Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

Co-production is a popular approach to service design and delivery and has been found to exist in all sectors of public services including education, agriculture, health, local governance, and information technology among others (Khine et al., 2021). At its simplest, it involves working with others to design and deliver strategies with the aim of achieving a collective outcome, in our case, to build societal resilience. Some examples of co-production activities include:

Last month’s TMB 47 outlined an initial definition for whole-of-society resilience and noted how societal resilience should be co-produced as a collaboration across resilience partnerships, sector partners and communities. This article explains co-production for resilience and explores how it can support the design and delivery of resilient society. This article builds on TMB 33 when we explored the difficulty of co-production during the response phase of a crisis.

To read this briefing in full, follow the source link below:

This briefing explores opportunities for community recovery and resilience through commemoration. Contributed by colleagues at the University of North Texas USA, this article discusses the unique challenges of considering where, when, and how to commemorate the pandemic, and details various modes of meaningful commemoration for local communities such as public art, collective performances, and intergenerational resilience stories. 

Follow the source link below to read the article in full.

Understanding 'whole-of-society' resilience

There is a new term being used in the emergency planning community – ‘whole of society resilience’. This term was integral to government’s Integrated Review (IR)[1] (see TMB 32) and featured heavily in the call for evidence for the National Resilience Strategy (NRS)[2]. This new term points to an ambitious endeavour for societal resilience and forms a call-to-action that is broader than community resilience. But … What does whole-of-society resilience mean? What might be its implications for emergency planning? Below we share some initial thoughts on answers to these questions.

What does whole-of-society resilience mean?

Building a collective understanding on the meaning of ‘whole-of-society’ resilience is a critical first step to ensure that ambitious endeavour is aligned. To aid this process, we share an early definition which could inform debates and future definitions. Whole-of-society resilience is the:

capability created by local systems that help people and places to adapt and advance in a changing
environment[3]

In this definition,

What are the implications of whole-of-society resilience for emergency planning?

The use of the term whole-of-society resilience has ignited change in the resilience narrative across the UK. It suggests that whole-of-society resilience embeds the need to depart from historically government centred approaches to building resilience, towards an integrated approach with whole-of-society. This is characterised by a combination of top-down and bottom-up collaboration, and the co-production of local resilience capabilities with whole-of-society resilience actors.

Whole-of-society resilience reinforces that the world is interconnected so you cannot be resilient on your own.

Therefore, responding to this call on whole-of-society resilience requires thought on how resilience partnerships and society can work together to understand and reduce risk, pinpoint vulnerabilities, enhance our preparedness and leverage the agency of our communities. Building the resilience of our society should be a strategic endeavour, with national policy being influenced by knowledge and work at the local level and then interpreted and implemented locally, through collaboration between resilience partnerships (government sector), sector partners (voluntary sector and business), and communities (individuals, groups, networks, businesses and organisations). Such a partnership is demonstrated through the newly established National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+] (NCSR+)[4].

The NCSR+ recognises that resilience must be rooted inside communities. This includes building on existing community structures and partnerships and establishing new ones, and creating an inclusive, supportive, and enabling environment for the co-production of whole-of-society local resilience capabilities. Over the coming months, the members of NCSR+ aim to tackle this challenge together. An early activity for NCSR+ will be to develop a shared understanding of whole-of-society resilience, identify the principles that should underpin a whole-of-society approach, and gather and promulgate good practice examples of community resilience strategies.

This blogs aims to support the first step of developing a shared understanding of WoS resilience, agreeing on “what it is and how we make it relatable to the person on the street”[5]. To achieve this the members of NCSR+ are already listening to their local communities to gain information on their own local risk and priorities for resilience. However, with the backdrop of communities’ responses to COVID-19 and the whole-of-society resilience that was built, we have to move quickly. COVID-19 has “helped to galvanise every single aspect of society into realising that there is a place for everybody to have some responsibility”[6] when it comes to building resilience and we should try to firmly embed this rather than lose it.

