# The Connecting Business initiative welcomes new partners from Chile and Guatemala

Three new organizations have joined the Connecting Business initiative (<span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span>) as partners, known as Member Networks. They were welcomed during a ceremonial launch as part of the <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> inaugural course on Business-led Emergency Operation Centers (BEOCs) for which the in-person segment took place in the Philippines last week.

<span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> Member Networks are business associations or chambers of commerce that are interested in or already engaged in disaster management. This brings the number of <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> Member Networks in the Latin America and the Caribbean regions to five country networks and one regional network, making it the second largest region after Asia and the Pacific.

### A focus on early recovery in Chile 

[Desafío Levantemos Chile](https://desafiolevantemoschile.org/), known for their emergency response and recovery work, will work with <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> to strengthen national, regional, and international institutional partnerships, focusing on early recovery and the reconstruction of communities affected by disasters.

### New <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> Member Networks in Guatemala will work on business resilience and collaboration

In Guatemala, the two new <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> Member Networks are the [Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras](https://cacif.org.gt/) (the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations, or CACIF as per its acronym in Spanish) and [CentraRSE](https://centrarse.org/), the organization promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in the country.

Both will be working on procedures and mechanisms to protect businesses from sudden-onset emergencies and the impact of extreme weather events. They will also aim to empower the private sector to work more closely with the United Nations in times of peace so as to facilitate better disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

One of the offerings of <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> is peer-to-peer learning across borders, enabling countries facing similar risks to learn from each other in terms of how best to engage the private sector in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

This takes the number of Member Networks to 20, the highest it has ever been – and with more interested business networks in the pipeline. You can find out more about <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> Member Networks on the [network pages](https://www.connectingbusiness.org/ourwork/networks) and through the [stories featured on the <span class="cbi-brand-name">CBI</span> website](https://www.connectingbusiness.org/news-events/news).