Rebekah Baynard-Smith is a consultant with Canberra-based international development firm Sustineo, working with NGOs, governments and UN agencies across the Indo-Pacific in the fields of climate resilience, WASH, labour migration and more. Prior to this, Rebekah worked as a disaster resilience and community development practitioner, supporting communities across Victoria and New South Wales to build preparedness to bushfires and other natural and man-made hazards. Rebekah was part of the Victorian Government’s award-winning Community Based Bushfire Management team, and designed and launched the innovative “Get Techy, Get Ready” program. She has also coordinated programs for Australian social enterprise Resilient Ready, focusing on building business resilience with tourism operators, agribusinesses, Councils and not-for-profit/community organisations.
Outside of work, Rebekah volunteers for the Nusa Tenggara Association supporting their income generation, education and disaster relief projects in Eastern Indonesia. She speaks Indonesian and is heavily involved in the Australia-Indonesia community across Canberra and Melbourne.
Rebekah is passionate about working with culture to build an Indo-Pacific that is ready for the new era of compounding disasters.