In summary, you cannot be resilient on your own. Shared understanding and joint working is needed, which requires an adjustment of relationships on resilience between whole-of-society and resilience partnerships. The aspiration is to work towards collective resilience of whole-of-society, a collaboration across local resilience partners, sector partners, and whole-of-society. Government is organising itself to respond to this call-for-action and the NCSR+ is positioning its work to support local government to collaborate with whole-of-society on resilience.

References:

[1] HM Government (2021) Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. Cabinet Office, March 2021

[2] HM Government (2021) National Resilience Strategy: Call for Evidence. Cabinet Office, July 2021

[3] Shaw and Jordan (2021), Understanding ‘whole-of-society’ resilience. The Manchester Briefing on COVID-19: International lessons for local and national government recovery and renewal. Issue 44, October 29th 2021, p.16-17. The University of Manchester. Available at: https://www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk/research/recovery-renewal-resilience-from-covid-19/briefings/

[4] The National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+]

[5] Joan McCaffrey, Local Government Civil Contingencies, Northern Ireland, speaking at the launch of the National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+]

[6] Kevin Murphy, The Office of the Committee for Home Affairs, States of Guernsey, speaking at the launch of the National Consortium for Societal Resilience [UK+]

TMB 36 discussed the potential role of young people in reducing and responding to disaster risk. The lesson details meaningful, inclusive, and creative strategies for engaging young people in all stages of DRR such as youth-led/collaborative participation. A recent addition to the Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments details The Africa Youth Advisory Board on DRR (AYAB DRR), a collective established to encourage meaningful youth engagement and participation in DRR policy development, implementation and evaluation across Africa. Consider:

• Connect with local youth-led/youth-focused organisations, invite these organisations to collaborate on all stages of DRR and connect their voices with local decision makers
• Support young people as agents of change by acting as a facilitator/brokerage to connect their groups and initiatives to resilience partners who can inform and coach/take inspiration from youth-led DRR initiatives. This activity could also support the development of local/regional networks between young people and resilience partners
• Use online platforms (websites, social media etc.) to create open, accessible and inclusive knowledge sharing capacity for youth-led DRR groups/organisations, or to showcase, celebrate and promote their work. For example:
  • The Himalayan Risk Research Institute is developing a platform for disaster risk reduction students, researchers and young professionals. The initiative aims to develop a “skill transfer mechanism” whereby training, field research and workshops can build the knowledge and skills of young scientists and professionals and in turn benefit local DRR activities
• Enable the mobilization of youth groups, by increasing their access to local resources (e.g. community spaces they could use) and support “physical and virtual capacity building” to improve their visibility, inclusion and active participation

Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe are working with civil society organisations (CSOs) and faith-based organisations (FBOs) to design, develop and enhance local level preparedness systems and capacities to support resilience building during and after crises. Local and national governments, the private sector, the media, and academia are also collaborating with the initiative, to help communities to develop their preparedness and response planning. Working with existing community structures, the initiative aims to mobilise and engage community leaders, key stakeholders, and underrepresented groups. The initiative ensures that the most vulnerable people in the community are at the heart of activities. A lack of capacity, resources and capabilities often creates challenges for local governments to initiate effective disaster risk reduction strategies and support from partners e.g. international humanitarian agencies can help to fill the gaps in the initial planning and implementation processes. Consider establishing new partnerships with international humanitarian agencies to:

• Provide institutional capacity and knowledge on emergency preparedness and response processes;
• Support the design, planning, development and implementation of projects that incorporate new initiatives which enable communities to participate and collaborate on emergency response;
• Support partners to establish local preparedness and response systems, including their own governance capacities;
• Conduct peer reviews to identify lessons learned and share examples of good practices;
• Inform future disaster preparedness and response planning

The activities in this initiative include:

• Train CSOs and FBOs on integrated disaster management. This activity aims to develop localised first response systems and capacities;
• Support and train CSOs and FBOs on Emergency Preparedness & Response Planning capacity development, including strategies for building resilience;
• Establish/strengthen 40 local voluntary community groups on areas such as community preparedness, early warning and response;
• Pilot a ‘Supporting Community-led Response’ programme which aims to enable communities and self-help groups to collaborate on response to crisis, and to address root causes of vulnerability, through workshops, peer review and lessons learned sessions

