In 18 articles that span public management, climate change, economic development, national security and more, LBJ authors provide a forward-thinking lens on what went wrong and what it will take to fix the system flaws exposed by the pandemic.
(TEXAS)—Twenty-nine LBJ School authors have come together to craft interdisciplinary and resilience-based policy solutions, published today in one toolkit called Resiliency in the Age of COVID-19. This toolkit comes as researchers from across The University of Texas at Austin continue to offer first-of-its-kind groundbreaking research and discovery in the fight against COVID and its long-lasting impacts on public health, business and the future of governance.
LBJ School policy authors provide a forward-thinking lens on what went wrong and what leadership, public policies and initiatives it will take to fix the system flaws exposed by the pandemic.
Published during the LBJ School's 50th anniversary year, the toolkit also provides a snapshot of the school's depth and breadth of policy and research engagement at this moment in time.
"In one impressive effort, LBJ School faculty have come together to equip policymakers with the knowledge and solutions to understand and confront the pandemic's challenges." —Dean Angela Evans
"Our future hinges on our ability to meet the challenges that threaten the public's health and their general welfare," said Angela Evans, dean of the LBJ School. "In one impressive effort, LBJ School faculty have come together to equip policymakers with the knowledge and solutions to understand and confront the pandemic's challenges."
The 18 articles within the toolkit include policy perspectives on:
- Leadership and Decision-Making: How resilient leaders and policymakers can improve decision-making
- Equity: The ways that the virus and strategies for treating it impact different populations
- Public Finance: How federal governments can support state revenues in crises, and how states can maximize their revenues
- Corrections: The challenge of COVID-19 in prisons and jails, and the dangers posed to people in custody, staff and their communities
- Intelligence: How the intelligence community delivered good information but failed to get decision makers to act
- Global Development: The pandemic's impact on developing cities and economies
- National Security: How the U.S. can reclaim its status as a world leader
- Public Health: Samples of approaches that ensure the most vulnerable receive help they are entitled to
- Community Building: The importance of collaboration between nonprofits and the public sector, and among nonprofits themselves
- Climate: How communities can apply lessons learned from the pandemic to climate change
"The essays in this toolkit offer both a diagnosis of where the Austin region, America and the world went wrong in its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, and a prescription for what it can do better," said LBJ Urban Lab Director Steven Pedigo, who led the effort. "This toolkit was produced to not only help policymakers as they turn their good intentions into effective actions, but also to put the issue of equitable community development back on the national agenda."
Articles are rooted in one underlying principle: resiliency, a word used to describe how a community of any size copes with crises like pandemics, natural disasters and economic shocks. Where COVID-19 is concerned, resiliency means to "move forward" rather than to "bounce back." Solutions in this toolkit build this capacity through recommendations such as general revenue sharing, decision-making mapping, scenario-planning, enhanced collaborations, increased public engagement, improved capacity building and partnerships, and more.
Several articles from the toolkit will be reprinted by Route Fifty and Defense One as part of a partnership with Government Executive Media Group.
LBJ School policy leaders and authors will also take part in a virtual summit on the future of resiliency planning on Jan. 27, 2021. The event is open to the public and will be recorded live as a kickoff to a new LBJ School podcast series, "From a Great Society to a Resilient Society: A Resilient Future in a Globally Connected World." The six-part podcast series will explore the future of leadership, national security, immigration, community building, public health and more through the lens of resiliency.
Download the toolkit: https://hdl.handle.net/2152/83825