Extreme weather events have risen by 80% over the last twenty years, according to the Emergency Events Database maintained by CRED, and over 90% of the people affected by disasters in the past year were affected by climate-related events including extreme weather.
In today’s context, with unprecedented needs and greater resource constraints, it is critical to invest in anticipatory, local and collaborative action. The local private sector is intrinsically linked to the community: employees, customers and suppliers are a part of it, making the companies that work with them a part of it too. Its active in disaster management can be key to community resilience, and vice versa.
At the Connecting Business initiative (CBi), we work with local private sector networks to foster multi-stakeholder collaboration – with business a value-adding partner alongside governments, the United Nations, and civil society organisations – with a focus on disaster risk management.
Standards
The Sphere movement was started in 1997 by a group of humanitarian professionals aiming to improve the quality of humanitarian work during disaster response. With this goal in mind, they framed a Humanitarian Charter and identified a set of humanitarian standards to be applied in humanitarian response.
Other Humanitarian Standards Initiatives:
- Guidance based on the Core Humanitarian Standard (produced by the CHS Alliance)
- Cash assistance (produced by the Cash Learning Partnership, CaLP)
- Child protection (produced by the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action)
- Education in emergencies (produced by the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, INEE)
- Livestock (produced by the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards, LEGS)
- Inclusion of older people and people with disability (produced by the Age and Disability Capacity Program)
- Markets and economic recovery (produced by the SEEP Network)
Guidelines
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 aims to achieve the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries over the next 15 years.
It outlines seven clear targets and four priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks: (i) Understanding disaster risk; (ii) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; (iii) Investing in disaster reduction for resilience and; (iv) Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Words into Action guidelines: National disaster risk assessment
The present Guidelines are the result of the collaboration between over 100 leading experts from national authorities, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, academia, think tanks and private-sector entities. They focus on Sendai Framework’s first Priority for Action: Understanding Disaster Risk, which is the basis for all measures on disaster risk reduction and is closely linked to the other three Priorities for Action.
Tools
Disaster Risk Assessment – UNDP
Understanding the interaction of hazards, exposure and vulnerability is crucial to effective disaster prevention. Risk assessments are therefore fundamental to UNDP’s work on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and recovery.
Knowledge Hubs
PreventionWeb is the world’s only combined knowledge and community platform that deals exclusively with disaster risk reduction and resilience building. Not only will you find a curated collection of the latest information on different risk topics and themes, you can also contribute by sending your organisation’s latest work, blogging about your experiences in risk reduction, or using the free community workspace provided to build and connect with your DRR peers.
ReliefWeb is a humanitarian information service provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The service is managed by the Digital Services Section of OCHA's Information Management Branch. ReliefWeb's editorial team monitors and collects information from more than 4,000 key sources, including humanitarian agencies at the international and local levels, governments, think-tanks and research institutions, and the media.
Humanitarian Response aims to be the central website for Information Management tools and services, enabling information exchange among operational responders during either a protracted or sudden onset emergency.
The Centre For Humanitarian Data
The Centre for Humanitarian Data is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Centre is focused on four areas: 1) data services; 2) data literacy; 3) data responsibility; and 4) predictive analytics. Its vision is to create a future where all people involved in a humanitarian situation have access to the data they need, when and how they need it, to make responsible and informed decisions.
ACAPS is an independent information provider, free from the bias or vested interests of a specific enterprise, sector, or region. As independent specialists in humanitarian needs analysis and assessment, we are not affiliated to the UN or any other organisation. This helps guarantee that the ACAPS analysis is objective and evidence-based.
GDACS is a cooperation framework between the United Nations, the European Commission and disaster managers worldwide to improve alerts, information exchange and coordination in the first phase after major sudden-onset disasters.
INFORM is a collaboration of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Risk, Early Warning and Preparedness and the European Commission.
The Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides a mechanism for the Haitian private sector to support the national system for risk and disaster management and to enable businesses of all sizes to recover quickly and build forward better from crises.
As a member of the national emergency operations center, AGERCA participated in national emergency coordination meetings. They supported the General Directorate of Civil Protection in coordinating the response of the private sector, civil society and Haitian diaspora. On 14 August, following a request from the Haitian government, AGERCA provided phone credits to support information management and coordination. AGERCA also immediately started to map local private sector resources and capacities that could be mobilized to support disaster relief in cooperation with its members. In addition to financial contributions, AGERCA member companies and partners made in-kind donations of critical items including thousands of gallons potable water, clothes, solar-powered refrigerators, etc. AGERCA also posted regular situation reports and deployed a staff member to the south of Haiti to support the earthquake response in the most affected communities.
