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In May 2020, Speak Up Africa joined together with Globesight to launch the bi-weekly #StaySafeAfrica COVID-19 tracker, as part of the #StaySafeAfrica campaign.

The campaign worked to build trust in vaccines among the general public to promote uptake, while simultaneously advocating for equitable access to these vaccines to support the World Health Organization, and national governments’ response plans. #StaySafeAfrica aims to strengthen Africa’s capacity to develop and adopt innovative solutions to the continent’s biggest health challenges. 

Focused on Africa, the tracker, which was powered by Globesight, provided timely and relevant news updates as well as analyses of key philanthropic efforts and institutional responses to COVID-19 across the public, private, philanthropic, and multilateral sectors in the African continent. From vaccination efforts and the latest COVID-19 figures to pan-African and regional spotlights, the tracker provided a comprehensive overview of the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation in Africa for the past year. 

The #StaySafeAfrica COVID-19 trackers added significant value to our understanding of context-specific strategies to emerging health crises, and of funding mechanisms and opportunities for LMICs, as well as perspectives into trends at play in the aid and philanthropic sectors. They gave real-time insight into the inequality demonstrated in response and preparedness to health crises in LMICs compared to advanced economies. As the African continent encountered multiple waves of COVID-19, the trackers highlighted calls for vaccine equity and innovative solutions for more sustainable health systems in Africa.

After a successful run with over 35 trackers sent out to a database of over 800 subscribers, the #StaySafeAfrica COVID-19 tracker concluded in October 2021. We are grateful for the support it received and hope that the tracker proved to be a useful tool in helping improve access to information. We will be bringing forth more of these thoughts with platforms like 2030.solutions and other forums. 

The tracker’s archive can be accessed here as a resource.

Globesight’s jointly hosted roundtable alongside Developing World Markets convened IFC’s Senior Manager of Blended Finance Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante; UNHCR’s Chief of Section for Development Partnerships, Analytics and Research in the Resilience and Solutions Division Betsy Lippman; DFC’s Director of Finance Bruce D. Cameron and Developing World Market’s Partner and Co-head of Private Equity Aleem Remtula to discuss scaling innovative finance solutions for forcibly displaced people, refugees and host communities. The discussion was moderated by Globesight’s Development Finance Advisor Cedric Joutet.

The Roundtable enabled participants to collectively assess the landscape of innovative finance for displaced communities and refugees, identify critical enablers for impact, and scale common pathways of innovation. The panel addressed the growing numbers of displaced persons globally especially among threats like climate change. It emphasized the private sector’s ability to bring the scale required to address the financing gap for forcibly displaced people, refugees, and host communities especially in protracted situations; humanitarian aid can not meet the financing gap alone. Blended and innovative finance can facilitate the transition from concessional financing to commercial solutions, unlocking more private sector players to build commercially sustainable markets. Since high perceived risk is a deterrent for new players, it is important to build partnerships that can create precedents. This risk can also be mitigated through mining evidence and data such as the UNHCR study that substantiated that refugees payback and the IFC Kakuma study that tracked the circulation of money within the camp’s economy.

The group also highlighted how facilities such as SIDA-UNHCR, the NASIRA fund, Kiva Refugee Investment Fund (KRIF), and Development Impact Bond (DIB) for refugees are building the necessary track record for innovative financing for refugees. Further, IFC has also launched the new Blended Finance for Refugees facility which seeks to de-risk and increase the financial viability of projects benefiting displaced communities in African and Middle Eastern countries. UNHCR is also exploring innovative instruments including a green financing facility to reduce their carbon footprint, an impact bond for innovative livelihoods, and an innovative fund to finance for reforestation and clean cooking solutions. Innovest Advisory and FMO also shared successful insights from their respective interventions; mainly highlighting the importance of gathering granular data and insight into lending impact.

While tremendous progress has been achieved, further dialogue and partnerships are needed to allow international agencies and the private sector to collaborate further, create new markets, and attract return-oriented capital with a positive impact on forcibly displaced people, refugees and their host communities.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9EWoH-knTw&t=10s

In April 2020, Globesight launched the COVID-19 global response tracker under its Advocacy and Knowledge arm, a weekly round-up of the latest COVID-19 response developments across the globe.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that there was a significant information gap, particularly around the situation in the Global East & South, which are areas of focus for Globesight. We also knew that the support needed across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia would be immense. While we often work behind the scenes, we wanted to bring to light greater awareness of the COVID-19 situation and response to help make sure key stakeholders could be better informed in their decision-making around the pandemic. 

The COVID-19 global response tracker, in tandem with the Stay Safe Africa COVID-19 tracker, which focused on Africa, provided timely and relevant updates and analyses of key philanthropic efforts and institutional responses to COVID-19 across the private, philanthropic, and multilateral sectors. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, global and national funding and aid were invested to respond to the devastating impacts of the new health crisis. As the world rapidly mobilized around the unique, evolving needs of this challenging and unprecedented pandemic, Globesight found it was important to provide a resource to track the movement and impact of global aid.

From April 2020 to September 2021, Globesight systematically tracked the COVID-19 response and gathered key insights on the effects of the pandemic across relevant sectors. Knowing where and how aid flows contributed to better understanding the successes, gaps, and shortcomings of this unprecedented worldwide mobilization effort. The COVID-19 trackers added significant value to our understanding of funding mechanisms and opportunities in times of crises and provided perspectives into trends at play in the aid and philanthropic sectors. They presented an opportunity to evaluate how swift, efficient, and equitable aid responses were throughout the many deadly COVID-19 waves that countries encountered, and to demonstrate the need for similar systematic monitoring resources that can capture rapid developments in real-time. After a successful run with over 75 trackers sent out, the COVID-19 global response tracker concluded in September 2021. The tracker’s archive can be accessed here as a resource. 

The COVID-19 situation remains ongoing. Today, more than ever, we need an integrated response across global health and development issues to address underlying challenges. Our decision to bring to a close these trackers is not because we feel that the situation has been resolved vis-a-vis COVID-19. We will be bringing forth more of these thoughts with platforms like 2030.solutions and other forums.

Visit the Archive

Proceeds from the donation will go towards ending river blindness and lymphatic filariasis in vulnerable communities

 Globesight has donated $100,000 to The Reach Campaign, an awareness and fundraising initiative, which aims to end two neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), river blindness and lymphatic filariasis.

River blindness and lymphatic filariasis disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people. Over 200 million people globally require treatment for river blindness, one of the leading causes of preventable blindness, while over 850 million people are at risk of lymphatic filariasis.

Proceeds from The Reach Campaign go towards the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF), which offers a proof of concept for the elimination of the two diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. Administered by the END Fund, RLMF is a 10-year, $100 million USD initiative launched in 2017 by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and several supporters including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The RLMF delivers preventative treatment for NTDs and focuses on ways to accelerate progress towards elimination – from investing in disease mapping efforts, to supporting advanced lab facilities and cross-border collaborations.

Globesight’s donation represents the first contribution as part of the Reach Giving Circle, which consists of a collection of philanthropists who are dedicated to ending NTDs and empowering people to live healthy and dignified lives. Their generosity advances the work of the RLMF, which aims to free the next generation of NTDs. A $100,000 contribution can either protect 200,000 people from contracting river blindness and lymphatic filariasis for a full year or 3,000 people over their entire life from the aforementioned NTDs.

Taufiq Rahim, Globesight President, said: “We are proud to be supporting Reach through this commitment at a time when the world’s attention and funding for fighting to end neglected tropical diseases is under threat. It is also important for the private sector to step up and we hope that our contribution to the Reach reinforces that call to action.”

Nassar Al Mubarak, Managing Director of The Reach Campaign, said: “We are thankful for Globesight’s contribution to The Reach Campaign – their generosity advances our efforts and ultimately helps some of the most vulnerable populations across the globe.

“NTDs affect around 1.5 billion people worldwide – these diseases are not only preventable, but eliminating them will have widespread benefits amongst communities. Often, the children of adults who have contracted one of the diseases will have to drop out of school to become primary caregivers, impacting the entire family and trapping families in a cycle of poverty. Our hope is that through eliminating them, we can empower some of the most vulnerable communities to live a healthier and more productive life.”

