Disaster Education in Indonesia, Beyond Challenge and Opportunity

Disaster Education in Indonesia, Beyond Challenge and Opportunity

By Yuniarti Wahyuningtyas

Indonesia is one of the developed countries in the world that is well known for its experiences in dealing with multi disaster events. This  is triggered by its geographic and socio-economic conditions that make it vulnerable to various hazards. GFDRR ranks Indonesia as 12th among countries at relatively high mortalities risks from multi hazards[1]. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, floods and droughts, all have an impact on Indonesian populations, infrastructures and economies. Located in the ring of fire, Indonesia is one of the most vulnerable countries for geology-related disasters. Volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis frequently occur in Indonesia. For the last 10 years, medium to big scale earthquakes with significant losses and damages often happened.

In term of disaster management, Indonesia is one of the signatory of Hyogo Framework 2005 and also its President is awarded for Disaster Risk Reduction Championship by UNISDR,for its significant works in improving disaster management in Indonesia. This achievement is resulted from the rapid growing of national policies and regulations that are institutionalized disaster management as part government priorities. These policies and regulations, including: the publishment of Disaster Management Law Number 24 Year 2007, the establishment of disaster management agency through Presidential Regulation Number 8 Year 2008, and the complimentary regulations on disaster funding and aid relief, role of international organization on disaster management, and ?. The National Disaster Management Agency, hereinafter known as 0 BNPB also published 2 national plan on disaster amangement, which are Natioanl Plan on Disaster Management or NPDM and National Action Plan on DRR or NAP-DRR. Furthermore, recently, Government of Indonesia has also created more than 400 BPBDs (Provincial and District Disaster Management Agency) at province and district level. Unfortunately the quality of most BPBDs at district level is still weak, and they are not ready yet for emergency preparedness and response.

Though function of BNPB and BPBD is for coordinator for disaster management, several technical ministries including Ministry of Education assumed that disaster management is responsibility of BNPB. Therefore, disaster management has not been prioritized by technical ministries such as Education ministry.

Disaster events that happened in Indonesia not just damaged the houses, but also public facilities, including: worship places, health facilities and schools. As for schools, according to the data from BNPB shows the following number of schools that were affected by disasters:

Table 1 Number of Schools Damaged from Major Disaster Events[2]

No	Disaster Event	Year	#  Damaged Schools
1	Aceh Earthquake and Tsunami	2004	750
2	Yogyakarta Earthquake	2006	2,900
3	West Java Earthquake	2009	2,091
4	West Sumatera Earthquake	2009	1,917
5	Earthquake Mentawai	2010	7

The number that is shown on the table above excludes the small scale disasters that are frequently happened across Indonesia and damaged the school infrastructures and buildings.

National Disaster Management Agency recognized that they need to improve disaster management for education. Four out of seven priorities of program number 3 in the National Disaster Management Plan (Research, Education and Training) are closely related to capacity development for schools. They are: 1) Integrating disaster management knowledge into school curriculum; 2) Implementing disaster preparedness program in schools; 3) Capacity building for disaster education; and 4) Learning and knowledge sharing between region and with other countries. Focus priorities and their indicative budget are as follows:

Table Focus Priorities and Indicative Budget (Source: Annex – National Disaster Management Plan 2010-2014, BNPB 2010)

PRIORITIES	TARGET	MAIN INSTITUTIONS	INDICATIVE BUDGET (RP)
3.3. Integrating disaster management knowledge into school curriculum	School curriculum in national and regional level incorporate disaster Ministry of National		5 billion
	Education
	management materials.
3.4. Implementing disaster preparedness program in schools.	275 disaster-prepared schools in 275 districts/cities implement disaster preparedness programs.	Ministry of National Education	5.5 billion
3.5. Capacity building for disaster education	Training for 4000 teachers and community figures in 33 provinces	Ministry of National Education	20 billion
3.6. Learning and knowledge sharing between region and with other countries	Five annual National CBDRM Workshops; International Workshops (once every two years)	BNPB	10 billion

Though BNPB has developed their strategy, it is difficult for them to implement it as they don’t have authorization to push education ministry and schools to deliver the program. Autonomy and decentralization have a significant impact on relationship across ministries and across national to provincial and regional level. Districts and schools are given more autonomy and Ministry of Education adopts School based management approach. School based management aimed to improve school quality, based on national education policies and regulations.

