MSMEs get disaster resilience training

A two-day Business Continuity Planning (BCP) workshop, held this week, is already showing signs of impact, with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) reporting strong participation and positive feedback from micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.

Executive Director of the BCCI, Misha Lobban-Clarke, said the Chamber was “very happy with the outcome” of the workshop aimed at strengthening the resilience of MSMEs in Barbados.

Part of a wider project being implemented in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), “This workshop is one of the key components of a project . . . intended to strengthen the climate and disaster resilience of our MSMEs,” Lobban-Clarke said.

The session introduced participants to a new Business Continuity Planning Toolkit tailored to the needs of local businesses. 

The resource provides templates, planning tools, and step-by-step guidance to help MSMEs identify risks, plan for disruptions, and integrate into the island’s national early warning system.

Lobban-Clarke told Barbados TODAY that the initiative also included a detailed landscaping survey that assessed the state of resilience among MSMEs in Bridgetown. 

That baseline assessment, she said, has provided critical insights into common risk exposures and ongoing gaps in financing, knowledge, and planning.

She said the feedback from participants who represented sectors including retail, IT, healthcare, insurance, and professional services was overwhelmingly positive, noting that many of them now see BCPs as essential as opposed to optional.

Among those was Rhea Corbin-Harte of EDbR Party Box at Sheraton Mall, who said the timing of the training was crucial for her new business.

“The workshop was key to jump-start my creation of the BCP for my business. It comes at a key point as the business just opened, a mere three weeks ago,” she said. “Truly thankful to BCCI and UNDRR to have been afforded this opportunity.”

Corbin-Harte said a key takeaway was the reminder that “no matter how small a business, you must have a plan for continuity in the face of disruption.”

Executive Director of the BCCI, Misha Lobban-Clarke. (GP)

Distribution and Facilities Manager at Acado (Barbados) Limited, Sharon Harris, said the training underscored that BCPs are not just for large companies.

“Preparedness is an investment and not an expense,” she said. “The efficiency of the plan determines how quickly the business can respond and recover to carry out critical business functions if affected by a disruption.”

Founder of digital platforms MyCariblime and VCARD Caribbean, Daniel DeSouza, also found great value in the initiative, sharing that the workshop helped him think more clearly about the digital vulnerabilities businesses in the region face, particularly in the tech space.

“Disasters, whether natural or cyber-related, pose a serious threat to platform uptime, user trust, and data integrity. The workshop reinforced the need for robust disaster recovery protocols, regional data hosting solutions, and collaborative strategies to ensure business continuity,” he said. 

The initiative emerged from a 2020 COVID-19 impact study conducted by the Chamber, which revealed that many MSMEs lacked continuity plans and were left exposed during the pandemic. 

That study sparked discussions with the UNDRR, leading to the formal partnership and rollout of the current project.

Lobban-Clarke said the goal now is to keep the momentum going and help more MSMEs embed resilience into their operations not as a response, but as a core strategy

“Preparedness is key. We are working to assist businesses to shift their focus from reacting when disaster strikes to being more proactive, embedding resilience within their business strategies, so they are future-proofing to effectively weather the impact of any disruption or crisis given the uncertainty of the environment in which we operate,” she said. (SM)