Because Resilience is Local

“The pandemic is a historical moment. The only choice that we have is
to collaborate and to build stronger partnerships – not always starting
something new – but utilizing the existing skills and capacities in innovative
ways.”
Arshinta, Director of Public Health and Humanity Development of Yakkum Emergency Unit – a local NGO based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia – made this statement during the 2021 Indo-Pacific regional learning process on COVID-19 and its impact on disaster management and resilience. Her observation resonates with the primary findings of this report which suggest that while there are relatively few genuinely new proposals in the way disaster risk managers and humanitarian aid workers should approach disaster management and resilience, the pandemic has reconfirmed the need for urgency in implementing the changes that various international and regional agreements and national policies have already embraced on paper.