GENEVA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Small and big businesses need to ensure that their core decision-making processes have resilience in order to help the authorities and the wider community reduce the risk of disasters.
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) announced on Thursday that it works hand in hand with companies to ensure that curbing the threat posed by natural and human-induced hazards is fixed into business strategies.
"The private sector is taking an active role to reduce disaster risk across their value chain, whether it be across their organization assets, people, suppliers, customers or supply chain," said Oz Ozturk, a partner at PwC and co-chair of the UNISDR Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies, which is known for short as ARISE.
"It's good business and provides agility in being able to respond to rapidly changing market conditions," he said, adding "We have found the organizations and economies that benefit most are the ones which have made these strategic and operational decisions hand in hand with governments and communities."
This, said Ozturk, is because all parties bring insights and knowledge helping to protect the ecosystem and allowing a more holistic approach in investing for disaster resilience.
"Ultimately the investments across the value chain are relevant and sustainable."
In March 2015, the international community adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year plan to make countries more resilient.
It was the first building block of the wider 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Sendai Framework puts the onus on governments to bring about change, but is relatively unusual in the world of international agreements in that it says that other players also have a specific role, says UNISDR.
The private sector is singled out in that accord.
ARISE aims to maximize business resilience know-how and encourage investment decisions that take disaster risk into account.
That will help the private sector to play a role in implementing the Sendai Framework through to 2030, says UNISDR.
