FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
Building a resilient nation
Resilience is a nation ’ s ability to survive calamities , seize market opportunities , prepare for change .
( Left to right ) Jointly prepared by Dr Mahir Nayfeh , Senior Vice-President , Booz Allen Hamilton ; Rosa Donno , Senior Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton ; and Nicholas Bahr , Principal , Booz Allen Hamilton
Statistically , every day at least one disaster occurs and impacts lives or economic growth . Nations find themselves more vulnerable to threats , and are often unable to manage that increasingly complex level of risk . Due to the recognition of these shortcomings , national resilience has become a strategic imperative on the agenda of national governments around the globe .
Natural disasters , economic crises , acts of terrorism , and other such disruptions pose serious threats to national growth and stability . Damages from these disruptive events have been estimated to be $ 1.5 trillion over the last 10 years in OECD and BRIC countries . This is why national resilience has become an integral part of every nationís strategic agenda .
Resilience is a nation ’ s ability to survive ongoing calamities , seize any existing market opportunities , and prepare against any catastrophic events or periods of change . Resilient nations rapidly adapt and respond to internal and external events and continue operations by stabilising a country ’ s performance .
Some have claimed that complete resilience is a Utopian concept as no nation can be entirely risk-free . It is true that a nation which is highly resilient to certain risks may be vulnerable to others . Hence , a truly resilient nation is one where the government adopts a resilience framework , enabling risk analysis to be conducted on an ongoing basis and embedding resilience across the nation by cutting across sectors and aligning operational activities with strategic priorities .
The concept of the resilience framework is based on the development and integration of governance and functional capabilities across all the sectors that are considered vital to the nationís survival , security , and economy . To implement this framework , a government must agree upon a vision that is aligned with its national strategy and includes the participation of central government , local authorities , and private-sector stakeholders .
Following this , a government must develop a consistent and coordinated communications programme around its vision for resilience . It is important to understand risk interdependencies and which risks the nation is willing to tolerate . This is the first step towards
36 Issue 01 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS