Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

COVID-19 has challenged traditional systems and required innovative thinking about how to recover. In the Caribbean consideration is being given to harnessing the power of renewable energies.

The Caribbean is vulnerable to a number of natural disasters and so too is its energy infrastructure. COVID-19 has raised questions about the resilience of energy infrastructure if a disaster such as a cyclone were to hit the region during the pandemic and the cascading impacts of this on critical services and well-being. Renewable energy systems are capable of surviving many types of natural disaster and would provide some protection in the case of an additional emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic ( http://newenergyevents.com/coronavirus-the-caribbean-is-the-first-domino-to-fall-but-there-is-hope/ ).

In addition, the wider benefits of renewable energy have been considered for recovery in the Caribbean. The benefits include lower costs of energy, more stable energy provision, and increased independence through diversified and local energy sources which would boost the economy and help develop equitable access to power.

Make preparations for disrupted food supply chains and the potential of price increases for key commodities alongside reduced economic activity, and people's reduced purchasing power.

"The lessons from the 2014 Ebola outbreak are clear: while health needs are an urgent and primary concern, we cannot neglect livelihoods or food security aspects...when people's livelihoods are disrupted, that can spark tensions and social unrest".

For example, Cape Town has an official government website to post messages of support.

This can help to ensure as wide a community outreach as possible.

For example, a study in the UK showed that among 24% of 16-24-year-olds said they were finding it extremely difficult to cope with the lockdown. Only 11% of those aged 45 to 75 said they were struggling. While older populations may be more susceptible to the physical impacts of COVID-19, younger people may be impacted more psychologically.

In the Asia Pacific region this is around 65% of working women. They, along with other daily wage earners, are the least likely to be able to take preventive measures such as self-isolation or physical distancing.

This may include retrofitting of building to make them more efficient which supports the green agenda, jobs, economic recovery, and healthier living, while protecting them from other risks such as fire.

Hacking may have a cascading effect, for example, a cyber-attack on a trucking company could impact food security. The disruption could affect weekly food deliveries to supermarkets. In turn, the loss of revenue would weaken the business sustainability of distributors and producers.

Risks include:

• Hackers crashing Zoom meetings, disrupting conversations of government officials who conduct remote discussions (USA)
• False emails from the US Department of Health and Human Services are targeting supplier companies. They request protective equipment described in an attachment infected with malware. (USA)
• A cyberattack on Italy's social security system (INPS) has revealed Personally Identifiable Information to applicants as they were attempting to claim benefits (Italy)

Consider promoting healthy eating agendas, working with supermarkets and convenience stores to combat unhealthy eating and convenience foods which are often characteristic of low income homes that may not have access to support for healthy food choices.

As a way to keep people connected with the environment and land during recovery. This will help embed the importance of the environment in the public mind long term.

Reference: Civil Protection expert, Portugal

Consider whether to:

• Shift from central command to central orchestration. Consider the questions you should ask to anticipate and plan for the pivot from a response to a recovery-oriented position
• Monitor for signals of the economic rebound and the indicators to be tracked to provide the clearest picture of the rebound timing, and the most likely progression back to a normal economic environment
• Orchestrate and integrate cross-functional and cross enterprise. Recommended actions for companies to take during the turbulent recovery period that will be essential for long-term success
• Prepare for the "new normal". The COVID-19 crisis is likely to accelerate fundamental and structural changes that were inevitable - how can your organisation evolve to meet the challenge of the next unexpected global crisis

Reference: Chief Resilience Officer, USA

They may consider adopting the Global Risk Assessment Framework (GRAF) as a framework to track, respond to- and reduce the impact of expected cyber-attacks.

This can reflect different experiences of the crisis and its effect on our lives which are more uplifting and positive. Volunteers can help with this, as can the voluntary sector. Check out the "Together Cumbria" social media accounts which are run by voluntary organisations on behalf of the resilience partnership.

By moving as many official documents and applications that require physical presence online to change the nature of citizen's interactions with the state or organization. Build trust in this process to enable it to be sustained during recovery or ramped up in case of resurgence. Speed is paramount in limiting contact and contagion.

This can help children to express their feelings about COVID-19 to ease their stress.

This can include the number of infected people, their status, characteristics (e.g. age, gender), number of inquiries to the call centre, number of people using subways, etc. The city can also provide the website's source code as open-data, so that other municipalities and institutions can use the data and replicate similar webpages.

This can ensure appropriate measures to recover the economy are developed. This may go hand-in-hand with the development of a resource centre for unemployed people to improve access to support. Considerations should be made to manage citizens' expectations of recovery and employment.

Reference: Chief Resilience Officer, USA

In the UK, there has been a surge in volunteerism with 750,000 people signing up to the NHS volunteer scheme using a phone app, and an estimated 250,000 extra people signing up at the country’s volunteer centres1. It is important to consider how such volunteers could be utilised during recovery and how they can move beyond the delivery of support to vulnerable people2.

Volunteers could for example be deployed to relieve first responders, make the environment safer for responders and support healthy living.

