The Connecting Business initiative welcomes new partners from Chile and Guatemala

• Chile  |  
• Guatemala  |  
• Philippines  |  
• Preparedness  |  
• Recovery  |  
• Response

Three new organizations have joined the Connecting Business initiative (CBI) as partners, known as Member Networks. They were welcomed during a ceremonial launch as part of the CBI inaugural course on Business-led Emergency Operation Centers (BEOCs) for which the in-person segment took place in the Philippines last week.

CBI Member Networks are business associations or chambers of commerce that are interested in or already engaged in disaster management. This brings the number of CBI Member Networks in the Latin America and the Caribbean regions to five country networks and one regional network, making it the second largest region after Asia and the Pacific.

A focus on early recovery in Chile  

Desafío Levantemos Chile, known for their emergency response and recovery work, will work with CBI to strengthen national, regional, and international institutional partnerships, focusing on early recovery and the reconstruction of communities affected by disasters.

New CBI Member Networks in Guatemala will work on business resilience and collaboration

In Guatemala, the two new CBI Member Networks are the Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras (the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations, or CACIF as per its acronym in Spanish) and CentraRSE, the organization promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in the country.

Both will be working on procedures and mechanisms to protect businesses from sudden-onset emergencies and the impact of extreme weather events. They will also aim to empower the private sector to work more closely with the United Nations in times of peace so as to facilitate better disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

One of the offerings of CBI is peer-to-peer learning across borders, enabling countries facing similar risks to learn from each other in terms of how best to engage the private sector in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

This takes the number of Member Networks to 20, the highest it has ever been – and with more interested business networks in the pipeline. You can find out more about CBI Member Networks on the network pages and through the stories featured on the CBI website.