Standards Development

Scope

This document provides guidance on the planning, establishment, monitoring, maintenance and improvement of an interoperable regional socioeconomic platform intended to enhance resilience to issues, incidents, crisis and potential catastrophes at the regional level, where similar or shared disaster effects are anticipated.

This document provides guidance to support collaborative information sharing and coordinated decision-making among stakeholders within the region. It further provides a basis for engaging all relevant stakeholders—particularly those contributing to or influencing local employment, infrastructure, assets, financial resources, and access to supply chains — which constitute core economic elements of recovery and the resumption of services following a disaster.

By promoting coordinated and interoperable approaches that strengthen regional socioeconomic resilience this document also contributes, in an aggregated manner, to enhancing resilience across the global community, where regions are increasingly interconnected and exposed to diverse risks.

This document does not prescribe or replace individual organizational business continuity plans (BCPs), emergency response plans, or crisis management procedures. Responsibility for organizationspecific planning, decision-making, and operational execution remains with each respective entity.

Purpose

In the event of disasters or incidents, if the business continuity plans (BCPs) or emergency response plans of private companies, infrastructure providers, local governments, and other organizations are activated independently within the same region—defined as an area where similar or shared disaster impacts are reasonably anticipated—at the same time, each entity's attempt to secure limited local resources—such as road access, accommodation, fuel, telecommunication, water, and financial resources necessary for response, recovery, and business resumption—according to their individual plans can result in resource depletion. This, in turn, may hinder various activities within the region, leading to delays and inefficiencies in response, recovery, and resumption efforts.

This situation highlights that, even if individual stakeholders such as companies and local governments optimize their own BCPs or emergency response plans, the overall recovery and continuity of economic activities across the region as a whole may not be achieved effectively.

This challenge stems from the increasing frequency and intensity of disruptive events, as well as the growing interdependence of socio-economic activities. Additionally, the concentration of populations in urban centres, combined with depopulation, aging, and declining birth rates in rural areas, has increased regional vulnerabilities. These factors amplify both direct and indirect impacts on everyday life and socio-economic functions during disasters and incidents.

To address these issues, private companies should promote inter-business (private–private) collaboration beyond the scope of individual BCMs, including coordination within corporate groups, supply chains, and industry associations. Furthermore, they should collaborate with local governments. Similarly, in the public sector, local governments are increasingly emphasizing coordination with neighbouring and distant municipalities, regional government offices, and central ministries (public– public collaboration). In addition, collaboration among local governments, infrastructure providers, local businesses, financial institutions, and the broader community (public–private collaboration) has become essential to support regional recovery in disruptive events.

The purpose of this document is to facilitate the creation of an interoperable regional economic platform that enables private companies, public institutions, and community actors to collaboratively contribute to vulnerability heat maps which can activate response to issues, incidents, crisis and potential catastrophe. This platform is intended to overcome the limitations of independently operated business continuity plans (BCPs) or emergency response plans by providing a framework for coordinated allocation of physical, human, informational, and financial resources, information sharing, and operational alignment across sectors.

The justification for promoting such coordinated and interconnected activation of BCPs or emergency response plans lies in the increasing complexity of socio-economic systems and the growing interdependence among businesses, governments, and communities. Experience from recent disasters has shown that independent activation of plans often results in fragmented responses, competition for scarce regional resources, and delayed recovery. This document addresses these challenges by promoting collaborative preparedness and response mechanisms that align with the broader objectives of regional economic continuity, resilience, and sustainability.

By fostering private–private, government–government, and public–private collaboration, the framework described in this document enhances a region’s capacity to maintain critical socio-economic functions during disruptive events. Through the accumulation of resilient regional economies, the application of this framework also contributes, in an aggregated manner, to strengthening the resilience of the global community, where regions are increasingly interconnected and exposed to diverse and compounding risks. It further supports long-term recovery by promoting continuity of employment and economic activity, both of which are essential for restoring normalcy and enabling a sustainable society.