This is AIDR calling

Here in Naarm (Melbourne) we are having a warm and dry Waring or wombat season. The leaves on the deciduous trees are hanging on, taking in the warmth – and now at the end of the month – are just starting to turn.

There’s talk of an El Niño that might lead to higher temperatures and drier conditions – just don’t call it ‘super' around meteorologists or climatologists.

Much of the month has been spent strengthening stakeholder engagement and getting a few housekeeping things in order. We are just finalising our new AIDR approach and Theory of Change, and hope to make that public next month. I’m really pleased we have simplified our vision to: ‘A future where hazards do not become disasters’, which draws upon Enrico Quarantelli’s classic disaster definition of a hazard intersecting with a vulnerable population. Although it’s a pretty ‘big’ vision, it’s a reminder of what we are about, and how we enable people to get on with good lives, uninterrupted by hazard events.

Our push to increase our support of local government in our programming gained momentum this month with the 6th edition of Resilience Matters and the inaugural local government bulletin, packed with resources for recovery for those working in the sector. The bulletin is the first of 3 we will issue, focusing initially on risk reduction followed by preparedness.

Attending the Ecological Society Conference last year reminded me of my university days studying ecology. It made me realise there is a whole sector/system we are not connecting well with, prompting us to build connections. Dr Mark Norman, Parks Victoria’s Chief Conservation Scientist, spoke with us about the Resist Adapt Divert framework and natural values. Our next Resilience Matters webinar will feature Sarah Hoyal and Dr Bek Christensen from Natural Resource Management Australia. I am very excited about this developing area.

I met with Mia Cox from Sustain: The Australian Food Network to talk about food security in these uncertain times. Food security has long been an interest of mine, and the concept of shortening supply chains to foster a resilient system is something I am very interested in exploring further.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Kate Lowsby and Michael Livingstone from Jesuit Social Services about the Centre for Just Places initiative. It was a fantastic meeting learning about the project, and the work they are doing in western Melbourne, Sydney, and NT ensuring climate adaptation doesn’t leave anyone behind.

We also had a brilliant visit from Dr Jennifer Grenz, Yolanda Clatworthy, Tiffany Traverse and Joel Grenz from the Indigenous Ecology Lab at the University of British Columbia and Mitigating Wildfire Initiative. It was an opportunity for us to learn and to share. While we have yet to really adopt a systematic approach to engaging with Indigenous Knowledge, I am quite happy to see the ad hoc initiatives we have been involved in are well supported. However, there is much more we can do.

The Youth Affairs Council Victoria and Victoria University’s Centre for Excellence-Young People and Disasters held a webinar this week on their research findings on attitudes towards young people. It is fascinating that agencies view young people as a potential resource, while young people feel entitled to be involved in decisions about their wellbeing now. Recognising a rights-based approach in disaster management is not something we have really addressed in Australia. While on the topic of young people, we held the first Spotlight Series of the year on education outcomes. Increasingly, there is research indicating students have poorer education outcomes post disaster. I think we fail to address the consequences of this: kids may not finish school, their health and wellbeing suffers, their social connections dwindle, and their ability to earn an income is affected. It is a long-term, systemic issue we need to be paying more attention to.

Meanwhile, we are refining our Disaster Mapper criteria. We had an excellent meeting with the Australian Climate Service and Bureau of Meteorology and are looking to draw upon some of the criteria they have developed to enable loss and damage reporting to the United Nations.

The first steering committee kicked off the development of Major Incidents Report for 2024-25. Three jurisdictions indicated it was near impossible to distinguish between events over the high-risk weather period – a sobering thought along the lines of permacrisis.

It was also a month in which I became a grandfather, which certainly shifts perspectives! Some what indulgently, I wrote about one of my loves – jazz – and disaster resilience for International Jazz Day. Here’s a link to the playlist.