Employment, Skills and Human Capital
How do we continue our progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals? That was the question posed Thursday at the closing session of the Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit, a four-day virtual event where leaders from business, government and non-profits came together to address how to put the world back on a path of sustainable, equitable, and inclusive growth by engineering a Great Reset of social and economic systems. As investors ponder the impact of the world’s greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, emerging markets (EMs) face a swift reversal of fortune. Some of the fastest-growing economies in the world have been brought to a virtual standstill, reeling with the effects of an exogenous shock to demand, a public health emergency, and nascent infrastructure with which to combat the pandemic. Over the past couple of decades, the world has become enamoured with the transformative power of technology, and the belief that it can be the panacea for all human challenges. It has been a crisis like no other, shutting shops and schools, closing borders and putting half of humanity under some form of lockdown during the spring of 2020. And it’s not over, with cases continuing to mount worldwide as the death toll approaches one million. The oil and gas industry has grown accustomed to experiencing shocks throughout the decades, yet the demand contraction of more than 10 million barrels a day in the first half of 2020 during the peak of lockdown provided a glimpse of what a new baseline could look like. In response, according to analysis by Accenture, the industry has cut more than $150 billion of capital expenditure, while pressure from investors to improve returns and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance has increased. This demonstrates why the industry must focus not only on improving business resilience, but also on responding to stakeholders’ demands to build back better. In major markets around the world, it was an encouraging summer for the tourism sector. As and where COVID-19 travel restrictions have eased, tourism volumes have begun to rebound. The long-term impact on the way we travel remains uncertain to some degree, but travel planning data is providing new clues into how consumer comfort levels – and priorities – are changing. Those clues could guide other changes in our industry, changes that have a lasting impact beyond this pandemic. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world’s ability to diverge from business-as-usual to protect public health and safety. How can we carry that over to address the threats of climate change and socio-economic injustice? Sometimes the right thing happens for the right reason. This week our team won an Emmy Award for Outstanding New Approaches to Documentary. As the Director of this work I am overjoyed but in truth my heart is filling not for me but for what this recognition means for the Yawanawa people whose story this is, whose concept this was and whose invitation gave Producer Nicole Newnham and me the opportunity to realise a vision. Airbus has unveiled three visual concepts for “zero emission” airplanes to be powered by hydrogen. A French company is collecting fish skins that would otherwise wind up in restaurant trash cans, turning them into leather for use in watch straps and wallets, and pitching them at the high-end luxury market. COVID has been a cruel teacher, yet we must heed its lessons. If we want to ‘bounce forward’ and build a better world post-pandemic, then we must up our game on systems-thinking in every sector, and definitely in the built environment. The world has spent this year battling COVID-19, which globally has claimed almost one million lives. In the United States, this dynamic is complicated by our original sin: slavery, discrimination and its vestiges. This manifests in concurrent realities: COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black people and the most marginalized communities; and, that persistent inequities in policing in communities of colour too often culminate with the deaths of unarmed Black people. These problems are amplified when individuals occupy more than one marginalized identity, like LGBTQ people of colour. The United Nations is 75, and, according to Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, it is showing its age. