Hacking Resilient Communities: The Interplay Between Government Functions and Grand Pathways

Relationship with Essential Government Functions

Essential Government Functions align with and complement the societal dimensions and cross-cutting enablers established in the Grand Pathways Framework.

In the Grand Pathways Framework, key functions are actions or services that use cross-cutting enablers to support and deliver one or more societal dimensions. For example, community trust in its governance depends on execution of safe, secure elections, which in turn require secure cyberinfrastructure. Healthy populations require the ability of people to access necessary medical providers and services, which in turn requires the availability of educated and trained practitioners and the production and transport of essential medical supplies.

Some key functions have been identified as so vital to the national interest and national security that they have been formally designated and are used to assign and direct responsibility for Federal actions, some in steady-state settings while others are associated with significant incidents (Figure 2 and Appendix A):

• National Essential Functions (NEFs), Mission Essential Functions (MEFs), and Primary Mission Essential Functions (PMEFs) (Appendix 1): NEFs are the critical responsibilities of the Federal Government in sustaining the Nation. MEFs and PMEFs ensure that each Federal department and agency implements key functions required to ensure continued performance of the NEFs.

• National Critical Functions (NCFs): NCFs apply to the private sector and all levels of government and are vital key functions that, if disrupted, weaken national security.

• Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) and Recovery Support Functions (RSFs): ESFs are used to focus Federal response and coordination with non-Federal partners, and RSFs serve similar key functions during recovery.

• Community lifelines: Community lifelines establish a unity of effort between governments at all levels and non-governmental organizations (such as infrastructure owners and operators) to sustain the most fundamental services in the community that, when stabilized, enable all other aspects of society to function.

These function sets are principally used to drive contingency and continuity planning and in incident response, which tends to focus on preparedness, response, and recovery for specified shocks. While presented at the national level, communities benefit from an understanding of these functions. Other function sets like lifelines are familiar and relevant to local communities, particularly those frequently affected by natural disasters, and can be used beyond a specific incident to provide indicators of service delivery outside of an incident (e.g., power and water lifelines).

The Grand Pathways Framework is meant to allow users to identify key functions that are relevant to whatever dimensions of resilience they are concerned with, and use them to document the key building blocks (cross-cutting enablers) and any intermediate steps or resources that help them deliver value to the community (societal outcomes) in both steady-state (day-to-day) and in disruptive incidents. Breaking down outcomes using key functions and cross-cutting enablers allows users to discover common elements (e.g., one enabler that is vital to multiple key functions or outcomes) and key interdependencies. Such elements can emerge as priorities for study (i.e., new science), risk or vulnerability assessment, risk reduction (i.e., hazard mitigation or other resilience investments), or community engagement.