USING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION TO STRENGTHEN CAPABILITY IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

HAZARD NOTES - Bushfire Natural Hazards CRC

AUTHORS
Celeste Young, Prof Roger Jones, Prof Bruce Rasmussen and Dr Fiona MacDonald, Victoria University.
Contact celeste.young@vu.edu.au.

SUMMARY
Improving diversity and inclusion provides a tangible way to build robust and resilient social structures in communities and organisations. The emergency management sector has begun addressing the low representation of true diversity in its workforce, highlighting the need to understand not only the benefits
of diversity and inclusion, but also how to improve the effective implementation of diversity and inclusion in agencies.
This includes understanding the risks associated with a lack of diversity and inclusion. This is an important starting point as it underpins workforce resilience and wellbeing and community safety.
This research, based at Victoria University, collaborated with people in the emergency management sector who are engaged in diversity and inclusion practice to develop an evidence-based Diversity and Inclusion
Framework for Emergency Management Policy and Practice. The research was completed in three phases: understanding the context and current knowledge, developing the Framework, and testing and refining the Framework with end-users in emergency management.
The Framework and supporting documents, available through the CRC’s website on the Online Tools page (see also Resources, page 4), takes a whole-system approach constructed around four key components of
effective diversity and inclusion: strategic, programmatic, inclusive growth and risk management. This project has effectively broadened and strengthened the conversation about diversity and inclusion in the
emergency management sector, in particular the need to humanise risk using a deeper understanding of diversity and inclusion.