School-based management is a school management model which gives greater autonomy to school, in terms of authority and responsibility. In School based management, school is given authority and responsibility to make necessary decisions to better meet the needs and capacity of local community, stakeholders, and the school itself. The education system is relatively decentralized and there is a certain amount of flexibility in how to deliver at a local level. Decentralization in education refers to transfers of decision-making authority, which encourage bottom-up approach and community participation. Main characteristic of decentralization in education is the involvement of parents and community in determining education policies. These two components work together with school to plan and solve education problems, and to improve education quality.Therefore, it is necessary to approach schools and authority such as BPBD and Ministry of Education at district level.

On the other hand, few stakeholders from local to international agencies support implementation disaster management in Education. Some of them are registered in different initiatives and different ministries/department. Not all of them are registered with Ministry of Education. For a moment, though they are inactive, most of the agencies are member of at least 3 initiatives, these include: the Education Cluster, The Consortium for Disaster Education (CDE), and  the National Secretariat for Safe School. Education Cluster as one of the IASC clusters is co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children. Its core activities are not limited to provide education services during emergency, but also to improve and strengthen the government and non-government agencies for better preparedness. Its field of works covers : response, coordination, capacity building, knowledge development and Information management. Currently It has 17 members, including BNPB, Ministry of Education and Cultural, and Ministry of Religion Affairs, also UN Agency, International, National, and local NGOs. In term of preparedness and capacity building, the education cluster through its co-leads and members have conducted several activities to support the implementation of education in emergencies and ensuring that it is part of national and local government priorities. 

Save the Children, as the co-lead for Education Clusters, recently implemented Education in emergencies Capacity Building (EIE-CB) Project that was implemented in 9 Asia and Pacific Countries, including: Bangladesh, Fiji, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philipine, Solomon, Timur Leste, Vietnam, and Vanuatu. For Indonesia, this project was implemented for 3 years, since 2011 to 2013 and it is an honor for me to take the lead for the project during its end period. The EiE CB was intended to strengthen the capacity of government and non-government agencies for better preparedness in emergencies, as well providing the capacity for Save the Children to provide the Last Resort. This project at first was developed with strong partnership with UNICEF, yet due to the time constraint, Save the Children took the lead in approaching the government as well to improve the Education Cluster members' skills and knowledge through training and dissemination information. 

In its last year of the project implementation, Save the Children has conducted various trainings (Education in Emergencies Minimum Standard, Front Line Responder, Education in Emergencies, and School Disaster Management), also organized various dialogues and public awareness on School Disaster Management with coverage areas, including: Jakarta, East Java, NTB and NTT. Simultaneously, this project also provided technical assistance to Ministry of Education and Cultural, BPBD and also Ministry of Coastal and Fisheries. One of the framework that was used as a standpoint for the EiE CB Project implementation was the Comprehensive School Safety Framework. This framework  was developed by UNICEF, UNESCO, WB-GFDRR, Save the Children (SCI) and Plan International to support a Global Alliance for Comprehensive School Safety, to develop normative guidance and models to support scale-up school safety, based on the three-pillar of Comprehensive School Safety Framework. These pillars, include: safe school facilities, school disaster management, and education risk reduction. Save the Children through its EiE-CB Project was mainly focused on School Disaster Management, whereas a combination for improving disaster and education planning, as well as their capacity. With only 9 months left, i managed to implemented 5 trainings, 1 socialization event, 2 public workshops, and 1 consultative workshop, also involved actively in providing technical assistance to NDMO, MoEC, MoCaF,and several province authorities. 

