UN General Assembly Tandem Meeting
By Brian Grim
On Tuesday, as world leaders including US President Biden and Ukraine President Zelensky address the UN General Assembly, I participated in the World Economic Forum’s Faith in Action working group preparing a report to be issued at Davos 2023.
Among several takeaways is that the most effective ways emerging to accelerate cross-sector collaboration between business, government and faith involves top-down and bottom-up engagement, the very sort we see when companies include religion as part of their diversity initiatives.
For example, DELL Technologies Interfaith employee resource group (ERG) is leading a pan-diversity initiative to combat human trafficking worldwide by engaging tens of thousands of employees, senior leadership, and faith-based NGOs in practical, collaborative initiatives. Such initiatives are in contrast to merely inviting a religious leader to participate, which has limited impact.
This same strategy is proving a powerful strategy to combat the rising tide of antisemitism and other forms of religious bias and discrimination, as set forward in a US National Strategy launched by the White House, which we are supporting.
