COVID-19 as a Transboundary Risk: Some Risk Management Implications for Asia

This presentation dwells on reasons why COVID-19 should be considered a transboundary risk and what it means for risk management in Asia. Transboundary risks are risks that emanate from outside the boundaries of a country or region. Countries have always faced transboundary risks. Wars for example are a typical example of a transboundary risk as opposed to an internal conflict in a country. Climate change impacts can be transboundary in nature. For example, a drought or extreme flood event in a food exporting country can impact not only the food security of that country but will also impact the food security of the importing countries. Pandemics span multiple countries, multiple continents, and even worldwide. COVID-19 is a perfect example of a pandemic, it evolved into a global pandemic. COVID-19 has affected 228 countries and territories infecting 642 million people and killing nearly 6.6 million people. While COVID has affected individual countries due to infections within that countries, COVID emerged as a transboundary risk for several reasons.