KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 23): Malaysia showed greater resilience and fared better than the world average in the Lloyd’s Register (LR) Foundation 2021 World Risk Poll data based on a survey by pollster Gallup Inc.

Malaysia had a score of 0.67 versus the world average of 0.55.

Gallup collected data on safety and risk from over 125,000 people in 121 countries.

By understanding how prepared and resilient individuals believe their communities, countries, and institutions are in dealing with disasters, LR shares insight with governments, development agencies, businesses, and researchers to help them identify vulnerabilities and take action to make people safer.

The Resilience Index score is between 0 and 1, with a higher score indicating greater resilience.

The overall score is calculated from scores in four areas:

1. 'Individual' resilience is the average of two survey items which measure agency/self-efficacy and educational attainment.
2. 'Household' resilience is the average of three metrics: one measuring financial assets, one measuring planning and one is the average of two survey items that measure access to communications.
3. 'Community' resilience is the average of two metrics: social capital and local infrastructure. These two metrics are each created from the average of three survey items.
4. 'Society' resilience is the average of three metrics: discrimination (scored from five survey items), government caring about well-being (one item), and a four-item index of confidence in national institutions.

In terms of the last disaster they experienced, 97% of Malaysians polled said they face flood/heavy rain.

Some 23% said they had gone without electricity for more than a day, 20% said they been without clean drinking water for more than a day, 6% said they had been unable to obtain food due to shortages for more than a day, 5% said they had been unable to obtain medical assistance or medicine for more than a day, while 14% said they had been unable to access a telephone for more than a day.

Discrimination

Of important note, Malaysians in general faced less discrimination on a global scale. Only 8% said they were discriminated due to skin colour versus 10% globally, 7% discriminated on religion against 12% globally, 8% based on race versus 12% globally, 6% due to gender against 11% globally, and 3% due to disability versus 6% globally.

On how much they think the government cares about them and their well-being, a whopping 35% said the government cares a lot while 16% said not at all.