Harnessing the Power of Business for Sustainable Health and Wealth
for All: From Corporate Social Responsibility to New Forms of Socially
Responsible Capitalism
The aim of the inaugural MWP Think Tanks
and Business4Health Compact is to build on leading models of more
humanitarian and environment-conscious capitalism to promote business,
social and health innovation and technology to create sustainable
health and wealth for all, thereby contributing to the local, national
and global effort to close the health and economic equity gap, while
helping manage business risks and offering potential for economic
return and corporate equity.
The program will also examine
institutional entrepreneurship to enable policy and governance models
at local, national and global levels, that balance markets’ and
governments’ competencies, resources, and power to support business,
social and health innovation and improve health and livelihoods of the
poor worldwide. The program of the inaugural Think Tank series is
structured in three tiers that progressively address the full scope of
the social determinants of health, from immediate access to food and
shelter to more balanced distribution of money, power, resources and
innovation if we are to close the health equity gap in a generation as
called for by the report of the WHO Commission.
The agenda in Tier 1 is designed to
mainstream the micro-level social determinants of health into business,
addressing specific challenges related to individual and social
factors, social and community influences, living and working
conditions. Business, social and health innovation and technology as
well as collective action will be examined to improve universal access
to food and nutrition security, credit and economic empowerment,
sustainable, access to supportive living places and communities, and to
health-promoting work environments, with a focus on the poor in both
developed and developing countries. These four themes were chosen
because all are tied to the immediate and concrete needs of underserved
populations that, if mainstreamed into business’ value producing
activities and strategies with a convergence of social and economic
goals, could be more powerfully and sustainably addressed than they
have been thus far with traditional corporate social responsibility.
The Tier 1 program also begins examining institutional entrepreneurship
to foster enabling and balanced policy and governance models to support
such changes on the ground.
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