When foundational systems are ignored for a long time, the resulting breakdown may eventually force a reactive, high-profile scramble. Lasting stability may depend more on continuous structural investment rather than sudden emergency interventions.

Wikipedia's current-events log for June 3, 2008 recorded that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization opened the High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome, focusing on the world food price crisis, climate change and agriculture and food vs fuel issues. An FAO release dated 6 June 2008 in Rome said the summit on soaring food prices had concluded. One hundred eighty-one countries participated in the FAO Food Summit. Overall, 5 159 people attended, and 1 298 of them were journalists covering the event.

The cost of deferred maintenance

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf appealed to world leaders for US$30 billion a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food. Speaking at the opening of the Rome summit on the world food price crisis, Diouf noted that in 2006 the world spent US$1 200 billion on arms. Diouf noted that agriculture's share of Official Development Assistance fell from 17 percent in 1980 to 3 percent in 2006.

This drop in assistance may point to a familiar failure in resource allocation. When systems appear stable, capital is often diverted to newer, more visible initiatives, starving the underlying infrastructure of necessary maintenance.

Shifting from reaction to resilience

A large international gathering may signal the severity of a problem, but awareness alone probably does not rebuild depleted capacity. The challenge for leaders may be to maintain funding for critical systems even when they are not generating immediate headlines.

Resilience is perhaps built during quiet periods of sustained funding more than in the panicked aftermath of a systemic shock.

Sources

  • Systems Thinking
  • Decision Making

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