Closing the Gap in Emergency Management

Project description

NIDR is raising awareness, tracking progress and proposing meaningful actions governments can take to Close the Gap in Emergency Management.

All Australian governments – federal, state, territory and local – have committed to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Clause 64 seeks to improve the way governments work with Indigenous communities before, during and after disasters.

Despite this, no governments are reporting progress against a key clause related to disasters. Closing the gap in emergency management means closing the gap between commitments and government action.

NIDR is helping to raise awareness, track progress against this clause, and propose meaningful actions that all governments can take to close this gap:

1. Fully integrate the reporting requirements under Priority Reform 3 into annual reporting for emergency management agencies.
2. Establish a $30 million stream under the existing Disaster Ready Fund to build capability in the Indigenous community-controlled sector.
3. State, territory and local governments establish formal partnerships with Indigenous organisations that enable shared decision-making before emergencies.

Each year, NIDR releases the annual Disaster Preparedness Scorecard ahead of the higher risk weather season, evaluating how well government emergency management agencies have delivered on their commitments to engage with Indigenous peoples, measured against three criteria. So far, analysis presented in Scorecards shows that federal, state and territory governments are not meeting their commitments.

Resources

Tracking disaster exposure

Researchers