With headquarters in the US and UAE, Globesight aims to advance meaningful impact for a more just, decent, equal and inclusive world. The organization focuses on policy, platform and partnership development to help scale impact around the world through transformative solutions. Recently, Globesight has been more direct in its own philanthropy from providing oxygen and ventilators to vulnerable communities impacted by the COVID-19 crisis in India and Uganda, contributing to COVAX to drive vaccine equity forward, and providing humanitarian aid in times of tragedy such as the Global Aid for Lebanon Campaign. The sectors of focus are global health, gender equality, and humanitarian assistance, and a broad view of the integrated 2030 sustainable development agenda. The contribution to Reach is an important milestone in the increasing focus on direct philanthropy at Globesight.

For more information, or to contribute, please visit: https://www.reachtheend.org/

About Reach
The Reach Campaign is an initiative to end river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. Over 200 million people worldwide require treatment for river blindness while 850 million people are at risk of lymphatic filariasis. Like many neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), river blindness and lymphatic filariasis disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable people, trapping their families in cycles of poverty. Proceeds from the campaign will go to the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF). Administered by the END Fund, RLMF delivers prevention and treatment across 7 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Together we can help end river blindness and lymphatic filariasis and ensure a brighter future for millions.

About Globesight
Globesight is a leading global development firm working collaboratively with innovative partners to craft solutions to the world’s most pressing social issues. Globesight develops strategies, investigates complex issues through relevant research, cultivates insights in data-scarce environments, and aims to reframe the conversation to challenge assumptions on advancing change. Its team of strategists, advocates, and experts work across sectors and issues helping organizations navigate complex social challenges, define their impact potential, and build innovative solutions that will both achieve their goals and drive ours forward. Globesight is headquartered between Dubai and New York.

To support Uganda’s COVID-19 response, Globesight has partnered with not-for-profit and last-mile logistics provider, Crown Agents, to supply four oxygen concentrators to national medical stores across Uganda.

Uganda’s health system is under strain to cope with continuous new cases of COVID-19 and the resulting deaths. Other diseases, such as malaria, are on the rise as healthcare efforts over the last year have turned their focus to COVID-19. Many private and public hospitals across the country have reported acute shortages of both the AstraZeneca vaccines and oxygen to treat patients over the last year.

Globesight’s President, Taufiq Rahim stated, “As COVID-19 cases take a toll on the country’s health infrastructure and the daily lives of the local population, we all need to step up and support the people of Uganda.”

Globesight’s partnership with Crown Agents and donation to the company’s ‘Lab to Jab COVID-19 Response Facility’ is a prime example of the meaningful role private sector companies can play in rapidly responding to emergency situations. Within 24 hours of joining the ‘Response Facility’ the development firm had donated four oxygen concentrators to Uganda.

Oxygen concentrators can produce oxygen 24-hours a day and have a lifespan of at least five years. Globesight’s donation of the concentrators alone could provide over 175,000 hours of oxygen until 2026 during their operational life.

The concentrators were safely delivered to the Central Medical Store in Entebbe to be distributed further across the country. Rahim further stressed, “Globesight’s contribution should be a signal to the private sector and global partners to not stand on the side-lines.”

Crown Agents’ ‘Lab to Jab COVID-19 Response Facility’ aims to combine business expertise, networks, and resources with Crown Agents’ procurement and last-mile logistics capabilities and presence across the globe in order to enhance and speed up emergency responses.

“We set up The Lab to Jab COVID-19 Response Facility to help make COVID-19 vaccines available and improve access to quality healthcare for all. By working with the private se­ctor, international development companies can leverage their extensive tools and skills to ensure support gets to where it is most needed in the quickest timeframe. Partnerships like the one we have formed with Globesight are imperative for preventing millions more from dying from COVID-19 and helping countries to build back better.” says Fergus Drake, Crown Agents Chief Executive Officer.

