National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction: A great step forward for Indonesia

As the ‘country of a thousand islands’, Indonesia is well known to be prone to disaster. So many disasters affect Indonesia: earthquakes, landslides, floods, volcano eruptions, tsunamis and so on. The disasters have caused so many losses, both of lives and material resources.

During the rainy season, so many areas are submerged by floods and attacked by landslides. Even in Jakarta, the capital city, floods have left people in misery, often forcing them into emergency camps. This problem has happened every year for as long as we can remember. And experts predict that for the coming years, Indonesia has the potential to be struck again with the full gamut of earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

As a result of this dismal forecast, the National Agency for Disaster Reduction (BNPB), supported by those NGOs incorporated in National Platform (an agency which HFI helped to create) launched a national action for disaster risk reduction 2010-2012, in Jakarta on 22 February 2010. This launch was covered by national media and attended by government elements and NGOs.

The launching ceremony was opened by the Ministry of National Development, Armida Salfiah Alisjahbana and the speech of the head of National Agency of Disaster Reduction, Syamsul Ma’arif.

The National Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction 2010-2012 is a national program – a legal foundation for institutionalizing DRR in to local and national government. The program will engage both society and business actors by building coordination rules in implementing DRR at local and national level.

This is such an important step for recovery and risk reduction in Indonesia. With good planning and cooperation, we can look forward to a more stable future.

HFI pushes forward on Disaster Assessment Tool

Forum Groups Discussion Post Disaster Assessment Tool

Disasters can strike communities suddenly without warning. And when they do, they bring panic and disorder. Houses are destroyed, public facilities are damaged, people become refugees and live in emergency tents, local government ceases to function.
Meanwhile, economic activity also comes to a halt.

At such times, the volunteers from the affected area and from outside the region need to know what is happening, so they can take quick and appropriate action.

One of these quick actions is identifying the extent of damage: the number of houses destroyed, number of survivors, the emergency needs of survivor, etc.
Another action needed after a disaster is to ensure the continuation of education and teaching-learning process for students. This needs to happen as soon as possible - both the actual learning process and the more practical efforts to repair damaged school facilities.

To make this happen, we’re continuing with the Forum Group Discussions on the Post Disaster Assessment Tool for the Education Sector – a tool for gathering all the information relating to the school and the existing resources at the site of the disaster (outlined in our post of 25th January).

The fields of study of these assessment tools are: access to education services and school facilities, availability of teaching staff, community participation, education supporting facilities, coordination and policies.

The meeting took place in Jakarta, and involved participants from NGOs and government delegates. Following this discussion there’ll be a meeting to discuss the system and working mechanism for settlement in making this assessment tool.

Discussion in Pariaman: "Aligning the roles of Religious and Tribal Institutions in the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Period”

Those of you who follow the news pages on www.humanitarianforum.org will have read about the work we're doing in Padang to combat the clashes between NGOs and local communities. We're continuing this work in West Sumatera, where the relationships between local communities and INGOs have suffered from misunderstandings.

The people of West Sumatera are by and large deeply religious people. Sumatera Barat’s culture is influenced by Islamic doctrine and the majority of groups in that province are Muslim. Sumatera Barat civilians are generally thought of as conservative in nature when it comes to religion related issues. But as the period of rehabilitation and reconstruction progresses, there has been rising conflict between local people and humanitarian agencies working in the area.

Once the citizens of Sumatera Barat suspected some international NGOs of attempting to persuade earthquake victims to change their religion, it began to hinder cooperation with International NGOs, and in some villages, even led to the expulsion of the organisations in question. As a result, the remaining national and international organisations have had to work out new programs and activities, with the added struggle of working with a very cool and defensive response from the people of West Sumatera.

In West Sumatra itself, Community leaders have a strong influence to mobilize the public. We believe they have a very big role to play, both in society generally and in terms of reconstruction programmes. They are better placed than any other actor to provide the community with information disaster risk reduction. So it's vitally important that they're given the understanding and knowledge about the dangers of disaster and disaster risk reduction, to be submitted to the public.

So, how can we bring community leaders together with NGOs, so West Sumatera can recover and rebuild as quickly and efficiently as possible?

Well, we've been working on just that. HFI, in cooperation with other organisations such as Yayasan Tangul Bencana Indonesia (YTBI), World Vision, Muhammadiyah, and Dompet Dhuafa, held meetings and workshops to mediate with every stakeholder - NGOs, community leaders, local government and local religious leaders.

Through these meetings we're working to unite every party involved in rehabilitation and reconstruction and to accelerate the recovery of West Sumatera without any obstacles.

In addition to conflict resolution forums, our workshops and discussions are also intended to train community leaders and local governments in disaster risk reduction. West Sumatra is the area adjacent to the source of disaster. Many experts confirm that West Sumatra has a high potential for Earthquake and tsunami attacks.

