Business for Goals (B4G) platform

Overview

40,000 members

The Business for Goals (B4G) platform in Turkey is comprised of UNDP Turkey, the Turkish Industry and Business Association (Türk Sanayicileri ve İş İnsanları Derneği or TÜSIAD) and the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (Türk Girişim ve İş Dünyası Konfederasyonu or TÜRKONFED). It responded to COVID-19 and two earthquakes.

Immediately after the Elazığ Earthquake on 24 January 2020, B4G conducted a field visit, and post-disaster situation analysis reports were prepared. Furthermore, sets of proposals about workplace enhancements were formed to be evaluated during TÜSIAD and TÜRKONFED’s Executive Board meetings. The network organized various webinars and online sessions to identify and respond to the needs of local businesses that have been affected by COVID-19. B4G also conducted field surveys and impact assessments in March, May, September and December. These surveys and assessments sought to understand how businesses have been affected by the pandemic and helped establish the business outlook for 2021. UNDP also launched a tool to help businesses consider and manage the human rights impacts of their operations: “Human Rights Due Diligence and COVID-19: Rapid Self-Assessment for Business”. Originally created by UNDP and B+HR Asia, B4G adjusted this self-assessment tool to the context of Turkey in collaboration with the ILO, UNDP, and Global Compact to make it more understandable and applicable for businesses in Turkey. B4G is also creating a list of trusted PPE manufacturers in Turkey to help match them with global buyers. With the support of the Government of Japan and in cooperation with UNDP and the Directorate General of Regional Development Agencies at the Ministry of Industry and Technology, B4G organized capacity-building activities for 3,000 unemployed young people from sectors defined as fragile (e.g., food, tourism, logistics, machinery, textiles, and the automobile industry).

On 30 October, an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.9 occurred in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Izmir. The earthquake was felt in the entire Aegean and Marmara regions. While the response was internal, with no external humanitarian assistance being requested, B4G and TÜRKONFED immediately mobilized a team for rapid damage and needs assessment. They then released situational reports that consolidated information on affected businesses, based on sector-specific damage assessment. As part of their earthquake recovery activities, the network conducted a Business Resilience Training Programme for 29 SMEs located in İzmir to increase their resilience to disasters and enhance their know-how on economic recovery. TÜRKONFED and TÜSİAD organized three workshops in collaboration with SEDEFED and B4G to bring together the leading representatives of the five critical sectors (logistics, energy, communication, agriculture/food and finance/insurance) to combine their scenarios and measurements and generate a road map for earthquake preparedness.