Globesight is proud to be joining the Action Coalition on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality as a Commitment Maker. The partnership is part of the Generation Equality Fourm convened by UN Women and co-chaired by the Governments of France and Mexico. As part of Action Coalition 5, we aim to close the gender digital divide across generations and will work diligently towards creating opportunities for women and girls to use, lead & design tech & innovation with freedom & boundless potential. Globesight looks forward to working diligently with our peers to advance the Coalition’s agenda and push for women’s digital rights and inclusion, with the start of the Mobilize Millions initiative.

As part of our Commitment to GEF, the Mobilize Millions initiative is dedicated to eliminating the stark mobile phone gender gap across low and middle-income countries, specifically in South Asia where it is most prevalent. To that effect, Globesight hopes to mobilize the private sector and other key stakeholders around the mobile gender gap as well as for accelerating progress on the four core Actions determined by the Action Coalition.

The Generation Equality Forum is a catalytic moment for gender equality. Convened by UN Women and co-chaired by the Governments of France and Mexico, with the leadership and participation of youth and civil society, the Forum is a once-in-a-generation moment to advance global gender equality. By bringing together governments, corporations, and changemakers from around the world, the Forum can define concrete, ambitious and transformative actions to achieve immediate and irreversible progress towards gender equality.

At Globesight, we strongly support the Forum’s vision of achieving gender equality across the globe. We are proud for this opportunity to make a difference alongside UN Member States, civil society, women’s rights organizations, international organizations, UN agencies, philanthropic entities, youth-led organizations, and other private sector entities.

Read more: (https://forum.generationequality.org/home)

Globesight is pleased to support fresh meals and livelihoods for displaced and vulnerable Palestinian families and those unable to access food in Gaza due to the long-standing humanitarian crisis in partnership with World Central Kitchen (WCK) and Anera (American Near East Refugee Aid). 

Working with Anera in Gaza, World Central Kitchen, and others are serving more than 3,000 meals each day to families impacted in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Jabailya, and Gaza City. They are also working with the Cooperative Society for Savings and Lending (CSSL), a women’s cooperative and vocational training center, local farmers, and restaurants to deliver the meals. The Anera/WCK initiative supports and sustains up to 100 workers at the women’s cooperatives, farms and restaurants to deliver the meals. 

For more information and to support the initiative visit: anera.org/gaza-meals

As the world emerges – unevenly – from a once-in-a-century pandemic and an extended period of challenge, it is unclear as to what world will be waiting on the other side. In the face of this unknown, it is important to reiterate our core purpose and principles at Globesight. We believe in our power to drive the next level of impact. Yet, we are also convinced that more of the same is no longer possible in the impact sector. Our foremost commitment is to do things differently and express ourselves to achieve lasting impact in the long-term even if it brings forth constructive confrontation in the short term.

Read our Commitment Letter to our peers, partners, and friends that speaks to the current state of the impact sector and what commitments we can all make to ensure we build a better – more just, more decent, more equal, and more inclusive – world.

Read the letter:

Our Commitment at Globesight

The first quarter of 2021 saw a significant spike in COVID-19 case numbers in South Asia, especially in its three most populous countries- India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. India has been the worst-affected, experiencing the world’s highest recorded single-day increase in cases for every consecutive day of the past week. Severe oxygen supply shortages, fully-occupied hospital and ICU beds, an explosion in critical cases, and low testing capacities came together to produce a situation where health systems across India are steadily crumbling, with reported case and death numbers thought to be vastly lower than true figures. The situation is particularly concerning given the sheer magnitude of vulnerable populations across the country and region, combined with the inadequate supply and slow roll-out of vaccinations. This ongoing spike is also likely to slow down India’s economic recovery, pushing more individuals of the near-1.4 bn population into poverty and distress.

Moderated by Globesight analyst Rika Kumar, the briefing provided an overview of the crisis in India, especially focusing on its specific drivers of the pandemic, and in particular why the second wave was so severe. The briefing covered the political, economic, and social challenges that India would face in the months ahead, and suggested specific ways to overcome the dire health crisis, focusing on how external actors could play their part in helping India meet upcoming challenges.

