IPMA has completed the March Council of Delegates meeting online. As the World has been
locked down several times, we have seen at first hand the diculties experienced nations and
regions. The SARS-COV2 Covid-19 pandemic brutally exposed our vulnerabilities in every area.
One lesson we can learn is that we need to build our ability to adapt and withstand future crises.

During this pandemic period, resilience – the ability to respond to the crisis – has helped many
organizations survive a turbulent year. Resilience is as much about recognition as it is about recovery.
The resilient actions taken by organisations include investing in workforce initiatives such as reskilling
or redesigning work, diversifying operations, and developing technological capabilities to drive new
business models. Successful organizations adapted to remote working, kept employees safe, both
mentally and physically, and took actions to maintain trust between leaders and employees. They
also valued diversity, equity and inclusion and made commitments to improve the environment and
strengthen their communities.

We, at the International Project Management Association (IPMA), currently with 72 national
Member Associations worldwide, share with our members the skills and abilities needed to reach and
maintain resilience. We are the oldest network of project management professionals worldwide and
are 56 years in existence. We represent a professional network of people that promote excellence in
projects, programmes, and portfolios, supporting the development of individual, organisational and
project management technical and behavioural competences. IPMA has global standards in place that
define these competencies.

All these hard and soft human competences are needed at this diŠcult time. A time where regional and
local networks must collaborate more closely, addressing the specific challenges of the region or local
environment and helping to minimise the impact of the crisis. Today we must be more disciplined and
rigorous than ever while maintaining our humanity in the face of the pandemic challenges.

This past year shows that we are what we say at IPMA: we are proud to be part of the IPMA Family,
a family of professionals who build relationships for life. We develop our relationships so that they exist
far beyond mere institutional relationships. We stand ready to tackle the diŠcult challenges of the
future – together.

The Covid-19 crisis will provoke both ideological and economic earthquakes and we are moving towards
a new horizon. Some things will benefit from the shock waves; they thrive and grow when exposed to
volatility, randomness, disorder, stressors, and uncertainty. These will cause new concepts and strategies
to arise. This is our understanding of antifragility. This is the stage beyond resilience or robustness. The
resilient resist shocks and stay the same; the antifragile moves, reacts, responds, and gets better.

IPMA Chairman Dr. Jesus Martinez Almela highlights that the most important thing now is to continue
taking care of our physical and mental health. We at IPMA have had to adapt and adjust everything
very quickly to the new situation over the last 12 months. IPMA structures, operations, projects,
regulations, events, certification, and our relationship with our Associations and key stakeholders have
adjusted. They all have the same objective: to win this battle against Covid-19 and build a resilient,
antifragile, and sustainable tomorrow. We can only do this together. We will continue as IPMA to focus
on developing competent professionals, committed to sharing valuable insights for our common good.
We will continue our work that began over 50 years ago and see the future in a much more virtual world
addressing a new reality.

CoD Communique 27032021