Disaster Risk Reduction: An Interview with Butch Meily, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation
In the context of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13, we invited CBi Member Networks to share why disaster risk reduction (DRR) matters now more than ever and why it is relevant for the private sector to engage. Below is the commentary by Butch Meily, President of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF).
These are times that try men's souls, as someone once said. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) saves lives and protects communities, because the better prepared we are, the safer we will all be.
The private sector has an important role to play in DRR, because it is involved in many key sectors of the economy, from Telecom to water, power, logistics and food supply. We are part of the community and we benefit when people are secure and prosperous.
The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) is the tip of the spear when it comes to private sector participation in DRR. We teach business continuity to small businesses all around the country and we teach family preparedness to employees and their families.
We work closely with the Government, the UN, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Connecting Business initiative (CBi) in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, by providing personal protection equipment (PPE), food and ventilators to hospitals as well as webinars that convey the latest information on the virus to doctors and nurses in the Philippines and to other private sector networks around the world.
The most important lesson that we have learned is that we are all in this together, whether we are confronting natural hazards such as earthquakes, typhoons, or volcanic eruptions, conflict situations, or this current global pandemic emergency.
We are stronger when we act as one.
Photo credit: PDRF
Disaster Risk Reduction: An Interview with Butch Meily, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation
09 October 2020Connecting Business initiative
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Disaster Risk Reduction: An Interview with Butch Meily, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation