Home Business NewsWe need a new approach to UK resilience

We need a new approach to UK resilience

by LLB Politics Reporter
25th May 20 9:33 am

Leading academics from across Cranfield University are calling for a new approach to UK resilience.

Writing in today’s Financial Times, the academics believe that as well as lessons learnt from the response to COVID-19 there is a much wider lesson to be learnt about how the UK identifies, prepares and responds to threats and risks, such as to our safety, our national security and from climate change.

They believe the UK must shift from simplyโ€ฏclassifyingโ€ฏthreats using aโ€ฏtraditional risk-based probabilityโ€ฏversusโ€ฏconsequenceโ€ฏassessment, toโ€ฏa moreโ€ฏdetailedโ€ฏanalysisโ€ฏincluding their interdependencies,โ€ฏsocial impact, cascadeโ€ฏand recoverabilityโ€ฏthrough aโ€ฏnewโ€ฏconnected approach to resilience.

Crucial to a new UK approach to quantifyingโ€ฏrisk, andโ€ฏour preparations and ability to recoverโ€ฏfrom crises is the inclusion of all โ€œFive Capitalsโ€: Natural, Human, Social, Built and Financial and their interdependencies and feedbacks, that make up the system in which we live.

Professor David Denyer, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Change at Cranfield University, said: โ€œCOVID-19 was not a โ€˜black swanโ€™. Similar events were widely predicted and listed as the nationโ€™s biggest risk so why were we not better prepared both to prevent it and recover from it?

โ€œAs we have seen with COVID-19, too often, investmentโ€ฏin resilience measuresโ€ฏareโ€ฏmade during or after aโ€ฏcrisis. If we are toโ€ฏbuild a more resilient nation, it isโ€ฏvitalโ€ฏwe embrace a new approach.โ€ฏYou simply cannot continue to quantify risk on a basic X Y graph.

โ€œWe need to consider not just theโ€ฏimmediate responses toโ€ฏtheseโ€ฏthreatsโ€ฏbut what long-term plansโ€ฏcanโ€ฏbe put in place to secureโ€ฏtheโ€ฏresilience ofโ€ฏourโ€ฏsociety andโ€ฏourโ€ฏnatural system.

โ€œAs a nation, weโ€ฏmustโ€ฏfocus on building adaptive capacity in organisations and infrastructure, and businessโ€ฏand Governmentโ€ฏmustโ€ฏproactively invest inโ€ฏresilience to future crises where there isn’t yet an immediate economic argument.โ€

Dr Simon Harwood, Director of Defence and Security at Cranfield University, said: โ€œWe need to think of national security in a wider context by looking at the interconnectedness of threats such as climate change and food security.

“Our preparedness needs to look across the whole of the resource spectrum at the nationโ€™s disposal. Too often the response to a crisis, is to call up the armed forces but what if they were deployed at scale in a future combat? A new approach is needed which identifies risks and resources across the board rather than in silos.โ€

Leave a Comment

You may also like

CLOSE AD

Sign up to our daily news alerts

[ms-form id=1]