Connecting Business initiative

The Connecting Business initiative (CBi) is a joint project by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), designed to engage the local private sector in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery in a coordinated and collective manner alongside governments and humanitarian organisations. The initiative's Secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland, and has an office in UNDP’s Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD).

On the ground, CBi partners with Member Networks made up of local business federations, chambers of commerce, trade federations and associations, representing more than 275,000 individual businesses in some of the world's most at-risk countries and regions.

Establishment

CBi was launched at the first World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Türkiye in 2016. The Summit was a call to action for global stakeholders "to reduce suffering and deliver better for people caught in humanitarian crises."

The initiative receives guidance and support from an Executive Committee composed of representatives from the US Agency for International Development as well as the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, UN Global Compact, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the Boston Consulting Group.

Member Networks

Focusing primarily on countries and regions most at-risk to disasters, CBi has established networks in the following countries and regions: Côte d'Ivoire, Fiji, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Peru, the Pacific, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Türkiye, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Many of CBi Member Networks are integrated within their National Disaster Management Offices and work together with Government and civil society to strengthen the efficiency of disaster risk, response and recovery. A few are recognised within the Humanitarian Country Team.

CBi supports its Member Networks by:

• building their capacity and connecting them with the humanitarian community;
• advocating for the private sector's engagement in humanitarian emergencies;
• coordinating business contributions both in-kind and financial during emergency responses; and
• providing business guidance and online tools to businesses and UN partners.

For example, in the Philippines, CBi and their Member Network, the Philippines Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), worked in partnership to develop an online COVID-19 recovery hub for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) called SIKAP (Synergizing Recovery Initiatives, Knowledge, and Adaptation Practices for MSMEs) to inform MSMEs on how to adapt and redesign their businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global activities

At a global level, CBi partners with OCHA and UNDP to advocate for a stronger recognition of the role of local businesses in disaster management. It supports response activities during emergencies, including developing business guides and tracking private sector donations. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, CBi has documented over $1.6 billion in cash and in-kind donations from the private sector in the Ukraine Private Sector Donations Tracker.

References

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