Business and the Commonwealth seminar series:
Risk and Resilience in the Commonwealth: a joined-up approach?
19 April 2021, 4.00pm - 6.00pm
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London
The third event in the series on International Business in the Commonwealth looks at Risk and Resilience.
Months before COVID-19 forced a reappraisal of the interconnections that can augment, accentuate and amplify risk, the
UN Global Assessment Report on Disaster
Risk Reduction (GAR) cautioned that ‘risk is complex and non-linear’ and an ‘awareness and understanding
of imminent, interconnected, and rapidly shifting risks is insufficient across the board.’
At a Commonwealth level, this discussion had already started. In 2016, a roundtable meeting involving governments, the private
sector and the academic community at the Commonwealth HQ at Marlborough House coinciding with the publication of the
Risk
Management Handbook brought together leading voices from the major risk management application areas from
Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) to supply chain risk, operational risk to cyber risk with an exploration of emerging issues and techniques from risk-based thinking to communicating uncertainty. That led to the establishment of the Commonwealth Risk and
Resilience initiative which has brought several Commonwealth stakeholders together who in recent months have considered more earnestly the scope and opportunity for greater dialogue and collaboration in the Commonwealth across Corporate Risk Management, Risk
Governance and Disaster Risk Reduction.
With the new Commonwealth Strategic Plan having a strong focus on ‘dynamic risk management’ which emerged from extensive stakeholder
consultation, the discussion will consider the value of a risk mindset in a Commonwealth context and then Corporate Risk Management, Risk Governance and Disaster Risk Reduction. It will then discuss enabling mechanisms for taking a joined-up across these areas
including the June Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the
Commonwealth
intergovernmental, civil, cultural and professional organisations and the
Commonwealth
Standards Network launched by the UK PM at the 2018 London CHOGM which has since grown to include all 54
Commonwealth countries (a collaborative network that supports trade, economic growth and prosperity throughout the Commonwealth by promoting increased awareness, development and use of international standards). Finally work streams and value and activities
for a Commonwealth Risk and Resilience Centre will be considered.
Dr. David Hillson,
CEO, Risk Doctor Partnership and author
Nousheen Hassan,
CEO and Director, Innovative Risk & Audit Solutions
Robbie Lyle,
Commonwealth Disaster Management Agency
Rowan Douglas, Chair of the Insurance Development Forum Operating
Committee (tbc)