For more information, please view the press release.
For up-to-date information about the current situation in Haiti, please visit AGERCA on Twitter.
To learn more about AGERCA and how the private sector can help in Haiti, please contact Tiina Mylly, CBi Secretariat: tiina.mylly@undp.org
The Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides a mechanism for the Haitian private sector to support the national system for risk and disaster management and to enable businesses of all sizes to recover quickly and build forward better from crises.
As a member of the national emergency operations center, AGERCA participated in national emergency coordination meetings. They supported the General Directorate of Civil Protection in coordinating the response of the private sector, civil society and Haitian diaspora. On 14 August, following a request from the Haitian government, AGERCA provided phone credits to support information management and coordination. AGERCA also immediately started to map local private sector resources and capacities that could be mobilized to support disaster relief in cooperation with its members. In addition to financial contributions, AGERCA member companies and partners made in-kind donations of critical items including thousands of gallons potable water, clothes, solar-powered refrigerators, etc. AGERCA also posted regular situation reports and deployed a staff member to the south of Haiti to support the earthquake response in the most affected communities.
For more information, please view the press release.
For up-to-date information about the current situation in Haiti, please visit AGERCA on Twitter.
To learn more about AGERCA and how the private sector can help in Haiti, please contact Tiina Mylly, CBi Secretariat: tiina.mylly@undp.org
The Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides a mechanism for the Haitian private sector to support the national system for risk and disaster management and to enable businesses of all sizes to recover quickly and build forward better from crises.
As a member of the national emergency operations center, AGERCA participated in national emergency coordination meetings. They supported the General Directorate of Civil Protection in coordinating the response of the private sector, civil society and Haitian diaspora. On 14 August, following a request from the Haitian government, AGERCA provided phone credits to support information management and coordination. AGERCA also immediately started to map local private sector resources and capacities that could be mobilized to support disaster relief in cooperation with its members. In addition to financial contributions, AGERCA member companies and partners made in-kind donations of critical items including thousands of gallons potable water, clothes, solar-powered refrigerators, etc. AGERCA also posted regular situation reports and deployed a staff member to the south of Haiti to support the earthquake response in the most affected communities.
For more information, please view the press release.
For up-to-date information about the current situation in Haiti, please visit AGERCA on Twitter.
To learn more about AGERCA and how the private sector can help in Haiti, please contact Tiina Mylly, CBi Secretariat: tiina.mylly@undp.org
The Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides a mechanism for the Haitian private sector to support the national system for risk and disaster management and to enable businesses of all sizes to recover quickly and build forward better from crises.
As a member of the national emergency operations center, AGERCA participated in national emergency coordination meetings. They supported the General Directorate of Civil Protection in coordinating the response of the private sector, civil society and Haitian diaspora. On 14 August, following a request from the Haitian government, AGERCA provided phone credits to support information management and coordination. AGERCA also immediately started to map local private sector resources and capacities that could be mobilized to support disaster relief in cooperation with its members. In addition to financial contributions, AGERCA member companies and partners made in-kind donations of critical items including thousands of gallons potable water, clothes, solar-powered refrigerators, etc. AGERCA also posted regular situation reports and deployed a staff member to the south of Haiti to support the earthquake response in the most affected communities.
For more information, please view the press release.
For up-to-date information about the current situation in Haiti, please visit AGERCA on Twitter.
To learn more about AGERCA and how the private sector can help in Haiti, please contact Tiina Mylly, CBi Secretariat: tiina.mylly@undp.org
The Alliance for Risk Management and Business Continuity (AGERCA) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides a mechanism for the Haitian private sector to support the national system for risk and disaster management and to enable businesses of all sizes to recover quickly and build forward better from crises.
As a member of the national emergency operations center, AGERCA participated in national emergency coordination meetings. They supported the General Directorate of Civil Protection in coordinating the response of the private sector, civil society and Haitian diaspora. On 14 August, following a request from the Haitian government, AGERCA provided phone credits to support information management and coordination. AGERCA also immediately started to map local private sector resources and capacities that could be mobilized to support disaster relief in cooperation with its members. In addition to financial contributions, AGERCA member companies and partners made in-kind donations of critical items including thousands of gallons potable water, clothes, solar-powered refrigerators, etc. AGERCA also posted regular situation reports and deployed a staff member to the south of Haiti to support the earthquake response in the most affected communities.
For more information, please view the press release.
For up-to-date information about the current situation in Haiti, please visit AGERCA on Twitter.
To learn more about AGERCA and how the private sector can help in Haiti, please contact Tiina Mylly, CBi Secretariat: tiina.mylly@undp.org