Connecting Business initiative

25/09/2025

🎉 Welcome, Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI), to the CBI Community! 🎉

They are the newest CBI Member Network, bringing us to 21 private sector networks from all over the world.

SICCI will establish a Business Resilience Committee to better engage the private sector in disaster management and resilience building efforts, and we look forward to supporting them as well as connecting them to the other CBI Member Networks so they can learn from their peers.

We look forward to working together for a safer, more resilient world.

24/09/2025

In Mexico, hard-to-reach communities received 🪣debris removal kits and food packs from our partner Cenaced and their allies, BUT some residents explained that because🥫canned goods like tuna were not part of their traditional diet, they made them ill.

What would you do?

👂 CENACED and partners listened, and course-corrected.

They distributed🌽141,750kg of maize and 5,670kg of beans to 2,944 families (an estimated 9,038 people) across 25 communities in four municipalities. Priority was given to women, single mothers, widows and older people.

“The communities were grateful, not just for the support, but for feeling heard,” explained Hubert Matiúwàa from Colectivo Gusanos de la Memoria. “The maize and beans aren’t just essential to their way of life in terms of what they eat, but are sacred to these communities.”

That's what localization and inclusive disaster response really means.

Photos by Colectivo Gusanos de la Memoria

23/09/2025

If your company big or small wants to do more when it comes to crises and emergency response, it doesn't have to be overwhelming or confusing. There are clear, practical guidelines that exist to make your journey much easier.

That's what we'll be talking about with the team at Sphere as well as our partners Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management Sri Lanka (A-PAD SL) and Cenaced (from Mexico) in an upcoming webinar.

✅ Principled, accountable, and quality humanitarian assistance
💪 How to foster recovery with dignity & resilience to future crises
💦 Standards for Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), food security, nutrition, shelter, and health

🤝 Private sector perspectives from Sri Lanka and Mexico

Curious?

Join us next week for our free webinar!

📢 "Strengthening Business Engagement in Humanitarian Action Through Sphere"
📅 Wednesday 1 October
⏰ 3-4pm GVA time (9-10am NY time)
🔗 Register here: http://bit.ly/4n7czrx
🗣️ English - French - Spanish interpretation available

Tag a friend, colleague, or organization who might be interested 👇

22/09/2025

Last Friday marked 40 years since the big earthquake in Mexico that changed their approach to disaster management and how they prepare, respond to, and recover from disasters.

Find out more in this inspiring video - because their work is an important example of collective action and how we can do more and better together, especially when it comes to investing in resilience.

22/09/2025

There's a great conversation coming up on Wednesday on "From Risk to Readiness: Sharing Best Practices in Disaster Resilience" featuring CBI's Florian Rhiza Nery and Veronica Gabaldon from the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation - details below.

If you can't make it to the live webinar, rest assured that it will be recorded.

𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲.

𝗥𝗵𝗶𝘇𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝗿𝘆, Deputy Programme Coordinator of the United Nations OCHA and United Nations Development Programme - UNDP Connecting Business initiative (CBi) in Istanbul, Türkiye, works with global networks to strengthen SME resilience and improve disaster response.

She has previously led business continuity programs for MSMEs and corporations, including establishing a Continuity of Operations Program for the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council. Her work earned recognition as Continuity and Resilience Professional in the Public Sector for Asia by the Business Continuity Institute.

Join her at the 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 forum’s Private Sector Engagement for Disaster Resilience session to gain practical strategies for stronger communities.

🗓 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 (𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆)
⏰ 𝟴:𝟬𝟬 – 𝟭𝟬:𝟬𝟬 𝗔𝗠 𝗣𝗛𝗧 (𝗚𝗠𝗧+𝟴)
📍 𝗭𝗼𝗼𝗺
Registration is 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘.

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄: bit.ly/DisasterResilienceForum-Register

This ABAC Philippines forum is organized in partnership with Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF).

19/09/2025

🌎 When you think of Peru, do you think "innovative use of artificial intelligence"?

After reading this post, you will.

Our partner in the country, Hombro a Hombro, has been working with Pi-Ar on a revolutionary project:

Using AI to process colossal amounts of data coming from official sources 🚨every day🚨and transform it into useful, practical information that fuels a 🛟culture of preparedness🦺 .

The four key pillars of information?

🌊 Hydrography
🌦️ Meteorology
🏔️ Geology
🚢 Roads, ports, and transport

The impact to date?

📺 They are distributing the information via 270 media outlets
🎙️ That's 70% radio, 26% TV, 4% digital platforms
⏱️ Packages are typically 4min long: 3min about the day’s situation + 1min on disaster preparedness more broadly
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 An estimated 3 million people are reached every day

It turns out what Hombro a Hombro and Pi-ar built isn’t just a source of information; they are creating a communications network and a community of people invested in making Peru more resilient.

Read more about how the idea came about, the shared vision on how even more people can be reached, and how the tech can be replicated to other sectors ⏩ http://bit.ly/4ncOL5M

Based on years of working in emergency response, Juan Manuel Arribas, founder and CEO of Hombro a Hombro, a CBi Member Network, had a vision: he wanted Peru to be more resilient, and believed that the only way to achieve that was to foster a culture of preparedness.