Possible regulated and unregulated tasks include:

• Dog walking and pet care
• Reducing risk of infection to critical workers and freeing critical workers to deliver tasks with higher risk
• Support at food banks (sorting, filling boxes, loaders, delivery drivers, cleaners, washing up)
• Cleaning teams (hospitals, ambulance stations, care homes at 1am, laundry)
• Reducing loneliness of vulnerable people (supporting library swaps, free puzzles, driving to appointments)
• Social wellbeing programmes (knit keepsakes, gardening in care homes/households, singing outside care homes)
• Disinfecting (cash machines, petrol stations, play parks, trolleys)
• Community support (maintaining queues, filling petrol, maintaining community areas)
• Support for the food chain (picking fruit, tending small farm animals)

There is a wide range of support that volunteers could provide that go beyond the important task of supporting vulnerable people, and beyond the immediate needs of response and into long-term recovery. Consideration can be given to maintain the surge in volunteerism and community spirit to foster a culture of care.

1https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/13/a-million-volunteer-to-help-nhs-and-others-during-covid-19-lockdown

2 https://page.bsigroup.com/COVID-19-Community-Resilience-and-Volunteers

While volunteers can help bolster these provisions, local government should be wary of levels of training, qualification and experience to reduce poor services and inefficient use of resources.

Consider how this service can be sustained, how expectations are managed and the welfare of volunteers is considered.

Reference: UK County Council

In the UK, 26,000 people have responded to the call for a 'land army' of UK-based workers to fill the potential 80,000 person seasonal farm labour shortage in the fruit and vegetable sector as it enters the crucial spring and summer harvest period.

Reference: Resilience expert, UK

The 2019 Global Assessment Report (GAR19) contains recommendations on the cascading effects of cyber-attacks (used food security as a case study) to protect their online systems.

From many examples, internet and smart phone applications are playing a critical role for communication, awareness-raising, teleworking but also learning and skills development. Online platforms should test how good their systems are, collect feedback, and improve their products - because many of us will never leave these platforms after discovering their utility.

Consider whether immunity certificates would be helpful for residents who have safely survived the coronavirus and have antibodies in their blood to prove it. The article says that certificates might "have some merit under certain circumstances".

Local government plays a key role in building trust in new measures and tackling misinformation. There may be a need for this in the UK. Of 2,250 adults surveyed:

• 15% of people thought seasonal flu was deadlier than coronavirus
• 31% believed "most people" in the UK had already had the virus without realising it
• 39% think they should be shopping "little and often to avoid long queues", when the advice is only to go out to shop for basic necessities and as infrequently as possible.
• 25% believed the conspiracy theory that coronavirus was "probably created in a lab" - one of several conspiracy theories currently circulating on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

Surveys like this help your organisation identify areas where their messaging is not as clear as it needs to be. Local government would benefit from continuing surveys on public opinion.

This document has been written to summarise and supplement existing guidance on recovery from disasters and pandemics in the unique context of COVID-19 and to incorporate wider learning and experience from the team who produced it. It outlines the key issues and details the approach to recovery we believe is needed.

This briefing is written by the Recovery from COVID-19 team, led by Professor Duncan Shaw, the University of Manchester, UK. Follow the source link to read this briefing in full (p.14-18).

In this briefing, we present an initial framework to assess the impact of COVID-19, building upon the UK Government’s National Recovery Guidance and Emergency Response and Recovery Guidance. This framework provides the structure to document national/international early recovery lessons for COVID-19 in The Manchester Briefing.

The framework asks you to consider types of impact, and how you can address each to enable recovery to take place. To view this framework, follow the source link below to TMB Issue 1 (p.7).

Local government should analyse their local communities by disaggregating all data collected by important characteristics (e.g. sex, age, and disability) to ensure that they can target those communities appropriately. Information should then be provided in a format and manner that makes it accessible to all, accounting for vulnerabilities in the community. Local government should consider IFRC Guidelines on this to support vulnerable people.

Local government should analyse the impact of Covid-19 on all aspects of their cities. These should be formed as impact assessments that analyse:

• Local Community Impacts (from national guidance)
• Humanitarian Impact Assessment (from ERF Humanitarian Assistance Plan)
• Equality Impact Assessments
• Multi-agency impact analysis

Local government should assign appropriate senior officers and other knowledgeable parties to the Recovery Coordination Group. These staff will plan recovery by designing and implementing aspects of recovery and decide how this can be done more effectively for the recovery of all of society. Key roles in the Recovery Coordination Group includes:

• Strategic Lead
• Tactical Lead
• Secretariat/Programme Management Officer
• Functional representatives: Appropriate staff from relevant sectors

Reference: Essex County Council-Emergency Planning & Resilience, UK

Local government should ask the Recovery Co-ordination Group to develop a wide-ranging recovery strategy and action plan, focussing on short, medium and long term activities. This group should include governance arrangements and sub-groups to address particular aspects of recovery and should plan for the transition between response and recovery phases of Covid-19.

Reference: Essex County Council-Emergency Planning & Resilience, UK

Local government should ensure appropriate composition of their community engagement teams, and the impacts this can have on women and other marginalised groups. Women face specific constraints when gaining access to information on outbreaks and services that they need to access. This can be further hindered by community engagement teams that are dominated by men.

