· National resilience is the ability to survive crises, seize opportunities, and prevent and manage risks in a changing world
· Risks faced by MENA countries are diverse, ranging from natural catastrophes to human-related accidents
· According to OECD, the negative consequences from a major disruptive event can reach up to 20 percent of a country’s GDP
aTP- Arab tourism portal News- Cairo – The growing number of natural and man-made disasters around the world – from earthquakes and floods to recent cyber attacks against organizations – highlight the need for MENA countries to adopt a National Resilience framework, according to a Booz Allen Hamilton report titled “Building National Resilience”.
The report explains how national resilience is a nation’s ability to survive crises, seize existing market opportunities, and prevent and manage risks in a changing world.
According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the negative consequences from a major disruptive event can reach up to 20 percent of a country’s GDP. The 2014 Ebola outbreak provided the starkest contrast of how building resilience can affect catastrophic events. Sierra Leone experienced the highest rate of infection in Africa with 8,706 reported cases, along with the second highest death rate, whereas Nigeria successfully contained the outbreak, suffering just 20 cases and eight deaths. How is it that these two West African states had such markedly different outcomes? The answer lies in resilience.
A comprehensive national resilience framework can help mitigate economic volatility and alleviate critical social issues. The Egyptian inflation rate surged to 28 per cent in January, the country’s highest in more than a decade and youth unemployment has reached 31 per cent[1].
A well-articulated national resilience strategy could help the Egyptian government minimize the social and economic consequences brought about by these conditions.
It could also help build a more robust infrastructure network that is able to deliver essential services across critical sectors (e.g., water, wastewater, power, transportation, telecommunications, health), without which businesses, emergency response systems, defense, and other parts of a nation cannot operate as intended.
