The Race to Resilience Pandemic Information Sharing Initiative (R2R) is a collaborative effort between private sector, civil society, and governmental agencies, with a near-term focus on preparing for the upcoming flu season. Our mission is to identify innovative approaches to enhancing situational awareness by harnessing the power of social networks and other mediums, with a goal of enabling community resilience on a global level.
Launched in the summer of 2009 by key leaders of The Efiia Group, the Race to Resilience (R2R) has identified innovative approaches to enhancing situational awareness by harnessing the power of social networks and other mediums, with a goal of enabling community resilience on a global level.
The US and global economies are more sensitive and vulnerable than ever before. Economic consequences of a biological event are exponential relative to the growth rate of a pandemic outbreak. Public perception of the safety of a geographic region or food supply also impacts tourism and demand for services and goods, far outlasting the biological event itself.
Fighting the battle against pandemics in the current global environment requires international cooperation from all areas of the resilience community, as well as an increased focus on detecting and preventing outbreaks early and often.
The Federal government has been engaged in improving the information sharing capabilities within the medical and public health space as they relate to health security and community resilience. However, the vast majority of resources and response capabilities lie within the private sector. The foundation of community resilience depends on an informed community. Thus, the need for promoting trusted partnerships for information sharing outside of the Federal government is paramount.
To date, the R2R Campaign has engaged over 100 key thought leaders in government, the private sector, industry think tanks, and civil society. Through a series of collaborative workshops, the campaign has identified 22 mission critical initiatives that require immediate focus.
The mission of R2R is especially relevant to our people, given Efiia Consulting's ongoing role supporting Homeland Security in the sharing of health security information. The Efiia Group's unique operational model enables Efiia Creations to facilitate the re-use of technologies, best practices, and methodologies developed within civil society across government agencies and their stakeholders. The end result is significant cost savings for the public, and increased situational awareness worldwide.
By embracing an open source licensing model, the R2R initiative encourages engagement from all non-governmental sectors, enabling the global community to become involved, take the frameworks, and rework them to meet their specific needs. Based on initial testing performed since the launch of the initiative, the true strengths of a decentralized network have emerged. The R2R consortium released an initial set of open source frameworks in mid-summer, and logged over 10,000 downloads in the first week.
The R2R initiative continues to engage leaders within Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the National Security Staff to ensure ongoing alignment with guidance provided in the White House National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats, as well as the National Health Security Strategy.
It is our hope that, through continued joint engagement with leaders in both the public and private sectors, the Race to Resilience will better enable government and civil society to promote global health security in a more effective and cost-efficient manner.
For more information on the Race to Resilience campaign, or to get involved, please visit www.racetoresilience.org.
