World Economic Forum launches Covid Action Platform
FILIPINO businesses and industries are encouraged to heed the call of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to join the Covid Action Platform, a measure launched to convene the business community for integrated and informed joint action on the Covid-19 global outbreak.
The Covid Action Platform is a first of its kind launched on March 11, 2020, in light of the “dramatic spread of Covid-19 [that] has disrupted lives, livelihoods, communities and businesses worldwide.”
The WEF said the sum of many individual actions by stakeholders around the world will not add up to a sufficient response. It said, “only coordinated action by business, combined with global, multi-stakeholder cooperation can mitigate the risk and impact of this unprecedented global health emergency.”
The platform is intended to catalyze private-sector support for the global public health response to Covid-19, “and to do so at the scale and speed required to protect lives and livelihoods, aiming to find ways to help end the global emergency as soon as possible,” said the WEF in a statement.
The Covid Action Platform, created with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO), will focus on three priorities:
1) Galvanize the global business community for collective action;
2) Protect people’s livelihoods and facilitate business continuity; and
3) Mobilize cooperation and business support for the Covid-19 response.
The Covid Action Platform is open to all global businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, including governments, that wish to team up with the private sector on their response.
The platform will operate a network where chief executive officers, organizational leaders and designated Covid-19 corporate responders can offer their help and team up on specific projects, launch actions and keep each other informed of best practices.
“Covid-19 is causing health emergencies and economic disruptions that no single stakeholder can address,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.
One of the projects which will initially be launched on the platform aims to strengthen supply chains to ensure that Covid-19 essential health commodities are available, accessible, affordable and of good quality.
Other actions will include supporting mechanisms for business donations to the public health response and the development of available and accessible vaccines, diagnostics, treatments and protective equipment, as well as tracking the economic impact of the virus, while pursuing collaboration to address disruptions. (Philexport News and Features)