Fraught with intense geopolitics that are seeing governments back away from action, funding shortfalls, and heightened levels of conflict, hunger, and environmental degradation, it could be said that 2025 is one of the most high-risk contexts yet for international development. Decision-makers are, however, ill-equipped to handle these multifaceted, interconnected risks, and their cascading impacts, according to experts — and that needs to change.
“The challenge that we currently face today is that many risks are still assessed in silos, and people don't work together across different disciplines to look at how those risks interact with other risks… and cascade into other systems,” said Sarah Hendel-Blackford, director of systemic risk policy and response at the Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment, or ASRA, a global initiative hosted by the United Nations Foundation that aims to raise awareness about systemic risks to people and planet and how to tackle them.
For example, said Hendel-Blackford, a pandemic is not only a direct health issue, but has the power to disrupt food systems, education, and the economy, while conflict can also impact human development and mental health, whilst damaging the environment and biodiversity.
Siloed decision-making and institutions are holding the sector back from safeguarding populations from growing interconnected threats, Hendel-Blackford explained. “We need to really recognize that the systems we've built do not serve us anymore. We need new tools, new approaches, and fresh new perspectives.”
ASRA defines systemic risk response, or SRR, as a deliberate action that seeks to mitigate, prepare for, adapt to, or transform away from the harms of systemic risk. On a practical level, that means organizations and governments taking steps to integrate systems thinking alongside robust systemic risk assessments and responses, said Hendel-Blackford.
Already, several organizations identified by ASRA’s network of over 70 organizations are taking such steps, seeing success in tackling systemic risks unique to their context and creating new opportunities.
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