Characteristics of A Disaster-Resilient Community: A Guidance Note

Welcome to the Characteristics of a Disaster Resilient Community! We hope that you will be excited at the opportunity to engage with this resource, and learn to embrace the breadth and depth of the Characteristics. As the founding group of agencies we have enjoyed, as well as been overwhelmed by, the wealth of insight that the Characteristics can provide. Every agency has found them to provide a new sense of motivation for staff and partners alike, which ultimately has benefited the people we serve.

The Characteristics of a Disaster-Resilient Community is just one contribution to a much bigger and long-term process of building community resilience worldwide. We hope it will continue to contribute to this process and that those of you who use it will help us to ensure that it remains relevant.

When you read this document, you will become aware of how many organizations have used the Characteristics resource already and of the variety of ways in which they have applied it. In time, we hope it will be taken up by many more organizations which are active in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and other aspects of sustainable development.

Ultimately, the Characteristics are about supporting communities to ensure that when any hazard impacts, they have the skills, resources and confidence to reduce the impact, manage the response and ensure a swift recovery. This can be achieved if governments, NGOs, academics and communities work in partnership together.