Theory of Change
DisasterWISE’s Theory of Change is rooted in the understanding that community-led resilience emerges from the collective strengths, knowledge and agency of communities themselves.
Drawing on the Berkana Institute’s Two Loops Model and triple loop learning, DisasterWISE operates within a transformative paradigm—supporting communities to navigate the decline of overburdened, top-down disaster governance structures while simultaneously nurturing and amplifying emerging, community-led alternatives.
By fostering learning networks, local innovations and collaborative action, the network builds capacity within communities to lead their own resilience journeys. DisasterWISE works across spheres of influence, from local action and peer-to-peer learning to policy advocacy and systemic change, ensuring that knowledge flows horizontally within communities and vertically to decision-making spaces.
As the dominant system struggles to address the increasing complexities of disaster risk, DisasterWISE acts as a catalyst for transition, supporting the emergence of new, community-driven resilience models that prioritize equity, sustainability, and self-determination.
Conditions for Change
DisasterWISE’s practice model is based on the theory of decentralising and decolonising systems and enabling community-led agency and action.
The DisasterWISE practice model (Ways of Working) draws on the critical process of decolonising, which actively seeks to identify and undo the legacies of colonialism — including erasure, extraction, destitution, othering, and silencing. It also embraces a positive and progressive approach, acknowledging a pluriversal world that recognises multiple, diverse ways of knowing, expanding, and exchanging knowledge. At its core, the model emphasises learning by doing (adapted from the 8 ways pedagogy) to foster an environment where knowledge is co-created through lived experience and relational practices. The practice ensures that “no data is without story,” continuously adapting by synthesising multiple data sets, drawn from varying ways of knowing.
This agile, iterative approach is grounded in unlearning and relearning, highlighting the importance of relationships, self-determination and trauma-informed methodologies. Central to the practice is focusing on the spaces in between, nurturing the relational work that exists between diverse knowledges, and supporting communities in the journey of self-determined, community-led resilience.
The DisasterWISE practice model embraces decentralising as a core component, ensuring that decision-making, knowledge creation and action remain in the hands of those closest to the context - communities. Decentralising shifts power away from rigid hierarchies and centralised control, instead fostering distributed leadership, shared governance, and collective agency. It values the lived experience and expertise of communities, recognising that those closest to the challenges are best placed to drive solutions.
This approach aligns with decolonising practices by prioritising self-determination, relational accountability, and adaptability—supporting communities to shape their own futures through agile, place-based and context-specific strategies. By embedding decentralised ways of working, DisasterWISE strengthens dynamic governance, enabling continuous learning, innovation and locally led resilience that is responsive to changing needs and opportunities.