Future of Civil Defence in Community Hands - Global Forum

An international forum on disasters in Canada has sent a strong message that responsibility for disaster and pandemic preparedness should be equally shared with communities.

New Zealand Resilience Trust CEO Jarrod Coburn received an enthusiastic response from international emergency management professionals when he presented a case study on work done by the Trust in Wellington at the World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto

According to Coburn the New Zealand Resilience Trust was the only grass-roots-based community organisation presenting at the conference, which hosted nearly 2,000 delegates from over 40 countries.

"Many international experts strongly promoted the involvement of communities, but I was the only person there presenting a case study on communities getting their act together and trying to mitigate the risk of a disaster themselves.

"The feedback I received was tremendous," said Coburn, "Many practitioners and academics are interested in our approach to improving the resilience of communities and see benefit in it to their own work."

The New Zealand Resilience Trust is an umbrella group for affiliated community-owned trusts who act autonomously to improve neighbourliness, democracy, and self awareness at a local level.

"There is tacit agreement worldwide that agencies trying to 'help' communities solve their problems can end up making a bigger mess out of things. This is why it is important that communities take control of their own destinies."

Coburn says it is time New Zealanders stopped suckling at the teat of government and started adopting the attitude of previous generations. Community leaders don't need permission to act - and a good place to start is helping prepare for disaster.

"We have a number of successful people in the past who have just got on and done things," he says, "Ed Hillary is the obvious icon, but consider also Kate Sheppard, Peter Blake, Apirana Ngata. Kiwis admire these people because inherently we all share a desire to be strong within ourselves. It is time to recover the New Zealand Attitude."

However, central and local government have an equally important role in disaster preparedness; work is needed to find ways of working closer in the spirit of true partnership.

The conference wound-up today with an address from another New Zealander, Patrick Helm from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Jarrod Coburn's presentation, plus supporting paper on community preparedness, can be downloaded at www.nzrt.org.nz.

ENDS

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