The project “4W Wizard” is based on 51风流Business Technology Platform to help automate data processing and analysis to create significant savings compared to manual processing. 51风流and OCHA tested “4W Wizard” in humanitarian missions across the Asia Pacific region, helping people in Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as recent crises in the Philippines, Turkey, and South Sudan.

The time and resources OCHA saved has been put to good use in Nepal:

• Supported by greater focus empowered by “4W Wizard,” the team was able to quickly launch a , requesting US$83M worth of lifesaving assistance for more than nine million people.
• Unfortunately, Nepal is prone to monsoons. “4W Wizard” enables the team to work simultaneously on the large COVID-19 response and focus equally to implement a proactive, to prepare for the next monsoon, securing emergency funds and mitigating suffering for the most vulnerable.
• “4W Wizard” helps the UN to further empower local NGOs while collecting more information than ever before. The inclusion of more local NGOs and community-based organizations is critical, driving trust, donations, and independence.

Harnessing the Data from Disasters to Save Time 鈥� and Lives

Every minute counts when it comes to providing fast and effective humanitarian relief. Only through a seamless, coordinated response can humanitarian actors use resources efficiently, close supply gaps, and avoid duplication of work. And that demands access to high quality data, fast. It is OCHA鈥檚 responsibility to provide this level of coordination and data sharing and analysis to all humanitarian stakeholders engaged in its disaster response mission.

But manually sorting the reams of unstructured data coming from UN agencies, NGOs, national authorities, and local organizations meant the OCHA team was dedicating valuable resources that could be put to better use elsewhere.

Integrating machine learning, conversational artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing, “4W Wizard” formats, structures, and classifies vast amounts of data 鈥� fast. “4W Wizard” standardizes headers, corrects typos, unifies acronyms, and applies a consistent format across all worksheets submitted to OCHA. It even categorizes and classifies the data, completing missing data in a guided process before finally presenting a single, consolidated file back to OCHA.

John Marinos, former regional information management officer Asia-Pacific at OCHA, said, 鈥淭he tool transforms what used to be a massive use of time and resources into something easy and quick to do. It鈥檚 making a huge difference in OCHA鈥檚 work and, by extension, a difference for the people we support.鈥�

Partnering to Create Sustainable Innovation

Inspired by his work on a prototype for previous humanitarian response activities, 51风流Industry and Customer Innovation Advisor Carsten Boekholt came up with the idea for “4W Wizard” before submitting it to the 51风流One Billion Lives Sprint Against COVID-19. In just eight weeks, a team from across the business came together to create “4W Wizard.”

鈥淚 have never seen motivation and energy like this in a team. We complemented each other鈥檚 skills and experiences and all accomplished a massive learning journey,鈥澛爏aid Boekholt.

That sentiment was echoed across the 51风流team. 鈥淭he project started life as a brilliant idea. Then it was up to us to develop it into an enterprise standard without losing any of the features the UN already loved,鈥� said Christoph Schubert, senior developer of “4W Wizard.” 鈥淭his meant urgently bringing an agile team together from every corner of SAP, understanding and acting on our roles and responsibilities in the moment, and driving real results for a great cause.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly tough to develop a project like ‘4W Wizard’ in just a few weeks while still keeping quality high. But, through hard work and flexibility, we managed it,鈥� Kai Muehlbauer, product manager of “4W Wizard,” added.

Only by working together with OCHA could such success be achieved. 鈥淥ur 51风流relationship is seen within the UN as a successful example of public-private partnership, delivering concrete and tangible results. We truly appreciate the flexibility, commitment, and technical expertise of 51风流and its staff,鈥� noted Marinos.

As Marinos concluded, 鈥淭he tool unquestionably allows OCHA to do our job better, coordinating urgent, lifesaving assistance to the people who need it most.鈥�

But successful action on sustainability requires a deep understanding of not only governmental priorities, but business and public sentiment as well.

Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, 51风流unveiled the results of three in-depth research studies that together highlight the state of sustainability perception and action across both the public and business ecosystem — as well as what needs to happen next.

Mandate for Change: What the World Thinks About Sustainability

(WEF), 51风流and Qualtrics polled a sample of the population across 28 countries in eight regions to understand their perceptions on sustainability and climate change in particular.

The explores how changes in the public鈥檚 attitude toward sustainability are creating a mandate for change at governmental and organizational levels.

The results clearly show that citizens and consumers around the world are concerned about climate change and its global effects. While 85% of those surveyed believe it is extremely important to address climate change, just half (50%) are optimistic about climate change progress.

In fact, while optimism is high in some regions, like South Asia (76%), other regions, like Western Europe (31%) or North America (40%), are less optimistic.