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the world’s largest ever collective learning exercise. Cooperation, unprecedented on a global scale, has underpinned this dynamic. Perhaps the most obvious is scientific cooperation, with governments and universities opening up and sharing their research. Cities around the world have also been exchanging strategies through international urban cooperation networks, while the alliance between Apple and Google to improve contract tracing apps is perhaps the most unexpected example of collaboration in the private sector. COVID-19 has wreaked huge damage on the world’s once-booming aviation sector. Passenger numbers have plummeted and many airlines have warned they may not survive if the pandemic drags on much longer. Fires blazing across the Western United States have claimed dozens of lives, destroyed countless properties, displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, and worsened air quality at a time when the coronavirus pandemic threatens respiratory health. The ominous skies are a preview of what’s to come in a world of continued inaction on climate change. What was seemingly a distant future is now playing out in front of our eyes. Forests are critical to the health of the planet. They sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor fertile soil and act as flood barriers. They harbour 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, and are a treasure trove of innovation and a source of subsistence and survival for 350 million people. Maintaining a focus on reducing plastic pollution while the world is battling a global pandemic might feel like a big ask at times. But that’s exactly what these five entrepreneurial, innovative businesses are doing. ReNew Power is India’s largest independent renewable energy company, generating one percent of the country’s power. Boundaries between academic disciplines are always artificial creations intended to facilitate analysis, given our limitations. But as the economist Albert Hirschman once argued, there are times when it is incumbent on us to trespass them. The ongoing battle against COVID-19 and its economic fallout is such a time. Based on a Google Trends analysis, psychologists have discovered a major jump in searches related to anxiety, panic attacks, and treatments for panic attacks. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden, massive shift to working from home (WFH) around the world. There is great concern about how this development will play out over time, whether it will exacerbate inequalities in economic circumstances and how the economy will adjust (e.g. Adams-Prassl et al. 2020, Baldwin 2020, Bartik et al. 2020, Barrero et al. 2020, Berg et al. 2020, Dingel and Neiman 2020, Milasi et al. 2020). The world is becoming less tolerant of migrants, according to a poll as Europe prepared to unveil a new asylum plan in the wake of a blaze at an overcrowded camp in Greece that left thousands without shelter. In early January, the first genome sequence of Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – was released under the moniker “Wuhan-1”. This string of 30,000 letters (the A, T, C and Gs of the genetic code) marked day one in the race to understand the genetics of this newly discovered coronavirus. Now, a further 100,000 coronavirus genomes sampled from COVID-19 patients in over 100 countries have joined Wuhan-1. Geneticists around the world are mining the data for answers. Where did Sars-CoV-2 come from? When did it start infecting humans? How is the virus mutating – and does it matter? Sars-CoV-2 genomics, much like the virus itself, went big and went global. Reading the papers and listening to certain commentators you could be forgiven for thinking that the end was nigh for the office, but as with a lot of things it is difficult to generalise.Show Agenda posts
View more Employment posts
We need a Marshall Plan to tackle the environment: HRH Prince of Wales
Friday 25th of September 2020
Geopolitics and investment in emerging markets after COVID-19
Friday 25th of September 2020
Why resilience – not technology – is the answer to our biggest challenges
Friday 25th of September 2020
An economist explains what COVID-19 has done to the global economy
Friday 25th of September 2020
How can the oil and gas sector help in the drive to build back better?
Friday 25th of September 2020
COVID-19 could change travel – but not in the way you think
Friday 25th of September 2020
COVID, climate and inequality: this week’s Great Reset podcast
Friday 25th of September 2020
An Emmy for the Amazon
Friday 25th of September 2020
Airbus plans to launch a carbon-free aircraft by 2035
Friday 25th of September 2020
Upscale fashion: This French company is making luxury leather out of fish skin
Friday 25th of September 2020
This is how we can get real value from infrastructure
Friday 25th of September 2020
Equity and inclusion should be a primary business objective. Here’s why
Thursday 24th of September 2020
Big powers must set rivalry aside to combat shared threats like COVID and climate change – but how?
Thursday 24th of September 2020
COVID-19: How open data can help us beat the pandemic
Thursday 24th of September 2020
How is COVID-19 changing airports?
