AIDR’s 2 new webinar series: Resilience Matters and Spotlight Series

AIDR has been working on 2 new webinar series this year in response to stakeholder feedback, and in recognition that the world is changing quickly and there is a large volume of research, knowledge and challenges emerging in the sector.

AIDR’s Spotlight Series is a new quarterly webinar series that showcases emerging knowledge, research, and issues in the areas of disaster risk reduction and resilience. The first webinar in this series was presented by Ika Trijsburg, exploring disinformation in disasters. Ika discussed the challenge of navigating mis and disinformation in the context of disaster news and communications, and proposed strategies for organisations to stay ahead of this to build relationships and trust.

The next webinar in the Spotlight Series will be exploring trust with Mark Duckworth on Tuesday, 28 October 2025. For updates, resources and recordings, please visit the Spotlight Series webinar page on AIDR’s Knowledge Hub.

Resilience Matters is a new webinar series that was launched this year. The series has been designed to provide a foundational overview of disaster risk reduction for people and organisations working in all levels of the disaster resilience and recovery sector. This series explores theoretical and practical perspectives and provides a forum for individuals to share ideas, engage with the research, and learn from the experience of the presenters. AIDR hopes participants will find this series accessible, thought-provoking, and will challenge attendees to reflect on learnings that can later be applied to our work in the sector.

We continue to learn more about how systems, environments, and human factors can intersect to influence the varying levels of risk, harm, and equity that people experience before, during and after a disaster. This series shifts the focus from preparedness and recovery to the broader and interconnected systemic issues of disaster risk reduction and resilience building. We focus upstream of the disaster and consider how to anticipate, plan for, and reduce the risk of disasters to protect lives, livelihoods, cultures, communities, and ecosystems.

AIDR has delivered 3 webinars so far in this series and welcomed a variety of presenters from local government, Australian government, and academic sectors. So far, content has focused on laying a foundation for understanding disaster risk reduction, systemic thinking, and the connection between Australia’s policies and arrangements in supporting communities to prepare and respond to disasters.

Professor David Sanderson launched the series with a foundational overview of disaster risk reduction, explaining 2 models that can help us understand how vulnerability and hazards intersect to create disasters. David used the ‘Pressure Model’ to illustrate how compounding root causes, contextual pressures, and unsafe conditions can lead to increased vulnerability when a hazard becomes a disaster. These concepts emphasise the importance of systemic thinking in disaster risk reduction. That is, recognising the importance of thinking holistically rather than looking at isolated factors. Additionally, Kirsten Jenkins joined David to provide a grass roots, local government perspective.

Professor Lauren Rickards led the second webinar on systemic disaster risk, an exploration of how cascading and interconnected risks in our systems and institutions can amplify inequality and Professor Lauren Rickards led the second webinar on systemic disaster risk, an exploration of how cascading and interconnected risks in our systems and institutions can amplify inequality and marginalisation and magnify impacts of disasters. Systemic disaster risk can be seen in the increasing impact of climate change on disasters. Lauren encouraged us all to look beyond the immediate context and identify our blind spots where change and adaptation is needed.

Dr Neville Ellis continued the discussion and encouraged people in emergency management and governance to challenge our assumptions about risks being independent and based on ‘cause and effect’ relationships. He suggested that we need to acknowledge that our idea of ‘normal’ is being eroded, and that we need to operate in ways that are flexible and focus on identifying and addressing root causes.

Andrew Minack, First Assistant Coordinator General – Policy and Governance, from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), presented the third webinar of the series. Andrew focussed on the global policy context for disaster risk reduction, how Australia’s policies and frameworks help to reduce disaster risk and build resilience, and the role of NEMA in navigating Australia’s many challenges.

The next webinar in the Resilience Matters series will be held on Thursday, 18 September 2025. For updates, resources and recordings on this series, please visit the Resilience Matters webinar series page on AIDR’s Knowledge Hub.

We look forward to continuing both webinar series after the 2025 Australian Disaster Resilience Conference in Perth. We hope to see many of you there.