News release: “Increasing the nation’s resilience to natural and human-caused disasters will require complementary federal policies and locally driven actions that center on a national vision, says a new report from the National Academies – Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative. Improving resilience should be seen as a long-term process, but it can be coordinated around measurable short-term goals that will allow communities to better prepare and plan for, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse events…Improving resilience is not the responsibility of any one federal agency, nor can it be encapsulated in a single policy, the report says. Rather, functions of government at all levels should be guided by a set of principles and best practices that advance resilience. The committee found gaps in resilience policies and programs among federal agencies and noted that resilience is diminished by ineffective coordination of roles and responsibilities. The report calls for federal agencies to perform self-assessments of their programs and activities and share their analyses of key resilience programs with the public. The executive branch should develop a clear national vision and framework for a comprehensive strategy toward improving disaster resilience, which can be tailored by regions, states, and cities for their specific needs and priorities.”