ODPEM To Train MSMEs In Business Continuity Planning

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) will train an additional 200 micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) owners in business continuity planning in the coming year.

“The training will be expanded in 2020, when we will collaborate with the municipal corporations and have an additional 200 persons trained… so that they can get their businesses back up and running after a disaster or an emergency,” said ODPEM’s Director of Information and Training, Delmares White.

She was addressing the quarterly press briefing held recently at the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development’s Hagley Park Road offices in Kingston.

In 2018, the ODPEM collaborated with the United Nations Development Programme to train more than 200 MSME owners in business continuity planning.

The series of two-day training sessions, held across the island, engaged persons in simulation exercises, discussions, case studies and the development of business continuity plans. Participants included chefs, cosmetologists, mechanics, store owners, barbers and other artisans.

Ms. White said that the initiative “is aimed at strengthening the capacity of MSMEs in the area of disaster-risk reduction and contingency planning”.

She said that the objective is to build the resilience of small businesses and speed up their recovery after a disaster.

“Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises have been important drivers of equity, economic growth and sustainable development in Jamaica. These enterprises create and retain wealth, generate employment and provide support for private-sector growth and expansion,” she noted.