At the same time as launching its Recommendation on the Governance of Critical Risks, the OECD issued a report on Boosting Resilience through Innovative Risk Governance. The report looks at the losses incurred by OECD and BRIC countries over the past decade as a result of major natural and human-induced disasters, highlights the main governance obstacles facing risk reduction investments, and presents actions that governments can take to overcome them.
These include the following:
- Governments need to raise awareness of risks to increase stakeholder engagement in policy processes. Inclusiveness is the key to changing the status quo, and the only way to achieve a shared vision of a resilient society.
- Governments should incentivise individuals and companies to invest in self-protection. In many countries public policies weigh in favour of reliance on government for post-disaster assistance.
- Governments need to unleash the potential of the private sector to supply risk reduction solutions, and work with it to agree on business continuity standards.
- Governments could achieve better value for money by stimulating collective actions among neighbouring communities. The model of merging allocations for risk prevention and mitigation and prioritising projects that serve a common functional need is especially important to implement across national borders.
The Executive Summary is accessible on this page, along with a video of the media launch, featuring the OECD, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, AXA, and Oliver Wyman. The full report is available to subscribers or for purchase through the OECD library here.
Economic losses due to disasters
Countries must improve resilience to disasters, as economic losses have significantly increased in the last 10 years compared to the previous decade
