Geneva, Wednesday 20 July 2022 – The UNDP-OCHA Connecting Business initiative (CBi) is proud to announce that Hombro a Hombro, the foremost private sector association addressing disasters in Peru, is joining its ranks as the newest CBi Member Network and the first in South America. The partnership will strengthen the resilience of local businesses and communities to crises and focus on earthquake preparedness.
Peru’s geographic diversity is part of the country’s beauty, but also makes it prone to natural hazards, including earthquakes, flash flooding, landslides, volcanic activity, extreme temperatures, and more. Hombro a Hombro represents over 100 businesses, and in the past 5 years have distributed 7000 tonnes of aid to approximately one million beneficiaries all around the country.
“Hombro a Hombro is exactly the kind of partner CBi wants: it carries out impactful activities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, works hand-in-hand with the Government, and is eager both to share their knowledge and learn from others. We look forward to a collaboration that can save lives and enhance the engagement of local businesses in disaster risk reduction and management,” said Florian Rhiza Nery, Local Network Coordination Specialist, CBi.
With a growing number of Member Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean, and plans to further expand in the region, CBi is aiming to host a first regional event in Panama later this year to explore region-specific themes and priorities, working closely with OCHA and UNDP offices.
“We look forward to leveraging the technical support and international access CBi can provide us with, so that Hombro and Hombro can improve what it does and expand its impact, learning from other CBi Member Networks and putting Peru on the map as an example of how to better handle the increasing number of complex crises that we are faced with,” stated Juan Manuel Arribas, Executive Director, Hombro a Hombro.
The official launch of Hombro a Hombro as the CBi network in Peru will take place in September, gathering members from the business community, the government and other humanitarian and development partners. With the support of CBi, Hombro a Hombro will focus on activities to help improve emergency coordination and communication systems between the Government and the private sector.
A joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Connecting Business initiative (CBi) supports private sector engagement before, during and after disasters. Since CBi’s launch in 2016, its Member Networks have responded to more than 100 crises and assisted around 18 million people. Read more in the 2021 CBi Annual Report.
For more information about CBi, visit connectingbusiness.org.
For media inquiries, please contact Priscilla Lecomte at lecomte@un.org.
**For the Spanish version of this press release, and more information about Hombro a Hombro, click here.
**Para la nota de prensa en español y mas información sobre Hombro a Hombro, haga click aquí.