TMB Issue 38 discussed the importance of community involvement in tackling disease outbreaks and presented the recommendations set out by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. This briefing offers examples of good practice in community participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consider:

• Tanzania: local government co-produced infection control measures with business leaders based in markets to integrate leaders’ understanding & knowledge of the challenges of implementing such measures
• Nigeria: the “community informer model” was employed by local authorities for COVID “surveillance, tracing and monitoring” – community informers are key trusted individuals in a community (e.g. faith leaders)
• Pakistan: community volunteers “set up quarantine wards, manufactured and provided free protective suits for medics”, and distributed food to vulnerable people
• India: Community volunteers came together to investigate and identify unknown (“hidden”) COVID-19 fatalities. The volunteer group comprised of expert physicians and data analysts who developed comparisons of official health data and other reports. This encouraged a review of the national death audit process and resulted in improvements in the process so that COVID-19 deaths were accurate and transparent
• USA: Volunteers built a public “Testing Site Locator” app which visualized the geographical location of testing centres to support collection of testing centre-related information and dissemination at the national level. This supported people to locate the nearest available testing centres and also the “health system to plan and distribute centres more effectively”

The pandemic, and previous disasters, have evidenced that communities play a crucial role when preparing for, responding to and recovering from, crisis. Communities and civil societies should be “partners early on in the design, planning, implementation, and assessment of preparedness and response efforts on all levels”, particularly at the local level. We have covered community participation and co-production with communities in various briefings, see TMB Issue 38; Issue 34; Issue 33.

The National Lottery Community Fund ‘Community Research Project’ investigated how people’s attitude toward their communities has changed during the pandemic, and identified the priorities for their communities as they emerge from COVID-19. This report demonstrates the opportunity to foster the community resilience realised during COVID as a Local Resilience Capability (LRC). Additionally, the report echoes that although not everyone will want to contribute to building community resilience, there are people who do and they are looking for ways to do so. Consider that:

• “Tackling loneliness and supporting economic growth” are reported as the most important factors for community wellbeing in the next year. Most respondents felt that the crisis brought out the best in people. This was particularly felt by older generations, with a third of respondents reporting that they now feel more connected to (and supported by) their local community
• “Safe and accessible green spaces” are key priorities for communities going forward, with 40% of respondents reporting to have used local green spaces more than they usually would
• 30% of respondents plan to be more involved in their communities, with the most significant benefits being people’s ability to offer support to others in their community, and having people willing to help close by if needed

There has recently been a new spotlight shone on the impact that communities have had on their local response. A key message from the UK’s Integrated Review was the need to build whole-of-society resilience through enhancing capabilities in local resilience (see a recent TMB case study). TMB has often highlighted the renewal of community resilience through building a Local Resilience Capability (TMB Issue 30, as well as Briefing A in this current issue). Communities are being seen in a new light in local resilience.

This has been further identified in a paper by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, titled ‘Centering communities in pandemic preparedness and response’. This paper emphasizes the importance of community involvement in tackling disease outbreaks and advises of the need to:

• Establish partnerships to work with communities to design, plan, implement and monitor local and national pandemic preparedness and response, for example:
  • In Sur, Oman, the city government developed an intervention of response in partnership with civil society (e.g. community sports clubs, the Omani Women Association, youth groups and voluntary organisations). These groups supported activities to “arrange, maintain, and supervise” pandemic response activities
• Improve community engagement through “clear structures and sustained funding”, recognising that continuous effort is needed (not just a one-off effort during crisis). This can help to develop trust between communities and official service providers
• Recognise that risk communication is key to community engagement, and one part of local resilience capabilities: two-way, bi-directional and co-produced communications are essential to understand needs, communicate responsibilities, and gain feedback (see TMB 37 ‘Risk communications as part of the Local Resilience Capability’)
• Community resilience requires a “sustainable framework for community empowerment and recovery”, including:
  • “Invest in civic mindedness” to establish a culture of social connectedness and empower communities to take responsibility through co-production to understand risk preparedness, response and recovery
  • Establish partnerships between governments and community-based groups/voluntary organisations/businesses to integrate communities into the planning and leadership of interventions that enhance their local resilience
  • “Invest in social and economic wellbeing, and in physical and psychological health” to ensure access to health services

