In the recent CHOGM held in Malta, the Commonwealth People’s Forum looked into the very challenging and interesting topic of resilience. Anyone who had a modicum of interest in the CHOGM’s actual discussions could not help but ponder on how resilient we are, or are not, and essentially on what makes us more (or less) resilient.
Defining resilience
On the one hand, resilience, as the ability to cope with change, involves the painstaking tasks of pre-empting change, measuring risk in anticipation, and placing precautionary mechanisms that help foresee, identify and diagnose oncoming changes. On the other hand, resilience involves a concerted effort so that gradual or sudden, subtle or extraordinary forces of change are mitigated. We can work directly on the forces of change so that their power is diminished, or we may choose to strengthen society so that it can brave the turmoil in a sturdier fashion.
Change nurtures resilience
In a geo-political playground that is so much prone to change, resilience is paramount to a small state like Malta, let alone for an even smaller island-region like Gozo. Just as nature endows flora with a greater stamina to withstand inclement weather with resilience, the people of Malta and Gozo have grown to be quite resilient in the face of the many changes that have come upon us.
With the scarcest of rations, a dearth of weapons and ammunitions and devastating ruins, perhaps it was this resilient stamina that pushed our people in the darkest hours of the Second World War in 1942 not to surrender. As Malta’s defensive harbour area stood the toughest test of resilience, more rural areas, like Gozo for example, helped the country weather the storm by generously putting their limited agricultural resources at the disposal and service of the nation at large.
Resilience, what for?
Socio-economic and geo-political stories have changed over the years. With a five per cent economic growth in the second quarter of 2015, times are clearly brighter. Yet, half way through the second decade of this new millennium, changes still do come our way and resilience – in different forms and faces – remains pivotal.
The ever-increasing open economy demands that our country grows in economic and technological resilience. Issues of climate change request that low-lying and small islands like Malta and Gozo are ecologically resilient. While tourism helps our economy greatly– and even there we have to ensure that we do not over-rely on this increasingly susceptible industry for issues of resilience – it is no news that even tourism comes with its ecological stress, impinging on rural areas, ecosystems, water and waste management and emissions among others.
The interrelation between a continuously ageing domestic population, an outflow of skilled and youths to mainland Malta and farther away, and the continuous advent of foreign nationals in Gozo brings a growing need for our island to be more resilient in terms of social fabric, culture, market behaviours and demography.
These are just some of the changes that the island of Gozo is facing and that the Government as the policy maker, hand in hand with civil society, is trying to address. We believe the government is there to steer, but ultimately it is the whole of society that needs to be resilient. Therefore, building resilient societies is not a cliché, but rather, the only plausible way forward. As CHOGM reminded us of the importance of resilience, it is now up to us to carry forward that debate. The energy we must dedicate to challenging, thinking critically, re-imagining and creating new ways of building resilient societies is pivotal if we want to make a difference.
The approach to building resilience
A holistic approach to resilience demands close relationships between stakeholders because what works for one agent might create issues for another. Conversely, the solution to one’s dilemma may also be the right answer to some others’ difficulties. Civil dialogue is a primary tool to strengthen resilience as it ensures an open channel for ideas and resources. An additionally important factor is knowledge-building. Knowledge of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, abilities and vulnerabilities and the degrees of the threats and opportunities that lie ahead can never be over-emphasised. We cannot remain in a position where we do not know the metrics of our difficulties. Only scientific-based knowledge, and indeed shared information of this scenario, can put society in a position to plan ahead and be resilient in the face of adversity. To this end, the regional branch of the National Statistics’ Office recently opened in Gozo is set to be a lasting legacy of our administration that will eventually contribute to an improved profile of Gozo’s resilience.
With these elements in place, we ensure that our resilience profile does neither leave us grounded in the status quo, nor allows us to be driven by winds of change. Rather, it will allow us to cruise our way through change, the way we would have it.
To this extent, Gozo may have a handful of good practices. They might not be many in quantity but certainly qualitative in essence. Our examples in Gozo are nothing but the fruit of interrelations between tradition, experience, mistakes and lessons, because yes, challenges are transformed into opportunities only when mistakes are transformed into learning curves, all the while strengthening and consolidating resilience.
Dr Refalo is Minister for Gozo