner with government to address global challenges, and support their collective efforts to rebuild better from the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has not only been a health shock, but also a major disruption to global trade and the economy. International businesses which employ large numbers of vulnerable women and men in developing countries have been hard-hit, but through their supply chain networks and influence, also present a major opportunity for getting immediate support to the world’s poor, as well as putting in place systems that will protect workers into the future.

As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, as the UK prepares to showcase potential solutions for a greener, more prosperous future at the G7 Summit, and as the international community prepares for COP26, their next Rebuild Better Summit focuses on the crucial role that business can play in partnership with government to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

The Summit is co-hosted with Business Partnerships for Global Goals (BP4GG) – a UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office programme that invests in partnerships with businesses to test and scale shared value initiatives that contribute to the Global Goals.

Managed by Mott MacDonald, the programme hosts the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility, a rapid COVID-19 response facility partnering with 20 UK and international agricultural and garment product retailers, not-for-profit organisations, farms, and factories in eight partnership projects. The programme is providing economic, social, and health benefits to around 1 million vulnerable women and men impacted by COVID-19 in seven countries across Africa and Asia, and is providing useful insights and practical lessons for wider uptake.

As part of BP4GG’s Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series, this event is being organised in the build up to G7 Summit, with a focus on how partnerships can lead to greener, more responsible trade, improve supply chain transparency, and catalyse digital innovation in the context of the pandemic.

In this event you will learn from a variety of innovative multi-party partnership projects – from flower farms to garment factories – that are supporting vulnerable workers in the face of COVID-19, and making international trade routes greener.

They will explore practical examples of the unique resources that government, businesses and not-for-profit organisations can bring to the table, how together they can create the catalysts for development impact, the key practices that make such partnerships work, and how these models can be taken forward.