We demonstrate that in order to establish community resilience as a permanent local resilience capability, we are required to sustain what has already been created by communities, local government, small business, neighbours, individuals, social enterprises, the voluntary sector, and so many more hidden networks.

Read this case study in full by following the source link to TMB Issue 37 (p.13-14).

We call to establish community resilience as a new local and national resilience capability. This is a major opportunity for us to renew our local resilience by continuing the community action built during the pandemic.

To read this briefing in full, follow the source link below to TMB Issue 30 (p.2-6).

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) has published a 'how to' guide that outlines how to organise a citizen’s assembly, to discuss and understand the impacts of COVID-19. A Citizens’ Assembly is a representative group of citizens who are selected at random from the population to learn about, deliberate upon, and make recommendations in relation to a particular issue or set of issues. The RSA has also launched a 'Future change framework' which can work conjointly with a citizen’s assembly to support community conversations about the impact of COVID-19, recovery and renewal, transition to a post-COVID world, and support communities to heal. The framework includes ways to consider:

• How people have responded to Covid-19 and how that can drive positive change
• What communities and individuals have stopped doing, paused, put in place temporarily, and innovative strategies which could be continued
• How to evaluate the next steps and actions for the future for organisations, local communities, teams, or networks

COVID-19 has impacted every level of an organisation. Engaging with people within your organisation and those closely associated with it, to show appreciation of people's work and resilience helps to boost morale. Consider how to show your appreciation through:

• Public appreciation posts in the form of newsletters, blogs or videos to thank staff and stakeholders, such as this tribute to The University of Manchester community
• Tangible rewards- these don't need to be financial (e.g. a bonus) but may be in the form of extra time holidays, and could be recognised as mental health days to give employees a much-needed break while they juggle responsibilities

Children have been particularly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, so continuing to provide child-friendly events is an important way to safeguard their well-being. Consider how and what advice to provide to the public to make celebrations such as Halloween and Bonfire Night COVID-19 safe. Consider widely publicising the safety concerns of some activities such as trick or treating and firework parties, and provide ideas for low risk alternatives. Consider suggesting:

Halloween

• Virtual trick or treat parties or costume parties
• Carving or decorating pumpkins with members of your household and displaying them
• Having a scavenger trick-or-treat hunt with your household members in or around your home
• Look for community events focused on safe ways to have fun e.g. children can colour in Halloween posters and display them in a window at home so, on Halloween children can get dressed up and look for posters in their local area and get a treat from their guardian for each poster spotted - ensuring social distancing and 'the rule of six'

Bonfire night

• Instead of putting on fireworks displays, consider lighting up local landmarks at certain times. In Dudley, UK the council intends to honour NHS workers by also lighting up hospitals. The display is also accompanied by music played on local radio stations
• Consider secret firework displays which are planned at undisclosed locations to avoid crowds gathering - providing locations to ensure full area coverage
• Livestream displays on social media
• Heighten awareness of firework safety as COVID-19 restrictions may result in more firework displays at homes. Promote following the firework code and relevant COVID-19 restrictions

Research has shown that disasters impact men and women differently. While COVID-19 has been shown to disproportionately affect men physically, women are more likely to be adversely impacted by disasters generally, and more likely to be failed by recovery efforts that do not meet their needs. Consider how to develop gender-inclusive disaster recovery that considers impacts of COVID-19:

