Background

ECOP in collaboration with the ILO Country Office for the Philippines (CO-Manila) and the Bureau for Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP) organized a workshop on the role that business organizations can play in creating a culture of preparedness to mitigate the negative impact of conflicts on enterprises.

In this workshop, representatives from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had the opportunity to use the new Conflict Resilience Toolkit developed by the ILO to assist businesses in maintaining commercial operations in conflict afflicted areas, and creating neutral workplaces. This toolkit is a core component of ILO’s Sustainable and Resilient Enterprise (SRE) Platform, a multi-partner ‘network of networks’ that aims to promote decent work and sustainable and resilient enterprises.

Objective

The workshop objectives were:

• Establish whether the SRE Platform Toolkit can provide Employers’ organizations and employers and business membership organizations (EBMOs), enterprises and their workers with practical tools and approaches to maintain commercial operations, in conflict afflicted areas, and assist in making workplaces safe and neutral;
• Identify what EBMOs can do at a national level to help protect and build the resilience of enterprises. These can range from exploring collective cheaper insurance schemes, to promoting policy measures following conflict, among others; and
• Highlight the constructive role that business can play in peace and resilience building alongside the community and government actors, as a way to promote more coordinated and cooperative efforts.