The third event of The Bamboo Series organized by the NET consortium (National Disaster Risk Reduction Centre - NDRC Nepal, Enterprise for Management, Economic Reform and Gender Equality - EMERGE, and Tangent Waves) was held to discuss on the topic 'Resilience of Women Businesses on March 7.'

The event provided great insights into the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs during disasters like COVID-19. It highlighted the urgency for entrepreneurs to be aware of Business Continuity Management (BCM), harness the skills to develop a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and implement it to make their business disaster resilient.

Participants included Ms. Olivia Setkic from Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, MSB, Sweden, Dinesh Chandra Joshi from NDR Net and Prakash Ghimire from Media, Netizennepal.com as well as women entrepreneurs from different business sectors.

The session was intriguing, with participants sharing their thoughts on BCM and BCP. Dinesh Chandra reiterated entrepreneurs' challenges and expressed that the private sector needs to develop BCP to remove the hurdles laid bare by disasters like COVID-19. He also stressed the need to simplify the process of business impact assessment making it easy to understand, develop and implement the plan.

Prakash Ghimire added that it would be interesting to know how important it is for the public sector to adopt BCM and develop and implement BCP. Nisha Shrestha, social filmmaker, focused on visual advocacy, stressed that it is easy to make plans but challenging to implement; however, the session clarified the need and importance of developing a BCP.

The key takeaway was that the information on Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) cycle of BCM would work as a road map for businesses. In addition, BCP if implemented, will help minimize, mitigate, reduce, or transfer 90% of the business risks. The Bamboo Series is a segment of the NET Consortium’s Change Initiative that focuses on promoting sustainable and resilient business practices that incorporate GESI and DRRM perspectives replacing the business as usual.

The change initiative was born out of the International Training Program for Disaster Risk Management, organized by the MSB, Sweden and is led by change agents - Shyam Jnavaly, Dr. Mona Shrestha Adhikari and Mr. Suman Shakya who represent the NET consortium.