With GiveIndia as a key stakeholder in the on-ground COVID-19 response, Atul offered a comprehensive and candid overview of the situation, highlighting specifically the need to solve for the dire shortage of oxygen supply. He discussed the different needs for urban and rural areas, citing the housing crisis in urban-poor areas as well as the absence of healthcare infrastructure in rural areas that makes responding to the crisis even more difficult. 

The briefing further broke down the oxygen supply crisis plaguing India during this current wave of COVID-19. While medicinal capacity has run out, it is difficult to figure out the logistics to efficiently transform industrial capacity oxygen for use in time. the discussion highlighted that oxygen imports are slow to come in, given it is not easy to transport oxygen. As for the government’s response, Atul commended the central power’s quick action to suspend the GST tax on oxygen, making it relatively affordable. State governments that control healthcare in their specific constituencies are also responding quickly but the scale of the crisis is beyond existing capacity. On the role of those outside India, Atul emphasized the importance of responding to the crisis with whatever means and not being dismayed that the contribution is small in face of the problem at hand. The next six to ninth months will be crucial in India, but it is imperative to contain the wave before it spreads to other parts of the country. 

During the briefing, Globesight Executive Director Taufiq Rahim also announced a call to action for attendees to “step up with your partners, your friends, your colleagues, your organizations, to do that much more” and, in that light, announced Globesight’s contribution of $10,000 to GiveIndia to aid their oxygen supply fundraising efforts. He further emphasized, “we’re doing this not just to make a contribution, but to encourage our partners to join us.”

You can watch the briefing on our youtube channel here. 

During the Global Refugee Forum, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced the Clean Energy Challenge, a multi-stakeholder platform of more than 200 partners. As a core founding member of the Challenge, Globesight committed to mobilizing the private sector around the Challenge in a number of countries with significant refugee populations through high-level convenings. Turkey—home to the world’s largest refugee population—is the first country in which this process was initiated, leading to a roundtable convening in partnership with TÜRKONFED (Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation), and with the support of the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI). 

This high-level, solutions-driven roundtable served as an opportunity for convening key players in the Turkish energy sector and beyond to discuss solutions and opportunities to elevate the Turkish private sector’s skills to work towards the development of clean energy within refugee settlements and host communities. The roundtable further explored the context of access to clean energy for displaced people in Turkey, discussed challenges and conditions to create a conducive environment, contemplated opportunities for collaboration, and reflected on solutions to advance and strengthen the role of the private sector in achieving the goals set out by the Clean Energy Challenge. The event provided a platform to amplify diverse voices across sectors in Turkey in order to inspire action and activate capacities and innovation to catalyze progress towards clean energy access in refugee settlements. Broadly the discussion also covered the current state of clean energy, refugees, and gender equality in Turkey, alongside the identification of challenges. The participants also explored the role of the private sector in helping to spur innovation and scale to ensure clean energy access, especially in displaced settings, and the role of collaboration and partnerships in amplifying projects.

The discussion also touched on the renewable energy sector where it is estimated that jobs will increase from over 10.3 million today to 29 million by 2050 worldwide. The share of renewables in the total installed energy capacity exceeds 51%, and with regards to total energy production, has increased from around 14% in 2002 to 36% today. Turkey has a strong renewable energy sector with prominent producers, investors, equipment manufacturers, a facilitative regulatory environment, and financing mechanisms. In the past, large power plants were owned by the state; that has gradually changed over time alongside privatization. Hence, private sector investments supported by strong incentives have had a key role to play in this trend, accounting for around 21% of the production increase.

Any initiative at the nexus of displacement, clean energy, and gender equality in Turkey will need to plan its partnerships, approach, and investments in a manner that accounts for not only the current needs of local communities, but also the future needs that may arise due to wider concerns such as population growth, conflicts, health crises, and socio-economic suffering. Clean energy is a crucial pillar in this respect and understanding where displacement flows will be concentrated in the near and long-term will be key to planning for the right investments and partnerships.

You can find the highlights and key findings from the roundtable in our Outcomes Report.