HOW WE STARTED

ARISE-Philippines was created out of a shared vision of private sector institutions for a disaster-resilient and climate-smart Philippines.

The Philippines faced the wrath of Tropical Storm Sendong (International name: Washi)  in December 2011. Sendong ravaged northern Mindanao and parts of the Visayas leaving thousands dead, and damaging investments and infrastructure amounting to billions of pesos.

As a response, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. took on the role of a lead advocate for disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM)  within the private sector in 2012. SM Prime organized the first annual meeting amongst top leaders in the private sector and public sector in the Philippines to address issues relative to DRRM through its Top Leaders’ Forum (TLF).

In the same year, Mr. Hans T. Sy, SM Prime President, was invited become a member of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)  Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) by Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom who was then the UN Assistant Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction and head of the UNISDR.

In 2015, after the international community adopted the Sendai Framework, UNISDR now called the UNDRR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) merged their various private sector initiatives, namely the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG), the Private Sector Partnership (PSP) and the R!SE Initiative, to create the Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE).

The partnership between SM and UNDRR paved the path for the creation of ARISE -Philippines. ARISE-Philippines Local Network was formally organized during the 2015 Top Leaders’ Forum wherein over 60 business partners of SM Prime committed to be part of ARISE-Philippines and were officially recognized as members. SM Prime took on the role of national secretariat for ARISE-Philippines Network. The Top Leaders Forum (TLF) is an annual special activity of ARISE in coordination with UNDRR.

As the advocacy of disaster risk reduction and management in the Philippines continues to gain a strong foothold, other leading companies in the Philippines soon became part of ARISE-Philippines and membership continue to grow and recruitment of member companies is being intensified. To date, there are 146 members of ARISE-Philippines.