This is AIDR calling

The conference is our big set piece and our major in-person event. While the program is important, it’s the networking, conversations, and connections that were made that make this event so special and important. The team did an amazing job in pulling it together – an especially big thank you to Ange Draper, Charlotte Fell, Juanita Bahl, Zoe Kenyon and Ana Moreno.

The opportunity to listen to and learn from so many people in our sector was fabulous. It gave me insights into the issues people are facing and the great work taking place in our sector to meet our challenges.

Capability development was mentioned multiple times throughout the conference. What can be done to help the diverse range of actors in disaster risk reduction, resilience and recovery develop their capability? Systemic funding approaches were also a commonly discussed, and the challenges of episodic and time limited funding.

Mami Mizutori’s reflection on Ilan Kelman’s 5 things we need to get right: right mindset, right investment, good governance, good data, and tangible targets, provides a good framework for us to focus. I think much of the work needs to be in the right mindset area.

Drawing on another of Ilan Kelman’s themes, we choose disasters. This seems counterintuitive because many are the product of natural processes we can’t control. We choose to allow people live in places at risk. We choose not to build homes that can withstand great forces. We choose not to put in place warning systems that would wake up sleeping kids at a camp to evacuate.

Having sat across the kitchen tables from people who have lost everything dear to them, I intensely know the true costs of disasters. This is why we need to embrace a radical transformation.

We have many tools at our fingertips to embrace on a superhighway of knowledge. It is for us, as the greatest band to come out of Perth, The Triffids, once sang ‘a wide-open road’.