The activities that i had last years were excited, thrilling, also funtastic. I have an opportunity to promote disaster education to nation wide and also to visit several provincea in eastern part of Indonesia. With assistance and help from 2 interns, and 1 senior consultant, i am grateful that this project ended well, with all of its report shared to partners and public and even managed to have the evaluation meeting near the end of its perid. some lesson learnt that i want to highlight here is that no matter how short of your project period or limited fund that you have, it is very important to be open to public about your project and develop strong partnership with different agencoes at national and provincial levels.these will help you to absorb the fund wisely and of course as part of public transparancy and accountability, also it is very important to have a good communication and reporting, because nevertheless a good project is a project that can give influence and lesson to others. One thing that i regret was that the lack support from the internal management of organization that fail to meet with the sustainable plan of this project. there were supposed to be a strong team  that can develop this model and replicate it to another project, instead the organization only offered consultant position to wrap up the donor report. Until now, i am still hoping that there will be another great opportunity is given to continue the lesson that this project has resulted within 3 yeqrs of its implementation with more tangible output and reach more vulnerable groups as its beneficieries.

[1] hbe rttp://www.unisdr.org/files/14757_6thCGCountryProgramSummaries1.pdf

[2] Taken from Fact Sheet of  National Secretariat of Safe School, March 2013

Humanitarian Workers and Practitioners, Between Humanity and Professionalism

Humanitarian Workers and Practitioners, Between Humanity and Professionalism

By Yuniarti Wahyuningtyas

For some people that know me well, I am not a typical kind of person who stay working in the same organization for quite some time, instead I keep changing organizations and designations. For others, they might think "she did not get satisfying salary and benefit or she probably involved in internal conflict and unable to cope with the working environment"...Well, they can judge and preassume a lot things about me, but 1 thing for sure and I would like to highlight about this "I keep my idealism high by trying to avoid into conflicts, personal interest and try to do my very best to keep honesty as part of works".  

Working in Humanitarian Sector is definately temptating for most people, imigine how much salary and benefit that they receive, also opportunity for self development, travel outside province or oversea, also a lot doors of happiness and joy are open for them through career development that they build years. But honestly speaking, I notice that more and more of these humanitarian workers or practitioners start to lose their humanity, instead they hide behind the term of "professionalism" to gain more and more money for their own pockets. Even there was a time when 1 of these workers and/or practitioners taught me how to play or game the system or literary speaking abusing the power or authorities to benefit the others in order to secure our jobs or position and also smoothing the project. Or in other word, using criminology term it refers to Fraud or Manipulation.I would say that it was actually shocking me realizing how actually people in line of my work can become so greedy sometimes. Even, this person also explained that it is a professional thing to do paying for other INGOs or UNs workers for their skills and knowledge contribution instead of having the same efforts to build the vision and mission to improve the capacity, reduce risks and other objectives that we, as part of the humanitarian agencies want to achieve them for our beneficieries or in the name of people safety and welfare.

As time goes by and I have the opportunity to extend my network and socialize with different groups, I realize that person, is not the only deviant that exist in humanitarian sector, many people are considered as the new players begin to destruct the humanitarian system and even violate the code of conduct, for instance gaining members support to support the existing party with hidden for the sake of improving the government political concern in one of development sector initiatives. For some people who came from local community development root, where they build their career from a very lower level, it does really frustating and somehow immediate change your perception about the means of humanitarianism. If we look into the definition of humanitarianism, as I quote "it is an ethic of kindness, benevolance and sympathy extended universally and imparsially to all human beings", which by all means that these acts should be applied by all humanitarian actors, include workers and practitioners without questioning about what would they get as in return. 

Universally, the humanitarianism began in between 18 to 19 centuries, when it main objectives were to improve the condition of labor and protection againts slavery, also to provide medical services for the wounded soldiers and people who were affected by war. These objectives were then developed to put more attention to development issues and social welfare, such as poverty, food insecurity, education, water and sanitation, and disasters. Moreover, humanitarian was  no longer government business instead it becomes everyone business. Starting from the establishment of  Red Cross to Voluntary Movement, more people engage and contribute in improving the work of humanitarian sector.Historical record shows that at least there were 9 global events that shaped humanitarian sector, which were: The Battle of Solferino (1859), The World War II (1945), The Biafran Airlift (1967), The Euthopian Famine and Sudanese War (1983), The Rwanda Genocide (1994), The Canal Hotel Bombing (2003), The Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004), and The Haiti Earthquake (2010). Within these period of time, the first 3 humanitarian agencies established; Red Cross, CARE, and MSF, which then triggered the establishment of other humanitariab agencies.

