As part of the celebration of National Disaster Resilience Month, Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., the corporate social responsibility arm of the Aboitiz Group, collaborated with ARISE-Philippines, Resilient.PH, and the Asian Institute of Management and launched the Resilience Reporting Tool via Zoom on July 28, 2022. The event was held in support of the National Disaster Resilience Month celebration.
The webinar focused on mainstreaming organizations’ disclosures of their disaster risk reduction strategies, how they can contribute to the Sendai Framework, and committing to integrating disaster risk reduction and resilience into their business models and practices—resulting in risk and resilient-informed investments and organizations.
Adopted at the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan in 2015, the Sendai Framework aims to strengthen resilience by implementing integrated and inclusive measures to prevent and reduce hazard exposure and disaster vulnerability, as well as to improve preparedness for response and recovery.
The program was kicked off by Maribeth Marasigan, President and Chief Operating Officer of Aboitiz Foundation and a board member of ARISE-Philippines. Then, Felipe O. Calderon, Associate Professor at the Asian Institute of Management and the Executive Director of Gov. Jose B. Fernandez, Jr. Center for Sustainable Finance, provided the participants with an overview of Resilience Reporting. It was discussed that the idea of the connection between corporate disclosures and disaster risks and resilience was raised and highlighted with a select team of Cohort 1 of the Executive Master in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management (EMDRCM) program of AIM.
It was intended for participants who were new to sustainability reporting, including those who were interested in advancing to resilience reporting. A total of 47 participants from various organizations attended the webinar. Participants’ knowledge of sustainability reporting ranged from no experience to 1 year, 2-3 years and more than 3 years. Since the objective of the webinar was to learn through the sharing of reporting experiences, it was an engaging experience for the groups of participants to exchange knowledge and gain insight into current and new practices.
Josren Adrian L. Carpio, Research Lead Collaborator of Resilient.PH, and the lead author of the tooland the lead author of the tool, defined the Resilience Reporting Tool as a voluntary disclosure that offers a common set of guidelines for the private sector to report their journey towards resiliency in alignment with the stakeholders’ interests. The tool adds to the disclosures of the organization’s sustainability, annual, and/or integrated reports.
There were three modules and each one contained recommended disclosures and guidance. Each module was intended to be a stand-alone guideline and had a key focus on particular outcomes. With this method, users of the Resilience Reporting Tool can adapt it to their specific needs and progress towards disaster risk and resilience transparency. Following the introduction of each module, participants were asked to join the breakout rooms, wherein each module were thoroughly explored.
Aboitiz Foundation has been an active member of ARISE-Philippines since 2015 and serves as the Lead for Priority Area – Investors and Investments. ARISE is a private sector alliance intended to help create disaster resilient societies organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) whose members have voluntarily committed to supporting the Sendai Framework’s implementation.
