Latest news with #Mardini
Forbes
28-04-2025
- General
- Forbes
How UNICEF's Unrestricted Funding Transforms Children's Lives Worldwide
Written by Patrice Peck The impact of severe drought in Yemen stretches far beyond water shortages. Young girls there, who fetch water over long distances daily, lack the time to attend school, limiting their future opportunities. International children's organization UNICEF stepped in with a creative solution: installing solar-powered water systems throughout the country. These systems bring reliable, clean water directly to communities in need, thus keeping girls in the classroom to further their education. In the drought-stricken Afar region of north-eastern Ethiopia, water scarcity and loss of livelihoods are threatening the future of girls who are increasingly forced into child marriage. UNICEF is conducting awareness-raising activities on the ground to ensure that young girls can study and fulfill their potential. © UNICEF/UNI466961/Raphael Poug This one story showcases UNICEF's interconnected approach in action: The organization's work spans Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identifying solutions to address multiple issues in tandem, from education to clean energy to gender equity. Despite progress, the broader picture for children globally is sobering. Only one in four children will live in countries meeting 70% of child-related SDG targets by 2030. Carla Haddad Mardini, UNICEF's global director of private sector partnerships and fundraising, explains that to change this trajectory, the organization relies heavily on innovative strategies and the critical support of private-sector partners committed to meaningful, systemic change. "Collaboration and partnerships are crucial, and we invite all stakeholders to join us in creating a better future for every child," she says. At the heart of UNICEF's agility and effectiveness is unrestricted funding. This type of funding allows UNICEF to address issues from an interconnected lens, respond quickly to a range of emerging crises, invest in long-term solutions and allocate resources where they're most needed. "Unrestricted funding is the lifeblood of UNICEF's operations," Mardini says. 'It provides the flexibility, predictability and efficiency needed to address the most pressing challenges facing children today.' Other kinds of funding are earmarked for specific projects. Mardini explains that earmarked funding is valuable but can leave some children out. In fact, in 2023, 44% of earmarked funding went to just 10 countries — where only 14% of the world's children reside. Unrestricted funding, which can be used when and where it's most needed, has become a smaller proportion of the total funds that UNICEF has raised over the last five years. The organization hopes to increase the amount of unrestricted funds, Mardini explains, to ensure the organization's broad and inclusive impact. Children who are survivors of Tropical Cyclone Freddy play at Kapeni Camp in Blantyre southern Malawi © UNICEF/UN0814229/Thoko Chikon Unrestricted giving ensures underserved children in less-visible regions get their needs met, for example. In Least Developed Countries, where funding gaps are often critical to the future of children and communities, the flexibility of unrestricted funding can mean the difference between hope and stagnation, says Mardini. In Ethiopia, Africa's second-most-populous country, ongoing conflict, food insecurity and disease outbreaks leave children vulnerable. Unrestricted funding empowers social workers to tackle the country's complex challenges — including sexual violence and child marriage — and develop a sustainable system to safeguard as many children as possible. UNICEF took a two-pronged approach there. First, unrestricted funding allowed the organization to hire and deploy 1,200 social service workers, representing 15% of Ethiopia's social service workforce, in development and humanitarian settings. These front-line professionals worked one-on-one with children facing extreme hardship, supporting repatriated migrant children, providing mental healthcare, preventing child marriages and helping survivors of violence access critical services. Unrestricted funding also helped provide preservice and in-service training to all 8,000 social workers in Ethiopia, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to protect children more effectively. This investment made it possible to reach nearly 600,000 children, in both immediate interventions and by improving the entire child-protection infrastructure. One intervention involved a UNICEF-supported social worker who helped an eighth-grade student get out of an arranged marriage by rallying local leaders and connecting her to comprehensive care. Her story highlights how unrestricted giving can deliver profound results across multiple SDGs, including education, gender equality and social justice. "Thanks to my school principal, the social worker ... and the committee that convinced my mother to cancel the arranged marriage, I am now free to pursue my education," shared the student. Unrestricted funding not only allows UNICEF to act swiftly during humanitarian emergencies, says Cristina Shapiro, UNICEF USA's chief strategy officer, but also enables the organization to address both existing and new challenges amid a crisis. She cites The Every Child Fund, which helps catalyze more equitable