By understanding the basic concept of humanitarianism and its historical timeline above, humanitarian agencies began to establish across the countries all around the world, particularly in Europe in order to deliver the humanitarian service accordingly and for better management of the aid relief itself. Some agencies are born through volunteering group of people that gather their money and provide social servica based on each of individual capacity, skill and knowledge. Other agencies came from a philantrophy group or charity foundation.In those days, we hardly recognize the people as humanitarian workers or practitioners or even professionals. Most of them consider them as volunteers or social or charity workers, some of the humanitarian actors pioneer, such as Henry Dunant, Florence Nightingale, and Mahatma Gandhi.these are referring to persons who are freely take part in organization to do some tasks without paid. In someways, the concept of humanitarian worker is shifted when organizationsrt to offer them some fees for their meals and transportation.

Due to the high demand for volunteers or social or charity workers and limited number of people that were able to share their time for social humanitarian activities due to their priorities of works and occupations, the organizations began to  look for fully committed personel that enable to spend most of their time to deliver the social services and the organization's asks to meet with the output that was identified at that time was to serve more people or target groups, by alleviating their suffering and fulfilling their basic needs and protecting their rights.Right now, humanitarian workers are easy to find across the countries, yet not all have a good qualification and morality as humanitarian actors or practitioners. Some of them work for helping others and passionate with the concept of humanity and voluntarism, and most of them only work to pursue the high salary, good image and chances to travel around countries. If people ask to me, what would be the qualifications that are required by someone to work as humanitarian workers? I would say; sincerity, passion, honesty, and commitment. By sincere in doing the humanitarian works, all burden and obstacle can be managed. Through our passion, we can trigger others to do kindness. Honesty can set us as an example to others to avoid potential crimes, and commitment can be our strength in receiving supports from others.


As I have worked with many people across agencies, I notice that some people in humanitarian sector have lost their moral and humanity, I have heard many of them complaining about their salary, benefit and feeling insecure with their contract work. I understand that they earn their living by working in humanitarian organizations or agencies, like myself, but still it is not a justification for them to be greedy, cheat or imposter. If only they realize that what they are doing by helping others is a noble and graceful thing to do for the sake of humanity. Eventually God will protects them and their family and ahow them the way to goodness, without no more complaining regarding to their works. Hence, I remember in St Angela Merici'footsteps " Take a look around you. Instead of just driving or walking without paying attention today, open your eyes to the needs you see along the way. What people do you notice who need help but who are not being helped?what are their true needs?make a commitment to help them in some way". In the end, I hope for those humanitarian workers out there to have more dignity to their self and people that they assist, without selling the misery, tears and suffers of these people for their own benefit.

Flood Management in Urban City of DKI Jakarta

Flood Management in Urban City of DKI Jakarta

By Yuniarti Wahyuningtiyas

I start to write this article when Jakarta is hit with another flood early this year 2014. I had a hint that there will be another flooding happen in this city and i have given my prediction since early December 2013, but surely at that time, most people were uncertainty that there would not be another flooding happened within series of years. Furthermore,  I have written several articles on Flood Management since most of my work experiences were focusing on flood, as I was also one of the certified practitioners on flood management from WMO (World Metereology Organization). In order to understand the flood that continously happens in Jakarta I would elaborate some explanations on the causes of the flood in this area.

Flood Causes in DKI Jakarta Province

DKI Jakarta is one of disaster province in Indonesia. It is well known for its multi hazards, include: flood, fire, and earthquake. Yet, above all, flood is the utmost frequent hazard that ever happened in this province, especially during the rainy season. There are two main causes of this hazards, as following:

a. Nature Factors

There are several nature factors that underly the cause of flood in DKI Jakarta, these include:

1. Nearly half of DKI Jakarta Province or around 40% froom the whole area, which is 650Km², 24.000Ha among them are considered as low lands, for instance areas in North Jakarta;  Sungai Bambu, Papanggo, Warakas, etc, in which the ground level is lower the sea level. ± 9.000Ha have already well managed by the Provincial government of DKI Jakarta

2.  DKI Jakarta Province is streamed by 13 rivers, include: Cakung, Jati Kramat, Buaran, Sunter, Cipinang, Baru Timur, Ciliwung, Baru Barat, Krukut, Grogol, Pesanggrahan, Angke, and Mookervart. All of these rivers are the primary channel that patch the water flow from the secondary channel/city drainageyh system

