Boosting Canada’s Emergency Preparedness
About This Series
Studies show that Canadian students who graduate into a recession earn 9 percent less over the course of their careers. The forest fires in B.C. and other provinces are escalating at a higher rate than ever before. And, the recent COVID-19 pandemic is revealing much about what needs to change in order to rebuild communities to be resilient. The truth is, these shocks will keep coming — climate shocks, pandemic shocks, mental health crises, and more. How prepared is Canada? What are a few innovations that could help pave the path to a more prepared Canada? In partnership with the Canadian Red Cross, this series highlights 4 specific areas of emergency preparedness work that could proactively prepare Canada for future shocks and catastrophes: workforce capacity, evidence and data, funding, technology.
Full video: Canadian Red Cross CEO Conrad Sauvé on how to prepare for the next global emergency
Major crises like climate disasters and pandemics are, and will continue to, increase in frequency. The good news, though, is that organizations responding to these crises and their aftershocks can use learnings from this pandemic to prepare for the next emergency.
“We have to stop treating these events as exceptional”: Canadian Red Cross CEO Conrad Sauvé on how to prepare for the next global emergency
Major crises like climate disasters and pandemics are, and will continue to, increase in frequency. The good news, though, is that organizations responding to these crises and their aftershocks can use learnings from this pandemic to prepare for the next emergency.
Is the social impact workforce ready for the next emergency?
COVID-19 exacerbated many deadly health emergencies — including the opioid crisis — and limited the social impact sector’s ability to respond. Lessons from this time can help build readiness to respond to all types of catastrophes more effectively and proactively.
You may not be relying on the best available evidence to make decisions and design programs — here’s why.
Sometimes the right evidence reaches the right people at the right time. Sometimes it doesn’t, with dire consequences. The pandemic heightened the need to inject best evidence into the social impact response. And there’s never been a more pressing time to learn from what worked and what didn’t in getting best evidence to those who need it so we can better prepare for catastrophes of all kinds. From public health crises to natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies, relying on the best local and global evidence is crucially important, but it shouldn’t take an active crisis to invest in the infrastructure needed for reliable and decision-relevant data and evidence.
The non-profit sector must democratize funding to reach the most vulnerable Canadians, experts say
Some non-profit advocates say that grassroots, community groups, and non-profits are being excluded from accessing philanthropic funding, thereby limiting their emergency preparedness and the community resilience of Indigenous and equity-seeking groups, who constitute the majority of these informal networks and non-profits.
Canada could see overlapping humanitarian crises in the coming years. Here’s how tech can help organizations respond.
Over the last 50 years, the number of climate-related disasters has increased five-fold. While this disproportionately impacts Global South countries, Canada is not exempt from these disasters, as demonstrated by the British Columbia floods in 2021. With our country’s rapidly aging population and a declining workforce, Canadians could see overlapping humanitarian crises in the coming years, unless adequate solutions are found.