As a response to this COVID 19 crisis, Industree’s operations have been evaluated and safety measures have been put in place to protect the thousands of under served we work with in India and Africa. We are outlining below our overall strategic response to COVID 19.
Protect lives of our Producers, Professionals and Community
To prevent the spread of the virus in the community and among the teams on the front lines, Task Force- Lives to Prevent and Monitor COVID 19 has been formed which has placed several protocols in place. Bangalore is operating on work from home mode as advised by the government for the last 2 weeks. All rural training units have been closed keeping in mind health and safety of the women and their communities and methods to continue training under safe conditions via phone are being designed and tested. Industree continues to work closely with its communities with Task Force Lives - on the following
Awareness - Industree has built and executed an awareness program that defines safety measures and translated them in local languages with pictorial representations of the hygiene instructions communities need to follow.
Continual risk assessment - Team leaders have been in continuous touch with the community through calls and SMS to flag any health issue
Production cum training unit closed – This will continue till the lock down to avoid the spread of the disease through contact. Training modules are being adapted to distance training.
Insurance – Industree is working with insurance agencies to add Corona virus to the list of ailments.
Producers from the weakest sections securing access to Livelihoods in Safe and Secure ways through the crisis in preparation for post COVIDS
Industree has formed a Task Force- Livelihoods, to work on
Distance Training and Train from Home Plan will ensure that training is ongoing with producers whilst they are sitting at home, so that producers are least impacted by the crisis and they continue with some form of training. Industree is proposing developing short curriculums to help the trainees and producers to continue to hone their skills in their respective value chain from home and enhance their soft and entrepreneurship skills, whilst protecting it’s front line professional service staff, as and when movement and government directives allow.
A business continuity plan for those producers already trained and working on production is being developed. Income with Dignity is the need of the hour. Producers can earn their stipends, as best as possible , even if they have to work from home. To enable this , Work Forward - a unique idea is evolving, where the women could work from home creating items of critical need for their immediate and more distant communities. Work Forward will help producers to take on advance , B to B and B to C orders and complete them at their pace while working from home.
Engagement with funders and buyers to seek extension of time and deliverable if needed , while working with the women and community during these taxing times. This increases community buy in tremendously , for when the crisis lifts.
Business after Covid 19
- Rebound Plan- Business NOT as Usual
Communication with buyers- Industree has been working closely with IKEA and others who have actually requested the stop to all production for a few months. Industree is in discussions with them on strategy as is explained in this document. Buyers have been compassionate and are positively responsive. They would take some more time to revert with concrete support steps.
Increase transparency – Increasing virtual free flow of information between training units and operations, working on real-time solutions, to get back to business when the lock down is lifted.
Introduce new best practices- Collaborating with industry and thought leaders, applying design thinking, technology and best virtual methods, unlocking innovation across, content creation, training, design, market building and access to capital.
Industree will continue to monitor the situation. We are prepared to swiftly adapt to multiple levels of risks and will continue to work real-time on ground with the communities we support with your help.
-As told by Neelam Chibber Managing Trustee to our Co-founder K D Sharma