National Recovery Forum event wrap-up

Approximately 230 delegates registered for the Forum. Participants were inspired by presentations from experts and emerging research in the field and took part in interactive workshops, including open space conversations led by delegates on topics of interest to delegates.

The program was well received with 96.43% of survey respondents returning an excellent or very good response. Participant feedback indicates delegates were keen to reconnect with the recovery sector and were reinvigorated by the discussions had, particularly during the interactive sessions. One respondent commented ‘I really loved the mixed format with different opportunities to listen, learn and contribute.’

Bearing in mind Australia’s recent history of more frequent, intense, and compounding disasters some difficult but equally imperative conversations surfaced during the Forum. The lived experience of Bronwen Sparkes, Adam Weinert and Elly Bird among others in the room highlighted just how important disaster recovery is. When asked what key learnings delegates took away from the Forum, a survey respondent said, ‘Times have been difficult specifically during COVID but hearing many stories of very diverse situations and understanding the diverse responses.’

Key take aways include recovery needs to be planned for; community-led recovery is what works best; funding needs to take this into account both before and after disaster; and recovery is and will no longer be a separate process from prevention, preparedness and even response in an environment of more frequent, complex, and concurrent disasters.