Jakarta, 6 January 2025: The ERIA School of Government hosted its first Public Policy Workshop on ‘Resilience as Pursuit of Governance’ in Jakarta. The workshop was organised in collaboration with academics from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in the UK. Members of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) of Indonesia, the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, the Bandung Institute of Technology, and the University of Indonesia participated in the discussion. The workshop aimed to explore policies for resilience, particularly within a multidimensional framework encompassing economic and national security. Drawing on Southeast Asia’s long-standing policy experience in resilience, the discussion sought to further crystalise this knowledge and reconceptualise it to align with today’s global landscape.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Nobuhiro Aizawa, Dean and Managing Director of the ERIA School of Government, emphasised the school’s mission to learn from Southeast Asia, nurture regional interests, and redefine the region as an epicentre of governance. Building on this, Prof. Albert Sanghoon Park, Departmental Lecturer at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, highlighted the importance of understanding resilience in the current geopolitical climate, expressing hope that the discussion would spur further policy research. Following him, Prof. Shailaja Fennell, Professor of Economic Security and Resilience, Deputy Head of the Department of Land Economy, and Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge, underscored Southeast Asia’s achievements in resilience and stressed that such discussions could provide valuable insights to help people navigate shocks to their livelihoods.

The discussion laid out various perspectives on resilience. Participants examined the link between resilience, financial literacy, and risk management, as well as the regional ecosystem that builds national resilience. This ecosystem, deeply embedded in ASEAN’s framework, serves cross-sectoral purposes and reinforces ASEAN centrality.

Regarding strategies for resilience, participants discussed academia’s role in resilience studies and highlighted the importance of collaboration amongst academics, government agencies, and ERIA.

Through these efforts, the ERIA School of Government aims to expand the community; act as a mediator between academia, businesses, and policymakers; and sustain the dialogue on resilience in Southeast Asia.