How the Pandemic put Risk Planning on the Private Sector's Agenda

The PREPARE program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and implemented by Miyamoto International, collaborated with the American Chamber of Commerce in Trinidad and Tobago (AMCHAM T&T) to facilitate business continuity planning (BCP) workshops. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were targeted due to their limited capacity to dedicate funding and personnel to continuity planning. AMCHAM T&T's financially larger members from the insurance and energy sectors volunteered their business continuity personnel to assist with developing and facilitating the course. The PREPARE program hosted a three-day online training to engage persons remotely and interactively, creating a focused space for learning. The workshop was attended by between 35 and 40 participants, including presentations accompanied by practical planning tools. Facilitators emphasized the importance of business continuity planning, stating that the failure of SMEs after a disaster would result in the loss of essential market components. The PREPARE program aims to reduce urban disaster vulnerability through a citywide assessment on seismic risk. Complementary to this assessment and related recommendations is the need for businesses of all sizes to understand their physical and structural risk, as well as analyze their organizational capacity to respond to crises and develop internal plans for increasing resilience. The initiative was well-attended and successfully implemented due to the additional commitment by AMCHAM T&T to the United Nation's Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)'s Arise initiative, a public-private collaboration that aligns with the private sector engagement goals of Miyamoto's PREPARE program. AMCHAM T&T's President, Mrs. Patricia Ghany, announced that the organization has committed to mentoring participating businesses for one year subsequent to the course. The Deputy Chief of UNDRR's Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, Mr. Nahuel Arenas Garcia, and Maj. Gen. Rodney Smart, Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management in Trinidad and Tobago, attended and addressed the participants during the workshop. The initiative received positive feedback and appreciation from participants, with recommendations to narrow down the abundant resources shared in further sessions. AMCHAM T&T has since reached out to all attendees to provide support with BCP development.