From risk to resilience: How can business respond to climate and social challenges facing workers in value chains?

From risk to resilience: How can business respond to climate and social challenges facing workers in value chains?

Venue: Pewterers' Hall, Oat Lane, London

Date & time: 23.06.2025 at 15:30

Research by People’s Courage International (PCI) with Kite Insights finds companies are waking up to shifts in regulation, financing conditions, consumer expectations and talent dynamics, which are driving them to put workers high on their leadership agendas. Increasingly, this includes the need for climate resilience strategies to support informal worker communities.

Leading companies in industries from fashion, to construction, to technology are increasingly engaging with vulnerable workers moving within nations’ borders – a figure expected to reach over 40 million in South Asia by 2050 due to growing climate impacts – who often find themselves in challenging settings and exposed to climate extremes. A panel discussion will explore how business can improve these workers’ outcomes and support a just transition, while bolstering their own competitiveness and resilience.

PCI works to deliver innovative solutions leveraging market-based social protections and private sector supported programs with workers. At this interactive session, join leaders from businesses with significant global supply chains, civil society leaders, politicians and financiers that are responding in new ways to the needs of workers in the context of shifting demographics and climate. This event is a unique opportunity to forge valuable connections and explore potential collaboration on these challenges.

Programme:

Keynote:

Ashif Shaikh, Founder and President of People's Courage International
Dr. Jean Baderschneider, CEO at the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery
Amol Mehra, Director of Industry Programs at Laudes Foundation

Panel discussion:

Aarti Kapoor, Founder and Executive Director of Embode
Charlene Collison, Director of Collaborations at BSR
John Morrison, CEO of IHRB
Katharine Bryant, Director of Operations at WalkFree
Moderator: Sophie Lambin, CEO of Kite Insights

Parametric insurance discussion:

David Bowen, Senior Fellow, PAX sapiens
Simant Verma, Principal - Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance at Global Parametrics
Katherine Stodulka, Programme Director at Quadrature Climate Foundation
Moderator: Nitish Narain, PCI