Institute for Post Disaster Recovery: Disaster Recovery By Design

The world is facing six simultaneous disasters: The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic; volatile and unbalanced economic meltdown; degradation of global climate; population growth threatening the environment, communities and livelihoods; scarcer and more expensive resources; and changing sociopolitical systems. These events have interlinked characteristics and are defining the 21st century through a series of unprecedented urban challenges that urgently require new capacities, abilities, tools and knowledge to confront and mitigate them.

The Institute for Post Disaster Recovery (IPDR) will be a platform for a global network of people and processes with expertise in helping cities, organisations and people to prepare for, and recover from, disasters sustainably: bringing together key players from the industry, public organisations, NGOs, aid agencies and academic institutions. The distinction between IPDR and other initiatives with a focus on disaster reduction and recovery, is that the IPDR will dive deep into the post-disaster recovery domain to investigate, conceive, develop and build solutions through design with key stakeholders, resulting in bold actions for better policy, equity, inclusion and impact.

Design will play a key role in four areas by: Bringing together different fields to co-tackle the challenges holistically; providing a hands-on opportunity for continuous learning and testing new solutions; bringing in human factors and user-centred approaches to the recovery processes; and developing research-led and mission-centred innovations that are contextually appropriate, as well as culturally and environmentally friendly.

The IPDR will support learning nationally and internationally. More efficient, effective and accountable research and development will enable all stakeholders to take a more co-ordinated and evidence informed approach to recovery. In addition, it will act as a place to exchange and share the best resources, references and help build trust, communities and opportunities for volunteering, knowledge exchange and best practice. A first of its kind for expertise and know-how, it will help make the UK the centre of sustainable and design-led approaches, methods and humanitarian technologies in post disaster response.