Background

 

Living in a safe and healthy environment is a child's right.

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UNICEF defines business and community resilience as engagement with and leverage from the private sector, to contribute to emergency preparedness and resilience, climate adaptation, and development of green skills. In other words, it is a way of working for better engagement and resilience of business and the community.

 

Within the context of the 4th UN South Asia Forum on Business and Human Rights, UNICEF's engagement in Business and Community Resilience (BCR) in South Asia can bring attention to the private sector fueling development and the role businesses must play to create resilience and sustainability in their communities.

 

UNICEF's BCR approach is a holistic approach that ensures strategic engagement with the private sector in humanitarian action and community resilience building to leverage core expertise and assets to assist children and adolescents most in need.  By mobilizing businesses to contribute to humanitarian action and resilience the BCR approach contributes to building resilient communities and ultimately protecting children from shocks and stresses that threaten the sustainability of their basic rights. With the BCR approach UNICEF advocates for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and Shared Value Partnerships (SVPs) that leverage the private sector’s comparative advantage to contribute to humanitarian action and the resilience of communities.  

 

Session Description

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In the context of UNICEF´s business and community resilience work in close collaboration with its partners, UNICEF raises awareness by offering an engagement workshop with facilitated focus group discussion on business and community resilience in South Asia.

Additionally, the side event offers the possibility to connect business and community resilience with the promotion of responsible business conduct and workers fueling development as well as emergency preparedness in South Asia.

 

UNICEF South Asia provides a safe space to discuss how and where to engage the private sector to build up youth/community (but also business) resilience in emergency preparedness and response, as well as development settings in South Asia.  

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Session Objectives

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The key objectives of this session are to:

• Emphasize the significance of private sector engagement for children and family-friendly business practices to support resilient communities and neighborhoods.

• Showcase the necessity to advance business resilience among SMEs to build and support a disaster-resilient society in South Asia.

• Raise awareness on different possibilities to engage with private sector stakeholders to build up child-centered resilience in South Asia. 

• Learn about private sector motivation to engage in resilience building for communities and business

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Questions

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The session will harvest reflections of workshop participants on the following questions:

• How is business and community resilience linked to families and children?

• How can the private sector be engaged to build a resilient community in South Asia?

• What are the key objectives of resilience both in the private sector and in communities that also support individuals, families, and children?