AFTER THE TSUNAMI – HARNESSING AUSTRALIAN EXPERTISE FOR RECOVERY
Canberra, 31 March 2005

Follow-up group reports and case studies
Group 6: Longer-term issues – economic, social, cultural, environmental

In the immediate aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Australia’s research and development sector demonstrated its significant expertise by contributing to disaster relief efforts in a range of ways. While some Australian researchers were deployed on the ground, others were called upon to assist in relief management and policy development. Others played an important media role in explaining the causes and impact of the Tsunami to the Australian community. Regardless of how their expertise has been utilised, Australian researchers have demonstrated their knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• Disaster management (including rescue operations, medical assistance, victim identification, and disaster coordination and logistics);
• Technical and scientific know-how (including the science of tsunamis, measurement of environmental and geological impact, and risk management); and
• Socio-cultural, economic and political understandings of affected areas (including a knowledge of regional Asian languages, and the presence of long-standing personal and professional networks throughout the region).

In reflecting on Australia’s immediate response to the Tsunami disaster, and on our capacity to contribute to development and reconstruction efforts in the longer-term, we have identified a number of important gaps and shortcomings in our knowledge and capacity. In particular, the Tsunami disaster highlighted the following issues:

• Lack of personnel trained in Asian languages or with a knowledge of socio-cultural and political contexts – the majority of Australians deployed in emergency and disaster relief efforts did not speak an Asian language or have a knowledge of the socio-cultural and political contexts in which they were working, and this hampered their ability to be most effective in those situations. This situation may be due in large to the steady reduction of tertiary courses in languages and cultures provided by universities and other institutions.

• Lack of a coordinated regional disaster management framework – recognizing that international aid efforts are highly complex and fraught with difficulties, it would seem timely and prudent for Australia to take a leadership role in convening an international forum to investigate the regional capacity and commitment that could a) identify the range of potential disasters, b) assess the abilities of regional countries to provide acute and longer term assistance, c) specify the kinds of joint efforts that are needed to provide increased warning, security and recovery for all potential disasters. Such a forum could lead to a model Defence Against Natural Disasters Pact that would commit signatories to a methodology for assisting each other in the event of local or widespread disaster.

• Lack of base-line data – Australian government and society need to be better educated about our Asia-Pacific neighbours, their geography, environment, economy, culture, population and political structures. Here the academic community can contribute significantly and to good effect if encouraged and supported to do so.

• Lack of coordination and collaboration across disciplines, industries and institutions – our R&D sector (whether it is located in higher education institutions, research facilities or industry) lacks good models of cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral research. In relation to natural disaster research, for example, there is little dialogue between those working in the science and technical areas, and those in socio-cultural, political and economic fields. Our ability to respond quickly and effectively in emergency situations, and to contribute to longer-term sustainable development, is impacted by the lack of a systemic, integrated approach.

• Lack of means to disseminate research findings – it is a truism in the research sector that much R&D work is prompted by a crisis, and the current Tsunami disaster is no exception. We are concerned, however, that while it may prompt considerable research effort in both pure and applied fields, that we lack strong dissemination strategy to ensure that Australian researchers can be kept informed of research activities in different sectors and different institutions.

• Lack of strong, sustainable regional partnerships – Australia’s relief and reconstruction efforts are most effective where they build on pre-existing networks and successful partnership models with research centres, universities, NGOs, and government departments. Our experience shows, however, that these partnerships are often unsustainable over the longer-term due to the lack of funding support, and the lack of cultural and political understanding between partners (including a perception of paternalism in Australia’s regional aid program). A strength of Australia’s capacity to contribute are the personal and institutional networks developed by researchers. These networks should be strengthened in the region, perhaps through the formal international associations and linkages currently existing with the Academies.

While Australia’s contribution to relief and reconstruction efforts following the Tsunami disaster deserve praise, we should also use this opportunity to reflect on our national capacity to respond to future natural disasters and contribute to sustainable development in our region. In evaluating our contributions we need to recognise that decisions made now will have long-term effects on both Australia’s research and development capacity as well as reconstruction activities in the region.

Recommendations in relation to our national contribution

The following table maps the priority gaps identified above against a range of medium and longer-term strategies to address them.

Priority Gap	Medium-term strategy	Longer-term strategy
Lack of personnel trained in Asian languages or with a knowledge of socio-cultural and political contexts	Support training and education activities in Australia: Enhance opportunities for language, and socio-cultural and political training programs for personnel employed in relief and reconstruction activities. Support training and education activities in the region: Provide English language training for personnel employed in relief and reconstruction activities Increase student exchanges and scholarships for undergraduate and graduate training to replace loss of human resources Provide technical training in disaster management and reconstruction/relief	Enhance teaching, learning and research capacity in Australia in the following areas: Social, cultural, economic and political knowledge of our region Asian languages Historical studies
Lack of a coordinated regional disaster management framework	Establish and maintain effective databases of Australian expertise	Establish an international and/or regional pact to address natural disasters Focus on disaster recovery as well as sustainable reconstruction Focus on developing the political architecture for regional collaboration (rather than on Australian-based solutions) Focus on finding solutions that build on local knowledge and capacity Provide a framework for drawing on Australia’s R&D expertise
Lack of base-line data	Identify and support Australia’s expertise in selected research fields NAF to play a role in identifying gaps in Australia’s current research capacity (e.g. declining numbers of students taking Asian languages) Protect and enhance Australia’s expertise in important fields currently under threat NAF to play a role in responding to current RQF and threat it poses to many research (e.g. regional and rural development; cultural, historical and creative arts) Ensure that Australia’s expertise is recognised in the national research priority structure	Increased spending on R&D activities that engage regional partners in social understanding and infrastructure needs.
Lack of coordination and collaboration across disciplines, industries and institutions	Support cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral research programs Need a model that combines the best that the Centre of Excellence scheme and ARC Networks scheme have to offer. Ensure that Australian funded reconstruction programs adopt a systemic, integrated approach
Lack of means to disseminate research findings	Encourage and support dissemination of research findings in non-traditional media NAF to play a role in addressing the imperative within RQF that works counter to this strategy by focusing on ‘quality’ and ‘impact’ measured by peer-review.
Lack of strong, sustainable regional partnerships	Encourage and support international partnerships through increased spending on: Staff exchange programs Workshops and training programs Cross-country Centres of Excellence

The Tsunami disaster has provided Australia with the unique opportunity to evaluate its knowledge and capacity in relation to disaster management in the region. It is important that we take advantage of this opportunity to shape the nation’s research and development capabilities.