distribution of funds when and where they are most needed — for example, during a devastating flood in Pakistan in 2022. "UNICEF used flexible funding to set up learning centers and provide educational materials [in Pakistan] — giving children access to school, some for the first time," says Shapiro. "These temporary learning centers also offered protection, clean water and healthcare. Flexible funding was the key for UNICEF to prepare for, respond to and support recovery efforts for the 33 million people affected across a number of areas.' UNICEF often approaches large problems by looking for inherent connections. Instead of isolating individual issues, its programs target overlapping challenges, tackling multiple SDGs in a single effort, says Mardini. Collaboration is key to this strategy, which involves a wide range of partners, including governments, experts and other organizations working together to amplify results. A group of indigenous girls plant trees outside their home in Quiche, Guatemala. © UNICEF/UNI498512/Anderson Flo In Montenegro, child poverty was an entrenched problem, with poverty rates remaining above 30 percent since records began in 2013. As a result, all aspects of children's lives were affected, from education to healthcare to protection. To address the issue sustainably and holistically, UNICEF put unrestricted funding to work, tapping experts across spaces to enact change. Social policy experts analyzed child poverty trends, shaping data into an advocacy blueprint. The timing mattered: Elections had just reshuffled the political landscape, creating an opening to make child poverty a cross-party priority. UNICEF moved quickly, securing government buy-in and leveraging expertise from an international finance institution to assess cash transfer options. The result? Montenegro transitioned from limited targeted cash grants to a universal child allowance that now reaches nearly all children in the country. Children's families receive monthly cash transfers, with additional support for children with disabilities and those from families on social assistance. Over the past decade, child poverty has fallen by 6% — to the lowest recorded level. The child allowance's ripple effects have helped alleviate poverty by connecting families with social welfare officers who provide support for issues like violence and other challenges. Being able to monitor and target payments administered through post offices makes it easier for the system to allocate payments during emergencies. Mardini points out that these long-term, systemic changes wouldn't have been possible without the power of UNICEF's various alliances."By supporting unrestricted funding, donors enable UNICEF to deliver integrated solutions that maximize impact, drive sustainable development and ensure that no child is left behind," says Mardini. UNICEF's wide-reaching impact is made possible by a rich network of partners, including governments, private sector donors and philanthropic organizations. These successful efforts in Yemen, Ethiopia and Montenegro are a few of the many, and show how addressing overlapping challenges can create ripple effects that benefit entire communities and enact lasting, structural change. And while the path forward to meet child-related SDG targets is challenging, Mardini says the opportunity to replicate these powerful outcomes through collective action and sustained investment is undeniable. "Children make up one-third of our world and 100% of our shared future," says Shapiro. "When we invest in their well-being, we're not just supporting them — we're building a better future for everyone." Intersectional and collective contributions keep UNICEF agile and able to respond not only to pressing crises but also to ongoing "forgotten" challenges. Looking ahead, Mardini adds that achieving the SDGs for children will demand even deeper collaboration and more substantial investment from impactful partners. "With the right support, we can transform today's challenges into opportunities for every child, everywhere." Find out how you can support UNICEF.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Olympic Swimmer Yusra Mardini on Returning to Syria After 10 Years Away
When her home was destroyed in the Syrian civil war, Yusra Mardini and her family fled, eventually resettling in Germany. During one leg of their journey, a small boat they were traveling on from Lebanon stopped working and Mardini and her sister—both competitive swimmers since they were children—jumped into the water and towed it for more than three hours to make it to Lesbos, Greece. Netflix's 2022 film The Swimmers famously told the story of how the sisters went from Syria to competing at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. They once wondered if they'd never return to Syria. But this past December, the country's brutal Assad regime was toppled by rebel forces after 50 years, and while there is still conflict and many safety risks remain, some Syrians feel ready to return now that the violent dictatorship has ended. Over 13 million Syrians have been displaced in the past 14 years. Since December 8, around 370,000 refugees have returned home to their communities. Many more hope to do the same. In March, Mardini became one of them. Ten years after she left, Mardini returned to Syria, along with her mother. They visited their relatives, saw the remains of their home, and visited with displaced people as part of Mardini's role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. During her visit, Mardini saw the nation reeling from the ongoing war and the implications of sanctions that the U.S. and other countries have put on Syria. According to UNICEF, more than two million school-aged children are out of school there, and one in three schools cannot be used because they were either destroyed, or damaged, or are being used as shelter. 