CONSULTATIVE WORKSHOP: Business Resilience of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

Recognizing the critical need to enhance business resilience to reduce economic losses and strengthen overall resilience of the national economies, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) will organize a consultation among relevant business networks and technical experts. The consultation will focus on the resilience building needs of business enterprises, in particular, the MSMEs. The consultation will provide a platform where network organisations and technical experts in the Asia-Pacific region can share good practices on how to strengthen business resilience of the MSMEs. 

The workshop will build on the work done in the Asia-Pacific region over the past few years to help build the resilience of MSMEs, in particular through the creation of various Business Continuity Tools. Previous such workshops organised by UNDRR have confirmed the need for simplified tools in local languages for small businesses to use. 

The consultation will take place at the United Nations Conference Center, Bangkok, Thailand, on the 11 December 2019. It is expected that around 25 participants from the Asia-Pacific region will join the consultation, including ARISE network representatives, chambers of commerce and industries, academia, technical community and international organisations.

The consultation will aim to explore resilience pathways for the MSMEs, identifying actions that can be taken to enhance MSMEs' resilience in the face of growing disaster risks in the region. Key objectives include:

1. Enhance awareness on business resilience among MSMEs;

2. Discuss different approaches to assess and strengthen business resilience;

3. Identify means to address data and knowledge gaps to inform risk management approaches of MSMEs;