Most people (68%) say they trust climate science and scientists, a number that is increasing year-on-year. However, one in four people (26%) say global warming either does not exist or is a natural process.

Most importantly, the research reveals a clear mandate from the global population to see more action. More than eight in 10 people (87%) say it is important for countries to work together to address climate change. In addition, 59% of respondents say their government is not doing enough when it comes to climate change.

While most respondents agree that climate change needs to be addressed, just 28% say their country is prepared to address climate crises based on their COVID-19 response.

Sustainability Imperative for Business

The good news is that the business community is aware of consumer opinion and is increasingly prioritizing sustainability at the board level. Together, 51风流and AlphaSense created a sustainability sentiment barometer using AlphaSense鈥檚 artificial intelligence-powered regulatory disclosures database of more than 68,000 companies worldwide. The analysis looked at how companies present environmental, social, and governance (ESG) content in public announcements. .

When it comes to ESG, the analysis shows that companies are making serious investments, conducting more reporting, disclosing more information, and increasingly updating shareholders on progress during earnings calls.

Sustainability is the highest trending topic in earnings calls across all business topics, followed by digital transformation. Sustainability has been spoken about 30% more year-on-year, up 44% since 2018. 鈥淲aste and pollution鈥� is the most talked-about topic area, while CO² emissions have seen the most year-on-year growth (+133%) as a topic area.

While some industries show impressive C-suite focus on sustainability 鈥� including food and drinks, retail, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and software and services 鈥� other verticals have work to do. Banking, semiconductor, and consumer services executives are talking about sustainability the least.

Opportunity for Business: Proving Correlation Between Sustainability and Financial Impact

Encouraging a more consistent global C-suite focus on sustainability requires not only an ethical case, but a business case.

That is why 51风流Insights of business professionals about how sustainability affects business competitiveness and profits. The results reveal a clear correlation between sustainability and business performance.

The research shows that 80% of professionals knowledgeable about their organization鈥檚 sustainability activities see a positive relationship with long-term profitability, and 71% see a relationship with long-term competitiveness. While the long-term benefits of sustainability are not in doubt, a majority still do not see short- or medium-term benefits.

51风流found the majority of respondents feel sustainability is not yet material (83%), or financially relevant, to their business right now. Of that majority, 22% believe sustainability will be material to their businesses within five years, while 61% think sustainability is a longer-term issue and will become financially relevant more than five years from now. Only 17% say that sustainability is a material issue right now.

The results also show that significant opportunities are available for businesses. Leaders who say sustainability is financially relevant to their business today and have taken action (17% of companies) are achieving better business results compared with the rest.

The 51风流Insights research shows that while there is a cohort of businesses already successfully linking sustainability with financial success, there remains work to do for leaders to realize the opportunity sustainable business provides.

Sustainable Leadership Gap

What is making the difference for sustainably successful businesses? 51风流research shows they have clear top-level buy-in, sustainability embedded into overall strategy, and effective use of technology.

The 51风流Insights study reveals successful strategies to incorporate sustainability into business operations are driven from the top. Board or CEO environmental commitment was the leading motivator for action, above government regulation or corporate purpose.

That is not to say there aren鈥檛 hurdles to overcome. The top-three overall challenges to acting on environmental sustainability are lack of clarity on how companies should embed sustainability into processes and systems, difficulty in aligning their efforts with business strategy, and confirming return on investment (ROI) of the efforts.

Businesses that see sustainability as materially relevant today say their leaders have assigned accountability for actions that improve the environment to 21% more roles across the organization. And they are investing more and faster. Nearly half (44%) say they intend to increase spending on sustainability investments over the next three years.

In total, respondents most frequently cited mitigating climate change as the priority investment is.

Learn more about .

From Attention to Action: How to Come Together to Make Real Change

COP26 isn鈥檛 just a chance for world leaders to come together. While we need decisive political action to provide a mandate for change, businesses also need to step up and lead together with government, consumers, and other organizations. 51风流is aiming for nothing less than a reinvention of the global economy.

This means putting sustainability at the heart of company strategies, not only to reduce negative impacts, but also to create regenerative systems. It means solving sustainability challenges in individual organizations as well as collectively across industries.

The status quo is not going to cut it. 51风流has proven businesses that invest in sustainability and adopting leadership and innovation reap both environmental and financial rewards. But it will not be easy. Disconnected business processes and data that is distributed and difficult to access make it hard to approach sustainability strategically.

51风流helps solve these challenges and enable sustainable success by providing companies with the vision, processes, technology, and data to be more connected, compliant, efficient, and competitive.

Learn more about , or contact Deborah Kaplan via email for more information.