'The most important thing for people to know about Syria is that this country is in a state of pain. There's a lot of anger. There's a lot of asking, 'Why did the world turn their backs on us?'' she says. 'Syria needs to heal. Syria needs to be protected. We need to build the country with the values that we were taught when we were young. We need to protect each other as Syrians. I want people to understand that the most important thing for Syrians right now is basic human rights. We need those.' It was a mix of emotions. The moment we crossed the border, I was in tears. It made it so much more emotional to have my mother next to me in the car, seeing my grandma after 10 years, seeing my family. It was as if nothing changed, but everything did change. It was like, this is my home, this is my land, but I'm kind of a stranger. My friends took me around and told me about the new places, and about how heavy the sanctions are. It's my country—I felt a little bit disappointed that I didn't know how much they were struggling, even though I'm an advocate, and even though I've been talking about my country for the past 10 years. When I came back from Syria, it was very heavy on me. When I was 17, it was a bit easier. I had swimming to focus my anger at, and I could channel everything into something positive, into my goals. Now I'm 27, and I feel like we get attached a little deeper. We get sad a bit more. We can't move on as quickly as we could when we were young. It was like a brand-new experience that I have to still process. Syrians are so isolated from the world. The regime and the sanctions have made it very difficult for people to have a normal life. They are living to survive. Of course, they have their goals and their ambitions, and they wake up every day with a positive attitude, trying to accomplish things in life. What I noticed is the urgent need for everything. When I say everything, everything. Forty percent of schools in Syria are destroyed; 90 percent of Syrians are on the poverty line. It's still the highest number for refugee crisis in the world—13 million. It's so heartbreaking. Even if you did not seek refuge outside of Syria, you are displaced within the country. A lot of people go back and find their homes destroyed. It's just, in general, very heartbreaking. I always say that I came back with so much anger and sadness, but I'll channel that to do good. I want to be angry at the world. I'm not going to lie to you. I want to scream, but I can actually take that anger and put it into something good. Instead of just words, I can actually think, how can I navigate building schools, building hospitals, working with UNHCR, visiting shelters? How can I use my anger to actually make a difference? That's not easy, but the difference is a lot. Oh, it was not the right time. There's no right time. But I wanted to go back in December—I was not going to wait. I didn't care about security. I didn't care about anything. I am very lucky to have UNHCR. I'm very lucky to have my mother tell me, 'You need to wait. You need to be patient.' It was the right timing because UNHCR is an incredible team that said, 'Okay, we'll navigate this trip because it's very, very important,' even though they're [dealing with] insane budget cuts right now. Not many missions are happening right now, but they understood the importance of me going back home and helping my people. I met with a lot of people, actually. I met with the staff from UNHCR in Damascus. We went to a few community centers in Daraa and Homs, and we went to businesses that are supported by UNHCR. It was honestly very inspiring to me to meet the people and understand that, for small businesses, it's just like they're starting from scratch. They're already displaced, and they are learning how to give back from nothing. They're giving job opportunities to other refugees or other Syrians. They are teaching them how to knit or how to make this product. These women that are employed are supporting their families. It was very inspiring, but I wasn't surprised because I know my people. My grandma would not throw out an old shirt. She would create something out of it. I love that about Syrians. There was one family that we visited, and I met this little girl named Kholoud, wearing her new clothes from aid. Her house was destroyed, but she had the biggest smile on her face. She was so excited. For me, I was like, This is why I do the work that I do, because I want to be someone that inspires her. I want her to look up at me and say, 'Look, Yusra made it. So can I.' Is it heartbreaking? Do I want to take them all and put them in a better location, give them all the rights that they're supposed to have? One hundred percent. I wish I was a superwoman, but I'm not. This is not the only trip that I'm going to make to Syria. My goal is to be someone that is able to build schools, to build hospitals, to be able to support refugees worldwide, not