Future Proofing the State: Risk, Responses and Resilience

Recent work at the OECD has highlighted the complex challenges facing governments in preparing for and responding to the ‘mega-risks’ precipitated by both natural and manmade disasters.

How these risks are best identified and how the governments effectively prepare and respond will be a focus of the 2012 ANZSOG Annual Conference, Future-Proofing the State: Risk, Responses and Resilience. The conference, to be held in Wellington, New Zealand, from 24 to 26 July, will coincide with the centenary of passage of New Zealand's Public Administration Act.

Each year ANZSOG brings together leading academics and public sector leaders to examine an issue central to governments’ capability to continue meeting community needs. Last year more than 400 people attended the ANZSOG annual conference in Sydney focused on Putting Citizen’s First: Engagement in Policy and Service Delivery for the 21st Century.

The annual conference is not primarily about crises, disasters or emergency management. The focus will be more about the recovery process and the challenges this poses for governance and public management. Presentations will address the challenges beyond the reconstruction of physical infrastructure, including the restoration of the afflicted communities, including all aspects of human wellbeing – social, economic, environmental, psychological and physical.

Keynote presentations are scheduled from the OECD, Mde Jocelyne Bourgon, author of the recently published A New Synthesis of Public Administration, a six nation research project in which ANZSOG, the Australian Public Service Commission and Victoria’s State Services Authority were the Australian partners. Prof Paul ‘t Hart, Professor of Public Management at Utrecht University and program leader of ANZSOG’s Towards Strategic Leadership Program.

Case study presentations will examine the issues from the perspectives of the Christchurch earthquakes, the Victorian bushfires, and ‘disasters’ arising from failures of government policy, such as the de-regulation of building standards in New Zealand and management of the Murray Darling water resource.

A key theme through the conference will be the impact of government action, or inaction, on levels of community trust, and the related responsibility on government to govern with the future in mind, take long-term problems seriously, manage risk, build resilience and reduce vulnerability.

While future-proofing will be a key focus, interconnected issues that will be considered during the conference include:

• the challenge of governing for the future in a political context dominated by the tyranny of the urgent and short-term electoral imperatives
• the challenge for public management over the coming decades as governments attempt to grapple with a host of complex and often interrelated issues,
• the challenge of assessing, managing and sharing risk – for instance, how should various risks be shared between the state, communities and individuals, and what are the limits to the capacity of governments to collectivize risk?
• the challenge of building more resilient communities and public institutions so that they are better able to withstand the turbulent times that lie ahead; and
• the challenge of rebuilding and maintaining trust in public institutions and ensuring the integrity and legitimacy of the democratic process.

Registration for the 2012 Annual Conference is now open. To view the preliminary program and register, click here.