The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Philippines records that 99.52% of all businesses in the Philippines is composed of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). MSMEs contributed to 63.19% of the country’s total employment in 2018.
ARISE Philippines have aligned its programs to help the MSMEs in their recovery efforts during disasters or unforeseen circumstances.
Here are some of the Programs implemented by ARISE Philippines Members:
- SM PRIME HOLDINGS INC.
SM Prime Holdings Inc. implemented SM Business CONTINUITY PROGRAM (SM BCP) for its SME tenants. The SM BCP was in partnership with The National Resilience Council (NRC) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The Program includes provision on capacity building through workshops. The goal of this is to strengthen the resiliency of SM Prime Holdings tenants and other SMEs all over the country so that they will be able to easily bounce back after natural or even man-made disasters by having their own BCP in place.
Business Continuity Planning (BCP) Workshops as well as free data storage facility to store necessary operational and insurance documents.
SM BCP flier which was sent out to all SM Prime qualified tenants
Dir. Jerry Clavesillas of the Department of Trade and Industry during the BCP workshop in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City
- University of the Philippines Institute of the Small Scale Industries (UP ISSI)
UP ISSI has trained over 2,000 individuals from micro, small and medium enterprises since 2014. Part of its HANDA Program is the MSME Disaster Resilience Study that aims to describe the disaster experiences; impact to their business operations; disaster preparedness and business continuity-related practices of micro, small, and medium enterprises in the Philippines. The results of this study will include the MSME Disaster Vulnerability Map that will aid in formulation of policies and development of programs related to community disaster risk reduction, and strategies for business resilience. UP ISSI also has 30-page Smart Business Guide complements the Honing Agents for National Disaster Awareness (HANDA) Program of the University of the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries. It presents five simple steps to be considered in developing a business continuity plan that aims to build a company’s resilience to disasters. At the end of this guide, readers will find a BCP template that will help one get started in business continuity plan preparation. Link: http://beta.entrepreneurship.org.ph/
B) SUPPORT TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS
NATIONAL RESILIENCE COUNCIL (NRC): Leadership for Resilient LGU Program.
The National Resilience Council develops the capacity of LGUs through “Leadership for Resilient LGU Program”, guided by the Bridging Leadership Framework for Resilience, that puts emphasis on ownership, co-ownership, and co-generation of resilience priorities and actions along the tracks of Science & Technology and Leadership & Governance. NRC also engages and capacitates academic partners to optimize local expertise on the ground in supporting the implementation of the program and ensure its sustainability. The program has yielded significant results among NRC’s partner LGUs –Bataan Province, and Cities of Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Iriga, Manila, Naga, Ormoc, Muntinlupa, and Zamboanga — from effectively shifting the largely response-oriented planning and investment programming to risk-informed and resilience-driven governance using science and technology. The City of Manila is the most recent city to be partnered by the NRC for the resilience program. (Source: https://resiliencecouncil.ph/our-story/)
