Trust amongst actors and mechanisms to connect businesses with national disaster management organizations are essential for better disaster preparedness, a more effective and coordinated response, and an earlier recovery. Improved reporting is also needed to ensure that contributions from the private sector are captured and recognized, fostering greater transparency and a better mapping and distribution of resources to those in need. These were some of the key conclusions reached during the Connecting Business initiative (CBi) Global Meeting 2023.
During the meeting, 54 business and government representatives from 26 countries gathered together in Istanbul, Türkiye to participate in a three-day meeting about business engagement in disaster management. The event included peer-to-peer learning exchanges, workshop sessions on various themes, such as earthquakes and El Nino, and a visit to AKOM, the disaster coordination center for Istanbul.
“The quality of the CBi Global Meeting 2023 stems from how thoughtful every session was as well as the quality of the participants,” says Fania Joseph, Executive Director of the Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA). “We are going back to Haiti with new ideas and an even greater sense of belonging to a strong global disaster management community which consistently enables us to improve what we do and how we do it, adapting lessons learned to our particular context with the unwavering support of the CBi Secretariat.”
“The quality of the CBi Global Meeting 2023 stems from how thoughtful every session was as well as the quality of the participants,” says Fania Joseph, Executive Director of the Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA). “We are going back to Haiti with new ideas and an even greater sense of belonging to a strong global disaster management community which consistently enables us to improve what we do and how we do it, adapting lessons learned to our particular context with the unwavering support of the CBi Secretariat.”
Discussions ranged from crisis coordination protocols for cyclones and earthquakes to El Nino preparedness and early action, accountability to affected populations, storytelling in disaster management, and more. One of the outputs of the meeting will be a Manifesto identifying key challenges and a clear call to action for private sector networks, federations, and chambers of commerce to better engage in disaster management.
Four new CBi Member Networks were officially recognized during the event: the Cámara de Industrias y Producción in Ecuador (CIP), the network of Caribbean Chambers of Commerce (CARICHAM) the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS).
“We are excited to be a part of the OCHA/UNDP Connecting Business initiative,” stated Ledua Vakaloloma, Climate Finance Officer, PIFS. “This meeting was an opportunity to learn from our peers from all around the world, bring back some of the key learnings to the Pacific region, and to share some of our good practices with our new CBi family. We look forward to collaborating for a more resilient Blue Pacific.”
“We are excited to be a part of the OCHA/UNDP Connecting Business initiative,” stated Ledua Vakaloloma, Climate Finance Officer, PIFS. “This meeting was an opportunity to learn from our peers from all around the world, bring back some of the key learnings to the Pacific region, and to share some of our good practices with our new CBi family. We look forward to collaborating for a more resilient Blue Pacific.”
A joint initiative of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), CBi supports private sector engagement before, during and after disasters. Since CBi’s launch in 2016, its Member Networks have responded to more than 132 crises and assisted around 23 million people. Read more in the 2022 CBi Annual Report.
For more information about the Connecting Business initiative, visit connectingbusiness.org.
For media inquiries, please contact Shahnaz Radjy at shahnaz.radjy@un.org.