Crises, uncertainties, and interconnectedness
By Alessandra B.
[S]ometimes crises precipitate change and sometimes they do not. It is my hope that COVID-19 will promote positive social changes not only in the public health and emergency response spaces, but also more broadly.
It was a privilege working with my team’s NGO partner over the past few months. Over the course of the project, from the initial prompt my team received through today, a lot has changed. At first, the biggest change was in the scope of the project itself. Initially, we thought we would be advising on the organization’s transition from an NGO to a for-profit/social enterprise organization. As the project got started, we learned that the organization’s biggest priority was actually securing short-term funding. About mid-way through the project, our trip to Brazil was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It would have been hard to imagine then just how much the world would change in the following month.
We have just submitted the final recommendations to the client. The hardest thing about ending a project like this is not knowing how the recommendations will be received by a client and hoping that they are as useful as intended. Now, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the turmoil in the global economy, there is an added layer of uncertainty. It’s hard to know how the organization will fare given this new context. On the one hand, individuals and corporations may be influenced by the heightened social consciousness that is pervading many communities right now. On the other hand, it’s possible that philanthropy may be focused more specifically on public health and emergency management given.
I have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks thinking about how various stakeholders react to crises like COVID-19. Of course, for many, understandably and appropriately, it is hard to think about anything much beyond the issues at hand during a time like this. It has been interesting, however, to see other social issues receiving more attention at the same time. For example, on social media there have been a lot of posts about the positive impact that widespread quarantine conditions have had on the environment, even in the relatively short period of time since the beginning of the pandemic. Another conversation I have seen across social media has been centered around what we can learn from this situation, which has required to many people to work from home, in order to implement better work-from-home policies in the future that will benefit employers, employees, child-care providers, and others affected.
I have noticed during past times of crisis and upheaval that there are often resolutions made for the future. For a variety of social, economic, and psychological reasons, sometimes crises precipitate change and sometimes they do not. It is my hope that COVID-19 will promote positive social changes not only in the public health and emergency response spaces, but also more broadly. The rapid pace at which coronavirus has spread is a testament to how close and interconnected the today world really is, not just digitally.
It is my hope that communities understand that this interconnectedness spans not just physical interactions but also to the many social and economic issues that are inextricably linked. While the organization we worked with focused on solar energy specifically, its work really impacts the sustainability of communities more broadly. It is my hope that the attention to social issues that has arisen from this pandemic does not abate and that the organization we worked with and others like it survive and thrive far past the decline of COVID-19.