A call for business to be a force for good in a post-pandemic world
Vatican City, January 12, 2022 – Global voices from business, finance, development economics and academia gathered together to discuss how societies are being transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic and to present new models for economies that value nature, people and society. The private virtual event, entitled Preparing the future, building a sustainable, inclusive, regenerative economy, was organized by the Vatican COVID-19 Commission and Deloitte, a multinational professional services network.
“The present COVID-19 pandemic is the latest in a long line of warnings that our current ways of living are not working,” cautioned Cardinal Michael Czerny, Interim Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in his opening remarks. “It is yet another wake-up call that implores us to leave behind the mentality of “business as usual” and the search for incremental, unidimensional economic growth.”
The challenges and opportunities that come from migration, and more broadly human mobility, were presented by Father Fabio Baggio, Under-Secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the DPIHD, who offered complementary perspectives on the topic from the international community and the Catholic Church. While contemporary human mobility is clearly considered an opportunity for sustainable and inclusive growth, “this potential will remain unrealized as long as there is no serious commitment to improve the connection and coherence of demographic, migration, and development policies,“ he concluded. “Therefore, it is worth making the right choice today, opting for the global governance of migration flows, for multilateral dialogue that is attentive to the needs and opportunities of all countries, for real co-responsibility in responding to humanitarian emergencies, and for building intercultural and cohesive societies.”