3. DKI Jakarta area contour that is not supporting the drainage system that even the water flow, so it often causes inundate, and even flood during the rainy season, particularly in West, North, and East Jakarta, since the water is not able to flow gravitate.

b. Human Factors

human factors are also considered as the triggered causes of flood. In Jakarta, the human factors that contribute in resulting the hazard, include:

1. Lack of community discipline, caused by:

- Illegal settlements that are built along the rivers, which effected the rivers become narrow

- Lack of people awareness on waste management, in which they often throw rubbish into the rivers and make the rivers narrow and hindering the water flows.

2. Physical development that is growing fast in Jakarta and Bogor that cause the water streaming is bigger than the water reservoir, and altso the lands that have been built by buildings and concrete.

3. Land subsidence, particularly in north part of DKI Jakarta, due to major excess of resource and industrial activities ongoing.

Government Policy in Flood Management

In regards to the flood management policy and program in DKI Jakarta, Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta through its Governor Decree No 96 Year 2002, set up a Disaster Management and IDPs Organization and Framework, this Organization known as Satkorlak DKI Jakarta (Disaster Management and IDPs Coordination Agency). Following the establishment of this Agency, the authorized Governor at that time, issues the Governor Decree No 1230 Year 2002 that stated DM SOP of DKI Jakarta Province. Based on the SOP, the appointed Agency that is taking the responsible in carries out this procedure is Satkorlak PBP DKI Jakarta. This Agency is consisted of provincial government organizations and civil societies, under supervise of Governor of DKI Jakarta, in which the Daily Chairman is the Province Secretary. The Decree also mentions the structure of DM Agency in lower level; include Municipal/City, District, and Sub-district. Meanwhile for DM Agency in Village level is arranged based on Decree No 96 Year 2003.

            Due to reformation in the DKI Jakarta provincial government bodies, the role of disaster management was handed over from Satkorlak PBP to Provincial Fire Brigade in 2009, based on Provincial Regulation (PERDA) Number 10 Year 2008. Yet, this status only lasted for a year, which then in 2010, the provincial government set up Provincial BPBD or Region Disaster Management Agency which is appointed directly to handle and manage the work and progress on disaster management in DKI Jakarta, following the establishment of the same body in other provinces throughout the regions.

            

Shifting Response to Preparedness-Mitigation

As disaster prone areas and high risks affected, communities of DKI Jakarta have suffered from multi disasters for many years, particularly them who live in densely populated area, whereas many socio-economic problems are existed. Based on data from DM Post of Department of Public Work, for period 2005-2006 (per 31 December 2006), there were 9 disaster events (4 whirlwinds, 3 floods, 1 landslide, and 1 earthquake) occurred in DKI Jakarta. The effects were: 3 people died, 1210 IDPs, 500 houses inundated, 13 houses collapsed and 75 dykes damaged. Meanwhile, the facts gathered from Bakornas PBP (now BNPB) and Bappenas (National Development Planning Agency) describe that at least there were 39 flood events occured within last 7 years past, with the recent flood in 2007 was as greatest as the ones that happened on 1621, 1654, 1918, 1942, 1976, 1996, and 2002. 
The flood event that occured in 2007 inudated nearly 70% of the total areas in Jakarta with water level height reach 20 to 500 cm. The impact of this disaster has affected 80 people died and material loss IDR 5,16 trilion. As for the flood that happened in 2013, it affected 90,582 people (23,675 HH) and inundated 186 villages. Meanwhile for the current flood that happened early this year, has affected 134,662 people (38,672 HH) and inundated 100 villages. Based on the significant number of losses, casualties, and damages, shows that even a megacity such as DKI Jakarta is still weak in term of the government capacities in respond to disasters. Yet, some activities in Provincial level show some improvement of government preparedness, and also increasing of communities’ awareness on disasters, particularly flood.

