DISASTER MANAGEMENT, COMMUNITY CAPABILITY, RESILIENCE AND VULNERABILITY

This paper will assess and report on activities being undertaken in the State of Victoria, Australia and in other places to develop community capability and to link enhanced local capacity with resilience development and vulnerability reduction. An outline of a number of co-related community level and community centred programs will be provided and critically assessed in the context of the need to promote public safety through resilience enhancement and vulnerability reduction. This paper will discuss these issues in the context of emergency management and will propose that the basic unit of management needs to be the local community. Emphasis will be placed on the need to ensure local, co-operative and collaborative activity and the development of effective means of ensuring that local experience, values and learnings are integrated into the planning and capability development processes. The distinction between local community and local government will be drawn out, and it will be argued that local planning and management has, to date, effectively been municipal planning and management.