Building Philippine MSMEs resilience to ratural disasters

Disasters are bad for business specifically for MSMEs. These catastrophic events can compromise capital, supply chains, product market and labour, which compromise business continuity and recovery. Physical damage and disruptions in supply and labour can cause temporary business closure while structural repairs to buildings and recovery or replacement of damaged equipment needed to restore operations require large amount of resources. The adverse impact may not only be short term but can have medium to long term effects. Unfortunately, the disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) framework of government has not been effectively translated into local and sectoral (or business) plans. Philippines MSMEs thus are highly vulnerable, have weak adaptability and limited access to a broader set of coping strategies. This paper recommends strategic policies to embed DRRM into the business sector and the role of APEC in promoting MSMEs resilience in the region.