Abidjan, 21 November 2022 – Over 30 business leaders in West Africa came together on Thursday to strengthen regional collaboration on private sector engagement in disaster management. The webinar organized by the Federation of Employers’ Organization of West Africa (FOPAO) with support from the OCHA-UNDP Connecting Business initiative (CBi) was an opportunity to raise awareness about the role of the private sector in humanitarian crises and share best practices.
The three-hour webinar focusing on “Engaging Businesses in Humanitarian Emergencies in West Africa” gathered employers’ organizations from 11 countries across the region and was moderated by the Plateforme Humanitaire du Secteur Privé du Côte d'Ivoire (PHSP-CI), or Private Sector Humanitarian Platform in Côte d'Ivoire, a CBi Member Network. The objectives of the meeting were to highlight humanitarian needs in the region; encourage private sector engagement in disaster risk reduction, humanitarian response, and early recovery; and identify specific mechanisms for follow up and collaboration between the private sector, and the wider humanitarian system.
Ousseine Diallo, FOPAO Executive Secretary, stressed the need for a collaborative approach in dealing with today's often complex challenges. “To address crises in an efficient manner,” he said, "businesses have to tackle them together in a collective approach.”
Sandy Maroun, from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Regional Office for West and Central Africa, highlighted the complexity of humanitarian crises affecting the region. “Although West and Central Africa have made enormous development gains in recent years, the region is hindered from reaching its full potential because of the harsh reality of severe and complex humanitarian crises,” she said. According to OCHA, over 64 million people in the region need assistance and protection in 2022 – almost one in ten people, and needs are projected to be even higher in 2023.
The webinar is part of CBi’s efforts to increase its presence in Africa, building on the experience of tis Member Networks in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Madagascar. CBi is planning a regional workshop in Nairobi in the first quarter of 2023.
Concluding the event, Rhiza Nery, CBi’s Network Coordination Specialist, said that the webinar paved the way for a regional approach to private sector engagement. She added that CBi would support West African business federations in creating a community of practice and improving their local capacities through sharing of experience and peer-to-peer learning.
A joint initiative of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Connecting Business initiative (CBi) supports private sector engagement before, during and after emergencies. 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.
The Private Sector Humanitarian Platform – Côte d’Ivoire (PHSP-CI) is a CBi Member Network embedded within the General Confederation of Businesses of Côte d'Ivoire (CGECI). CGECI also chairs the Federation of Employers' Organizations of West Africa ( FOPAO), which is an umbrella organization representing more than 45,000 businesses in the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) plus Mauritania.
For more information about CBi, visit connectingbusiness.org
For media inquiries, please contact Priscilla Lecomte at lecomte@un.org.