(3BL Media/Justmeans) - Other than a few backward-looking politicians in Washington and their followers, most of us are well past arguing over whether the world is dramatically and fundamentally changing, and are onto the next thing, which is: what are we going to do about it? Resilience has become the next mindset supply stop on the road to the future. Whether it’s businesses or communities, this is the thing that is going to be most needed going forward.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) was founded in 2014 to pursue this idea with a vision of “new solutions for new realities.” Hence they established the Global Resilience Challenge, inviting groups and organizations to showcase their efforts “on bringing together people and organizations from across sectors to collaborate on innovative and transformative solutions to the toughest resilience challenges.” From among those submitting proposals, cash awards would be given to a select few to allow them to implement their plans. Specifically, the teams would focus on the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and South and Southeast Asia, with “locally driven, high-impact solutions that can build resilience at scale.”

One of the recently announced winners was Mahila SEWA Housing Trust (MHT), an organization that was set up in 1994, “to combine the skills of technical assistance, legal knowledge and income generation opportunities with the housing finance expertise at SEWA Bank to serve the poor self-employed women members.” The trust’s mission is premised on the idea that “Self employed women workers and producers are economically very active and contribute to the growth of the economy. They are mainly involved in production, trading and the service sector. However, in spite of their hard work and their contribution to the country's gross domestic product, they do not have access to financial services, which would help them to upgrade their own work and productivity.” Video.

SEWA (which stands for “self-employed women’s association) Bank was founded in 1972 by Elaben R. Bhatt. One of Ms. Bhatt’s lessons learned, was described in this statement. “Organization of these poor women is the best guarantor as member sisters give moral strength and confidence to each other.” Bhatt is the recipient of numerous prizes and honorary doctorates, including a Radcliffe Medal, the Global Fairness Initiative Award, and the Niwano Peace Prize.

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Scientists have discovered that the trauma experienced by one generation can alter genes and that those mutations can be passed along to children.

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – The global health sector, particularly in the developing countries, faces critical workforce shortages. Africa ranks the lowest in the availability of health personnel. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 12 percent of the world’s population and bears 25 percent of the world’s burden of diseases, but has only three percent of the world’s health workforce.

(3BL Media/Justmeans) - Recently, I had the opportunity to accompany the sustainability team from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) on a tour of their offices, research and development center, and pulp and paper plants in Jakarta, Indonesia and Jambi, Sumatra.