Governments should improve efforts to prepare for large-scale disasters

Governments need to improve how they prioritize efforts to prepare for large-scale disasters, according to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Innovation in Country Risk Management.
Furthermore, they should work more closely with the private sector to ensure they can deal with crises quickly and cost-effectively, says the report, produced in conjunction with Swiss RE and Oliver Wyman.
“Government efforts to assess large scale risks often focus on specific types of events like a flood or earthquake,” Jack Radisch, OECD’s risk policy analyst, warned in a Swiss Re release. “There has been a tendency for ministries, departments and regulatory agencies at various levels of government to work in parallel and separate silos.
“This form of governance is far from optimal in today’s interconnected world, where risks are more complex. The current financial turbulence is a telling example of how the management of risks we face in society should be coordinated from A to Z.”
The countries covered in OECD’s study include Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each is attempting to establish an ‘all-hazards’ view of potential sources of risk — including natural disasters, major accidents, terrorism or an event such as a flu pandemic.
“Looking at risks across the board allows these countries to work more strategically to target limited resources at the exposures they consider a top priority, and it relies on close interaction not only between national, regional and local government, but also with the private sector,” said Alex Wittenberg, a partner at Oliver Wyman. “If we consider that over 80% of critical infrastructure is owned by the private sector in most of the nations featured in the report, there is a clear need for extensive public-private cooperation in a number of areas.”