Universities play a key role in building resilience, said SMU President, Prof Lily Kong. Research done by universities can make a difference in strengthening societies and communities. The academic sector contributes through the graduates whom universities nurture, who go on to add value by creating solutions and ideas that address adversities faced by societies.

 “Be it contributing to individual, environmental or economic resilience, universities have a responsibility to play a role... through the graduates that emerge and the programmes that we put out,” commented Prof Kong. “The educational programmes that we run have had a role in helping to address specific challenges brought about by the pandemic. At SMU, we implemented a graduation requirement where students are expected to undertake 80 hours of volunteer work. I’m proud to share that our students do an average of 140 hours of volunteering!

“During the pandemic, many students stood up to help others in the community by developing programmes that could fit into the larger efforts within our society. As an example, our students devised initiatives to support less-advantaged communities such as the migrant workers, to develop their mental resilience when they were isolated and impacted by the pandemic. I would like to say that the educational programmes that we develop are not just classroom programmes. They are very much community-facing.”

Prof Kong was speaking at a panel discussion that marked the start of the World Cities Summit (WCS) 2021, themed “Engaging Communities, Building Resilience”. The panel discussion was the first of many at the three-day Summit jointly organised by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

In her opening remarks, Prof Kong offered a brief definition of resilience as positive adaption in the face of adversity. The different notions of resilience included individual resilience, societal resilience, cultural resilience, economic resilience. Prof Kong emphasised that beyond rankings and research citation counts, it is important for universities to work together with the community in building resilience in these various dimensions.

Moderated by Prof David Chan, Professor of Psychology and Director of Behavioural Science Institute, Singapore Management University, the session was helmed by a diverse mix of panelists from the public and private sectors. Panel speakers included Amy Chester, Managing Director of the US-based organisation, Rebuild by Design; Edward Walter, Global Chief Executive Officer of Urban Land Institute, a global real estate organization with more than 45,000 members dedicated to responsible land use and creating thriving communities; Jeanne Holme, Deputy Mayor, City of Los Angeles, United States; and Cheng Hsing Yao, Group Managing Director, GuocoLand Singapore.

Prof Kong shared that universities around the world have been confronted by situations where faculty and students have had to pivot teaching and learning online within a very short period.

SMU’s participation at the Summit underscored the University’s commitment to its Vision 2025’s strategic priority of “Sustainable Living”. This was in line with the University’s efforts to drive solutions in managing climate change and sustainable city living, enhancing quality of life, as well as to shape legal, regulatory and financing frameworks to build healthier and happier societies.

“COVID-19 has thrown into stark relief the challenges that cities face, and the ability to emerge stronger from such crises is more critical than ever,” said Dr Cheong Koon Hean, Chairman, Centre for Liveable Cities, who kick started the Summit with opening remarks. “As an example, how we run the Summit has been fundamentally transformed, where a virtual platform allowed greater access to pre-eminent leaders from around the world, as well as to a wider audience. This is thus a silver lining… it is more important than ever to retain these connections, to share ideas and best practices that allow for the ability to emerge stronger from such crises.”

“Leaders from some 315 cities from around the world are joining this Summit, along with more than 4,000 participants attending virtually,” added Dr Cheong. “World Cities Summit 2021 convenes government leaders, academics and business leaders together to discuss ideas, forge partnerships and explore various themes related to climate, social and political issues in relation to how we can build stronger cities. Adapting to crisis is a key feature of resilience, something cities must do as they become more complex.”

Desmond Lee, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration, in his keynote address, echoed this sentiment. He agreed that the Summit represented a unique and valuable platform that brings people together, allowing leaders and participants to learn key lessons from crises.

“In the case of Singapore, we learnt from our prior experience of SARS, in dealing with a public health crisis such as COVID-19,” Minister Lee said. “We set up a Multi-Ministry Taskforce across agencies to mount a coordinated response. To try to cut off circulation of the virus, we had to take more stringent measures to flatten the curve such as closing borders, tightening entry and implementing a circuit breaker. These measures were not easy, requiring Singaporeans to change their way of life quickly, and drastically. They also required a massive public education effort to explain what the measures were, going down to how far each person had to stand in queues, marking out spaces where people could sit and deploying safety ambassadors.”