just in Syria. I truly believe I can. It's still heavy. I expected it to be destroyed, but not completely on the ground. [But it was.] I don't know what happened. The neighbors told us that the building stood until seven months ago, so maybe it was dangerous to keep it standing? I have no idea what happened. My mom was like, 'This is the building.' I was like, 'No.' She was like, 'We just saw your uncle's house. This is our building.' I was like, 'No.' It was really, really devastating. I shared the video online because I know that I have a responsibility. I know that I have the power, and I know that my voice would reach people. It's gotten 21 million views right now. A lot of people are commenting on things that I fought for: 'Oh, but her nails are pretty, her hair is pretty, her outfit is fine. What is she crying about?' We put refugees in a box—we have to look a certain way, we have to speak a certain way. How dare we speak English, and how could we look pretty and clean? But I knew that very few people can share a video like that. Who wants to stand in front of their destroyed home and show the world? I don't think anyone wants that. Swimming taught me a lot. From a very young age, I learned how to separate between my professional life and my personal life. My father always told me, 'When you're in the pool, you're focusing on your goals, and everything else outside of the pool can wait.' It taught me how to do that in life, with or without sports. Swimming also taught me patience. I am not going to get to where I want by doing ordinary things, but I have to do ordinary things for a very long time in order to do extraordinary things. I have to do boring workouts. I have to do boring hours in the pool for me to get to the level that I want. It taught me how to deal with disappointment, and it taught me how to try again. This interview has been edited and condensed for Might Also Like The 15 Best Organic And Clean Shampoos For Any And All Hair Types 100 Gifts That Are $50 Or Under (And Look Way More Expensive Than They Actually Are)
Al Arabiya
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Arabiya
Exclusive ‘I left as a child': Yusra Mardini returns to Syria after a decade of fleeing war
Olympic swimmer and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Yusra Mardini has spent the last decade turning trauma into purpose. Now, for the first time since fleeing Syria at 17, she's returned home to help rebuild her country. 'It was very emotional for me,' Mardini said in an exclusive interview on Al Arabiya News. 'I was in complete denial. It felt like I was dreaming… I saw the sign, 'Welcome to Syria,' and immediately started crying. My mom was sitting next to me…it was also her first time back in 10 years.' Watch the full interview here. Mardini's return marked a full-circle moment for the 27-year-old whose dramatic escape from war was documented in the Netflix film The Swimmers. The movie chronicled how she and her sister fled Damascus, swimming for their lives across the Aegean Sea. But her latest visit marked a new part of her journey. 'I left Syria a child,' she said. 'I didn't understand politics. I just knew I had to run. Now, I went back intentionally, to help, to rebuild.' The trip was part of a UNHCR mission aimed at shedding light on the world's largest displacement crisis. Over 30 million Syrians have been displaced since the war began. 'I have a home in Germany. I have a Plan B,' Mardini said. 'But other people don't. That's why it's my duty to go back as a Goodwill Ambassador.' Despite the overwhelming scenes of destruction, Mardini's visit had some positive personal moments like reuniting with her maternal grandmother after 10 years and she visited her old swimming pool – the same one where a missile once landed while she was training. 'It's hard to put into words. That pool is where my story began as a swimmer,' she told Al Arabiya News. 'People ask about the missile scene [from the film] – yes, it happened. But it happened every day. At the pool, at school, on the streets. This isn't just my story – it's the story of millions of Syrians.' One moment, in particular, resonated with her during her recent visit: meeting a young girl named Kholoud. 'Her home was destroyed. She was wearing her Eid clothes. And she gave me the biggest smile. That's what I've learned from refugees, no matter how dark it gets, there's always light.' Mardini has made it her life's work to be that light. In addition to working with the UN, she launched the Yusra Mardini Foundation to support refugees through access to education and sports. During the interview, she explained that the foundation's mission is inspired by her parents: Her father, a swimming coach; her mother, a teacher. 'I want to give them the opportunity to dream,' she said. 'Whether they want to be a doctor, an athlete, or a therapist – how can we help them get there?' While she's already working on several projects to support refugees from all different backgrounds, her heart remains attached to Syria. 'My dream is to build schools and hospitals back home,' she said. 'To help my people heal.' Asked if she sees herself ever returning to Syria permanently, Mardini was both hopeful and grounded. 'Syria is my home. Germany is my new home. You can have multiple homes. I'd love to go back and open a swimming academy one day, but right now, my role is to think of others before myself.'
