Date: 2010
Author: HFP

Pandemics are both crises and potential crisis drivers. As drivers, they can cause compound crises. Each iterative strike of a pandemic wave has the capacity to weaken society, and reduce the resources available to fight the next pandemic or other crisis threats. Pandemics in this sense can generate crises beyond health and potentially make affected societies less resilient to the next sequence of crises. Their impacts upon health and economic systems and their effects on human security in general further explain their designation here as a crisis driver. This study looks at the re-framing the context in which pandemics are analysed, beginning with a more cross-sectoral perspective on potential impacts, and suggests measures that need to be addressed in preparing for the pandemic as crisis driver.