From Disaster to Renewal: the centrality of business recovery to community resilience

The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) commissioned Griffith University to examine the experiences and learnings arising from the communities that have experienced, first-hand, the challenges of recovering from and adapting to the impact of disasters. 

 

This research highlighted the strong sense of community in rural and regional Australia and the commitment of communities to ‘bounce back’ from disasters. Within a resilience framework that emphasises positive adaptation in the face of disaster impacts, ‘bouncing back’ is not enough. Adapting to the ‘new normal’ needs to become an integral aspect of recovery planning. 

 

Key considerations arise from the research findings; that business recovery is central to community recovery and that recovery needs to be integrated within the resilience framework. Aligning practice within the resilience framework will require the disaster management community to reframe its understanding of recovery, incorporating adaptation and renewal.