Business Continuity in Crisis: A Global Framework Inspired by FEMA's National Response Framework and Lessons from Myanmar & Pakistan

Khatana Junaid Ahmed

Abstract: The article addresses the problem of securing business continuity amid intensifying climatic, geopolitical, and socio-economic crises by shaping a global framework grounded in FEMA's National Response Framework and the practice of Continuity of Operations Planning. The study's objective is to develop a universal model that merges national regulations of advanced economies, international standards, and the experience of developing markets, where infrastructural vulnerability intersects with institutional instability. The topic's relevance is determined by the high frequency of disasters capable of simultaneously disrupting logistics and energy chains, mounting investor and regulatory pressure in the ESG domain, and the need for a systemic transformation of corporate risk governance. The novelty lies in synthesizing normative doctrines (NRF, COOP, ISO 22301, the Sendai Framework) with empirical lessons from Myanmar and Pakistan, which enabled the formation of the BCCR-the Business Continuity in Crisis Resilience Framework-that conceives resilience as a multi-layered ecosystem comprising people, processes, and technologies. The main findings assert that business continuity can never be a standalone function anymore: it becomes an architecture of survival, wherein risk monitoring and segmentation become convergent with a system of corridors?human, processual, and technological-and maturity is measured by the degree to which these are embedded as part of a sustainable-development strategy. It results in pre-positioned islands of resilience and governed communication, lowering the probability of cascade effects while sustaining productive and social functions even under systemic crisis. The article will be helpful to risk-management scholars, corporate resilience practitioners, leaders of multinational companies, and designers of regulatory frameworks.

Keywords: business continuity, crisis management, FEMA, Sendai Framework

How to Cite?: Khatana Junaid Ahmed, "Business Continuity in Crisis: A Global Framework Inspired by FEMA's National Response Framework and Lessons from Myanmar & Pakistan", Volume 14 Issue 8, August 2025, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 1663-1668, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR25827151807, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR25827151807