Navigating risk management for sustainability

Michael Beukes
Now is the ideal time for organisations to adopt proactive risk management interventions. These measures help businesses develop strategies to mitigate risks, navigate challenges, reduce impacts, maintain resilience, and deliver sustained value in the short, medium, and long term.
Effective risk management ensures adequate resource allocation, legal and regulatory compliance, protection of an organisation’s reputation, and successful implementation of strategic objectives.
Organisations prioritising risk management strategies experience long-term success and growth. Implementing these strategies promotes ethical governance, exceptional stakeholder service, and sustained value. Proactive risk assessment identifies risks, opportunities, and outcomes that materially impact value creation, considering the interests of stakeholders and significant risks over short-, medium-, and long-term horizons.
Sustainable growth relies on robust risk management frameworks, policies, procedures, risk appetite, strategic intent, and a supportive risk culture. This ensures risk is considered in every action, decision, and stakeholder interaction. Organisations should consider emerging risks and uncertainties that could impact strategic objectives and financial performance.
Effective risk management links directly to organisational success, enabling informed decision-making, critical risk management, bolstering stakeholder trust, and enhanced future performance. A comprehensive risk environment assessment includes analysing the macroeconomic landscape and local political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal environments. A business risk register is a critical internal resource for assessing and mitigating risks while maintaining strong internal controls.
Corporate governance
Good corporate governance requires an enterprise-wide risk management approach, encompassing all material risks within a structured process. Risk management oversight should be vested in the Board of Directors through Audit and Risk Committees, governed by the Enterprise Risk Management Framework (ERMF). This ensures effective business continuity and fraud risk management.
Organisations should conduct comprehensive risk assessments, entailing identification, assessment, mitigation, monitoring, and reporting of enterprise risks, business continuity, and fraud risks. Effective risk management offers reasonable assurance of achieving strategic objectives, balancing opportunities, and managing risks without compromising stakeholder interests.
For example, the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) implements interventions to ensure sustainability, such as assessing liabilities versus assets and maintaining contingency reserves. Long-term sustainability requires incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, which the Fund considers in its investments. The Fund’s risk management program includes business continuity measures and robust oversight mechanisms like the Four Lines of Assurance Oversight Model, involving various committees and regulatory reviews.
* Michael Beukes is the Manager of Risk Management Services, Office of the CEO/PO of the Government Institutions Pension Fund.
** Opinion pieces and letters by the public do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial team. The editors reserve the right to abridge original texts. All newspapers of Namibia Media Holdings adhere to the Code of Ethics for Namibian Media, a code established jointly with the Media Ombudsman.