New Research Grant Awarded: Advancing Community Self-Reliance in Disasters

I am pleased to share that we have been awarded a competitive research grant jointly funded by the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Technology. The grant will support a new interdisciplinary study on strengthening community self-reliance during the critical early stages of sudden-onset disasters.

This project brings forward a new collaboration with Dr. Reut Noham from the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University, combining expertise in humanitarian logistics, optimization, disaster management, and the social and behavioral dimensions of emergency response.

Large-scale emergencies—such as earthquakes, armed conflict, terrorist attacks, or pandemics—are characterized by a sharp and immediate surge in demand for essential services that far exceeds the operational capacity of formal emergency and rescue organizations. Extensive evidence shows that in the first hours following a disaster, most assistance is provided not by professional responders, but by civilians within the affected community itself.

Building on this insight, our study focuses on the development of Community Independence and Rapid Response Centers (in Hebrew: Merkezey Atzma’ut Ve-Tguva Ba-Zman, מעו״זים). These are decentralized, community-level hubs designed to provide access to essential resources—such as first aid, water, basic supplies, information, and psychosocial support—while enabling structured self-organization during the critical first 24–72 hours after a disaster.

The research aims to:

• Identify the critical logistical and social needs of communities in the immediate post-disaster phase.

• Examine how access to local, community-based resources affects self-efficacy, trust, resilience, and help-seeking behavior.

• Develop a data-driven optimization model for the equitable and effective spatial deployment of these centers at neighborhood and community scales, integrating logistical constraints with social and behavioral variables.

  
  

Why This Research Matters

This project directly contributes to a growing shift in disaster management thinking—from a predominantly centralized, responder-driven model to a decentralized, community-based paradigm. By strengthening local capacity for autonomous action in the earliest and most decisive phase of a disaster, communities can reduce immediate dependency on overstretched emergency services, narrow the inherent operational gap, and allow professional responders to focus on the most complex and life-threatening situations.

Beyond its scientific contribution to the fields of humanitarian logistics and community resilience, the study is designed to produce practical, policy-relevant tools for national ministries and local authorities. Its findings are expected to support more resilient, equitable, and socially grounded disaster preparedness strategies in Israel and beyond .