The National
21-03-2025
- Business
- The National
Unicef official calls for action to bridge digital divide between boys and girls
The private sector must play a greater role in closing the digital divide between boys and girls, particularly for young girls in low-income countries, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). Up to 90 per cent of adolescent girls in low-income countries remain offline, depriving economies of nearly $1 trillion in GDP over the past decade, a loss that could hit $1.5 trillion by the end of 2025. Their male peers are also twice as likely to be online, Unicef analysis shows. The situation is such that there is now an urgent need for collaboration between governments, industry leaders and humanitarian organisations to ensure equitable digital access for all children, Carla Haddad Mardini, Unicef's director of private sector partnerships and fund-raising, told The National. 'If you look at the digital divide between the Global North and the Global South, and specifically when it comes to women, it disproportionately impacts women and young girls and it impacts futures in terms of access to the internet, to learning, and developing digital foundational skills,' Ms Mardini said. 'Digital numeracy and digital skills are critical. We need children and young people to be equipped to benefit from the advantages that will come from tech, from AI, and from all the improvements happening in that space.' Ms Mardini pointed to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which took place earlier this month, as an example of the gender gap. 'There were very few women there; the sector remains male-dominated,' she said. 'Unfortunately, not enough women are breaking barriers at the highest levels in tech. We did, however, bring two young girls who have excelled – one from Ecuador and one from Lebanon – because we believe that, to bridge the digital divide, young people must have a stronger voice in these spaces.' Unicef has launched several global initiatives to expand digital access and support learning for displaced children. One example is the Giga initiative, which is set on connecting every school in the world to the internet. Another project, co-created with Microsoft, is the Learning Passport, which helps displaced children continue their education and enable equitable access to high quality learning for more than 10 million learners in more than 46 countries, half of them girls. 'It allows children on the move who are displaced in countries suffering from natural disasters or armed conflict, or who have become refugees, to continue their learning,' Ms Mardini said. 'If there's no connectivity, they can do it offline, but it's adapted to their reality and their situation. [The Learning Passport] can cater to their needs and [allow them to] enter the labour force with the right skills and the right quality learning.' The Global Coalition on Youth Mental Health, a collaboration between Unicef and the Z Zurich Foundation, a global community investment charity, hopes to ensure child and youth mental health is prioritised on the social, economic, and political agenda, strengthening the skills and supportive environments for the mental health of 50 million children and young people in 150 countries by 2030. Another major initiative is Laaha, a virtual platform for young girls that provides digital access and resources. 'It's a space online to help young girls access information,' Ms Mardini said. 'It's fascinating.' Laaha currently reaches half a million girls in eight languages. Education is just as critical as access to clean water, food, and health care, particularly in conflict zones, Ms Mardini said, as she shared her own experience of how precarious access to learning can be. 'I come from Lebanon. During the war in the 1980s and 1990s, the number one priority for my parents was to keep us in learning,' she said. 'Whether the school was closed, shut down, bombed, whatever, we would sometimes have the teacher come home and, as a community, organise ourselves for group classes, or even study in bunkers to keep learning when you didn't even know if you would be alive the next day. 'Education, for Unicef and for us, is life-saving. If it's protected at the same time as water and sanitation, access to health care, then we ensure that children and young people can have a future.' Ms Mardini called on the private sector to do more, noting that no single entity can bridge the gap alone. 'Unicef is not a watchdog of the private sector [but we have] a very strong dialogue at industry level. We know businesses focus on their bottom line, productivity, and profitability, but we think there is no sustainable profitability if the impacts are egregious on society and on children, specifically. There's no productivity and profitability without equity and without safety, and this has to be done from the design phase.' Ms Mardini added: 'No UN agency, multilateral agency, or NGO, whether international or local, can do it alone. We really need to come hand in hand and work together at the intersection of private and public sector – to make sure no child or young person is left behind.' However, Ms Mardini noted that greater connectivity comes at a cost and stressed the importance of online safety. 'There are risks and downsides, and Unicef works hard with the sector at industry level to discuss how we can make sure child online safety is a top priority from the design phase of the products and not an afterthought. 'We want to see the private sector move from a no-harm approach to a do-good approach and, even further, to consider themselves as actors that can impact and drive societal benefits.'