This workshop is the third time Workshop held by the HFI in West Sumatra with the same theme. Previous similar workshops held in the city of Padang and the City Pariaman. Read more about our work here

HFI creates a Comprehensive Device to Assess the Damages of the Earthquake

Following up on previous meetings, HFI held an advanced workshop to complete a post-disaster assessment tool in the education sector. This meeting examined the problems of the system for damage assessment at identification stage, after disaster affected the education sector.
Disaster assessment tools that already exist in Indonesia are very diverse and have different standards from each other. As a result, it’s hard to find accurate data to measure the overall damage in times of disaster.
Having reviewed the various existing standards, such as Standard INEE (Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies), Need Assessment Tools ENA, Join Rapid Initial Assessment, and other devices owned by the National Department of Education, there are many advantages and disadvantages.
UNESCO and HFI combined and conducted a review of these materials, which conducted a review of the following areas:
1, reliability of information: format differences, and the capabilities of different agencies in conducting assessments.
2. Completeness of information obtained, including: lack of information about school facilities, focusing on the structure of school buildings; lack of information about post-disaster capacity of schools to carry out the minimum standards for education in emergencies (for teachers, books, etc.).
3. Assessment of the operational needs of the school during the crisis and reconstruction: management of the school, the needs of teaching staff (permanent and temporary).
4, Many temporary teachers cannot continue to teach, because supplementary teaching support materials are unavailable.
Other post-disaster measures in the education sector include:
• Stage of emergency assistance.
• Early recovery phase.
• Aftermath: reconstruction and rehabilitation.

NEW STEPS FOR HFI

This week, HF Indonesia board held a meeting with members of The Humanitarian Forum head office in London, to determine strategic steps to be taken forward by HFI. Agreement was reached that several follow-up meetings will discuss the strengthening of the network by extending membership of HFI, and create several strategic programs in terms of advocacy and issues of the MDGs.

James Shaw Hamilton, Director of The Humanitarian Forum,explained the possibilities to further expand the network not only in Indonesia but also in the world. He urged for more opportunities for all members of the Humanitarian Forum in Yemen, Sudan, Kuwait and elsewhere, to come together and enable the expansion of The Humanitarian Forum.

Sahira Maarouf, The Humanitarian Forum Program Manager, described some developments of Humanitarian Forum in Yemen and in the Sudan and their accomplishments in building the network. Like James, she also highlighted some possibilities for expanding the network of Humanitarian Forum in the world.

Some sticking issues in the meeting was the issue of the Millenium Development Goalss and public advocacy. The board agreed to step up action in response to some important issues. According to them, some of the problems for the MDGs in developing countries are still not resolved. Our goal is to take strategic steps to urge governments to create policies that support the resolution of problems such as poverty, unemployment reduction, and improving quality of life and life expectancy.

We're thinking ahead for the rest of the year. We'll follow up with a meeting in April, and we're also working on action plans between then and now. In October we'll evaluate all the work of HFI since it was established.

Humanitarian Forum Indonesia Take a Role in Prevent Avian Influenza Virus

On 4 January 2010, Humaniatarian Forum Indonesia worked with Muhammadiyah Avian Influenza Virus Reduction Centre to hold a training workshop on prevention of spreading avian influenza virus (H5NI) pandemic on Manis Jaya, small village located at 132 km north west, Banten Province.
Manis Jaya, is situated in the middle of industrial territory, where many manufacturers having premises. The residential parts of Manis Jaya are crowded with both small houses and apartments packed tightly in slums.

As is the case for much of the Indonesian population Manis Jaya civilians live in an industrial zone, working in factories as laborers for very low pay. Consequently, factories have a vital role to generates economic turnover of civilian in that place.

On the one hand, factories can be angels for saving civilian life, but on the other hand, thay are triggers of environment contamination that can produce many sources of diseases - infectious and otherwise. Wastes disposal through river, canal and gutter, smoke plumes from factory chimneys are evidence of the impact of factories on human life on that place.

As is common in Indonesian urban life, Manis Jaya civilians generally haven’t had high standards of sanitation. Also, they don't have adequate drainage for household waste. Based on local government data released at October 2009, 16 people were infected by dengue fever, and 3 others by avian influenza between January-September 2009.

Because of this, Manis Jaya considered as a vulnerable territory for spreading of infectious diseases such as dengue fever, Avian Influenza H5N1, swine Influenza (H1N1), and many others. Therefore, all possible prevention actions to avoid the massive transmission of pandemic diseases by building the resilience of civilians at grass root level are extremely necessary.

More than 50 people took part in this one day workshop, which addressed these issues.

Post Disaster Needs Assessment in Education Sector : Research for Integrated Procedure

17 December 2009, the Head of Education Unit of UNESCO, Anwar Alsaid, Programe Officer for JTIC UNESCO, Ardito M Kodijat and Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (HFI) Director Hening Parlan, attended a meeting with General Director of National Education Service for Elementary School Bambang Indriyanto,to discuss the application of "Post Disaster Needs Assessment in Education sector”. The meeting took place at the National Education Office, Jakarta.

After the Indonesian Government announced that they were opening up to International Aid agencies to help earthquake victims on Padang West Sumatera, more than 160 organizations including NGOs, INGOs, the UN, and delegations from friend countries came in droves to give a helping hand in a variety of different ways. So a systematic coordination effort for running the aid effort was a necessary condition to ensure maximum efficiency.

If we look back to how West Sumatera earthquake victims were evacuated, the distribution of food and building of temporary shelter, also when reconstruction and rehabilitation run, every organization applied different procedures, and there was little information-sharing and coordination.

So UNESCO and HFI got together to create an assessment tool to determine the needs for schools and education when disaster hits Indonesia.

“a lot of organizations weren't well coordinated in Padang. We need an integrated procedure for all organizations,” said HFI Director Hening Parlan.

She added, "there are three focuses to determine what post-disaster education needs are: data from the school principal regarding how many teachers and students are victims; assessment of the damage to school buildings, and data from the Emergency Schools Unit."

UNESCO and HFI will publish their results in March 2010, and will create a procedure for determining needs and actions when disaster hits.