Transforming Chennai

When Chennai India experienced its worst flood in a century on December 1st 2015 - displacing 1.8 million people, claiming 300 lives and causing more than $7 billion in economic and property damage - 10,000 individual MSMEs experienced a total of $250 million of damage over two weeks. In Chennai, MSMEs employ over 360,000 people and contribute $3.13 billion to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After the floods, many were forced to shut down. In March 2016, Mercy Corps partnered with Okapi Research & Advisory to develop a deeper understanding of the factors that affected firms’ flood exposure, extent of immediate losses, and recovery times. Taking into account the larger economic, political, and institutional systems, this study focused on assessing capacities required for flood prevention, flood loss prevention, and reducing recovery time and costs to help build small businesses’ resilience to floods. The ultimate goal of the research was to identify entry points and strategies through which policymakers, industry associations, and businesses themselves can help build MSME resilience to natural shocks in a global context of increasing urbanization.