Newsletter #16
In this issue:
Poverty Premium: when being poor costs money.
Joint Programme of Work with WBCSD
Publication of the OECD ‘Retaining Talent at All Ages’ Report
and more!
It costs money to be poor. In many countries, low-income households pay more for certain goods and services than the average household. These additional costs are called ‘the poverty premium’ and they can be found in a variety of sectors: transportation, insurance, communication, energy, real estate, health, etc.
For example, a low-income household will tend to buy a second-hand vehicle, rather than a new one. It will be cheaper in the short term. Yet, afterwards, they will pay additional expenses linked to the car’s higher fuel consumption and recurrent visits to the garage. Some NGOs have decided to focus on this topic, such as Action Tank Entreprise & Pauvreté in France, and Fair by Design in the UK. They have highlighted several underlying factors and mechanisms, including the volume effect – as people of low-income households consume less or smaller quantities, and the lack of information or poor trade-offs that lead to consumption behaviours to their disadvantage.
How to ensure that these people do not pay extra costs? How can companies incorporate inclusive design as part of their product development process to make them affordable and accessible to low-income people? There is an urgent need to address the levers for counteracting the mechanisms that cause poverty premium effects.
The B4IG Working Group on Access to Essential Goods and Services has been exploring how to take collective actions on this issue, which affects both developed and emerging economies. While the topic has its challenges, it is a critical part of the coalition’s ambition of building a more inclusive economy!
The Actions
Application Phase of the 2023 Incubator Programme to be launched soon!
Several new features in the Incubator Programme this year!
As we know, the B4IG Incubator’s mission is to support the design of innovative social projects developed by member companies that may have the potential to create impact at scale. The Incubator helps project teams design inclusive business projects and prepare for the scale-up phase, shares knowledge on inclusive practices, and creates opportunities for partnerships within and beyond the coalition.
In line with the coalition’s objective to transform the way to do business, the Incubator will focus more this year on solidifying the business model of the projects.
The 4-week application process will take place from March 20th to April 20th with an innovation: an in-person bootcamp that will be held in Paris on May 25th and 26th. During this bootcamp, all selected project teams will be provided with the basics of inclusive business practices and an initial assessment of their individual needs.
Collective and individual sessions with external consultants and speakers will then be organised from May to September, with the objective to strengthen the inclusive business model of the project and create connections with other projects, possible partners, and B4IG Working groups.
Last but not least, the Incubator will provide additional support during a complementary phase to 3 to 5 projects with the greatest potential in terms of the business case and social impact. Member companies who support these projects will be encouraged to scale up and prepare to proceed to a venture design phase.
For more details on the Programme and to apply for the Incubator, don't hesitate to contact the Incubator team by reaching out to incubator@b4ig.org.
Joint Programme of Work with WBCSD
B4IG and WBCSD have finalized the Programme of Work of the Joint platform they are forming. Existing B4IG working groups will continue by being part of this new platform, sometimes with a new name: Advancing human rights due diligence, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Enhancing access to products and services, Living wages and incomes, Inclusive sourcing, Just Transition and Exploring Social Metrics.
In addition to this, two new workstreams will be added.
As part of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) working group, a series of DEI masterclasses will be convening over the coming months. Each of these masterclasses will focus on a different element of the DEI agenda and will showcase insights from subject experts as well as member companies. They will also provide an open forum for discussion and best practice sharing.
A new working group focusing on building a culture of workplace health and wellbeing will be launched. With a focus on mental health, this working group will aim to help companies shape organizational cultures in which business leaders seek to address psychosocial hazards, talk openly about mental health and make relevant training, tools and support mechanisms broadly available.
Introductory sessions will be organised in the upcoming weeks, to present the work to new member companies and share the objectives and core priorities of each of the working groups.
Final version of the Just Transition KPIs
During the COP26 in November 2021, B4IG adopted a statement on the central role that businesses have to play in ensuring the social challenges of the ecological transition are met, by partnering with governments, social partners, and other stakeholders. Since then, we finalised the selection of indicators, with the support of different stakeholders, to help companies identify, assess, and address the social impacts of the transition in companies’ own operations, their supply chains, and their business relationships.
With these, we aim to lay the foundations of a shared language with all stakeholders, thereby fostering partnerships between public and private stakeholders, as well as helping develop a common pathway for change.
The complete list of the Just Transition indicators is available on the B4IG website.
Ongoing work on Grievance Mechanisms
The B4IG’s Human Rights Group has developed a sub-stream on Grievance mechanisms focusing on supply chains. Through a step-by-step process, the group has first explored the state-based non-judicial mechanism, OECD National Contact Points, with representatives from the French and Norwegian NCPs presenting their actions. Following this, share-out sessions from multiple member companies have been organised to identify interesting practices and challenges.
As a next step, the working group is focusing on developing a collective action that leverages existing setups, both state-based non-judicial mechanisms and company-level systems. In this effort, in collaboration with the OECD Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) Centre, the group is exploring the development of content on grievance mechanisms that can be included within companies’ supplier code of conduct as well as criteria to select alternative third-party initiatives to adopt the role of an effective grievance mechanism entity.
From the OECD
The deep and rapid changes in the world of work driven by the digital and green transformations as well as population ageing have been associated with greater job instability, with potential costs for companies, workers and society.
The unprecedented labour and skill shortages that emerged during the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic have raised further the importance of developing and retaining talent. In the context of a more age-diverse workforce, addressing this challenge will require better working conditions, greater investments in training and tackling difficulties in reconciling work with health issues and caring responsibilities.
The OECD’s recent ‘Retaining Talent at All Ages’ report, published on the 18th of January, presents evidence on recent trends in job tenure and employee turnover, how they have changed due to the COVID-19 shock, and sheds light on why employees quit their jobs. It identifies key employer and public policies that can support increased employment retention through better job quality, health at the workplace, training, and skills. You can read more on this here.
Around the Globe
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its 33rd annual World Report, summarising human rights conditions in over 100 countries and territories worldwide in 2022.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) published its annual Global Risks Report which presents the results of its latest Global Risks Perception Survey (GRPS) for the coming decade.
Oxfam published a paper on Price Interventions as a part of Living Income strategies based on lessons learned from their 2-year pilot on a price premium mechanism for basmati rice farmers in Pakistan.
The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), in partnership with UN Global Compact and in collaboration with Shift, released Managing Human Rights Risks: What Data Do Investors Need?, reporting on the ways financial institutions understand and rate how investee companies manage their impacts on people.
Save the date(s)
WG2, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion meeting on March 15th, 3-4pm CET: the OECD Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs will present employer-specific recommendations and actions focused on Age. This will then be followed by an open discussion with the objective to narrow the scope and hear about member companies’ current practices, challenges, and needs, in order to identify possible next steps and collective action.
Introductory sessions on each of the working groups for new members (all dates between 2-2:45 pm CET)
March 20th: Information session on the Incubator
March 22nd: Advancing Human Rights Due Diligence
March 27th: Enhancing Access to Products & Services
April 3rd: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
April 4th: Q&A on the Incubator, at 10-10:45 am or 4-4:45pm CET
April 5th: Building A Culture of Workplace Health & Wellbeing
April 11th: Living Wages and Incomes
April 17th: Inclusive Sourcing/Inclusive Recycling
April 19th: Just Transition
April 21st: Exploring Social Metrics
B4IG Virtual Board Meeting on April 13th, 3:15-4:45 pm CET
Thanks for reading, and be sure to follow B4IG on Twitter and LinkedIn!
The B4IG Team