ARISE Japan and ARISE Philippines hosted their fourth Knowledge Sharing Session (KSS) on 25 November 2022. Mr. Masato Takamatsu, President of Tourism Resilience Japan and ARISE Japan Lead welcomed everyone to the final session in the KSS series covering the fourth ARISE Priority Area, Investors and Investment, while expressing hopes for future collaborative activities among ARISE Networks in Asia.
Ms. Yuki Matsuoka, Head, UNDRR Kobe Office followed with a briefing highlighting the strong track record of ARISE members and networks, especially from ARISE Philippines, submitting and following through on Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (see report).
The Aboitiz Foundation, the Lead of ARISE Philippines' Priority Area 2 for Investors and Investments working group, delivered an information-packed icebreaker presentation. Ms. Maribeth Marasigan, President and COO of the Aboitiz Foundation gave a short overview of the 100-plus-year-old Filipino conglomerate known for their strong commitment to good corporate governance and being active in energy, finance, agribusiness and food, real estate, infrastructure, and, more recently, data science. "We are promoting a data-driven culture and moving forward after five generations to become the country’s first "techglomerate," as well as a truly sustainable enterprise," noted Ms. Marasigan.
Ms. Christine Kempeneers, AVP for Risk Management, Aboitiz Equity Ventures discussed how they drive change towards a better world by working with businesses and communities, by ensuring first of all that Aboitiz itself is resilient. “To continue to provide value to all stakeholders, not just investors, we must ensure we are built to last” said Ms. Kempeneers, describing their integrated and holistic resilience programs, building up capacity to respond to risks as ‘muscle memory’ within the organization, through examples from Aboitiz’s response to Covid-19 and Typhoon Odette.
Mr. Yoichi Murashima, Executive Officer and Director, Disaster Risk Reduction and Environment Unit, Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd. gave the second icebreaker presentation, focusing on how they encourage other businesses to invest in DRR. “The private sector invests in DRR, but they often don’t start investing until there is an absolute demonstrated need, in terms of social value or direct risk, so we encourage this investment through our product design as well as marketing” explained Ms. Abe on behalf of Mr. Murashima, describing their B to B tool for businesses to efficiently understand, utilize, and take action on risk information.
A short but active discussion portion followed, with the two presenters discussing how ROI on investment to disaster resilience were measured, how disaster information provided by private sector apps are coordinated with information provided by the government, among other topics. VAdm Alexander Pama, Co-Chair, ARISE Philippines closed the session with words noting the relevance of the topic discussed. “Disasters and climate risks are having significant effect on the costs of development, and this highlights the relationship between a country’s ability to manage climate risk and private sector investment” he said.