By Butch Meily
13:47 on 9 September 2022 EDT
A tough new force, largely ignored but a bit unknown, is now fighting alongside foot soldiers and citizens to protect Ukraine against the ruthless Russian attack now entering its seventh month: the personal sector.
At last count, 359 personal sector organizations, mostly corporations, donated or pledged more than $1500 million, in cash or in kind, according to United Nations data, with the Connecting Business Initiative, a global network involving the personal sector in crisis. preparation, reaction and recovery.
At Wato, Insurers Indemnity Cos. committed 5% of all new premiums and donated $54,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross. $72,000 to donate. Dozens of American corporations are working deeply for the cause: DuPont has pledged $200,000, IBM $500,000, and Adobe $2. 5 million, to cite just 3 examples.
Elsewhere, too, there is no shortage of examples. Danish logistics company DSV transported Ukrainian refugees to Poland, where the JYSK store donated 26,000 blankets. More than 36,000 Airbnb hosts worldwide, 3,000 in the United States, have introduced temporary apartments to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
In Ukraine, telecommunications corporations allow foreign calls to the country without a fee and roaming fees there. Eurostar, a high-speed rail service, grants free seats to Ukrainians with valid visas traveling to London. Levi’s donated $300,000 to help Ukrainian refugees and pledged to adjust workers’ contributions on a two-to-one basis.
“The goal of mobilizing businesses around the world for other Ukrainians is a record,” said Osnat Lubrani, UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine.
More and more often, whether after a volcanic eruption in Tonga or floods in Sri Lanka, personal matters come to the rescue. There is not much that government agencies and nonprofits can do to enable a country to cope with disasters. Businesses, utilities and other actors in the personal sector are needed to take advantage of capacities and resources, reduce red tape and help quickly.
This summer, I spoke at a convention in Geneva organized through the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Participants from 14 countries shared their reports and practices on the growing urgency for local businesses to play a role in crisis preparedness, response and recovery. .
Private sector champions have emerged everywhere. DHL operates a crisis response team of another 500 people worldwide that sends logistics specialists to crisis areas within 72 hours to unload pallets, purchase and purchase relief supplies and coordinate assistance. After the Ebola outbreak in Africa in 2014, the personal sector built joint isolation for patients and donated thermal scanners to trip over other inflamed people. In response to an earthquake in Pakistan in 2010, Agility, TNT, UPS and Maersk provided significant relief to their citizens.
Altruism motivates the personal sector, but so does the economy. In the event of a disaster, the profits of local small businesses plummet. Large corporations rely on those merchants to market products that consumers can buy without interruption and protect their backline. Thus, corporations that otherwise compete fiercely at an advertising point come in combination to deal with crises.
As I know very well from private experience, the Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world. Typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions threaten everyday life and business here. In anticipation of such calamities, our corporations came together in 2010 to create the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation. Public-own partnership relies on the sector itself to prepare neighborhoods and businesses to recover from natural disasters.
This forecast was demonstrated last December when Super Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines. Winds of up to 270 km/h destroyed homes, forced millions to flee and left a slew of people injured and dead.
Our personal corporations have taken action. Philippine water corporations, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, have distributed bottled water and cellular water remedy plants to prevent outbreaks of diarrhea and typhoid fever. Airlines and shipping companies have donated loose seats and shipping areas to send civic volunteers and deliver relief supplies. helped local franchises repair power. Shell pumped fuel into turbines that powered hospitals and municipal wards. The momentum was heroic.
COVID-19 has also triggered altruistic impulses from the private sector. The companies contributed $32 million to create a program that fed another 14 million people in Metro Manila in the early days of the pandemic, with an additional $2 million offering PPE for healthcare staff and ventilators for hospitals. Transportation companies arrived with buses to take those professionals to hospitals near and far. The personal sector has also provided bloodless outlets to purchase vaccines and has set up more vaccination points to facilitate the implementation of inoculation.
As the world prepares for the next inevitable catastrophe, personal businesses are showing their strengths. The corporate sector also acts in the public interest to express its compassion and generosity towards those who desperately desire it. In the process, whether the crisis is in Ukraine or the Philippines, they are offering a price that goes far beyond the undeniable dollars and cents.
Butch Meily is president of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, a member of the Connecting Business Initiative. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News.
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