Date: 2024-05-31 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018495
Initiatives
Amit Bouri - Global Impact Investing Network
A global crisis requires a global response ... the impact investing community must play its part in that response.
Thank for your recent letter of encouragement to GIIN members. While a health pandemic is not good, but the silver lining may be that it will mobilize a lot of people who have been on the sidelines to actually do what needs to be done. I have worried for a very long time that (since the 1980s) that modern metrics are simply no longer fit for purpose and have not served to manage (move the needle) the socio-enviro-economic system in an effective way. Bluntly put ... the modern economy is profitable using the prevailing metrics, but is catastrophically fragile both socially, environmentally and economically. To me this makes no sense, but is to be expected when most people in the country think that maximizing profit and maximizing GDP growth are the critical goals that will result in happiness and a good quality of life. Best regards ... respectfully PeterB #TVM
Peter Burgess
Amit Bouri - Global Impact Investing Network
12:42 PM (2 hours ago) to me
Dear all,
I hope this message finds you healthy and safe, wherever you are.
As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds around us, our entire world is changing in unimaginable ways. And yet, many of the impacts are intensely personal. Our daily lives have been upended. Loved ones and friends may be sick. We are in a truly global moment of crisis.
We are already seeing profound examples of courage, leadership, and generosity in response.
But the worldwide toll is already taking shape, too. The health impacts appear to be unprecedented in modern times as healthcare systems struggle to care for ill patients. The economic impacts are increasingly tangible as millions of workers face lost wages and the financial markets erupt in volatility. The psychological impacts are just beginning to surface as pandemic fear takes root.
Worse still – these impacts are causing the most harm to those who were already most vulnerable: the world’s ill, elderly, and poor.
And yet, this crisis also points clearly toward the urgent need for the work of our global impact investing community.
Now, more than ever, the world requires the robust and scalable power of finance to address its most pressing global problems – problems such as climate change and inequality that, just like COVID-19, transcend our international borders. We must be working alongside world governments and non-profits.
Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic highlights our global interconnectedness and interdependence. That expansive web of human connection is, of course, how the virus moved around the world.
But ironically, those same global links are also the solution.
Our interconnectedness and interdependence allow us to powerfully confront this threat. Resilient global supply chains, an international economic response, and broad-based medical efforts will hopefully stave off the very worst of the pandemic’s effects. After all, a global crisis requires a global response.
Of course, the impact investing community must play its part in that response. As those efforts develop, you can count on GIIN staff – working with our GIIN members and partners – to support the industry’s work in this time of need. We are already working to assist our network in various coronavirus-related efforts and are preparing to support collective leadership that will span across our industry. In the past days, I have been so grateful to hear from many of you about how you are responding to this crisis and how you are coping in this difficult time. Please keep that feedback coming. This pandemic only makes the needs of our world more pressing – and only makes clearer the world’s need for the work of this impact investing community. Take good care, and best wishes, Amit Bouri Co-founder and CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network @AmitKBouri