Nevertheless, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has started to improve its preparedness and community awareness through its program. One of its example is by organizing an annual event of Disaster Awareness Week, an event that consists of exhibition, simulation, workshop and training related to known disasters in this Province, include: fire, conflict, flood, and earthquake. This event has been held at least 4 times within last 4 years. Although it considers as a great event, only a few civil society, include NGOs and Private Sectors that know or participate in this occasion due to lack of information that is not well informed by the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta. The main target of this event itself is the government agencies in Municipal/City, includes: PMI (Indonesian Red Cross), Armed Force, Police Department, Fire Brigade, and few NGOs and Private Sectors that are close relation to the Provincial Government.

Other flood management program that is developed by the provincial government is the development of East and West Canal Flood. This is a major structural mitigation project that is believed can solve the problem on flood in Jakarta. This project has been developed by DKI Jakarta Government that led by the Ministry of Public Works since years ago, in 1973 to be exactly. This blue print of the masterplan for drainage and flood control was developed by a Netherland Engineering Consultant, NEDECO that is a close partner of the Ministry of Public Works that have been hired several times to conduct various studies related to flood and drainage system.
The Master Plan for Flood and Drainage System that was produced in 1973 outline several points, as following:
1. The interception of flood flows from all rivers before entering lowland areas by two floodways, the Western Canal Floodway to intercept the flood flows from Krukut, Cideng, Ciliwung, Grogol, Sekretaris, and Angke Rivers. Meanwhile for the East Canal Floodway, it was aimed to intercept all other remaining rivers (Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jatikramat and Cakung). The floodways were planned to contain 100-year floods, i.e. 290-525 m3/sec for the Western Floodway and 101-340 m3/sec for the Eastern Floodway.  
2. The areas that are located downstream of these  two floodways were divided into six drainage zones covering about 240 km2. Most of the land (about 150 km2) with elevation of less than 2 metres was considered as polders, and the rest treated as gravity drainage areas. 
3. The Pumps and reservoirs would release flood water from the polders. The existing old river channels were considered as primary drainage, and designed to contain 25-year floods.  
Following the development of this master plan, there are some problems that need to be solved to improve the flood management as well in supporting the successfull of the  implementation of this plan, these include:
1. Spatial Planning
The issue on Spatial Planning, mainly consist of the limitation of the availability of green areas due to the rapid growing of infrastructure development. This might be the impact from the weak of building regulation which is inconsistent with the government development blue print. Other issue is on the construction of the flood barriers in the urban setting to reduce the impact of flooding in the community settlement around floodplain.
2. Urban Drainage System
In the context of urban drainage system, there are some elements that influence the effectiveness of it, such as law enforcement of the forest regulation in order to minimize deforestation in the upperstream area in Bogor that unable to control the flood flows to downstream of Jakarta,  river basin management which is protection, improvement and sustainable use of the water environment, includes surface freshwaters (lakes, streams and rivers), groundwater, and ecosystem (wetland, estuaries and coastal water), watershed design which include design of drainage from supply, runoff to utilization, solid dumping that caused by human behavior due to lack of awareness on managing waste that caused sedimentation on river, institutional regulation that managing them itself and flood protection standard.
3. Land Subsidence
As for the Land Subsidence, it is one of the major factor that becomes the challenge in managing flood in Jakarta. This factor is influenced by urbanization rate that increases due to economic opportunity in the city and enforcement of ground water due to increasing of water demand and use.
4. Sea Rise
Several factors that make sea rise as part of the challenge for the flood management, are because of the lunar, cycle and tide
5. Institutional
Institutional cause that might also influence the effectiveness of the flood management, such as lack of enforcement of groundwater, building coverage, solid waste collection, insufficient funding, lack of coordination.
6. Governance
In term of governance, we ought to see on the overall aspects, from policy to government officials that are appointed and responsible in managing the flood, this might include BPBD and other officials at province and also national level.
As conclusion of this article, the flood management in Jakarta is not a simple task that can be done within 5 or 10 years from now. As based on historical background, it takes more than 4 decades to build the flood plan itself. Even if the plan is implemented and executed, it will take another decades to maintain the flood control and management. The government as the main actor play significant role in ensuring the flood is well managed and all above challenges can be handled accordingly. Therefore there are 4 aspects that need to be put as priority to fulfill the flood management plan, these include managing the environmental, enforce the legal and institutional, and improving social and economic aspect of the flood. Source of information: APFM, NEDECO and other official resources of information

