Concept Note
Challenges and Opportunities for Local Communities and Small-Scale Entrepreneurs
Venue: Quezon City Experience (QCX) Conference Theatre, Quezon City Circle on Saturday, 09th November 2019 & Manuel L. Quezon Ceremonial Hall, 15th Floor, Quezon City Hall, Quezon City on Sunday, 10th November 2019
Theme: Inclusive Investment in Leveling the Business Organizations
| Activity: | 4th INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM TOWARDS DISASTER RISK TRANSFER (4th IRC-DRT) Academic Year 2019-2020 |
| Title: | Challenges and Opportunities for Local Communities and Small-Scale Entrepreneurs |
| Theme: | Inclusive Investment in Leveling the Business Organizations |
| Date: | 09-10 November 2019 |
| Venue: | Quezon City Experience (QCX) Conference Theatre, Quezon City Circle, Quezon City |
| Number of Participants: | We are expecting more than 150 participants that include students and faculty members and staff from PSBA-Manila, Graduate School and Undergraduate Schools; Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand; School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Philippines (UP-SURP); Planning and Development Research Foundation Inc. (PLANADES); Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina (PLMar); Quezon City Government (QCG) Scholars and employees; and other International and Local students, researchers and delegates. |
| Organizing Partners: | PSBA Manila, AIT, UP-SURP, QCG, PLMar, and PLANADES. |
| Supporting Partners: | Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institute (GADRI), Sustainable Development Solutions Network – A Global Initiative for the United Nations (UN-SDSN) |
Background and Rationale:
The annual Fourth International Research Colloquium towards Disaster Risk Transfer (4th IRC-DRT) of the Philippine School of Business Administration-Manila (PSBA-Manila) continues its mission from the School’s prior Symposia and Colloquia where the school’s research fellows, students, and experts from various local and international institution have gathered to contribute their knowledge in this particular platform. Particularly, it will disseminate with a focus on the challenges and opportunities of local communities and small-scale entrepreneurs in the midst of inclusive investment in the Philippine market and economic setting. The theme of this year’s International Research Colloquium is “Inclusive Investment in Leveling the Business Organizations”, and its effect on long term and disaster risk reduction and management lenses.
According to the International Institute for Environment (IIE) and Development, most of the concerns about Inclusive Investments are its negative social impacts including loss of local rights to land, water and other natural resources in addition it also threats the local food security and the risk that large-scale investments marginalize family farmers (IIED, 2013). Moreover, they agree that this kind of investment is a big risk for indigenous people since the consequence of this investment involves their only source of income and dignity. However, in contrary with the latter IIE believes that Inclusive Investment is essential towards the growth of every marginalized sector.
Indeed, Inclusive investment was considered to be one of the many forms of risk transfer that large companies and business entities must take in consideration as it does not just only protect their own business, but also gives them an opportunity to initiate involvement among local-based and small-scale entrepreneurs in the local community to be part of their value chain by allowing them to be their suppliers, producers, shareholders, employees, and even as consumers that can be both sustainable and equitable.
As society has reached a tipping point, so has businesses; inclusion as a business imperative must take hold. No matter where a person falls in an organization, there is an obligation to champion inclusivity as part of everyone’s job. Beyond the fundamental issue of equality, inclusive cultures drive stronger performance and unlock sustainable business benefits. Leaders should build teams that ensure a valuable mix of diverse skillsets, experiences, and backgrounds are not just brought to the table - but empowered to contribute. This will require organizations to put structured training and mentoring programs in place to scale this efficiently and appropriately.
Further, the Philippines is a well-known country for its natural resources from its lands, to its forests, to its mineral resources, and its fishery resources. Considering the extensive business opportunities in natural resources, our country has a lot of farmers, fishermen, and local entrepreneurs. However, it is undeniably known to everyone that these people are the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the corporate world. There are cases where farmers encounter zero profit due to minimal exposure, unavailability of competitive place to trade their products, and the trend of prioritizing branded products; while fishermen risk their lives for a minimum wage for their families. According to Business World Online (Marcelo, 2017), poverty incidence for the sector of farmers was recorder at 34.3%; 34% were fishermen; and 31.4% are children. These sectors also consistently registered as the three sectors with the highest poverty incidence in 2006, 2009, and 2012. In addition, the poverty incidence in these sectors also exceeded the national and average of 21.6%.
On November 22, 2017 a study conducted by the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI), the industry development and investments promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the United Nations Development Programme Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development, highlighted the growing enthusiasm and interest of the Philippines private sector in levelling business organizations by adopting Inclusive Business (IB) models. IB offers an opportunity to not only generate profit, but also help those at the base of the economic pyramid and thereby contribute to reducing poverty in the country.
Thus, the main objective of this International Colloquium is to contribute to business continuity and resiliency planning by providing a stage in inclusive investments and disaster risk transfer knowledge. It also aims to foster closer ties among diversified participants and provide an avenue to share thoughts and exchange of ideas on how business organizations and its members can contribute more meaningfully to resolve disaster-related challenges faced and opportunities gained by MSMEs and local communities not just in the Philippines, but also all around the world. Further, it is the intention of this colloquium to encourage businesses to adopt sustainable Inclusive Business models by integrating the poor at the core of their business operations.
In addition, it aims to drive discussion to answer the following questions:
- What kind of Inclusive Investments and Inclusive Business models are available and essential towards disaster risk transfer today?
- What roles can the private sector play to drive the direction of Inclusive Investments and Inclusive Business Models in support governments towards Sustainable Development Goals, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and other international agreements?
- What examples from case studies can be adopted so that win-win scenarios become win-win realities?
For this year’s colloquium, we have invited distinguished speakers and top-notch resource persons to help us get a better sense of the developments happening not only in particular business sector, but on the economy at large.