Lessons on Disaster Resilience – ARTD’S Reflections from Australian Disaster Resilience Conference 2024

Over two days in September 2024, Kate, Amanda, Sue and Ellen attended the 2024 Australian Disaster Resilience Conference in Eora (Sydney). The theme of the conference was ‘Maintaining momentum: driving systemic change to create a more resilient future’. The conference brought together a diverse range of attendees and speakers – from disaster practitioners and academics to policymakers and council staff, as well community leaders. There was a strong focus on exploring what ‘community-led’ recovery and resilience looks like in practice, as well as the mindsets that will enable us to create a more resilient future. 

The thought-provoking keynotes speakers unpacked some of the latest innovations and challenges for the disaster management sector. Douglas D’Antoine (Shire of Derby, West Kimberley) spoke about the impact on his community of the largest flood recorded in WA and what he has learnt from coordinating a community-led recovery process that brought together six native title groups, local leaders and business owners. We all left this presentation with the understanding that having the right people in the right roles is essential, and that recalibrating best practice means allowing the community to speak for the community – despite that this is complex and almost always entails dealing with disagreement and balancing different interests.

Dr Catriona Wallace (UNSW, Responsible Metaverse Alliance) gave a revealing (and slightly terrifying!) presentation on the key opportunities that AI is presenting for the disaster management sector, such as remote fire-fighting and simulated and augmented training, but also the risks we need to be aware of. One of the takeaways was that we need to strive for AI applications which are built with human, society and environment at its core, and are, at the very least, secure, private and non-discriminatory in nature.

What are we taking away to use in our work?

There were three other themes across the presentations and panel discussions we attended that we are taking away to inform our work.

  1. Minimise the burden of data collection for first responders

We learnt about the importance of balancing the need for reliable and current data with the need to reduce the burden of data entry on first responders. Governance structures which support interoperability and data sharing arrangements can help minimise the amount of administration required by first responders and community members in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, as well as more innovative practices such as app-based data entry which support image and audio uploads, rather than requiring written input. This made us think about how we as evaluators and government agencies commissioning evaluations can work smarter and more collaboratively to get more reliable and complete data for evaluations, with minimal burden of data entry for community organisations and community members leading recovery and resilience projects.

  1. Move at the speed of trust

It takes time to set up collaborative, partnership-based projects which rely on relationships with and input from community members dealing with difficult circumstances. The work of doing things collaboratively – at any level – is challenging, and it is common to meet resistance from within but also from external barriers along the way. This work takes a certain level of resilience itself, and is reliant on strong working relationships, transparency and clarity about roles and purpose, and a collective ‘can do’ culture.

Practitioners reflected that trust can take at least 12 to 18 months to build to the point where relationships are developing into action. A panel discussion on ‘lessons in collaboration’ featuring speakers from the insurance industry, non-for-profit sector and emergency services highlighted the importance of building this timeframe into funding opportunities and contracts . For example, it can be beneficial, if time and resources allow, to incorporate a ‘year-zero’ into planning which is dedicated to building relationships and ensuring values and priorities align. As one panellist put it, we should endeavour to “move at the speed of trust” when seeking to build authentic and sustainable relationships, which involves being aware that that the pace you work at may not necessarily be the same as your partners. This reflection is one that resonates with our experience, and is certainly applicable to many sectors we work in.

  1. ‘Resilience’ is a unique journey

Throughout the conference, we observed that the concept of ‘resilience’ was not applied universally, but rather, took on many different meanings. Further, what speakers and panellists reported as an indicator or outcome of a resilience-building activity were not uniform, but rather, unique to the context of the specific community they were working in. For example, Sumarlinah Winoto from Nillumbuk Shire Council described how resilience-building is occurring through community emergency exercises which seek to develop community confidence and capability to respond to disasters before they occur. Melanie de Kleyn from Ipswich City Council reported on her learnings from implementing a voluntary home buy-back program for residents whose properties are most severely impacted and at the greatest risk of future flooding. She explained how in this context, ‘resilience-building’ may involve providing people with the option to be supported to leave. Douglas D’Antoine from the Shire of Derby West Kimberley explained how “resilience is not a stand-alone activity” and may occur in multi-directional ways, including through long-term economic recovery and improvement on what existed before. We reflected on the fact that resilience is not a one-way nor predictable destination, but rather an ongoing journey which looks different for every community and every person. Community-led and relational approaches – as well as access to data – help create the conditions to allow systems and institutions to respond to the needs of each community and person to “flourish in their own ways.[1]

The ARTD team left the conference with our minds overflowing with new information and fresh perspectives, and inspired by the exceptional work that is occurring across the country from grassroots to government. It was fantastic to see the work of some of our clients highlighted at the conference also, and to learn from other researchers’ and practitioners’ work (and get to chat with them about it) in the poster alley!

Even the smallest conference attendee enjoyed the excellent knowledge on display in the poster alley.


We look forward to integrating what we’ve learned about the disaster resilience mindset into out evaluations that focus on disaster preparedness, recovery, and community-led initiatives to resilience building. If you missed the conference, many of the materials are available on the AIDR Knowledge Hub.

References

[1] https://ssir.org/articles/entry/policylink-revolution-of-the-soul

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