The Resilience Association starts each year by delivering its Annual Resilience Debate, on a topical issue that is currently under discussion.

For this year it has been decided to focus on COVID-19 and the level of emergency readiness frameworks that are in existence at a governmental level and, for this debate, consider those being used in the UAE, India, USA and UK.

To set the scene; The OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives) has delivered a paper on the impact of COVID-19 in managing the crisis across all levels of Government, within which it states that governments at all levels have been operating in a context of radical uncertainty, why was this the case?

And as we have seen, this global, regional and local COVID-19 crisis has led to governments struggling to respond to the implications of the pandemic, with various industry global supply chains finding themselves pushed to breaking point. So, the question that we should also ask ourselves is what emergency readiness framework could meet the demands of such an unprecedented event?

Our Webinar brings together four industry resilience professionals who work in the Middle East, India, USA and UK, with each one discussing the pros and cons, as they see it, from their personal experiences and observations on central or decentralised readiness and response frameworks that are being used to maintain a functioning society.

This 1 hour ANNUAL RESILIENCE DEBATE will be delivered via Zoom, and include the following speakers:

- Dr Aaron Gracey - Vice-Chair Resilience Association

- Dhiraj Lal - Executive Director of Continuity & Resilience

- Paul Kirvan - Of Paul Kirvan Associates

- Joseph Shearer-Rust - Of Resilience at Public Protection

Aaron is currently the Vice-Chair Resilience Association, and has consulted to the Cabinet Office and MoD on developing Strategic Resilience Management. He holds a PhD in Organisational Resilience, lectures on the UK Resilience Centre’s MSc programme on the topic of Business Continuity and Resilience, and Managing Director of Squared Apples.

Dhiraj leads and manages teams of risk and resilience specialists delivering programmes of work to public and private sector organisations, in the Middle East and India, providing strategic and operational advice and support. He is the author of the “Step by Step guide to the NCEMA 7000: Implement BCM the UAE way" and contributing author to the "Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity 3rd Edition" - Published by John Wiley and Sons UK.

Paul is involved in a range of aligned public and private sector projects, leveraging his resilience expertise to provide a full range of consulting services to clients in the USA and worldwide.

Joseph is working operational in Public Protection within the UK, and has extensive experience with implementation of the UK Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Following the speakers, there will then be time for you to participate in a question-and-answer session.

This is a FREE on-line Zoom webinar, and by confirming your attendance via EventBrite you will be sent access to the event by Wednesday 27th January 2021. As attendance at this event will be limited, if you have not received the Zoom link by the 27th January, or are unable to attend, or have a question for any of our speakers, please send an email to info@resilienceassociation.org