Disaster Risk Management & Enterprise Risk Management
- By Gareth Byatt
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- 16 Jul, 2018
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Are there opportunities for knowledge sharing across them?
There are many different fields of expertise and application in risk management. Two broad fields are Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), which is mostly applied in business and the private sector, and Disaster Risk Management and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRM / DRR), which is focused on reducing and managing the risk of a major disaster that may affect many people (such as a major flood or an earthquake).
I liaise with practitioners who work in ERM and practitioners who work in DRM. I think that there are elements of synergy and opportunities for collaboration between people who work in these areas of risk management.
It would seem at first glance that the objectives that both practices focus on are different. The governing standards are different (for example, DRM uses the Sendai Framework 2015-2030, whereas ERM uses ISO 31000:2018 and COSO ERM amongst others), and the definition of risk in ERM is different to DRM. Nonetheless, opportunities for learning exist.
For example, business and the private sector is arguably going through greater, and faster, change than ever. Effective ERM can make a big difference to performance and outcomes. There could be some valuable pointers and ideas that people who deliver ERM could learn from DRM. For example, the use of scenario analysis in DRM could be something that ERM practitioners could find interesting.
In DRM, some practitioners say they need to re-calibrate their approach, to take into consideration scenarios that are worse than they would have planned for in the past. For example, drought patterns are changing, deforestation is changing, and the impact of rapid urbanisation. There is a pressing need to understand the evolving risks involved to everything that is happening, and how best to approach and deal with them. The approach that DRM practitioners take as they change their focus could perhaps benefit from looking at the tools and techniques that are used in ERM (such as decision-making techniques, investment analysis, controls design and the use of bowties).
Hopefully there are opportunities for people who work in ERM and DRM to come together and share their experiences and practices in knowledge sharing environments.
I liaise with practitioners who work in ERM and practitioners who work in DRM. I think that there are elements of synergy and opportunities for collaboration between people who work in these areas of risk management.
It would seem at first glance that the objectives that both practices focus on are different. The governing standards are different (for example, DRM uses the Sendai Framework 2015-2030, whereas ERM uses ISO 31000:2018 and COSO ERM amongst others), and the definition of risk in ERM is different to DRM. Nonetheless, opportunities for learning exist.
For example, business and the private sector is arguably going through greater, and faster, change than ever. Effective ERM can make a big difference to performance and outcomes. There could be some valuable pointers and ideas that people who deliver ERM could learn from DRM. For example, the use of scenario analysis in DRM could be something that ERM practitioners could find interesting.
In DRM, some practitioners say they need to re-calibrate their approach, to take into consideration scenarios that are worse than they would have planned for in the past. For example, drought patterns are changing, deforestation is changing, and the impact of rapid urbanisation. There is a pressing need to understand the evolving risks involved to everything that is happening, and how best to approach and deal with them. The approach that DRM practitioners take as they change their focus could perhaps benefit from looking at the tools and techniques that are used in ERM (such as decision-making techniques, investment analysis, controls design and the use of bowties).
Hopefully there are opportunities for people who work in ERM and DRM to come together and share their experiences and practices in knowledge sharing environments.
I was delighted to be invited by the Municipality of Bordeaux in France to take part in their resilience month ( le mois de la résilience) in mid-October 2024 - just as I did the previous year, in October 2023.
We held very interesting in-person discussions about how my Urban 2.0 framework and system can be used by cities and towns around the world, and also the release of the UNDRR Global Assessment Report, Special Report 2024, which I was delighted to contribute towards.
The municipality of Bordeaux is continuing to pursue some excellent work in urban resilience, which I will be profiling in due course...
We held very interesting in-person discussions about how my Urban 2.0 framework and system can be used by cities and towns around the world, and also the release of the UNDRR Global Assessment Report, Special Report 2024, which I was delighted to contribute towards.
The municipality of Bordeaux is continuing to pursue some excellent work in urban resilience, which I will be profiling in due course...
Almost half of Small Island Developing States' (SIDS) populations reside in urban areas. Research into urban resilience and urban planning tends to focus on cities in large nations, and only a relatively small amount of specific research on SIDS cities currently exists. However, much of the general urban resilience research is applicable to SIDS, as long as context is considered.
This paper focuses on ways to implement measures that will foster resilient and dynamic cities in SIDS. Ensuring good policy action to build, maintain and continuously improve these cities is key to achieving sustainable development and resilient prosperity as set out in the Outcome Document of the Fourth International Conference for Small Island Developing States (SIDS4).
I am delighted to be one of the presenters at the SIDS Future Forum (with a focus on how to build resilient and dynamic cities on small islands).
With growing challenges like climate change, debt burdens, and dwindling resources, they desperately need an actionable, doable, and ambitious roadmap for the next decade. 2024 is an important year for SIDS, with the SIDS4 conferencetaking place in May.
You can access details about the Forum on the Island Innovation website, here.
With growing challenges like climate change, debt burdens, and dwindling resources, they desperately need an actionable, doable, and ambitious roadmap for the next decade. 2024 is an important year for SIDS, with the SIDS4 conferencetaking place in May.
You can access details about the Forum on the Island Innovation website, here.
The second edition of the Disasters Avoided Newsletter is live. You can access it here.
I am delighted to announce that a new Newsletter has commenced - the Disasters Avoided Newsletter.
You can read edition #1 here. This first edition is an introduction to our work, containing a summary of some of the work we are undertaking, links to case studies and interviews with people about different aspects of avoiding disasters.
You can read edition #1 here. This first edition is an introduction to our work, containing a summary of some of the work we are undertaking, links to case studies and interviews with people about different aspects of avoiding disasters.
I am delighted to announce the launch of a new website, disastersavoided.com. In this website, myself and my colleagues Ilan Kelman and Ana Prados are compiling case studies to describe how disasters have been, are being and need to be avoided through a symphony of action. We are also adding supporting information in the shape of interviews, papers, articles and links to Newsletter editions...
I was delighted to be invited by the Municipality of Bordeaux in France to take part in their resilience week ( la semaine de la résilience) in mid-October 2023.
We held a very interesting in-person round table discussion with citizens about how disasters can be avoided.
The municipality of Bordeaux is pursuing some excellent resilience work, which I will be profiling in due course...
We held a very interesting in-person round table discussion with citizens about how disasters can be avoided.
The municipality of Bordeaux is pursuing some excellent resilience work, which I will be profiling in due course...
I was delighted to be a Presenter on a webinar held on 18 July 2023 led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), which discussed the question: ‘Can disasters be avoided?’
We reviewed approaches being taken to prevent hazards from turning into disasters, including examples and how innovation is helping countries, cities and communities prevent adverse fallouts from hazard events.
You can access the webinar and download all presentations here.
We reviewed approaches being taken to prevent hazards from turning into disasters, including examples and how innovation is helping countries, cities and communities prevent adverse fallouts from hazard events.
You can access the webinar and download all presentations here.
My involvement in infrastructure continues, including editing the February 2023 Newsletter of the IRM Infrastructure Group, which you can access here.
I continue to serve on the committee of the IRM Infrastructure Group, and part of my role is to coordinate the Group Newsletter.
The December 2022 edition, which covers a wide variety of infrastructure-related topics, is available here...
The December 2022 edition, which covers a wide variety of infrastructure-related topics, is available here...