27 Mar COVID-19 Response

The emergence of the COVID19 pandemic has shocked the world’s health systems, is testing its economic strength like no other time since the Great Depression and changing ways of life across the world on an unprecedented scale.

In the era of COVID19, it is more important than ever that innovative, ‘bottom-up’ solutions to the many challenges the pandemic causes, are identified, equipped and scaled to have the most amount of impact possible during challenging and unprecedented times. “Flattening the curve” on a global scale is critical, but so is the broader response and recovery from this generational event.

Just two weeks after the EarthTech Summit concluded, the COVID19 pandemic exploded across the world. Fortuitously, the ventures and teams identified through the Challenge and Summit are well-placed to rapidly provide locally-led responses to the broader impacts that the pandemic is causing across the world, particularly in Low or Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and nations severely affected by the pandemic.

COVID19 and the Sustainable Development Goals

EarthTech’s purpose, and all the ventures that we work with, are founded on and focus on impact around the Sustainable Development Goals. While the COVID19 pandemic continues, it has the potential to wind back progress the world has made on the SDGs, particularly affecting millions of peoples livelihoods, improved health outcomes and increased inequality.