The National
21-03-2025
- Business
- The National
Unicef calls for action to bridge digital divide between boys and girls
The private sector must play a greater role in closing the digital divide between boys and girls, particularly for young girls in low-income countries, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). Up to 90 per cent of adolescent girls in low-income countries remain offline, depriving economies of nearly $1 trillion in GDP over the past decade, a loss that could hit $1.5 trillion by the end of 2025. Their male peers are also twice as likely to be online, Unicef analysis shows. The situation is such that there is now an urgent need for collaboration between governments, industry leaders and humanitarian organisations to ensure equitable digital access for all children, Carla Haddad Mardini, Unicef's director of private sector partnerships and fund-raising, told The National. 'If you look at the digital divide between the Global North and the Global South, and specifically when it comes to women, it disproportionately impacts women and young girls and it impacts futures in terms of access to the internet, to learning, and developing digital foundational skills,' Ms Mardini said. 'Digital numeracy and digital skills are critical. We need children and young people to be equipped to benefit from the advantages that will come from tech, from AI, and from all the improvements happening in that space.' Ms Mardini pointed to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which took place earlier this month, as an example of the gender gap. 'There were very few women there; the sector remains male-dominated,' she said. 'Unfortunately, not enough women are breaking barriers at the highest levels in tech. We did, however, bring two young girls who have excelled – one from Ecuador and one from Lebanon – because we believe that, to bridge the digital divide, young people must have a stronger voice in these spaces.' Unicef has launched several global initiatives to expand digital access and support learning for displaced children. One example is the Giga initiative, which is set on connecting every school in the world to the internet. Another project, co-created with Microsoft, is the Learning Passport, which helps displaced children continue their education and enable equitable access to high quality learning for more than 10 million learners in more than 46 countries, half of them girls. 'It allows children on the move who are displaced in countries suffering from natural disasters or armed conflict, or who have become refugees, to continue their learning,' Ms Mardini said. 'If there's no connectivity, they can do it offline, but it's adapted to their reality and their situation. [The Learning Passport] can cater to their needs and [allow them to] enter the labour force with the right skills and the right quality learning.' The Global Coalition on Youth Mental Health, a collaboration between Unicef and the Z Zurich Foundation, a global community investment charity, hopes to ensure child and youth mental health is prioritised on the social, economic, and political agenda, strengthening the skills and supportive environments for the mental health of 50 million children and young people in 150 countries by 2030. Another major initiative is Laaha, a virtual platform for young girls that provides digital access and resources. 'It's a space online to help young girls access information,' Ms Mardini said. 'It's fascinating.' Laaha currently reaches half a million girls in eight languages. Education is just as critical as access to clean water, food, and health care, particularly in conflict zones, Ms Mardini said, as she shared her own experience of how precarious access to learning can be. 'I come from Lebanon. During the war in the 1980s and 1990s, the number one priority for my parents was to keep us in learning,' she said. 'Whether the school was closed, shut down, bombed, whatever, we would sometimes have the teacher come home and, as a community, organise ourselves for group classes, or even study in bunkers to keep learning when you didn't even know if you would be alive the next day. 'Education, for Unicef and for us, is life-saving. If it's protected at the same time as water and sanitation, access to health care, then we ensure that children and young people can have a future.' Ms Mardini called on the private sector to do more, noting that no single entity can bridge the gap alone. 'Unicef is not a watchdog of the private sector [but we have] a very strong dialogue at industry level. We know businesses focus on their bottom line, productivity, and profitability, but we think there is no sustainable profitability if the impacts are egregious on society and on children, specifically. There's no productivity and profitability without equity and without safety, and this has to be done from the design phase.' Ms Mardini added: 'No UN agency, multilateral agency, or NGO, whether international or local, can do it alone. We really need to come hand in hand and work together at the intersection of private and public sector – to make sure no child or young person is left behind.' However, Ms Mardini noted that greater connectivity comes at a cost and stressed the importance of online safety. 'There are risks and downsides, and Unicef works hard with the sector at industry level to discuss how we can make sure child online safety is a top priority from the design phase of the products and not an afterthought. 'We want to see the private sector move from a no-harm approach to a do-good approach and, even further, to consider themselves as actors that can impact and drive societal benefits.'
