Participants of the Asia Leadership Forum for Business Resilience

ADPC organized the ‘Asia Leadership Forum for Business Resilience’ in Bangkok on 18-19 December. The two-day leadership forum aimed to increase understanding and knowledge of business resilience among executive leadership from both public and private sectors while fostering dialogue and partnerships for future actions. Senior executive leaders from ASEAN and SAARC regions discussed challenges that the private sector and governments face due to changing climate and disaster risk. They explored how to support business resilience by involving public and the private sectors.

Over 70 participants from Asian Preparedness Partnership (APP) focus countries of Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Sri Lanka together with representatives from Brunei, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Singapore and Thailand attended the forum.

Mr. Hans Guttman, Executive Director, ADPC (right) and Dr. Valerie Bemo (left) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contributing to a panel discussion on leadership visions for enhancing Business Resilience

The first day of the event focused on Executive Leadership Seminars for Business Resilience with Government and Private Sector attending parallel sessions to enhance their knowledge and appreciation of topics relevant to engaging the private sector in building resilience to disasters. Representatives from the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), SCG (Thailand) Co. Ltd. together with colleagues from the iPrepare Business facility at ADPC provided guidance and insights on topics including key policy frameworks and strengthening enabling environments for Business Resilience as well as Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Supply Chain Resilience.

The second day was comprised of an Asia Policy Dialogue for Business Resilience. A panel discussion, facilitated by ADPC Executive Director Mr. Hans Guttman, drew on leadership visions for enhancing business resilience from leading government, private sector and development partners from ASEAN, South Asia and Africa. The following technical sessions featured case study examples demonstrated the value of multi-stakeholder partnerships for Business Resilience focusing on an Area Business Continuity Management initiative in Thailand and Public-Private working SME Resilience working groups in the Philippines.

Mr. Aslam Perwaiz, Deputy Executive Director of ADPC moderating a technical session on multi-stakeholder partnerships for Business Resilience

Participants were also given an opportunity to discuss various topics relevant to Business Resilience during breakout sessions on Enabling Environments and Government Roles in Business Resilience, Integrating DRR into Corporate Sustainability Programs, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Resilience, Risk Financing and Insurance and South-South Learning, Knowledge Management & Regional Cooperation.

The forum was supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and the Global Initiative on Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM) managed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).