Local government should assess the continuity of recovery strategies across national boundaries to ensure all areas understand the strategic objectives of their neighbours. This should consider how the control of population movement could minimise risk of resurgence of Covid-19, and how the simultaneous opening of services could support national economy but compromise other aspects of recovery including the prevention of subsequent waves of infection.

Reference: State Volunteer Coordinator, USA

Local government should think about impact assessment in its widest form including assessing the impact of Covid-19 on following categories:

• Business and economy
• Environment and infrastructure
• Finance and legal
• Health and welfare
• Communications
• Community recovery
• Science and technology

Reference: Essex County Council-Emergency Planning & Resilience, UK

Local government should assess the health seeking behaviours of certain populations within their community. Health seeking behaviours will impact the success of disease suppression as behaviours impact access and understanding of public health measures (lessons from influenza A/H5N1 and 'swine influenza' A/H1N1).

Local government should capitalise on new volunteer-to-volunteer relationships, to help provide multi-sectoral delivery of services and to build connections with vulnerable groups that they may have previously struggled to engagement with. For example, foodbanks could partner with organisations to combat wider issues of discrimination.

Reference: Team Rubicon, USA

Local government should capitalise on the digital revolution in volunteering by developing apps, utilising online campaigns, digital marketing and webinars for training sessions. This can help to support recovery and ongoing resilience activities as the public become more connected and engaged with local government and their communities.

Reference: American Red Cross, USA

Local government should collect stakeholder and community feedback on actions and their delivery. This will monitor and evaluate strategies to ensure stakeholders' needs are being met and that actions are having the desired impacts.

Reference: Essex County Council-Emergency Planning & Resilience

Local government should, in their communication with the public, enhance the welfare and happiness of the entire community including those who are healthy. This can involve communicating digitally and providing virtual services during extended periods of isolation e.g. the virtual opening of art galleries and museums.

Reference: Chief Resilience Officer, Italy

Local government should continue moving their services to online delivery where possible to help those who are working from home, by strengthening digital infrastructure, network coverage in their areas and should consider developing cyber security campaigns. Out city "is trying to design a new digital routine, shaping work, events, meetings and initiatives on new online formats" for foreseeable future.

Reference: Chief Resilience Officer, Italy; and the American Red Cross, USA

Local government should support community recovery by disseminating free international standards to enhance community recovery. The British Standards Institution (BSI) has made the following standards available for free to planners:

• BS ISO 22319:2017 Community resilience - Guidelines for planning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers
• BS ISO 22330:2018 Guidelines for people aspects of business continuity
• BS ISO 22395:2018 Community resilience. Guidelines for supporting vulnerable persons in an emergency
• BS ISO 22320:2018 Emergency management. Guidelines for incident management

Local government should support business recovery by disseminating free international standards to the business community. BSI has made the following standards available for free to businesses:

• PD CEN/TS 17091:2018 Crisis management: Building a strategic capability
• BS EN ISO 22301:2019 Business continuity management systems - Requirements
• BS EN ISO 22313:2020 Business continuity management systems. Guidance on the use of ISO 22301
• ISO/TS 22318:2015 Guidelines for supply chain continuity
• ISO 22316:2017 Organizational resilience. Principles and attributes
• Risk Management
• BS ISO 31000:2018 Risk management - Guidelines
• BS 31100:2011 Risk management - Code of practice and guidance for the implementation of BS ISO 31000

Local government should provide early implementation of psychosocial support to build mental health provisions that can meet demands later on in recovery. Psychosocial support can be delivered on a self-selection basis, volunteers can be used to process this information.

Reference: State Volunteer Coordinator, USA

Local government should encourage the use of digital technologies during restricted movements to support culturally appropriate information tools. This should consider how apps can be used in different languages suitable to the diversity of user.

Reference: CEO Digital Corporation, Germany

Local government should evaluate the needs of their communities. This should agree a framework to collect and prioritise needs. To support this, local government could consider the following frameworks to ensure their evaluation of need is rigorous and consistent:

• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Principles of resilience
• Kubler Ross Grief Cycle
• Walt Disney Method (vision, logic, action)

References:

Chief Resilience Officer, Netherlands

Essex County Council-Emergency Planning & Resilience, UK

Local government should think strategically about how the rise in online working can revitalise the local economy and consider what services can be restarted in a more digital manner. For example, helping smaller businesses to boost their online presence or development of apps to support delivery of their products or provision of their services. This can help maintain an efficient workforce, boost the economy, and support customers and digitally connect the entire supply chain.

Reference: CEO Digital Corporation, Germany

Local government should disseminate information in appropriate formats to ensure all communities receive information that is accurate and helpful to them. This will involve mapping community groups to understand their: individual characteristics; information needs; effective channels; appropriate languages and presentation.

Local government should help the public to access public health information and consider the effectiveness of different ways that public health information is disseminated. An 'information for all' approach is needed so that those with disabilities are included. This may include translation of information into brail, use of audio information, and signed videos for the deaf community.