In May 2020, as a response to the pandemic, think tank AlterContacts has launched a new sustainable initiative supporting entrepreneurs, small business owners and students - LockdownEconomy.org. It contributes to at least five SDGs and has been registered with the United Nations. We have done a pilot of the project and we are about to launch a course based on it with the MBA students of Anahuac Mayab University.
To continue filming interviews and making them into educational materials, we need financing. We are also looking for educational and other partners to drive it forward with. Do you have any advice on where we can find sponsorship or funding?
More about the initiative:
The Lockdown Economy is an international social-economic and educational initiative, organized by the Global Think Tank for Sustainable Development AlterContacts. It is a series of interviews where entrepreneurs from various parts of the world and occupations share how the lockdown has affected them and what their market looks like now. The objective of the Lockdown Economy is to give them a forum to speak, to provide a source of inspiration for a wider community of entrepreneurs and SMEs no matter what stage of business they are in, give them access to role models and inventive ideas, ways to adapt, tips on how to reinvent themselves and overcome the crisis of pandemic.
The Lockdown Economy is also a powerful resource of educational materials. It would allow students to work with real-time cases. We plan to distribute these materials to business schools through platforms such as Edx and through collaboration with on-campus courses of educational institutions worldwide. The initiative fulfils the United Nations recent call to increase efforts towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals, by contributing to economic growth (SDG 8), better education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), and stronger mental health (SDG 3). This initiative brings entrepreneurs of the world closer together in building the new better world based on inclusion, equity and sustainability.
In India - Shell Foundation, IKEA Foundation and Rabo foundation are actively supporting.
Thank you Emmanuel V Murray. I appreciate that you took the time to share your advice! I will look into it. As I mentioned we are looking for partners in education as well to see how we can propagate the initiative. If you see an opportunity to connect with what you are researching at the moment, I'll be happy to discuss.
As the global economy is currently in an economic crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic (causing the Covid-19 disease), it is necessary to constantly improve and increase the scale of the anti-crisis socio-economic policy planned, developed and implemented both on the scale of individual countries as well as in within the framework of coordinated international action. Due to the current strong economic slowdown and the economic downturn, it is necessary to plan, launch and improve interventionist anti-crisis socio-economic policy programs, including the fiscal policy of the Ministry of the Treasury / Ministry of Finance and the monetary policy of the central bank. In some countries, since March or April 2020, pro-development, interventionist, anti-crisis programs have been launched to save business entities from mass bankruptcy by introducing additional temporary tax breaks or exemptions, subsidies to employees' wages as part of an interventionist budget policy. On the other hand, as part of their monetary policy, central banks have lowered interest rates, launch loans to commercial banks on preferential terms, purchase lost loans from commercial banks and / or implement Treasury bond buyback programs to maintain liquidity in the state's commercial and public financial system. Moreover, on a supra-national scale, international economic cooperation is necessary so that the global economy can recover from recession faster. In some countries, specific programs of financial support for enterprises from public finance funds of the state are defined as the so-called Anti-crisis shields. Depending on whether the financial support consists of transferring financial grants to enterprises or applying tax breaks, exemptions from paying social security contributions, the possibility of a free-of-charge suspension of activity, granting loans or loans on preferential terms, etc., it is a specific financial assistance addressed to selected types of business entities representing specific industries and sectors of the economy is provided by tax offices, social insurance institutions, financial institutions belonging to or participating in financial processes carried out within the public finance system of the state, by investment funds implementing a specific economic policy of the state or other institutions established, including purpose by organs of state authority.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Thank you Dariusz Prokopowicz for this very thorough overview. Would you happen to have any examples of such programs that could be suitable for this particular case?
Dear Julia Skupchenko,
In a country where this type of anti-crisis programs, known as the so-called The Anti-Crisis Shield has been applied. I hereby conduct research on this subject and write a monograph on it. I invite you to cooperation.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
