Building Resilience of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines
The provision of Information, Education and Communication (IEC), capacity building and data back-up storage facility as one of the disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies to SM's Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will enable them to bounce back after an occurrence of any disaster.
Description
The Philippines places third out of 171 countries ranked according to their ‘risk score’ or their exposure to hazards such as earthquakes, floods and storms, drought and sea level rise as reported by the World Risk Index Report 2017. The ranking can be attributed to the county’s geographical location, being situated in the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, and the existing environment. The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the development of Philippine economy. They provide valuable service to large businesses as providers of goods and services. However, they are considered vulnerable to said disasters due to their lack in coping mechanisms with no business continuity plans, limited access to insurance or credit. To ensure their ability to recovery immediately after an occurrence of a disaster, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH) aims to increase awareness on disaster risk reduction and provide capacity building as well as a data back-up storage facility for their insurance and operational documents. This commitment will be conducted with various partners from the academe, non-government organizations, private and public sectors.
Did the Sendai Framework change or contribute to changes in your activities/organization? If so, how?
Yes. The Sendai Framework contributed in the alignment of SMPH's disaster risk reduction (DRR) initiatives and efforts especially in our ARISE commitments as well as our three (3) main themes on Education and Training, Urban Risk and Resilience and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Strategies.
What led you to make this commitment/initiative?
What was your position before making this Voluntary Commitment / prior to the Sendai Framework?
The Philippines is very vulnerable to disasters and it is the company's responsibility to take care of its tenants, business partners and communities where the company is located.
Our commitment aligns with the Sendai Framework calls for the promotion of cooperation to develop new products and services to build resilient societies, in particular those that could help low and middle income countries and their private sector. These solutions should include “business continuity, into business models and practices through disaster-risk-informed investments, especially in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises." Moreover, actors are encouraged to engage in: awareness-raising and training for their employees and customers; support research and innovation, as well as technological development for disaster risk management; share and disseminate knowledge, practices and non-sensitive data; and actively participate, as appropriate and under the guidance of the public sector, in the development of normative frameworks and technical standards that incorporate disaster risk management.
Deliverables and Progress report
Deliverables
Deliverables are the end-products of the initiative/commitment, which can include issuance of publications or knowledge products, outcomes of workshops, training programs, videos, links, photographs, etc.
The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is considered one of the vulnerable sectors due to lack of capacity to cope with disasters given limited resources, expertise and awareness. In consideration , our company will provide capacity building on Business Continuity Planning (BCP) through the conduct of Workshops in partnership with ARISE Philippines members.
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) will be made available to help SMEs respond and recover from disruption to business operations brought about by natural and man-made disasters.
The Workshop will guide and discuss the steps/processes in the formulation of BCP. It aims to target 5,000 SME participants nationwide until 2023 to be conducted yearly with approximately 1,000 attendees. The Workshop will be conducted on a quarterly basis. A BCP template will also be provided to serve as their planning guide.
The results of our commitment will be presented as a report.
The 5GB/SME/branch free data back-up storage facility for SMEs will serve as a mechanism for 5,000 SMEs to store all their pertinent insurance and operations documents, which can easily be accessed using a designated Business Continuity Program (BCP) private portal (https://smbcp.ph/) of SM Prime. Since its launched in November 2018, SMEs have willingly agreed to take part in this initiative and started uploading pertinent data related to DRM. The company will abide with existing laws and regulation in accordance with the Republic Act 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012).
The SMEs will be provided with BCP inserts and forum on how to properly upload and download data, with the full support of SM's Information Technology Department. They will be closely monitored on a regular basis. The SMEs will also receive information/news re: DRM for information and subscription to DRR programs.
To ensure success of our commitment, results will be presented as Monitoring Report.
With climate change, it is expected that the Philippines will experience natural and man-made disasters such as intense typhoons, storm surges, etc. Better understanding of the Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs) disaster awareness and preparedness is vital in their business planning and strategy formulation.
The IEC aims to increase their knowledge on their exposure to various risks that can help them cope with the adverse impacts of disasters.
It is expected that 1,000 stakeholders/per year will benefit from said IEC. By 2023, it is expected that 5,000 SMEs will take part in the IEC-DRR activities and events conducted by SM Prime and partners, both from the public and private sector.
The results of our commitment will be presented as a report.
Organizations and focal points
Implementing Organization(s)
Focal points
Partners
