The Demography of Disasters:
Implications for Future Policy on Development and Resilience
Australian National University
18–20 September 2013
By exploring how mortality caused by natural disasters impacts on women, men, children, the elderly and people with disabilities, the conference aims:
1. to contribute to more cost-effective government policies on disaster mitigation, preparedness and recovery for vulnerable populations;
2. to make the latest cultural and cross-cultural research on disaster mitigation, preparedness and recovery available to representatives from disaster impacted countries with a view to this material being incorporated in public policy;
3. to enable Disaster Risk Reduction practitioners among civil society groups who have daily operational interaction with disaster-impacted communities to come together to share their knowledge and experience with a view to opening dialogue on improved approaches to development and resilience among vulnerable, often poverty-stricken, populations;
4. to explore how access to social capital in family and kinship networks, land and assets influence survival rates and adaptive behaviors after a disaster; and
5. to examine the impact of migration into and out of disaster-affected areas and what are the long-term socio-economic impacts of these migration flows on individuals and population groups.