The pandemic has had a significant impact on Singapore’s economy. Minister Lee cited the example of the construction sector, where construction work ground to a halt with the onset of COVID-19 to allow for the testing and ring-fencing of workers who came down with the virus. He emphasised that close collaboration with industry partners was vital, with the government working closely with stakeholders to devise guidelines to resume activities safely.

“We had daily meetings to solve problems,” said Minister Lee. “Because it was an emergency, the entire process was messy. But together, we were able to get back on track, even as some challenges persist.”

The pandemic was an opportunity to identify the shifts in the way people work, some of which Minister Lee identified as remote or hybrid working arrangements and serving customers through virtual platforms. Leveraging on such big trends which are here to stay, the government is looking to transform the Singaporean economy and enterprises to stay competitive.

Beyond the economy, COVID-19 had also brought about various social challenges. Minister Lee highlighted how working from home (WFH) and home-based learning (HBL) each delivered its own set of challenges. Employees may not have had the right home set-up in place and parents had to juggle WFH with supervising their children’s schoolwork during HBL, not to mention taking care of elderly in the family. Altogether, it took time and some trial and error for everyone to adapt. With burnout and fatigue being real concerns, the government set up a 24 hour hotline to support mental health wellbeing.

Calling for mutual support to adapt to new ways of living, Minister Lee said that it remains a continuous journey of learning through the pandemic. He shared how the government would be stepping up testing, contact tracing and vaccination efforts to protect citizens from the worst effects of the virus.

“This will take time and much hard work, so we still have quite a journey ahead of us,” commented Minister Lee. He suggested four key takeaways in moving forward through the pandemic. First, it is important to build trust throughout society, given that trust is hard to build but easy to lose. Second, he emphasised the need to exercise government leadership and foster active community involvement. Third, he highlighted the importance of being adaptable in city planning, such as by buffering contingencies in city planning that can be easily converted for emergencies. Fourth, he underscored the importance of keeping cities liveable and connected, including digital connectivity.

In the area of higher education, Prof Kong in her comments on the impact of COVID-19, said that universities around the world have been confronted by situations where faculty and students have had to pivot towards teaching and learning online, within a very short period.

“At SMU, our faculty adapted quickly to mount online learning. Interestingly, our teaching feedback from students improved,” shared Prof Kong. “While faculty have had to make changes, students have also had to adapt to the many challenges of online learning, such has having adequate internet access and having the right equipment.”

“As Minister Lee said, this highlights the social challenges that have come to the fore.  It behoves us as educational institutions to support students and indeed, at SMU, stakeholders such as faculty and donors have come together quickly with a resilience fund to support students in need.

"In the area of research, our faculty have risen to the occasion by contributing ideas to cope with the pandemic. For example, in the area of supply chain management and logistics, our faculty lent insights into how the disruptions of supply chains might be mitigated so that we are able, as a city state, to continue to survive and thrive," she added.

The Summit, was organised in hybrid format, taking place in person at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre while concurrently being broadcast online via Zoom. The more than one hour-long panel discussion covered areas such as solutions to prepare communities for disruptions on the ground, how communities might self-organise and self-mobilise as first responders, as well as how city leaders engage and work with their communities to nurture leaders for more resilient cities.

Responding to a question on how being multi-ethnic and multi-religious might divide or unite a society during the Q&A segment, Prof Kong said that getting people to work together on a common purpose, that has nothing to do with ethnicity or religion, is more effective in bringing people together.

“From the research that I’ve done, building communities and building trust around ethnicity or religion need not mean focusing squarely on those issues. What I found, which really works to bring people together, is in the space that is secular…for example, a particular need in society such as food insecurity,” said Prof Kong.

“In a secular common space – be it the playground, sports field, social sector – studies have shown that these are the platforms where we are able to build relationships that are more long lasting.”

Organised biennially, WCS is an exclusive platform for government leaders and industry experts to address liveable and sustainable city challenges, share integrated urban solutions and forge new partnerships. Key highlights of the Summit include the WCS Mayors Forum, the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize and the WCS Young Leaders Symposium. Key highlights of the event can be viewed here.