Resilience policy in practice — Surveying the role of community based organisations in local disaster management

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how government policy and research understanding of the importance of CBOs has translated to local level disaster management practice. The paper presents findings of a review of all Local Government Disaster Management plans in Queensland, Australia. We explore factors affecting the role of CBOs including median local government area income, disaster experience, local government area population size and the number of CBOs in a given area. We find that the population of a Local Government Area and the number of CBOs within that local government area exert a far greater effect on determining the role of CBOs in that local government area than either income or number of disaster events. Our findings suggests that post-disaster learning and adaptation is not occurring at the local level. We discuss this failing in policy implementation and the implications for government to build community disaster resilience.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• community based organisations
• disasters
• policy analysis
• public administration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Data from QLD government: https://data.qld.gov.au/dataset/natural-disaster-relief-and-recovery-arrangements-activations.

2. This does not mean in every case that the plan is absent. In one case, the plan is in draft, and in another, the plan is being revised.

3. Data from ABS, catalogue number 6524.0.55.002. Estimates for financial year 2012–13.

4. Data from QLD government: https://data.qld.gov.au/dataset/erp-lga-qld/resource/f40834b1-dca6-40c2-9f0b-7ea63bdde2f1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lex Drennan

Lex Drennan is an adjunct research fellow at the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, where she carries out research in the field of disaster resilience. She is a regular contributor to academic and industry discussion on topics of government policy, disaster management, and resilience.

Lochlan Morrissey

Lochlan Morrissey completed a PhD in mathematical linguistics, and he is a research associate at the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. His research interests are diverse, and include game theory, statistical modelling and community resilience development.