USA - Resiliency strategies for government agencies in a post-pandemic world
As government agencies try to deal with a myriad of challenges, it may be more important than ever that leaders formulate resiliency strategies to ensure they can continue to provide services to the public
Government agencies and organizations now contend with post-pandemic workload challenges, including a triple threat of climate-related natural disasters, supply chain disruptions, and cybersecurity threats, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). These challenges are all underpinned by the need for a resilient workforce that’s grounded in trust, equity, and innovation.
But how can government agencies best cultivate such workforces and strategies to best address and mitigate environmental, logistical, and cyber threats?
The best resiliency defense is a good offense
Over the past three years, unexpected health, economic, and environmental challenges have highlighted vulnerabilities that can disrupt government agencies. Resiliency strategy focuses on how well your organization can maintain its operations in a worst-case scenario. Indeed, resiliency strategy should involve having plans, processes, and systems in place to operate even when conditions are severely compromised, ensuring continued provision of essential government services, says Suzanne Spaulding, Sr. Advisor for Homeland Security at CSIS.
The economic losses resulting from natural disasters are staggering, with 15 designated disasters in 2022 alone causing more than $1 billion in losses each. Given the escalating pace of climate change, it’s likely that resilience efforts and funding are not keeping pace with the increasing frequency and severity of these disasters, according to The Federal Policy Action Plan to Accelerate Local Climate Resilience, from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES).
In fact, resiliency planning and infrastructure supports collaborative efforts with advisory groups and external partners and can aid in securing and distributing emergency funds. It is estimated that for every $1 invested in pre-disaster resilience planning, there’s a potential $6 in savings on recovery costs, according to the C2ES plan.
Resiliency planning in the federal government
The C2ES plan outlines the federal government’s recommended role in climate resilience as a chief coordinator and resource provider. This involves effectively administering government resources, providing leadership, and supporting local-level resilience actions and capacity-building. Essentially, the federal government’s primary function is to act as a hub for sharing high-quality information and a source for funding, the plan notes.
As future decades are likely to see increased climate change-related natural events, we are witnessing communities and nations shift to greater renewable energy sources and increased electricity usage, according to the CSIS report. These changes pose increased risks to energy systems.
The Biden Administration has prioritized shifting away from carbon pollution in energy development and moving toward a net-zero emissions economy. Since 2021, more than 20 federal agencies have published climate plans, the CSIS report states.
Given workforce turnover due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it is crucial to provide agency training to ensure the federal workforce is adequately prepared to anticipate and respond to the ongoing impacts of climate change.
Increased funding and centralization of federal efforts are important priorities in the years to come. In 2019, FEMA received grant applications totaling $3.6 billion dollars for their Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which focuses on updating critical infrastructure, notes the C2ES action plan. However, in that funding cycle, only $500 million was available, enough to fund just one out of every seven grant applications.
Clearly, federal agencies lack centralized coordination on this front. To address this problem, the U.S. Congress introduced the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act, during the 2021-2022 Congressional session. The proposed Act aimed to establish a Chief Resiliency Officer role in the Executive Branch, create a government-wide effort to build resilience to climate-change vulnerabilities, and form working groups to drive the strategy and its implementation. Despite broad bipartisan support, the bills did not progress to a vote.
Resiliency planning at the state and local levels
Resiliency planning implementation varies widely across the United States. However, 27 of the 50 states have some form of resiliency infrastructure in place. State and local government agencies are familiar with local needs and have more direct access to land and energy infrastructure, states the C2ES plan. Although federal agency platforms offer valuable information sharing, they could enhance collaboration by enabling secure information exchange among users, added the CSIS report.
