Working together - resilience, adaptation & disaster risk reduction

Google’s AI summary says terminology is ‘crucial for accuracy, consistency, and effective communication, particularly in technical and professional contexts’. Yes.

The terms resilience, adaptation and disaster risk reduction are not just abstract concepts. They are used by people to describe what they do and, by extension, what they don’t do. They can even become entwined with identity.

Work in resilience and climate adaptation can sometimes operate in separate fields. This is natural - it is a way we manage complexity. But are we missing or avoiding fundamental solutions to these problems by narrowing our focus? Are we diluting effort?

The challenges we face in reducing the risk of, preparing for and managing disasters of all kinds - from earthquakes, pandemics to sea level risk - need more of us to work to together and think together.

How can we be encouraged to think beyond job descriptions to the broader context? The limited resources and time we have mean that working together is imperative.

For me, the answer has always been to work up from communities in a place, and to look at their opportunities and challenges collectively across sectors and discplines. This very grounded way of working really puts silos to silence, because everything relevant, becomes relevant.

- Hala