The Connecting Business initiative (CBi) was established in 2016 to facilitate engagement between the United Nations and the private sector in order to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters in the world’s most at-risk countries. Every year since then has had its challenges, its lessons, and its opportunities. This year is no different, and the story of 2022 has been particularly mixed for the CBi team.
On the one hand, we have seen extraordinary acts of generosity and solidarity from global, national, and local businesses. The United Nations reports that total humanitarian assistance this year was its highest ever, reaching over $24 billion. As the war on Ukraine impacted the lives of millions of people, we saw the unprecedented mobilization of business to support humanitarian and development initiatives. Around the world, businesses large and small are partnering with government, civil society, and international organizations to increase the resilience of their communities and deliver life-saving assistance after disasters. At CBi, more and more of our Member Networks are being officially recognized by their governments and international organizations as essential to improved disaster management.
On the other hand, humanitarian needs have continued to grow and the gap between needs and funding received is at an all-time high. The Global Humanitarian Overview predicts that 1 in 23 people will need aid next year, up by 24% from the same period this year. On the ground, that means more people are suffering: from the ongoing impacts of war and the COVID-19 pandemic, from more frequent and extreme weather events, from forced displacement, and increasingly from a layered and complex combination of the above.
At CBi, we are working hard to increase the number of business networks around the world that are ready, willing, and able to mobilize local businesses in support of humanitarian response and recovery. We’re also working hand-in-hand with our current Member Networks to raise their capacity and recognition, from Peru to Madagascar to the Philippines and everywhere in between.
With these thoughts in mind, here are some of the reasons that I am particularly hopeful for 2023 to be a year of positive change for businesses engaged in preparedness, response, and recovery from crises:
- We piloted a regional approach to leverage the role of business in emergencies in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the results aren't just promising but will inform national, regional, and international roadmaps for business engagement in disaster management.
- More local businesses are engaging in early warning and anticipatory humanitarian action pilots, among the most promising mechanisms to reduce the impact of crises in terms of loss and damage.
- We’ll soon be announcing an exciting partnership focused on increasing localization of humanitarian aid for a more effective, efficient, and dignified approach to aid by working with local businesses.
- The CBi family is growing, and our Member Networks are pursuing inspiring and impactful projects that are reaching scale and being replicated.
Taking a Regional Approach to Disaster Management Worldwide
One of the main benefits of CBi membership is access to peer-to-peer learning opportunities, both virtual and in-person. In this way, private sector networks around the world can adapt good practices and innovations led by more experienced and established organizations. CBi Member Networks can also access tailor-made training materials designed to respond to their specific needs. While this has proved invaluable in the past, we have also heard our Member Networks advocating for a more regional approach that allows organizations facing similar political, linguistic, and cultural dynamics to work together.
Last week, we held our first regional workshop, for Latin America and the Caribbean. It took place in Panama City over two days, and brought together business networks, governments, UN agencies, and other partners. The level of engagement of the participants was inspiring, and the insights and experiences shared will feed into national and regional roadmaps for private sector engagement in disaster management. I’m particularly excited to see such gatherings go beyond talk shops and policy fora to catalyse better action on disaster risk reduction and management. Come 2023, we’re looking forward to hosting similar regional events for Asia and the Pacific as well as sub-Saharan Africa.
Investing in early and anticipatory action
In the humanitarian field, anticipatory action means taking action in advance of a predictable shock or hazard instead of waiting until after a disaster has taken place. This is a proactive approach that can be significantly faster, more dignified, and more cost-effective than traditional humanitarian response.
At CBi, we don’t just believe in early and anticipatory action, we are convinced that businesses can help scale-up such efforts to save more lives and prevent damage to infrastructure for a faster recovery from crises.
Over the next year, we’ll be talking more about early and anticipatory action as well as the role private sector networks can play to strengthen such initiatives.
Localization: As local as possible, as global as necessary
This year again, I've been inspired by the transformative power of local humanitarian action. From Sri Lanka to Madagascar, Vanuatu and the Philippines, Connecting Business initiative Member Networks have leveraged the capacities of local businesses to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises.
In Sri Lanka, the Asia-Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management (A-PAD SL) has partnered with local banks and other businesses to help respond to a complex economic and food crisis. When COVID-19 finally hit Vanuatu in March, the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council immediately mobilized its members to provide assistance to the most vulnerable, set up vaccination and quarantine centers. In Madagascar, the Private Sector Humanitarian Platform leveraged its presence on the ground during the cyclone season, mobilizing over USD$125,000.
Each time, through their local expertise, logistics capacity and response agility, our partners have proven the importance of investing in localization, to enable a faster, cheaper and more efficient humanitarian response. That’s one of the reasons why we’ll be putting localization front and center in the coming years. I can’t say more just yet, but watch the CBi website for an announcement coming in the new year.
The CBi Family
Our network of networks is growing. But our current Member Networks are also evolving and leading the way in terms of how business networks can engage on disaster risk reduction and management. Just last week, our Member Network in Madagascar launched its own Business-led Emergency Operations Center (BEOC). The BEOC, one of the first of its kind, will support the national disaster management strategy by providing additional data collection and response capacity. Our team provided funding and technical support, and the CBi Member Network in the Philippines, the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), was a source of significant operational inspiration given their pioneer approach to BEOCs.
Next year, Viet Nam will chair the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management in the region. With the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), one of the most recent members of CBi, this will serve as an opportunity to promote the role of local business in disaster risk reduction and preparedness.
While the CBi family is poised to grow, and strengthen its regional approach, the various elements mentioned above are just some of the reasons why I am going into the new year with renewed optimism. I see collaboration, scale, and innovation in our near future – but most importantly, I see impact, small enterprises kept in business, and lives and livelihoods saved. As the United Nations humanitarian aid chief, Martin Griffiths, recently said, “2023 should be a year of solidarity, as much as 2022 has been a year of suffering.”
I hope you’ll join us on this journey. We're always happy to hear from you, whether by email or on social media. And until then, I wish you all an uneventful and safe holiday season.