Enabling local action and reflection: The community disaster resilience capability framework

: Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity along with a commitment to community-led work that facilitates greater community resilience to these events. Yet, despite the popularisation of community resilience through government policies, programs and reports, it is unclear what capabilities need to be built, strengthened, and maintained by communities so that they are better prepared and able to cope, adapt, and respond to future disasters. Fire to Flourish was a five year transdisciplinary and community-led research program led by Monash University that worked alongside communities to strengthen their resilience to disaster. It was against this background that the Community Disaster Resilience Capability Framework was developed as a way to identify, observe, and capture the change occurring within communities through the innovative place-based work and community-led resilience strengthening initiatives. The framework aligns with current dialogue within the disaster sector and adjacent fields, and was developed through an interactive, participatory, and collaborative design, drawing upon expertise from academics and researchers, practitioners, and community members. This paper presents the Community Disaster Resilience Capability Framework and outlines the six capabilities that were identified as essential to strengthening community disaster resilience. It provides insights into the potential opportunities and limitations of the framework, and the ways it could be adapted in other community contexts and used by different communities to enable them to be ready for future disasters and challenges.