Investment is one of the three key areas of focus Equally Ours has identified in our 10-year strategy (which you can download here). Every year, governments, trusts, foundations and other funders make choices about where and how they invest billions of pounds in the UK and too often, when it comes to investing in people’s equality and human rights, the focus is on addressing the symptoms rather than the causes. Equally Ours wants to ensure that the focus is on tackling the root causes of inequality and rights abuse – and money is a source of solutions for this.
This is why we chose to highlight the theme of investment in our April Policy Forum Meeting with the topic of ‘Embedding equality and human rights into procurement and investment’. We looked at two broad ways in which investment and procurement can be harnessed to advance equality and human rights:
- Building resilience for civil society through social enterprise
- Ensuring that equality and human rights are built into investment and public procurement decisions
Looking at each of these elements, Clare Moody (Co-CEO) and Tanishtha SenGupta (Head of Programme, Enterprise Development) first gave an overview of Equally Ours’ work and priorities relating to investment, and our Enterprise Development Programme. We then gave the floor to the following three speakers, who all shared their invaluable insights into the role of social enterprise, investment and procurement in tackling inequality and rights abuse:
- Chris Oswald, Principal – English Regions & Investment, Equality and Human Rights Commission: Building equality into procurement and investment in local areas
- Anita Jane Smith, Legacy Officer, Glasgow City Region: Embedding equality into public procurement
- Jo Sapsard, Business Development Manager, ICENA Ltd: Advancing equality through social enterprise
