Event 5 May 2021

Introducing WBA’s Collective Impact Coalitions

WBA’s mission is to build a movement and our strength and success is directly reflected in the collective impact of our global, multi-stakeholder Alliance. The 200+ organisations are aligned in a shared purpose and work towards systemic transformation that supports achievement of the SDGs.

The Alliance was created with the belief in the power of cross-sector partnerships to drive positive corporate behaviour change. Many of our efforts can be fragmented and lead us to work in siloes, hindered by a lack of common language or agreement on where to focus our attention. This is particularly relevant for organisations across stakeholder groups and ‘ecosystems’. Yet this is where the untapped potential to drive forward and elevate the impact of our work lies.

So, how do we more effectively work together and ensure that our efforts are lifted and supported within this growing community?

We are more than the sum of our parts and the Alliance has the potential for deep collective impact. Each Ally brings in their own voice, experience and expertise to the Alliance, and WBA’s benchmarks provide insights on the key sustainability challenges and opportunities. WBA’s Collective Impact Coalitions (CICs) bring these parts together and create focus on the issues that we know are going to move companies and bring about systems change. They offer a structured, actionable way for us to engage together on the topics we are working on.

Launch of the Collective Impact Coalitions

Building on the momentum of the Alliance, WBA will launch Collective Impact Coalitions in 2021, focused on providing a space for Allies to take forward cross-sector, collaborative action based on data and evidence provided by WBA benchmarks.

Whilst our benchmarks provide the evidence, Collective Impact Coalitions offer a framework to bring together Allies around key issues that are catalytic to system change. They will build upon, support, and raise the ambition of the existing work of allies, leveraging. Their key functions are to:

Prioritise: Identify key issues based on WBA research & engagement;
Mobilise: Convene Allies, set ambition, determine roles & responsibilities;
Execute: Take action, partner with leaders, hold laggards to account.

In doing so, these coalitions strengthen the ability of our movement to ensuring accountability from companies in driving systemic transformation on critical issues aligned with the SDGs. WBA will launch the coalitions in its Social, Food and Agriculture, and Digital systems throughout 2021.

Launch event

We are pleased to invite all Allies to the launch event on Wednesday 26 May from 15:00 – 17:00 CEST.

This event will introduce the Collective Impact Coalitions blueprint, showcase concrete examples from Allies in how they envision working with the CICs and host breakout session to kick start action among the Social, Food and Agriculture and Digital transformations.

In our mission to generate a critical mass of organisations that are committed to driving action on this agenda, we would like to invite organisations that are not yet in our Alliance but are interested in the blueprint. Please let us know if you would like to learn more, and we will review your potential attendance in the launch event on a case-by-case basis.

If you would like to learn more, please reach out to Pratik Desai, Strategic Engagement Lead & Charlotte Reeves, Engagement Manager.