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How can we champion diversity and inclusion in a changing geopolitical landscape?
29 April 2025
In this opinion piece, Janet Southern McCormick champions the importance of integrating equity, diversity, and inclusion into our everyday work in meaningful ways, especially given current global socio-political turmoil.
2025 has brought significant upheaval across the socio-political landscape, including a seismic shift around equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Massive turnarounds from the US are putting pressure on governments and the private sector alike to reverse policies and programmes supporting EDI within our global society.
Most recently, the US State Department issued an ultimatum to foreign companies with American contracts, “…demanding they certify that they do not run any diversity, equity and inclusion programs that violate President Donald Trump’s executive order against race- and sex-based preferences”(1).
This begs the question – how can EDI continue to be championed across governments, the private sector, and more widely, when the message we are hearing is: roll back progress.
Last month, I was invited to participate in a community forum hosted by Business Fights Poverty’s Global Equity Summit. A range of speakers and observers took part, sharing ideas, learnings, and best practice around how businesses can expand opportunity and fairness in the workplace and beyond. A big ask requiring an ever more urgent response, given the changing sands on which we find ourselves standing.
The cornerstone of championing EDI will always be ensuring communications around it are meaningful and not just lip service. But what does this mean in practice?
It means practicing what is preached – internally (within our businesses) and externally (beyond the workplace). There is something to be said here about the notion of culture within an organisation and how that supports conversations around and the implementation of EDI. But before we dive into that, we need to first answer some key questions:
Why is diversity and inclusion important?
Despite the answer being obvious to those working in this space or who view their work through this lens, the sad reality is that this argument still has to be made across many organisations, with a particular focus on the economic impact. We know that EDI yields higher revenue growth(2) as well as a greater readiness to innovate – “diversity drives innovation”(3). It can foster psychological safety in our teams, which in turn can further drive innovation, providing a space to share different perspectives and stimulate new ideas. Ultimately, EDI can create a virtuous cycle for organisations, enabling them to recruit diverse talent and retain that talent by more than five times, all of which supports an organisation’s ability to grow and succeed overall.
Are we addressing diversity and inclusion in our everyday work?
Is EDI being meaningfully incorporated into processes across our organisations, from leadership and operations to learning and development, to communications, partnership, and delivery? As part of this, we need to acknowledge that adaptation is required. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work across different organisations; even within a single organisation, you have to be open to adapting approaches across different levels.(4)
In the context of Challenge Works, we aim to embed EDI throughout our challenge prize methodology. This includes our research and design through to our delivery, across our innovator outreach, our provision of support, the partners with whom we collaborate, and our communications approach.
This is illustrated in our portfolio of challenge prizes, both previous and current. An example includes our Afri-Plastics Challenge, funded by Global Affairs Canada, which received more than 1,100 applications from over 30 countries, with more than half being women-led teams. The 85 teams supported through the challenge were provided with gender sensitivity training, and overall flexible provision of training to make support accessible to those innovators who were parents and/or carers.
In our current Longitude Prize on Dementia, we have integrated a Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) to ensure the prize has input from people living with experience of dementia (people living with dementia, carers, and former carers), and helps innovators co-design novel technologies in the field of dementia care.
Leaning into curiosity, honest reflection, and learning can help individuals, teams, organisations, and partners deliver work that considers the intrinsic role of EDI in everything we do.
Are we thinking critically about our approach to diversity and inclusion?
Integrating approaches and tools is great, but are we regularly reflecting on how they are working? Are we holding ourselves to account and admitting areas where we could do better? Are we approaching this from a learning and growth mindset? In the end, it is not about creating a glossy perception to be touted on websites and social media – it is about embedding EDI at the very beginning of a process and/or policy for it to have an authentic and meaningful impact.
Beyond these reflections, other insights from the community forum hosted by Business Fights Poverty included the importance of comprehensive and gender disaggregated data, and the use of impact measurement tools and standards to track progress and help businesses improve in real-time. Furthermore, embedding gender equity into the fabric of an organisation – its structures, policies, values, and overall culture – is critical to “unlock innovation, enhance performance, and foster inclusive environments where everyone thrives”.(5) However, supporting environments where everyone thrives means considering more than gender. It requires the consideration of ‘age, ability, ethnicity, digital accessibility, and socioeconomic status’ as well as sexual orientation, religious belief, and more.(6)
Authentic integration and communication are therefore necessary for businesses to secure EDI into their practices in a sustainable way. Leaning into curiosity, honest reflection, and learning can help individuals, teams, organisations, and partners deliver work that considers the intrinsic role of EDI in everything we do. Often, EDI initiatives can come across as a linear path, when in fact they are far from linear, constantly evolving, and requiring us to pivot and adapt on an ongoing basis.
Despite the wave of regression that is being imposed from above, we must pivot, adapt, learn, and continue to champion EDI across all angles of our work and beyond. The worldwide focus on multiculturalism and inclusivity over the past century (although slow and ongoing) has paved the way for progress and development. By continuing to champion EDI, we can strengthen the foundations of our global society to proliferate sustainable positive impact.
So, we’re curious – what are you doing in your teams and organisations to champion EDI? What strategies or approaches can you share that are working for you? What barriers are you breaking? We want to hear from you!
1. Us embassies to contractors worldwide: Cancel any diversity programs or risk going unpaid
2. Why Is Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Important? | Great Place To Work®.
3. How a Values-Based Approach Advances DEI
4. EY report highlights critical role of DEI | EY – UK.
5. How can business expand opportunity and fairness in the workplace and beyond? | Business Fights Poverty
6. How can business expand opportunity and fairness in the workplace and beyond? | Business Fights Poverty
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