Aligning Event Risk Management with the Sustainable Development Goals

Since the implementation of the hard lockdown across the African continent, the livelihood of the events industry in African countries has been severely affected. Most businesses were not allowed to operate due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The events industry is a major contributor to job creation and the alleviation of poverty, where its operations directly address sustainable development goals: (SDG) 1 (No poverty); SDG 3 (Good health and wellbeing); and SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth). In response to the COVID-19 restrictions, the events industry developed a number of protocols, initiatives, and guidelines including the Tourism Industry Standard Protocols for COVID-19 Operations (Tourism Business Council South Africa – TBCSA); Covid-19 Reopening Guidance for the Restaurant Industry (Restaurant Association South Africa – RASA) and Reopening Guidelines for the Event Industry in South Africa – COVID-19 Safety and Prevention Measures (Event Safety Council – ECS), amongst others. Despite these reactive approaches, there is a need for the development of an event risk management model taking a more proactive approach to making events safer and continuing with business as usual, regardless of disruptions caused by pandemics. Going forward, risk management can be used as an innovative, proactive mitigation strategy that is aligned with the identified SDGs. The result of this study is the development of an innovative, proactive, sustainable event risk management framework (SERMF) for the events industry in Africa. Aligned with the SDGs, this chapter proposes valuable insights into how event organizers can apply risk management strategies to enable the hosting of events in a safe working environment to stimulate job creation in Africa.