Making SMEs more disaster resilient in Sendai City
By implementing this pilot project for SMEs Resilience in Sendai City, Sendai City aims at improving the disaster resilience of its Small and Medium Enterprises in Sendai City.
Description
“Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of Small and Medium Enterprises” is a project facilitated by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction between June 2024 and June 2026. The project aims to improve the disaster resilience of SMEs within cities through analysis of the current state of resilience, identification and sharing of challenges and good practices, and measures made to improve resilience.
Sendai City is one of these three pilot cities for this project. By implementing this pilot project in Sendai City, Sendai City aims at improving the disaster resilience of its Small and Medium Enterprises by mapping the current state of business resilience, identifying gaps, working collaboratively and knowledge sharing.
To implement the project, Sendai City is developing and delivering several initiatives in line with the project’s aims. This includes conducting a landscaping study to improve understanding of the current state of SME disaster resilience in Sendai City and organizing local business continuity planning workshops to support SMEs to develop their BCPs, so that the penetration rate of BCPs among SMEs in Sendai City will be improved. Sendai City will also launch a new webpage for sharing information and progresses about the project with the public.
The Sendai Framework for DRR highlights the importance of building SMEs resilience, as 90% of private sector consists of SMEs around the world and SMEs have been faced with various challenges regarding building their resilience. Therefore, as one of the outcomes of this project, Sendai City aims at developing a series of impact stories to share its good practices and resilient journey of some SMEs in Sendai City with the international community, so that other cities could learn from the experiences of Sendai City in its efforts to improve SMEs resilience.
Sendai City works closely with local partners and UNDRR Kobe Office for implementing this pilot project in Sendai City.
Did the Sendai Framework change or contribute to changes in your activities/organization? If so, how?
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction guides the work of Sendai City and its stakeholders towards creating a more disaster resilient city. This drives Sendai City to create and support initiatives that help its citizens and businesses build capacity and meet the targets set out in the Framework.
The Framework also specifically states the importance of engagement among small and medium enterprises. These deliverables fall under a project initiated by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, whose work is guided by the Sendai Framework.
What led you to make this commitment/initiative?
What was your position before making this Voluntary Commitment / prior to the Sendai Framework?
The overarching project of which these initiatives form a part is a valuable way for piloting cities, including Sendai City, to examine, understand, and improve the disaster resilience of their small and medium enterprises. The project allows relevant stakeholders to come together and discuss challenges and opportunities in this field, including effective use of business continuity planning, how to incentivize DRR among these companies, and the importance of holistic approaches to risk and resilience.
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.
Sendai City conducts a landscaping study by consulting with more than 50 small and medium enterprises within the city about their disaster resilience. An analysis report in Japanese and English is to be published.
To document and share the progress and results of the implementation of the “Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of Small and Medium Enterprises” project in Sendai City, the city creates a new, public webpage.
Sendai City conducts a BCP workshop in October 2025 where 30 companies from across Sendai City come together for a seminar titled ‘Business Continuity Planning and Branding Theory: How to Keep Business Running Even in the Event of an Emergency.’
During the workshop, participants will learn about the use of business continuity planning, how business continuity plans may be formulated, and the importance of these considerations in improving their company’s capacity to manage disruptions.
As one of the outcomes of this project, Sendai City will develop a series of impact stories to share its good practices and resilient journey of some SMEs in Sendai City with the international community, so that other cities could learn from the experiences of Sendai City in its efforts to improve SMEs resilience.
Organizations and focal points
Implementing Organization(s)
Focal points
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