Submission ID 131042
| Issue/Objective | When emergencies escalate, pandemics, climate disasters, conflict-driven displacement, governments repeatedly default to military deployment to fill civilian response gaps. This recurring pattern signals a foundational preparedness failure: most countries lack standing civilian surge infrastructure capable of responding across hazard types. In an era of compounding polycrises and shrinking humanitarian space, this gap threatens health equity most acutely for communities already underserved by existing systems. The All-Hazards Civilian Reserve, developed at McGill University's Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab, proposes a new model for community-embedded civilian surge capacity designed explicitly for this moment. |
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| Methodology/Approach | Current work encompasses three streams: a comparative analysis of existing civilian reserve models across high- and middle-income countries; return-on-investment modelling comparing the costs of reactive versus proactive surge infrastructure; and development of an operational blueprint covering governance structures, funding mechanisms, recruitment, training curricula integrating technical and social competencies, and simulation-based pilot design. The model integrates technical capacity (e.g., community needs assessment, logistics support for health campaigns, coordination with emergency operations) with social capacity (e.g., risk communication, misinformation monitoring, psychosocial support, and trust-building with marginalised populations). |
| Results | Early findings from the comparative analysis reveal significant variation in how existing reserve models govern recruitment, training, and deployment across hazard types, with consistent gaps in social capacity functions. ROI modelling indicates that proactive civilian surge investment compares favourably against the documented costs of reactive military-led response during recent crises. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | The reserve model advances a core argument relevant to the CCGH 2026 theme: durable preparedness requires investment in people, not only institutions. Civilian surge capacity, designed with equity at its centre, represents a scalable mechanism for strengthening community resilience in a fragmented world, particularly one in which the frequency of emergencies will continuously get larger. This presentation will outline a pathway from research concept to pilotable prototype, and invite cross-country collaboration to adapt and test the model across diverse health system contexts. |
| Presenters and Affiliations | Prativa Baral Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab, McGill University Joanne Liu Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab, McGill University |
