World Economic Forum launches Resilience Consortium
On Friday, the World Economic Forum WEF launched the Resilience Consortium in an effort to build global resilience to crises. The WEF is collaborating with McKinsey Company for the same.
The Resilience Consortium will bring together ministers, chief executives and heads of international organisations to accelerate collective action across key resilience drivers for the global economy and develop a common resilience framework.
The Resilience Consortium will work to unlock synergies, accelerate collective action, and enable a more systemic approach to investing in resilient economies and societies. The consortium will be led by a Steering Committee consisting of a group of public and private sector leaders from industries and geographies.
WEF launched this in response to recent events such as climate change, COVID 19 and the war in Ukraine, which are accelerating crises from rising hunger, refugee flows and inequality to shocks in supply chains, energy prices and global growth. The companies and countries need to move quickly from reactive risk management to strategic recovery to be prepared for the next crisis, according to WEF.
The WEF found that the cost of failure to build resilience to crises is between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of annual global GDP growth. For example, workforce attrition shaved 3.6 per cent off growth during COVID 19 while disruptions to energy and supply chains are wiping an estimated 1 per cent -- 2.5 per cent off global GDP.
In an official statement, WEF stated that resilience comprises a set of strategic capabilities for long-term, sustainable and inclusive growth. It added that a shared framework is a prerequisite for a coordinated, systematic approach to resilience. It would provide organisations with a common resilience language, structure and objectives, and guidance on how to protect and enhance sustainability and inclusiveness in an environment of more frequent crises and disruptions.
B Rge Brende, President, WEF, said: Building greater resilience has become a defining mandate for this generation. The war in Ukraine is having a devastating impact not only on the people of the region but also has a knock-on effect on global commodity prices that could cause political and humanitarian crises in other parts of the world. There is an urgent need for more collective action and coordination by the public and private sectors to mitigate risks and sustain growth against disruptive shocks, especially among the most vulnerable populations. The policy decisions and financial commitments made today will determine the future course of the planet, economies and societies. Now is the time for action, he added.