Submission from
One Voice Te
Reo Kotahi (OVTRK) onevoicetereokotahi.blogspot.co.nz
We support a new, Community Initiatives Plan to
allow NGO voices in Greater Christchurch to:
• be heard
• be informed
• be enabled to
work together
• contribute to
work done on Frameworks for Treaty-based, multicultural development where the
indigenous status of tangata whenua and the role of tangata Tiriti (everyone
else) are understood.
One Voice Te Reo Kotahi is
independent.
It does not speak for - but rather, from - the Third Sector, identifying issues spanning the sector and
allowing the voices of organisations that have not been formed by Government or
Commerce to be heard. We want to ensure that NGOs are valued.
OVTRK has over 100 organisations
on its Register, which represent communities of place, identity and interest.
The Register allows appropriate NGOs to be located.
onevoicetereokotahi.blogspot.co.nz
WE WISH TO BE
HEARD
We submit
that there is a need:
for locally-led
INFLUENCE in the Regeneration:
Any powers under the Act should be exercised
only at the request, and for the benefit, of affected local authorities, for a
purpose that complies with the new Act.
Those powers
should be exercised jointly by the relevant Minister in conjunction with the
Minister of Local Government in order to be consistent with the current local
government decision-making framework.
Councils
should have the ability to ask relevant Minister(s) to exercise powers on their
behalf, for example to support the implementation of a Regeneration Plan.
to focus
on the PURPOSE of “Regeneration”:
This should be consistent with the purpose of
local government around the country (section 14(1)(h) of the Local Government
Act – in taking a sustainable development approach, take into account (i) the
social, economic, and cultural interests of people and communities; (ii) the
need to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment; and (iii) the
reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations, in the context of Te Tiriti
o Waitangi (section 4)
to give explicit
recognition of the Third Sector:
While the importance of community,
connectivity and social capital is often acknowledged, we note that the Bill
fails to explicitly mention the invaluable role which the Third Sector plays in
fostering these critical bonds.
RATIONALE
Research carried out on the situation in Christchurch demonstrates the importance of resilience as a localised phenomenon. The key qualitative findings of research carried out under the auspices of the All Right? mental health campaign highlighted:
Research carried out on the situation in Christchurch demonstrates the importance of resilience as a localised phenomenon. The key qualitative findings of research carried out under the auspices of the All Right? mental health campaign highlighted:
· The
aftermath of the earthquakes has proven more difficult for many people than the
earthquakes themselves.
· The
recovery needs to be more people-focussed.
· The
most important support networks are family and close friends, followed by
community.[1]
Such research
demonstrates that the Third Sector supports and fosters community bonds.
It is not
just within Christchurch that the role of the Third Sector is underscored,
however. Rather, research on disaster response elsewhere in the world has also
highlighted the centrality of the Third Sector to community recovery and
resilience. Community recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Ike “showed that
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs, including community- and faith-based
organizations) are instrumental contributors to human recovery.”[2]
The reasons for their contribution to recovery include the diversity and range
of skills and services provided within the Third Sector, the fact they operate
within established networks,[3] and are used
to dealing with diverse, often hard-to-reach client groups.[4]
Further, the Third Sector often continues to play a critical role in
post-disaster recovery “long after formal emergency response agencies have
withdrawn their services.”
[5] Despite
such evidence of the fundamentality of the Third Sector to post-disaster
community resilience, however, it is not often incorporated into formal
discussions pertaining to resilience-building. As researchers of Hurricane
Katrina have noted:
While NGOs provide critical social, economic,
and health services, there is evidence to suggest that their effectiveness
could be enhanced if they were more formally engaged in recovery efforts and
better integrated into planning at the local and state levels (Cutter et al.,
2006; Waugh, 2006). […] In addition, potential actions for how state and
federal government could better engage NGOs in these human recovery efforts are
missing from the dialogue.[6]
One Voice Te
Reo Kotahi maintains that Christchurch’s Regeneration could and should provide
powerful, public acknowledgement of the role of the Third Sector in disaster
response and recovery, as well as to future resilience.
We therefore
submit that support is vital for community
initiatives that are not formed by statutory or commercial imperatives
alone (OVTRK uses the shorthand "NGOs" for such organisations). This
support must be locally led.
These Community
Initiatives may be place-based (like Avon Otakaro Network, Parklands
Residents Association), interest-based (like Tenants’ Protection
Association, Christchurch Biodiversity Partnership) and identity-based
(like Russian Cultural Society, Transgender Association).
Our proposed,
new, Community Initiatives Plan would allow NGO voices in Greater
Christchurch to:
• be heard
• be informed
• be enabled to
work together
• contribute to
work done on Frameworks for Treaty-based, multicultural development where the
indigenous status of tangata whenua and the role of tangata Tiriti (everyone
else) are understood.
Whether they
are communities of place, of interest, or of identity these Community
Initiatives are vital for a locally-led "Regeneration".
Katherine
Peet and Rex Gibson
OVTRK
Co-Chairs
--
P O Box 32035
LInwood
Christchurch
8147
Direct phone
lines 03 384 1281 or 027 217 0009
[1] Healthy Christchurch, ‘All Right?
wellbeing
campaign,’ http://www.healthychristchurch.org.nz/priority-areas/wellbeing-and-community-resilience/all-right-wellbeing-campaign.aspx.
[2] Anita Chandra and Joie Acosta, The
role of nongovernmental organizations in long-term human recovery after
disaster: Reflections from Louisiana four years after Hurricane Katrina,
RAND Corporation, 2009, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2009/RAND_OP277.pdf.
[3] Council of Australian Governments, National
Strategy for Disaster Resilience, Commonwealth Attorney-General’s
Department, Canberra, 2011.
[4] Victorian Council of Social
Service, Disaster and disadvantage: Social vulnerability in emergency
management, 2014, p. 31.
[5] Victorian Council of Social
Service, Disaster and disadvantage: Social vulnerability in emergency
management, 2014, p. 31.
[6] Anita Chandra and Joie Acosta, The
role of nongovernmental organizations in long-term human recovery after
disaster: Reflections from Louisiana four years after Hurricane Katrina,
RAND Corporation, 2009, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2009/RAND_OP277.pdf.
