The US FEMA has announced the availability of the National Resilience Guidance (NRG). The NRG ‘offers a unifying vision of resilience and the principles and steps all communities and organizations can take to increase their resilience in every sector and discipline’.
The National Resilience Guidance:
- Promotes a common understanding of resilience.
- Emphasizes the critical relationship between chronic community stressors and acute shocks.
- Addresses the roles of individuals, organizations, and all levels of government.
- Provides an actionable approach to resilience planning and implementation.
- Incorporates a Resilience Maturity Model.
The NRG defines resilience as: the ability to prepare for threats and hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover rapidly from adverse conditions and disruptions.
Seven principles of resilience development
Seven principles are at the heart of the approach to resilience which is outlined in the National Resilience Guidance. These are as follows (verbatim):
Threats and hazards
Identify, reduce risk of, prepare for, resist, and respond to shocks and stressors, prioritizing those that represent the greatest risks.
Human-centered
Position the well-being of individuals, families, communities, and society at the center of resilience goals, taking into consideration the needs of all community members.
Equitable and just
Pursue solutions that address, and do not exacerbate, disparities between and within communities. Ensure strategies respond to the needs of underserved and marginalized communities that have historically borne the disproportionate burden of impacts and costs incurred through decisions made by both public and private actors.
Adaptive
Maintain awareness of and a willingness to apply and implement innovative thinking, tools, and methods to quickly realign or take advantage of evolving circumstances.
Collaborative
Seek input that engages and empowers the public, private, academic, and non-profit sectors and all community members; reflects a commitment to collective deliberation; and utilizes transparent processes, metrics, and goals for data-driven decision making.
Sustainable and durable
Implement solutions that serve current and future needs by considering the entire life cycle of solutions. Seek to ensure that there is continuity of technical expertise and leadership as needed.
Interdependent
Apply risk-informed approaches and integrated processes that account for the complexity and interdependencies of systems, prioritizing solutions and investments for the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk and that can result in multiple benefits and enhance resilience over the long-term.
