According to the World Humanitarian Data and Trends report, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in 2016, the price of global conflict stood staggeringly at  $14.3 trillion, or 12.6% of global GDP. In fact, over the last decade, medium-intensity conflicts – or violent crises – experienced an increase. In 2016 alone, there were 402 political conflicts globally. 

Currently, few tools exist to assist SMEs to manage their business in disaster-affected regions and to cope with disaster related risks. While SME owners and managers may have informal and instinctive ways of dealing with disaster risks, often risk mitigation actions are not sufficiently thorough and sudden changes in disaster dynamics leaves businesses at the risk of closure.

This suite of tools will assist small and medium enterprises to better manage their operations in disaster affected zones. They will enable businesses to quickly assess and understand how their vulnerability may be changing, make prudent decisions about whether additional management actions are required in the future, and support them in implementation of risk mitigation actions.