Inclusive prosperity

Flourishing communities

Our Fire to Flourish initiative is working alongside four communities in NSW and Victoria who lived through the 2019/2020 bushfires to build and scale new models that embrace, enable and empower community led recovery and resilience building in the face of climate change impacts. Unfortunately in 2023, two of the communities were again hit by bush fires. Thanks to our focus on relationship building over the last few years, people came together in stronger ways than they had previously. Communities are expressing hope for their future and developing trusting relationships which demonstrates how well they are healing.

National Indigenous Disaster Resilience (NIDR) is a stream within our Fire to Flourish initiative, led by Bhiamie Williamson, a Euahlayi man from north-west NSW, and in partnership with Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations and agencies. NIDR champions Indigenous leadership in disaster resilience and emergency management preparedness and response by enhancing and instilling a caring for Country mindset across all agencies and organisations within the emergency, resilience and land management sector. In August, we hosted the inaugural NIDR summit in Meanjin/Brisbane to begin the conversation between and about Indigenous peoples disaster resilience. Attendees included Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, emergency management practitioners, and agency heads, including friends from Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Closing the gap

The National Indigenous Australians Agency and the Coalition of Peaks commissioned MSDI to build a 'proof-of-concept' simulation model to provide quantitative projections for four Closing the Gap targets. We partnered with the Millennium Institute to develop the technical model which will enable stakeholders to explore the effects of changes in drivers on the selected targets, helping to understand how to achieve better outcomes for First Nations peoples.

A focus on equality

Our Evidence Review Service conducted 10 rapid evidence reviews and two qualitative studies on the issues and solutions to break cycles of social disadvantage in Australia for the Paul Ramsay Foundation. The foundation is using our findings to inform their practices, plan their programs, conduct policy discussions, and make grant decisions that will achieve the maximum impact.