Global resilience can be a better way to combat COVID-19

The existential pandemic cannot be defeated by any single country as it is not confined to one's border. Governments need to curb it by enhancing their resilience.

Hyderabad: With 180 countries affected with deadly coronavirus there's a strong urge for global resilience to battle it out. The pandemic has infected more than 9,50,713 and killed over 48,313 people globally but governments have not found a concrete solution to curb its rapid spread except social distancing.

Resilience is key when it comes to risks that are difficult to predict and these can't be examined in isolation and require governments to adopt the mindset of systems thinking, relying on a multi-layered process to determine risks. Global risks also test governments' ability to respond during the crisis.

To increase resilience, states need to ensure public trust efficiently and encourage the private sector to work together to ensure local preparedness and response. Civil societies also play a key role by being the watchdog of corruption, wastefulness and transparency.

The pandemic can't be defeated alone by a country as it is not confined to borders alone. Therefore governments can curb it by enhancing their resilience only.

The World Economic Forum’s COVID Action Platform is mobilizing stakeholders to protect lives and livelihoods and enhance these efforts around the world.