• Tackle the drivers of gender inequalities in areas such as access to healthcare and economic recovery e.g. impacts of COVID-19 on low paid precarious work, health risks to care workers
• Include multi-stakeholder processes that ensure women's rights organisations are included in designing national response and recovery measures - this should also include groups representing vulnerable or marginalised women
• Assess bid for new funding using an additional criteria of impact on gender responsiveness
• Increase funding and capacity development for local and national women's groups; including for action against gender-based violence which saw a global increase during the pandemic
• Strengthen COVID-19/disaster responses to address women's leadership roles, not only their vulnerability to the virus
• Examine the availability of gender-responsive health services and vital sexual and reproductive health needs at local level
• Consider communications designed for women, to reach women. Women and girls may be less likely to receive and contribute to accurate COVID-19 information due to patriarchal norms/structures
• Include the voices and rights of trans women in response and recovery so they are equally involved in determining needs

In the UK, war veterans attending Remembrance Sunday commemorating the deaths of those in the armed forces across the Commonwealth, will be exempt from new laws restricting gatherings. Many of these people are vulnerable to COVID-19 as a result of age or underlying health conditions which has meant many local councils cancelling parades and church services; urging people to pay their respects in other ways and at home this year. Consider:

• If parades take place in your area how to ensure:
  • Rigorous risk assessments are carried out, including the enforcement of social distancing
  • That the event does not draw much larger crowds, and what contingencies are in place if this happens
  • That people, especially elderly and vulnerable veterans understand the risks posed to them by participating in a parade
  • That PPE is provided for event organisers and participants
• If parades do not take place consider designating a period of a few weeks for people to pay their respects and lay wreaths at memorials, rather all on one day
• Live stream local events that include small select parties of individuals laying wreaths e.g. in Bradford where parades are cancelled, The Lord Mayor will lay a wreath at each memorial site across the district
• Encourage residents to pay their respects at home in different ways:
  • By observing the national two-minute silence
  • Displaying poppies or other symbols (posters, children’s drawings etc.) in home windows
  • Using hashtags on social media such as #Bradfordremembers with pictures of acts of remembrance at home or school

In extraordinary times people turn to their leaders for guidance and reassurance more than ever before. Leading by example helps to unite, connect and guide people in consistently working towards a common goal. Leading by example requires clear, and visible communication of appropriate behaviours. This may include issues such as regular handwashing, adhering to social distancing guidelines, rules on travel, and adhering to isolation and quarantine measures. For example, on facemasks:

• In schools. If headmasters want parents to wear facemasks when they collect children from the playground, then teachers should wear facemasks when they take children into the playground for collection
• In shops. If shops want customers to wear facemasks, then shop workers need to wear facemasks
• In Public. If politicians /police/ local authorities want public to wear facemasks, then they should also do so

Consider how to develop a space to remember and honour people who have died in your city and their stories, by developing an online memorial site with photographs, and some words from family and friends. Consider how to gather accurate information on identified deaths from COVID-19:

• Confirm the death with a third party, such as a news organization or city agency - directly tie the cause to COVID-19
• Take contributions from victims' families and confirmation by an immediate family member or next of kin
• Check victim details, such as last known address and age e.g. through voter registration data
• Partner with institutions that can help provide up-to-date lists of the deceased
• Use reports from news organizations, paid obituaries from online sources (e.g. Legacy.com) and local news publications
• Check verified posts from victims' families on social-media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook
• Check announcements from victims' private and public-sector employers and unions
• Check official releases from city and state agencies, e.g. Police Department

These groups should represent the community's views on what recovery should involve. These groups should feed views and concerns into the government's Recovery Group. It is important to consider participant fatigue when collecting community data about recovery needs.

Reference: Chief Resilience Officer, USA

Also consider Faith Communities of all faiths who carry so much knowledge of their community and the skills to help. These organisations are embedded in the community and can help facilitate recovery through support and shared information.

Reference: County Council, UK

These groups (including the Facebook groups) rapidly led the humanitarian aid to vulnerable people when (they may perceive) no-one else was present. They may now be feeling pushed out by 'officials' who now are taking a leading role in their communities which can mean their reason for existing is being taken over by authorities.

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.