Last year tested us all. By the end of the first quarter, the world was reeling from innumerable “once-in-a-generation” storms and extreme weather events while Türkiye and Syria dealt with the devastating impact of the earthquakes, Peru faced its first cyclone in 40 years leading to floods and historical dengue fever contractions and deaths, and Vanuatu responded to twin cyclones – and that’s barely the tip of the iceberg.
Earthquakes, volcanic activity and eruptions, cyclones and hurricanes, conflict – not to mention the myriad places where multiple such crises combined for even greater needs… On some days it felt like the world was imploding.
However, what all these crises also did was to shine a light on the power of connection and collaboration, and the incredible resilience that exists around the world – and the fact that business is at the table, ready and willing to be a full partner for a whole-of-society approach to fostering resilience through disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
That’s why, with the start of a new year, I wanted to reflect on some of the learnings from 2023 and share some of the Connecting Business initiative’s hopes and expectations for the year to come.
What 2023 reminded us: Lessons learned from yet another tough year
Last year taught – or reminded – us of three key things:
- Time is the most precious commodity and resources are finite, so how can we balance responding to emergencies without foregoing important tasks to improve business engagement in disaster management?
- No one can address disasters alone. No government, no organization, no single platform. So, how can we better work together to build on each other’s strengths?
- There is a lot of noise out there. Everyone has so much information – and misinformation – at their fingertips that capturing attention is galvanizing action is a constant effort, a competition that is hard to turn into a win-win scenario. In such a context, how can we identify the right people to work with and give visibility to the important work we do while understanding that it won’t be everyone’s top priority to engage?
What’s more, a review of the history of humanitarian response and disasters conducted in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group was a stark reminder that the situation is dire: the humanitarian system is already strained, and it’s unlikely to get better unless we change what “doing business as usual” means. And that means working more closely with the private sector as a real partner – not just a source of funding.
With that backdrop, the work of our partners on the ground and their way of showing up day in and day was nothing short of inspiring. The connections forged between partners across borders and regions, the shared insights, and the support offered across continents shone the spotlight on the power of community.
That’s what we’re all about and what has to remain front and center.
What to look forward to in 2024: Hopes and challenges for private sector engagement in disaster management
An article I recently read identifies five global triggers that could cause significant issues this year: power shifts, the global election cycle, heightened tensions in the Middle East, China’s economic pressures, and an ageing population.
A colleague shared a video about “The next global superpower isn’t who you think” which had me wondering which unexpected country would be the next superpower, only for the speaker to – spoiler alert – name “the digital order”.
How does that all tie in with my perception of the year ahead and what the Connecting Business initiative has in store?
In a nutshell, one growing trend we need to better integrate into all our disaster management efforts, especially in terms of it being a bridge to engaging business in this field, is artificial intelligence, or AI, and technology.
We also have to figure out how to juggle parallel and combined crises more effectively – because gone are the times of the cold war being the main concern or the COVID-19 pandemic levelling the playing field. We cannot expect nature – whether we are referencing the planet or human nature – to play by any rules.
We also have to figure out how to juggle parallel and combined crises more effectively – because gone are the times of the cold war being the main concern or the COVID-19 pandemic levelling the playing field. We cannot expect nature – whether we are referencing the planet or human nature – to play by any rules.
I remember hearing about the second law of thermodynamics, stating that (I am grossly paraphrasing here) the universe tends towards chaos. While that is a bit of an oversimplification, that is what comes to mind today: this idea that we cannot and should not expect life or the world to make things easier for us. We are the ones who must step up and do better in how we manage life’s complexities.
When it comes to disaster management, that means developing strong partnerships in times of quiet and peace, and putting into place tools and standard operating procedures, while understanding that we are perpetually on a learning curve and a quest to improve how we do things.
That’s why the Connecting Business initiative is releasing a report, developed in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme’s SDG AI Lab on “Innovation in Disaster Management”. We will also be focusing on strengthening partnerships at a local and international level, so that we can keep doing what we do but better and with increased reach and impact.
This may not seem revolutionary, nor is it meant to be – but it is what powers our vision for greater collaboration to save more lives and livelihoods, further engaging the private sector to ensure a more powerful and sustainable way forward when it comes to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.