Building Coalitions to Enhance Community Resilience - a Global Effort

The Annual Conference on Disaster Preparedness and Response 2015: From Community to Emergency Room was held from 30th October to 1st November, 2015 at the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. The Conference was co-organised by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute (HKJCDPRI) and the Hong Kong College of Emergency Medicine (HKCEM). The Conference successfully brought together a wide range of stakeholders including government representatives, healthcare professionals, NGO practitioners, and academics working in the field of disaster preparedness and response.

The HKJCDPRI would like to share with you some highlights of the conference in webcasts.

No one agency or organization can address every aspect of the resilience process alone, more rigorous collaboration is required for complex problem-solving and action. As community organizations increasingly use resilience building to frame how they work, partnerships have become a critical ingredient in addressing the diverse needs in communities. Promoting safety, health, and prosperity becomes an avenue for promoting resilience. Multi-stakeholder partnerships – or coalitions – in particular provide a means to bring together diverse perspectives, expertise, and resources to the challenges reflect the complexities of local communities and networks. These approaches have been quickly adapted in urban areas where different disciplinary and institutional groups, government, private sector and various other multi-stakeholders are rising to a challenge driven by community needs. This webcast will cover the following issues,

• Challenges faced in urban disaster response and resilience building
• Effective urban community preparedness strategies
• One Billion Coalition Initiative
• Community resilience building case studies 

This webcast is targeted for practitioners and policy makers who are involved in disaster response and preparedness, especially in urban settings. This is also suitable for general public who are interested in the concept of community resilience.