Thursday 24th of September 2020
The climate loop: 6 ways global warming is fuelling US fires
Thursday 24th of September 2020
3 innovations leading the fight to save our forests
Thursday 24th of September 2020
These 5 innovators are turning the tide on plastic pollution
Thursday 24th of September 2020
SDI 2020: This company is powering India’s green revolution
Thursday 24th of September 2020
The rise of Covidnomics
Thursday 24th of September 2020
Google shows huge panic attack rise during COVID-19
Thursday 24th of September 2020
This is how Americans are spending the time they saved on the commute
Thursday 24th of September 2020
Poll: This is how accepting the world is of migrants
Thursday 24th of September 2020
Coronavirus mutations: what we’ve learned so far
Thursday 24th of September 2020
Despite COVID-19, the end of the office is far from nigh
Thursday 24th of September 2020
Gender Parity
Eleven year-old Gia Mar Ramos was furious. Her dad had signed her up for a robotics class at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth camp without telling her. When she arrived, there were 11 boys and only 1 other girl in that class. All the boys had previous experience with programming. The two girls decided to team up and try to beat the boys – which they did – in every single challenge. That experience motivated Gia to teach other girls about opportunities in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). A more sustainable, inclusive world is one in which all people – including women and girls and the most vulnerable – survive and thrive. This includes equal rights and access to services like healthcare and education, and a life free from violence. It also entails the opportunity to own a business or property, hold management or elected government positions and fully participate in all levels of political, economic and public life. Americans often idealize scientists as unbiased, objective observers. But scientists are affected by conscious and unconscious biases, just as people in other fields are. Studies of birds’ vocal behavior clearly show how research approaches can be affected by the people who do the work. Japan’s voluntary month-and-a-half shutdown of the economy in April due to COVID-19 has had a higher cost for women than men. A key reason: a “guilt gap” between women and men, where women often feel compelled to take on more professional sacrifices. Citigroup Inc C.N named consumer banking head Jane Fraser as its next chief executive on Thursday, making her the first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank. More women have lost their jobs due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis than men, new research has found.The report COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects, from McKinsey Global Institute, estimates that women make up almost two-fifths of the global labour force but have suffered more than half of total job losses from the crisis. That’s left them 1.8 times more vulnerable to the pandemic’s impact than men. The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said on Wednesday that its men’s and women’s national soccer teams will receive equal pay and prize money. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced a glaring truth about gender-based violence: it is a humanitarian, development and socio-economic crisis; a persistent and daunting triple threat whose solutions must be grounded in gender equality and human rights. Until the new coronavirus hit Kenya in March, 17-year-old schoolgirl Anna believed the world was hers for the taking. On 18 August 2020 it was the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment – which guaranteed US women the right to vote. However, it still took decades for African American women and other minority groups to secure voting rights. Almost every morning, before rush hour clogs up the streets of Kabul, professional athlete Rukhsar Habibzai puts on her helmet, goggles and cycling shoes and rides door-to-door picking up women for a training session around Afghanistan’s capital. “Our findings indicate mothers are bearing the brunt of the pandemic and may face long-term employment penalties as a consequence,” says Caitlyn Collins, assistant professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis and coauthor of the study. Joyce Elliott, an Arkansas state senator who is seeking a U.S. congressional seat in November, was the second Black student to attend her local public high school; the first was her older sister. If elected in November, she will be the first Black lawmaker in Congress from Arkansas, ever. On 8 June 2020, New Zealand was declared virus-free and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern lifted all restrictions except stringent border controls. With fewer than 500 confirmed cases and seven deaths from the virus Taiwan, under the presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, is seen to have performed very well. