07 July 2016 – The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), the Philippines’ major private sector vehicle and coordinator for disaster management, made a presentation at the ISDR Support Group Meeting at the United Nations Office in Geneva on how its team of highly committed professionals works with the government, field experts and reputable humanitarian institutions to organize and coordinate private sector solutions to disaster management. The presentation was held on June 29 at the Palais des Nations.
The PDRF is a business-led coordination body with the aim of addressing key gaps in disaster risk management, complementing government services on disaster management.
Mr. Rene “Butch” Meily, President of the PDRF, briefed the members of the ISDR Support Group on the Foundation’s work and shared the Foundation’s best practices and lessons learnt. He shared that the Foundation is a permanent private sector organization focused solely on disaster resilience and recovery, and is made up of some of the top business groups in the Philippines.
The group was established as a Public Private Sector Partnership in 2009 after disastrous floods devastated Manila. Mr. Meily helped established the group in 2009 and returned to head it in 2013, just before a series of calamities battered the Philippines, including a major earthquake and super typhoon Haiyan. The Foundation’s focus has shifted from recovery to resilience and has seven preparedness clusters made up of 70 companies.
More recently, the PDRF also spearheaded the building of the world's first private sector Emergency Operations Center (EOC), launched in Manila on June 28. The EOC is a new 24/7 self-sufficient operations hub that aims to provide training for disaster preparedness and coordination of response and recovery efforts during major disasters. It is the first national private sector-led national EOC in the region.
The presentation also included the UNISDR’s Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies or ARISE. Developed in line with the Sendai Framework, which calls for businesses to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) into their own management practices, the initiative brings together 120 plus multinational companies, and will undertake efforts in the realms of disaster risk management strategies, investment metrics, benchmarking and standard setting, education and training, insurance, urban and local governments and legal and regulatory matters.
The ISDR Support Group, a Geneva-based self-organized group that is composed of interested Member States, aims to mobilize the necessary political and financial support for the effective functioning of the strengthened ISDR partnership, focusing in particular on issues related to the participation of States in the system. END
