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Sir Richard Branson: Peace in Ukraine
We all have a responsibility to work towards in , so that people can thrive without putting their basic human rights at risk. Join us in this call for peace. We will do our best to ensure that your voice is heard by political leaders. We will also bring the right groups of business leaders together to work towards a better, more peaceful future.
Richard Branson – Founder, Virgin Group; Mo Ibrahim – Founder, Mo Ibrahim Foundation; Paul Polman – CEO, Unilever; Jeff Skoll – Founding President, eBay; Ratan Tata – Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons Ltd; Muhammed Yunus – Nobel Laureate
Maxim Ivanov – Founder, Foodline Group (Russia); Dennis Ludkovsky – CEO, Svyaznoy Group (Russia); Arkady Novikov – Founder, Novikov Group; Sergey Petrov – Founder, ROLF Group (Russia); Igor Yurgens – President, All-Russian Insurance Association (Russia)
Jan Koum – Co-Founder and CEO, WhatsApp (Ukraine); Max Levchin – Co-Founder, Paypal (Ukraine); Igor Mazepa – CEO, Concorde Capital (Ukraine); Victor Pinchuk – Founder, EastOne Group (Ukraine); Evgeni Utkin – Chairman and President, KMCORE (Ukraine)
In 2009 Virgin Unite were soliciting project ideas so I wrote offering to show the way in business for social benefit in Ukraine
Here's how we describe our work in Eastern Europe:
P-CED is a 'profit for purpose' approach to business which derives from a white paper for the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
Our social purpose is poverty relief and childcare reform in the former Soviet Union. Core framework is straightforward: to build bridges of friendship based on common ground for the common good in the former Soviet bloc. We firmly believe that this "soft power" approach to international relations is inevitably the only solid ground for establishing and building understanding, good will and peace. We have therefore pursued that strategy from the beginning of P-CED. In this regard we consider that Peace is our Business.
We research and design regional and national programs. More about these programs are in the "Projects" section. We continue throughout with advocacy and activism in raising awareness of stakeholders we aim to help: vulnerable children, and people in poverty, first.
These problems almost always stem from government corruption that was a way of life in the USSR, and remains so to varying degrees. Hence the overall process of what we do in promoting change inevitably runs into varying degrees of conflict along the way. Dealing with such things as threats and smears is as much a part of projects as the hope and good will built within communities for standing up to it. Hope, good will, and improved lives far outweigh the stresses and strains mounted by corrupt government officials, so strife and institutional resistance to change are taken in stride as part of the change process.
Terry Hallman (deceased) Founder of People-Centered Economic Development
Back in 2005, Terry had challenged the neoliberal aspirations of an "economic hit man" from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Elimination of graft and corruption, and raising the overall standard of living for ALL Ukrainians rather than a few insanely greedy oligarch clans, was the main underlying and implied reason for the Orange Revolution – at least from hundreds of people, activists and otherwise, I talked with on the ground during and after the Revolution. Further, as director for any sort of peace institute, Mr. Aslund is obliged to review the connection between poverty and peace. Peace does not and cannot exist for people in poverty, unless they are harshly suppressed by government or other forces. Poverty is a horrible existence and lifestyle, and is bound to breed violence, not peace.
In 2006 Terry delivered his 'Marshall Plan' strategy to Ukraine's government. It set out a national scale plan for economic development and social enterprise, which included this statement:
'This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for "people-centered" economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority – as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine's poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a "top-down" approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first -- not secondarily, along the way or by the way. '
For-UA, a prominent Ukrainian journal published the 'Marshall Plan' in two parts in August 2007. Part one descibed childcare reform, interest development and microenterprise development.
Part two proposed a Centre for Social Enterprise development at Kharkiv National University and a social investment fund of 1.5 billion dollars to which forward thinking businesses and individuals were invited to contribute,
In February 2008, with a letter entitled Genesis, the 'Marshall Plan' was taken direct to USAID and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations;
Drawing their attention to RICO activities including harvesting of stem cels from aborted foetuses, the letter concluded:
Thank you for your time and attention to this. I and others will look forward to hearing from you. I hope we continue to realize ever more fully that outside the box and inside the box have only a box in the way. We outside the box know quite a bit of what’s going on, many times in exquisite detail, perhaps in ways that those inside the box can’t quite as easily access if at all. We are grossly underfunded in favor of missiles, bombs, and ordnance, which is about 100% backwards. Now, with even the US Pentagon stating that they’ve learned their lesson in Iraq and realize (so says top US general in Iraq ten days or so ago) that winning hearts and minds is the best option, I and others shall continue to think positive and look for aid budgets and funding spigots to be opened much more for people and NGOs in silos, foxholes and trenches, insisting on better than ordnance, and who understand things and how to fix them. We can do that. We can even do it cost-effectively and with far better efficiency than the ordnance route. Welcome to our brave new world. Except it’s not so new: learn to love and respect each other first, especially the weakest, most defenseless, most voiceless among us, then figure out the rest. There aren’t other more important things to do first. This message has been around for at least two thousand years. How difficult is it for us to understand?
In 2012 and 2013, the McKinsey Mixmarket initiative gave opportunity to describe impact.
Every Child deserves a Loving Family related the impact on domestic adoption and The New Bottom Line introduced the case for capitalism to be applied for social benefit in work going back to 1996.
Institutional resistance to change was an immense obstacle. As I recalled in 'The day we become silent about things that matter, NGO's were coopted into a culture of silence, UNiCEF turned a wilful,blind eye and USAID wouldn't support anyone who tried to help children abandoned to institutions.
The exercise was not without cost, including the life of Terry Hallman who was described as a Hero of Ukraine by Maidan leaders who found his body.
Here are some of the others approached for support
Discussion on Skoll World Forum with Arriana Huffington
Introduction to Grameen Creative Labs and Erste Bank fori their Social Business ideas initiative