Risk Management Initiatives

Having a designated Risk Manager in every institution will facilitate safety measures and help
decrease losses across the territory. A risk management officer who is more familiar with the
challenges faced at a local level will be better equipped to advise whether certain strategies will
be effective in a particular location. This will allow us to tailor and adapt targets for individual
areas based on what is both realistic and practical for that particular area.  Local Risk Managers can get advice and resources from the Adventist Risk Management^®, Inc. website in order to help assist in their development of sound risk management processes.

The Risk Manager should also be instrumental in the assistance and establishment of protocols to make the other two initiatives below a success:

Water safety encompasses many issues such as drowning, how to manage natural disasters such as floods and how to behave around natural bodies of water.  In many of our church activities we are exposed to natural bodies of water such as on church camps and these are not always managed in the most effective way.  Educating our leaders and young people with precautions to take so as to avoid preventable disasters is essential in order to protect our Church and our members.

Road traffic fatalities in Africa are one of the highest in the world and 90% of people and goods are transported by roads. Poorly maintained vehicles, poor safety practises when crossing the road and not taking relevant precautions when driving in areas where roads are badly maintained are all contributory factors that cause these risks to increase. There are many steps that we, as a church, need to take in order to safeguard our members when going on church trips or being around areas of dense traffic.  Mandatory use of seatbelts, maintaining vehicles appropriately, vetting our volunteer drivers and stopping, looking and listening before crossing the road are all ways in which loss of life and injury can be reduced. 

Leadership should spend some time considering reputational risk. Our churches engage in many ministries, some which they are better prepared to execute than others. When we engage in activities with good intentions that we are not equipped to perform safely, we can achieve disastrous results. What is our mission and what activities are outside of our mission and should be performed by others, more specialised in that activity? Staying on mission and being prepared for those risks that are "on mission" will help guard the Church's reputation. Being prepared to respond to crises that occur despite precautions will mitigate the impact to reputation.