Today, Fast Company magazine announced the Pandemic Action Network as one of their World Changing Ideas of 2021. These awards showcase entrepreneurs and companies tackling exigent global challenges, and Pandemic Action Network received an Honorable Mention in the General Excellence category, selected from more than 4,000 entries.
When COVID-19 hit, the need for collaboration and collective action was more urgent than ever. The crisis at hand was too big and too complex for any one organization or sector to tackle alone. The Pandemic Action Network was created deliberately as a network in recognition of the fact that only a broad, multi-sectoral group of stakeholders could tackle a challenge of this magnitude.
In the last year, the Network has grown to a robust and catalytic coalition of over 100 global and multi-sector partners who have worked towards a shared mission: to bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure the world prepares for the next outbreak. By working collectively, the Network has been able to regularly brief policymakers in government and multilateral organizations on five continents and reach over 100 countries on a campaign to encourage mask-wearing, among many other activities in a busy first year.
Continuing to work in partnership is critical - while many are feeling pandemic fatigue, the virus is clearly not. Last week marked the highest number of COVID-19 cases the world has recorded to date. The humanitarian crisis in India continues to grow. And the rollout of vaccines continues inequitably, with a few wealthy countries immunizing significant portions of their citizens, while most other countries wait for their first vaccine shipment to arrive.
When I founded Panorama, I wanted to create a platform for social change that would have an impact on people who are most in need, and that would indeed change the world.
Our philosophy is simple: change happens when the right group of stakeholders comes together to collectively determine a problem needs to be solved, then works in partnership to have an impact. The recognition by Fast Company is particularly meaningful to me because it validates this role as an issue catalyst that is committed to solving some of the world’s most challenging problems through catalytic coalitions.
It’s an honor for the Network to join the ranks of trailblazing organizations that are at the forefront of world-changing ideas for social good. I hope the Network can be an example of the power of a successful network model where unlikely partners with unique perspectives and skillsets come together to address critical gaps and prioritize bold solutions and collective action towards a common goal.
And I hope that even when we aren’t faced with a global crisis, we see lasting shifts in how we approach problem solving – one that brings together unusual suspects and that puts collaboration and collective action at the center.
Founder and CEO, Panorama Global
Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network
