Launch coincides with UN Forum on Business and Human Rights 27-29 November, Geneva

23 November 2023, LONDON, WINDHOEK, GENEVA: OmniAction today launches a leadership and wellness programme that supports organisational change. The programme, called Being More, is inspired by a UN-convened alliance, and has been designed by a clinical doctor specialising in leadership wellness.

The launch is timed to coincide with the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights 27-29 November, in Geneva, which will focus on “effective change in implementing obligations, responsibilities and remedies” and reflect on actual changes implemented over the past 12 years.

Being More responds to the challenge laid out by United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has said, “We need to change the mind set of decision making. We have an obligation to act – in deep and systemic ways.”

Clinical Director, medical doctor and wellness specialist Dr Deschu Sahayam, explains, “Combining 15 specialist practices, Being More dismantles the stress and fear that paralyses many food system leaders and their teams in the face of governance and fiduciary challenges. Change has been too slow. Being More helps business leaders deliver the rapid change that is needed.

“We work with shareholders, investors, the C-suite, the board and all leadership team members to promote the capacity to tackle their challenges, in a safe and sustainable environment.

“Fundamentally, the programme equips teams for a re-set. A bespoke evaluation tool demonstrates how individuals and organisations are moving the dial, as the leadership and their teams work toward a re-set that will lead to transformation.”

“Systemic fear, across governments, industry and academia, has led to inertia in the face of climate change and injustice”

The programme is delivered across team retreats, day-long in-person agendas, and daily practices delivered via webinar. These include an immersive residency of up to 10 days at Eden Greenfields near Windhoek, Namibia. Teaching agroecology and organic agriculture, this farm applies traditional local techniques including those of the Nama and other Indigenous communities.

Being More incorporates the principles of the UN Development Programme-convened Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), with a particular emphasis on barriers including access to power and siloed solutions. The programme will continue to evolve and be presented in partnership with CoFSA.

Dr Deschu continues, “Our programme integrates the OmniAction community’s deep, science-led and first-hand knowledge of the food system with evidenced-based personal wellness practices. Using techniques including visualisation and real-life access, we place decision makers emotionally and intellectually inside relevant points of production.

“As members of the Conscious Food Systems Alliance, convened by the UN Development Programme, we have been hugely inspired by a plethora of allies, whose work shows the potential for organisational impact when a team’s inner capacities are nurtured.

“Just as OmniAction adopts a science-led multi-criteria approach to product-level sustainability metrics, we are delivering a science-led multi-criteria approach to re-designing leadership and team member inner capacities. The programme supports biochemical changes, opening neural pathways, to enable a fresh approach.

“Systemic fear, across governments, industry and academia, has led to inertia in the face of climate change and injustice. This programme, grounded in evidence, makes transformative decision-making – coupled with strategic execution – possible.”

Being More was co-designed by Shirley Mambadzo, Executive Director of Eden Greenfields, along with other OmniAction community experts.

With a rigid commitment to confidentiality, including legally-binding non-disclosure agreements, Being More integrates 15 specialist practices, which are unique to OmniAction, in tailored organisational programmes, designed to support Health, Education, Food Security, Agriculture and True Cost Accounting policy specialists, along with agrifood industry leaders, and academics.

For developing a programme bespoke to your team’s challenges, please contact lise@omniaction.org.

Information about Being More

• More information about the UN Development Programme-convened Conscious Food Systems Alliance
• Information about Being More
• OmniAction’s science-led metrics and methodology
• OmniAction’s Charter of Global Food Impacts