18/09/2025

To many, China lies at the heart of near infinite potential for tech-enabled change. CBI's Huihua (Nara) Hu attended the recent Corporate for Good Summit 2025, and shares her experience:

💬"My message was simple yet urgent: climate change is reshaping our world. The Asia-Pacific region, the most disaster-prone on earth, experiences nearly 45% of global climate-related disasters and is home to more than 75% of those affected. By 2050, climate-related hazards could add USD12.5 trillion in economic losses and cost over two billion healthy life years.

Therefore, building disaster resilience is not a cost, it is an investment."

🗯"The summit left me with a profound sense of possibility. The private sector is not just a source of funding, it is a partner in innovation, resilience, and global collaboration. [...] The takeaway was clear: building a resilient future starts with building bridges across sectors, borders, and communities."

Full article is available on the CBI webs!te!

Photo credit: Tencent SSV

17/09/2025

📢✨ Are you a business or NGO looking to strengthen principled and stategic engagement in humanitarian action?

Don't miss our interactive webinar “Strengthening Business Engagement in Humanitarian Action Through Sphere,” where you will learn how to leverage your expertise, networks, and innovative solutions to ensure the quality of aid delivery.

🗓 Date: 1 October 2025

⏰ Time: 15:00 – 16:00 PM (UTC +02:00)

🔗 If you want to register, let us know in the comments & we’ll send you the link (it’s free, in case you were wondering)!

Session partners: Cenaced (Mexico), Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management Sri Lanka (A-PAD Sri Lanka), Sphere, and us, the OCHA-UNDP Connecting Business initiative (CBi).

🚑🤝 An opportunity for businesses and humanitarians to strengthen the effectiveness of humanitarian action and quality standards of aid delivery.

11/09/2025

When a river overflows, what happens to nearby businesses?

A. They keep going, waiting for the relevant government agency to deal with the issue

B. Their operations are interrupted indefinitely until the floodwaters recede and they can sort out their production or office space

C. They know it’s coming so they take preemptive action, move big machinery to safety, and get operations back up and running as soon as floodwater recedes and their cleaning team on standby is done washing away the mud before it dries

The answer is either B or C - it depends whether the company in question has a business continuity plan (BCP) with specific steps they have practiced.

In the case of Bhikha Bhai in Fiji, the BCP they developed thanks to the FBDRC training allowed them to take flooding in stride.

Their BCP meant that:

✔️ They were monitoring the weather and river levels ahead of time
✔️The emergency process made it clear when to take action and what to do
✔️Everyone knew what their role was
✔️Teamwork - and practice - made it a seamless intervention
✔️The production line suffered minimal disruptions

Read the whole story here:

https://www.connectingbusiness.org/news-events/news/business-continuity-fiji-floods

09/09/2025

Participants attending the Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management Sri Lanka swift water rescue training program thought they knew what they were in for.

They did *not* expect to see their lives - and that of their loved ones - transformed, or to push gender boundaries, shift corporate mindsets, and more.

Here, we share some of their perspectives:

🛟 Michelle Joseph, development professional

🌊 Asante Ambawatte, Lion Brewery Ceylon leadership

🛥 Sasitha Rajapaksha, Lieutenant Commander in the Sri Lankan Navy

1️⃣-6️⃣ which is/are your favorite quote/s? Let us know in the comments! 👇🏾

For their full stories, read our most recent article.

03/09/2025

Over the past three years, southern Mexico’s Pacific coast has become a textbook example of how climate change intensifies disasters. The private sector has been on the frontlines, deploying strategic interventions and powerful partnerships to rewrite the narrative for the most vulnerable communities in Mexico.

At the heart of these efforts is Cenaced - the CBi Member Network in Mexico.

Two of the key lessons?

✨️Stronger communications between sectors is key to saving lives.✨️

Ahead of Hurricane Erick, CENACED's Unidos por Ellos network issued early guidance through its own media channels, monitored the storm in real time, and shared critical information such as official shelter locations. When Erick made landfall, direct lines with federal and state authorities ensured a more timely and coordinated response as well as the carrying out of rapid assessments.

✨️Better coordination avoids duplication for greater impact.✨️

CENACED provided training and activated its streamlined coordination protocol with key business networks ahead of Hurricane Erick so that aid reached communities with dignity, without duplication or risk. The result? Lower response times and smarter, more efficient mobilization of resources.

Ps. We're also on Instagram now, connect with us there if you haven't already!

28/08/2025

📢 Have you heard?

Fiji just set a global example on how to better integrate the private sector into national disaster risk management efforts - here's how:

⚠️ In late 2024, the Fiji National Disaster Risk Management Bill was passed

💪 It officially recognized the Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation (FCEF)'s Business Disaster Resilience Council (FBDRC) within the legislative framework of disaster response and recovery

🚛 This acknowledges the essential role of the private sector in managing and mitigating disaster risks

That's all thanks to the FBDRC's tireless efforts over the years. AND it's a victory for inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnerships that blend the expertise and resources of both the public and private sectors.

Congratulations to the FBDRC!