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to roll back gains in women’s economic opportunities, widening gender gaps that persist despite 30 years of progress. Much has been written about the disproportionate health and economic impact on women and men due to COVID-19 but few have studied how those variations affect businesses or how private sector leaders can rebuild their business with a focus on gender equality. As the global economy plunges into the deepest recession since the end of World War II, countries around the globe are taking dramatic measures to contain this multifaceted crisis. With the International Monetary Fund projecting global growth for 2020 of -4.9% and the International Labour Organization reporting a global decline in working hours equivalent to more than 300 million full-time jobs globally, we have entered a critical moment. Europe is making progress toward several of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but other goals still require significant work, according to a report from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission. From sexual violence in displacement camps to extra farm work and greater risk of illness, women shoulder a bigger burden from worsening extreme weather and other climate pressures pushing people to move for survival, according to a global aid group. Gender equity is a lot like climate change. It’s a horizontally-integrated issue that largely exists inside a vertically-integrated policy framework. Now is the time to change that. The coronavirus pandemic could wipe out “the modest progress” made on gender equality at work in recent decades with women globally at greater risk of losing their jobs, the International Labour Organization (ILO) warned. ‘Systemic racism’. ‘Unconscious bias’. How can we recognise the more insidious forms of racism and counter their very real impact on the employment chances, pay, health and political engagement of ethnic minorities? South Asia’s record on gender equality is weak, to say the least. The region has the world’s highest rate of child marriage, and domestic violence against women is pervasive. Women are over-represented in unpaid work, and under-represented in the labor force, even in countries like Sri Lanka, which has invested heavily in girls’ schooling. Yet there is one sector where women are taking over: agriculture. This is an opportunity for women’s economic empowerment that should not be missed. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 400,000 people worldwide and has generated a massive global economic crisis. The world economy is projected to contract sharply by 3% in 2020 (IMF 2020) and poverty is set to rise for the first time since 1998, bringing 40-60 million people into extreme poverty (World Bank 2020). However, unlike previous economic crises, this crisis will negatively affect women more than men, creating a significant blow for gender equality. Policymakers should step up their efforts to reestablish the path towards a more equal society for men and women. Recent protests over the killing of George Floyd have sparked a nationwide conversation about racism in all areas of American life, including in the office.Show Agenda posts
View more Gender posts
Here’s why AI needs a more diverse workforce
Monday 21st of September 2020
Society & Future of Work: What are the challenges in making society and the future of work more sustainable?
Sunday 20th of September 2020
Scientists thought only male birds sang – until women joined the research
Thursday 17th of September 2020
Guilt is fuelling Japan’s gender gap – Here are 3 ways we can stop it
Tuesday 15th of September 2020
Citigroup has just appointed the first female CEO of a Wall Street bank
Friday 11th of September 2020
COVID-19 has worsened gender inequality. These charts show what we can do about it
Friday 4th of September 2020
Brazil announces equal pay for men’s and women’s national soccer teams
Friday 4th of September 2020
What we can learn from 5 innovations helping women during COVID-19
Thursday 27th of August 2020
Futures destroyed: COVID-19 unleashes ‘shadow pandemics’ on Africa’s girls
Wednesday 26th of August 2020
It’s 100 years since US women got the right to vote, but how has gender equality changed?
Friday 21st of August 2020
These female athletes are braving stigma to lead a cycling drive in Kabul
Thursday 20th of August 2020
This is how COVID-19 is affecting the working week for mothers
Tuesday 28th of July 2020
Record number of Black women set to run for U.S. Congress
Tuesday 28th of July 2020
Women leaders are better at fighting the pandemic
Tuesday 28th of July 2020
This is how COVID-19 is worsening the gender gap, according to the IMF
Monday 27th of July 2020
4 key trends on how COVID has impacted women in business
Monday 27th of July 2020
The COVID-19 crisis disproportionately affects women – here’s how Latin America is addressing it
Wednesday 22nd of July 2020
Europe is progressing most towards these UN Sustainability Goals: A report card for Europe
Tuesday 21st of July 2020
Why climate change increases gender inequality
Wednesday 15th of July 2020
Gender equity and climate change have more in common than you think
Tuesday 14th of July 2020
COVID-19 could wipe out gains in equality for women at work – U.N.
Monday 6th of July 2020
What is systemic racism, and how can we combat it?
Thursday 2nd of July 2020
Farming could empower millions of women across South Asia – here’s how
Thursday 2nd of July 2020
Why COVID-19 is a backwards step for gender equality – and what to do about it
Wednesday 1st of July 2020
What is a microaggression? 14 things people think are fine to say – but are actually racist, sexist, or offensive
Wednesday 1st of July 2020
