This presentation was given by Neil Dufty to the Australian and New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference held in Brisbane on 16-18 April 2012. The paper and presentation develop a learning framework to build community disaster resilience based on evidence. The presentation shows that education, communications and engagement (ECE) is required across three interrelated fields: disaster risk reduction, emergency management and community development. The presentation also outlines best practices in ECE including using a community participatory approach, forming social capital through learning and the promotion of social media use before, during and after hazard events.

1. Neil Dufty
Molino Stewart Pty Ltd
Learning for Disaster Resilience

2. I’ve had my share of disasters

3. …and there’s more (this one a near miss)
so I could be called a ‘walking disaster’

4. Evidence
• Personal experience in disasters
• Experience working in disaster-prone communities
• Investigation into Australian disaster-related community
education across agencies
• Design, implementation and evaluation of ECE programs
• Numerous reports on aspects of hazard education,
communications and engagement
• Monitoring of worldwide trends including through social
media
• Major reviews of community warning systems e.g.
progress with Vic bushfire warnings, review of warnings
for Vic Floods Review

5. Some terms
• Resilience: return to ‘normal’ functioning;
‘bounce back’ vs ‘bounce forward’
• Education: two-way process with defined
learning outcomes e.g. school program,
volunteer training
• Communications: one-way process from
provider e.g. media release, community warning
• Engagement: interactive dialogue process e.g.
community forum, world cafes

6. ECE and learning
• In many cases disaster-related education,
communications and engagement (ECE)
are integrated e.g. in a public event, social
media
• ECE leads to individual and community
learning
• There should be ‘shared responsibility’ for
disaster ECE between agencies and
communities

7. Disaster Risk
Reduction
Goal: Minimise
residual risk
Learning from
ECE:
•Improve risk
perception
•Ways to
minimise risk
•Post-event
learning

8. Emergency
Management
Goal: Public
safety
Learning from
ECE:
•Precautions
•How/when to
respond
•How to recover
•Post-event learning
e.g. how to better
prepare

9. Is this enough to build
community disaster
resilience?

10. Evidence shows a
‘community development’
element is also required
Evidence includes:
•Extensive research into disaster-affected
communities (e.g. 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami,
Hurricane Katrina)
•Psychological studies in a range of communities
•Actions in Australia’s National Strategy for
Disaster Resilience

11. Social capital
• Social capital is the ‘networks, norms, and social
trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation
for mutual benefit’ (Putnam, 1995)
• Several researchers (e.g. Aldrich, Chamlee-
Wright) have found that social capital is critical to
the fast and efficient recovery of disaster-
affected communities and thus it should be an
important part of community development for
disaster resilience

12. Community
Development
Goal: Coordination
and cooperation for
disasters
Learning from
ECE:
•How/where to develop
networks, trust
•How/where to develop
human capital e.g.
leadership
•Post-event learning

13. Best practices in ECE
• Based on • Ongoing, not
understanding of the campaign
learning community • Cross-hazard where
e.g. psychological possible
profiles • Include evaluation of
• Should be ECE programs e.g.
participatory use of logic models
• Integrated with other • Use of a range of
DRR, EM and CD ECE techniques
activities including social media

14. ‘Learning for Disaster
Resilience’ (LfDR)
we now have a framework but
more research is required

15. LfDR will help those impacted by disasters
to become more resilient
Yes that’s me with hair and a son who is now 26!

16. Thank you
Questions?