Risk Returns

[

] 101

Strengthening Australia’s multiagency

approach to disaster management

Stacey Greene, Manager, Disaster Management, Asia-Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence, Australia

n 2009 the Australian government’s Asia Pacific Civil-Military

Centre of Excellence launched a multiagency initiative aimed

at improving the coordination of Australia’s response to

disaster management. The outcome is a document entitled

Strengthening Australia’s Conflict and Disaster Management

Overseas

, published in late 2010. The document is a ‘concep-

tual framework’ designed to assist Australian government

departments and agencies to further advance their collabora-

tive management mechanisms for dealing with international

conflicts and disasters. This chapter draws upon the content of

the conceptual framework document through the lens of disaster

management. It particular, it focuses on the fifth Priority outlined

in the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: ‘Strengthen disas-

ter preparedness for effective response at all levels’. Preparedness

is, of course, a disaster risk reduction exercise in its own right,

because a comprehensive, coordinated and prepared response

reduces the impacts and losses of a disaster.

Disasters within Australia and the Asia-Pacific region affect the lives of

millions of people. Affected countries within the Asia Pacific region some-

times ask Australia to assist with the humanitarian response. Responding

effectively to these challenges will only continue to be successful if lessons

are learned and progressive steps taken to improve the ways agencies

respond to disaster management challenges. Australia has nowdeveloped

considerable experience in coordinating the country’s response to inter-

national disasters following the successive experiences of the 2004 Asian

tsunami, earthquakes in Indonesia, Samoa, New Zealand and Japan and

floods in Pakistan to name a few. These responses have demonstrated

that Australia has a robust inter-agency coordination mechanism, but

that there are areas in which fine-tuning of the system and its underlying

concepts can lead to overall improvements.

Australia is therefore committed to refining its approaches to disas-

ter management to extend collaborative and coordinated planning and

response mechanisms. This involves drawing on the combined expertise

of all agencies to ensure a shared understanding of disaster management,

to utilise resources effectively, and to avoid unnecessary duplication or

waste. This commitment demands close engagement between Australia’s

development, military, police and diplomatic agencies, as well as coor-

dination with the host governments, other contributing countries, the

UnitedNations, and humanitarian and non-government organisations. In

effect, Australia’s approach is to develop partnerships within the govern-

ment and between the government and non-government participants in

the disaster management process. In Australia, the terminology ‘civil-

military’ is used as the shorthand descriptor of these arrangements.

There are three key issue areas in Australia’s approach that will lead to

better overall disaster management efforts. The first of these lies in the

acceptance by all agencies of ‘guiding principles’ that help

to explain and strengthen a culture of multiagency collabo-

ration to better enable them to achieve outcomes with the

most efficient use of available resources. The second builds

on these principles by identifying mechanisms to assist

departments and agencies in promotingmultiagency under-

standing of disasters and the needs of the responders. The

third highlights the requirements for developing and imple-

menting agreed strategies to help strengthen civil-military

effectiveness in disaster management.

Guiding principles

Australia’s approach to disaster management derives from

six guiding principles which help direct the work priorities

of departments and agencies, and impact positively on deci-

sion making. The principles are:

• Employ a collaborative and flexible approach

• Leverage organisational and cultural diversity

• Strengthen proactive multiagency engagement

• Promote a shared understanding

• Deliver comprehensive outcomes

• Commit to continuous improvement.

Commitment to these guiding principles enables a civil-

military culture of engagement for disaster management

based on trust and mutual respect and promotes coordi-

nation and cooperation for the achievement of common

objectives. The principles apply throughout the full spec-

trum of the disaster management cycle.

The range of capabilities within departments and agencies

help in understanding the complex andmultilayered nature

of disaster management. Best use can be made of each agen-

cy’s set of professional, technical and cultural expertise, and

values and perceptions, to provide breadth and resilience

to assessment, planning and execution, ensuring disaster

response outcomes are optimized. International deploy-

ments of Australia’s capabilities are thus able to capitalise

on the strengths of organizational and cultural diversity,

which needs to be considered in the initial planning phase,

and maintained throughout each engagement.

A collaborative approach, through which departments

and agencies work together to achieve a common goal,

is based on shared understanding of common objectives.

Shared understanding is achieved through mutually-

productive organisational relationships, extensive external

networks, and effective utilization of all available informa-

2044