In a span of weeks, the COVID-19 outbreak has shown us that the current system and rules we live by have inherent gaps and weaknesses. Insufficient and inadequate healthcare capacities, untimely deployed economic safety nets, and global supply chain disruptions leading to food security concerns, just to name a few. We may yet survive but the real question will increasingly be, how do we now thrive?
A single organisation is unable to solve this crisis alone, nor can it afford to sit on the sidelines. TSC.ai is launching the **SDG COVID Impact Dashboard** to provide a snapshot of the key insights required to start and accelerate multi-stakeholder action. Insights like these will allow organisations, business leaders, investors, policymakers and activists to decide where meaningful impact is most required during this crisis and in a more resilient and inclusive post-COVID era.
Companies that proactively support their customers, employees and communities during this crisis are rising above their competition - shaping trust, credibility and change beyond their existing value chain. Global leaders advocate moving towards stakeholder-focused structures, open multi-sectoral collaborations and coalitions, and internal shifting of business cultures to commit to sustainable development. Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever states that “to solve this pandemic we need to work on a bigger level of partnerships between the public and private sectors. This is going to be an acid test for stakeholder capitalism” 1.
Consumers and investors have also started looking towards social yardsticks to measure performance in these unprecedented times. Organisations who focus on social capital and environmental outcomes are seen to be resilient, and better positioned to adequately respond to similar future scenarios and defend their social licenses to operate than companies that haven’t fully assessed the ecosystems in which they operate. Lise Kingo, CEO & Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact says that “companies that align reporting and communication with the SDGs will be speaking in the same language that increasingly is adopted by governments, foundations, NGOs and even investors” 2. Through strengthening sustainable value chains, organisations will be able to create economic value, unlock new business channels and safeguard themselves during difficult times.
The negative consequences of COVID-19 are multiplying at a faster pace than the virus itself, and we find ourselves overwhelmed by an abundance of information. When we seek to initiate a cross-border and multi-stakeholder movement to tackle the most pressing challenges, it is essential to swiftly find answers to several key questions:
The **SDG COVID Impact Dashboard** is built on TSC’s Atium software, which applies our proprietary models and methodologies to filter the global chatter through a dynamic issue taxonomy. The Issue Radar is designed to link the current and future challenges exposed by the COVID crisis with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the guiding framework for appropriate action. We apply our multilingual Natural Language Processing (NLP) and AI technologies to everything that is said by the press and in social media, automatically highlighting topical and geographical trends, patterns and sentiment.
The current situation provides a unique opportunity for typically divergent stakeholders to join forces to work on a collective goal - saving our economy, our value chains, and most importantly, our people.
For a global movement to be able to realize meaningful impact for both the short and long-term future, it is essential to adopt a common frame of reference like the Sustainable Development Goals. In this complex and fast-paced crisis, it is crucial to be able to directly map the challenges against this framework of action, stay on top of key developments and navigate your external stakeholder environment to connect, collaborate and jointly pave the road towards the end of the tunnel. Let’s build world 2.0 together.
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