Nine PwC firms working on UN-backed Covid-19 initiative
Nine of PwC’s national and regional wings are teaming up to support a new global initiative and collaboration to help local communities recover better from the Covid-19 pandemic. Alongside a host of other private sector firms partnering with the United Nations Development Programme, PwC will help co-create solutions tailored to Covid-19 situation in a localised context.
The Covid-19 Private Sector Global Facility is a global initiative from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aiming at fostering collaboration between public and private sector partners to help local communities recover better from the pandemic. It serves as a response to corporate calls to action for private sector leaders and governments to work together to address the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic – and will now look to better coordinate the responses of its partners, helping to ensure that immediate and coherent stimulus efforts flow into the real economy.
The initiative is open for other like-minded private sector organizations that want to contribute. Among the cohort of private sector partners signed up the UNDP’s scheme are the DHL Group, Microsoft, and the PwC network. The Global Facility will operate at both the global and national levels, and will support a multi-sector, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to face the multidimensional nature of the Covid-19 crisis. Initial projects will focus on the countries of Colombia, Ghana, the Philippines and Turkey, helping the nations to build inclusive, low-carbon and climate-resilient economies to boost their recovery efforts.
Agnieszka Gajewska, a PwC Poland Partner, commented, “At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. Together with our clients and communities, we are working to assess and mitigate the major challenges that the pandemic poses for our economies and societies. We are proud to be working with our public and private sector partners to help structure and implement real pandemic relief solutions that make a difference in people’s lives.”
PwC’s role in the Global Facility is led by PwC Poland and supported by PwC Canada, PwC Hungary, PwC India, PwC Norway, PwC Middle East, PwC Switzerland, PwC Turkey and PwC UK. The firm will now continue to play an instrumental role in supporting the design and establishment of this flagship global public-private cooperation. Additionally, the Big Four firm will help to develop finance and policy solutions and coordinate multi-stakeholder engagement.
Michael Orfaly, Partner, PwC Middle East, remarked, “This partnership has come at a vital time given the severe impact of Covid-19 pandemic. We are delighted that the Middle East firm is able to take part in this global initiative, which will play an integral and tremendous role in achieving sustainable development goals and continue to combat the challenging impacts of the pandemic.”
