Global Risks Report Spotlights Value of Public-Private Partnerships

The 18th edition of the Global Risks Report, published by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Marsh McLennan, examines ways to mitigate impending risks, including through the use of public-private partnerships. Guy Carpenter is a business of Marsh McLennan.

A key stabilizing influence involves embedding and accelerating shared responsibility between sectors, with local and national governments, business and civil society playing to their strengths. Public-private partnerships can help close key gaps in innovation, financing, governance and implementation of preparedness measures for emerging and well-established risks, such as food and water insecurity, weakened education and healthcare systems, and insufficient regulation of dual-use technologies, or addressing the looming insurance gap relating to cyberwarfare.

Innovative collaborations can also minimize overall exposure to potential impacts, as organizations across geographies and sectors are rarely exposed to the same risks at the same time. For example, data centers of different institutions in differing geographies are highly unlikely to be exposed to the same cyber or extreme weather risks, meaning effective mitigation could include regular backups of each other’s systems.

For a deeper look into this area, the section “Rethinking ‘Future’ Risks,” on page 70 of the report, has more information.

The risk landscape for public sector entities continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Guy Carpenter’s Public Sector Center of Excellence provides the expertise and tools to identify, quantify and help predict the magnitude of risk different parties take, whether they are reinsurers, consumers, governments or financial markets. Guy Carpenter’s recent podcast on climate change and its impact on the public sector provides more insights on the topic of resilience.