•  Our small business panellists, Romeo Mitchell and Tashana Anderson
• All those joining us on Zoom and on social media,
• UNDP Programme Analyst – Capacity Development, Ava Whyte-Anderson

Good afternoon and welcome to the first in our series of Webinars being organized by the United Nations Development Programme Multi Country Office in Jamaica, designed to be informative and helpful to the people and governments we serve in our programme jurisdictions of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. As we support governments towards achieving their development goals and connecting countries to global expertise and knowledge networks, the ultimate goal is that the lives will be empowered, and nations will become more resilient.  this will lead to empower the lives of their citizens and build resilient nations.

As you already know, most Caribbean countries are most vulnerable to natural hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, storm surge and tsunamis. Natural disasters have significant impacts on the region’s economies and are made worse by the impacts of climate change. For example, Average Annual Loss due to hurricanes is estimated at US$67.3 M (0.5% of GDP) for Jamaica. Together natural and man-made hazards could wipe away most if not all of the development gains; widen the inequality gap and threaten the realization of development goals including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

So through UNDP’s work in Crisis Prevention and Recovery, we do our best to work with governments, civil society and communities to mitigate/limit the risks associated with natural man-made hazards and crises with the aim of building back better.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the social and economic development of the region. For example, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries in Jamaica confirms that the MSME sector accounts for 80% of jobs in the Jamaican economy and contributes significantly to GDP, employment and wealth creation, poverty alleviation, female employment and social stability. It is further estimated that taxpaying MSMEs account for 97.6% of all classified and registered enterprises in Jamaica.

Therefore, as we have entered into this hurricane season on 1^st June 2020, the UNDP team felt it was timely, necessary and important to provide critical information to MSMEs that could reduce their risk of catastrophic losses in the event of a hurricane or other natural hazard. The reason for our focus on MSME is that they play a critical role in national and local development but are also particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of natural disasters. The devastations of category 5 hurricanes in 2019 from Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas and previously in 2017 from Irma Maria in Turks and Caicos Islands are good examples of this. A post hurricane survey conducted to determine the level of damage sustained by small scale operators in TCI, for instance, found that a large majority had suffered severe losses and this in turn led to significant delays in reopening business and therefore significant loss of livelihoods.  Our experience tells us that the risk of small businesses not being able to return quickly to business operations after a natural disaster is great and should be assertively and proactively addressed.

As such, strengthening the capacity of MSMEs and laying the foundation for enhancing resilience is essential for reducing and hopefully to the extent possible preventing the impacts of future natural hazards. If small businesses are able to get their house in order prior to a major storm, we could conceivably mitigate losses to supply chains, family income and eventually the community, local and national economy.

UNDP is pleased to present today an abridged but nevertheless helpful version of our two-day course for MSMEs focusing on business continuity before, during and post-disaster.  UNDP, in collaboration with partners have provided technical knowledge to MSMEs in Jamaica and TCI in business continuity planning in the event of a natural disaster in 2018.

We remain available for delivery of the full course to institutions and governments.  Today, we present important highlights and we also turn the spotlight on two graduates of our course – Tashana and Romeo, both small business owners who are reducing their operational risks, step by step, by applying principles learned and adapted from the course. I urge you to learn all you can from this solid hour of teaching and sharing and please feel free to ask questions as well as share ways that you may also have strengthened your businesses to survive a hurricane. I wish you all the best for this session and this hurricane season.