B4SA COVID-19 Risk Assessment Consideration

The South African Government is responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Business for South Africa (B4SA), a coalition of volunteer resources from across the South African business community and including leading professional services firms, has come together to support Government in managing and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on South Africa.

As part of this response, B4SA has performed a comprehensive risk assessment of the significant strategic risks arising from the COVID-19 crisis. Most of the risks faced are not discrete, but are interconnected and form a network of risks with cross dependencies and influences. Further, they are changing rapidly and what was at the apex in one week can become weak or irrelevant in a very short space of time.  In such a situation it is not sufficient to assess the risks using only likelihood and impact.

The Dynamic Risk Assessment (DRA) methodology has been used (survey undertaken on 10 and 11 April 2020) to assist in understanding the complexity of the interconnected risk landscape. B4SA’s risk assessment has gone beyond the conventional two-dimensional approach to depicting risk and has taken a four-dimensional view by including considerations of risk interconnectedness and velocity. This enables consideration of the contagion effect of risks and will assist to identify and highlight those risks which, when addressed, will have the greatest effect on mitigating the other risks.

The DRA analysis is a strong tool to guide action plans, allowing maximum use of the resources available and is being shared with Government and business, as various risk owners, for their consideration.

click here B4SA COVID-19 Risk Findings Report