The Reasons Why Military Can Be Effective in Managing Disasters

The Reasons Why Military Can Be Effective in Managing Disasters

By Yuniarti Wahyuningtyas

Honestly to say that i am one of those people who are fond on military world and i am grateful that i have the opportunity to be part of them as non-military personel. How come? well, during the last 2 years of my graduate study in University of Indonesia, I was challenged to join with Student Regiment since I watched their rifle drill and rapelling, so I said to myself "hey, I can do that too!!!".After graduated from my university and worked for 3 years in INGOs, I then applied for scholarshop from UK Embassy Defence Attache and I was selected as one of the scholar from 11 other people that were accepted to study in Indonesia Defence University with affiliation with Crandfield UK. I took Defence Management and Strategy Study with focus on Human Security in 2009 that ended in 2011.

In relation to this article on The Reasons Why Military Can Be Effective in Managing Disasters, I will bring up 2 case studies related to the works that I have conducted within few years behind. Not much people know that the military actually other role beside military operations (wars, counter terrorist, etc), which is known as Military Operation Other Than Wars(MOOTW). Based on Regulation Number 34 Year 2004 on Indonesia Military article 7 clearly mentions that there are 14 types of MOOTW, including humanitarian assistance.

In overall Defence Management and Strategy context, the MOOTW can contribute in ensuring the fulfillment of Human Security dimensions, this include food, security, environment, individual and community. Indonesia Military or Armed Force, like any other countries, Indonesia has 3 main military branches, consist of Army, Navy and Airforce. In each of these branches, each of them set up their own special and technical force, such as Military Construction, Marine, Amphibious Force, etc. There are also other military unit that are established which their function are more non technical military operation, such as Legal and Medical Corps.

Beside military branches, special forces and corps, the military structure in Indonesia is established from national to local level, as it has its own territory bases, these include: KODAM that is base in some main provinces (there are 13 Kodam that are established out of 33 provinces that exist in Indonesia), KOREM that is base in some areas within province under KODAM, KODIM that is set up in each city/district within province under KOREM, and KORAMIL that is set in sub-district level under KODIM. At KORAMIL, there are special staff or military personel that are assigned to monitor the  security and safety of communities, environment and asset in each villages under the territorial of the KORAMIL.

In many cases where a major disaster happens in an area and when the National Disaster Management Organization or BNPB takes over the authority of  Local Disaster Management Organization  or BPBD due to limited resources and or capacity that BPBD has, BNPB usually appoints Head of Kodam to take the lead as the Incident Commander for Response. This situation sometimes cause unpleasent circumstance for INGOs to respond and coordinate with the Commander due to their code or ethic that limited or forbid them tohave any relations with Military for humanitarian affairs. This condition also happen in conflict or crisis area where security and safety in the area becomes challenge for humanitarian agencies to deliver their service, in which a military assistance is required for their workers safeguard and to escort the relief during the distribution of goods and services in the conflict area.

There are some reasons why the Humanitarian Agencies have to limited their interaction with the military, either due to the code of conduct and principle of neutrality, to avoid the involvement of violation to human rights that is caused by the military action, there is a preassumption that military use some portion of the aid for their own interest, or due to fact that military is used to ensure the position of existing government, whereas in some conflict area, the government itself that responsible for the state crime that they commited.

few months ago, there was an earthquake happened in Aceh, all attention waa given to Aceh at that time. despite the fact that this was not a major disaster, at that time BNPB took over the role of BPBD in Aceh for Response and appointed Head of Kodam or PANGDAM asthe incident commander. At that time due to my close relationship with BNPB and extensive network that I have in the government, my previous INGO asked me to coordinate with them for the relief and response that we were going to conduct. The main problem at time was to transport the relief rapidly and save time and cost. Thanks to several friends in Indonesia Defence University that help me in looking for a plane that available. There were several available military aircraft that have schedule to flight to Aceh also the BNPB Rapid Response or SRC PB moda transportation.But, apperantly the management of this INGO decided to rent a commercial plane with high cost and took weeks for arranging the loading and transport of the relief. I didnt say a word to them, just laughing out loud by thinking how stupid they are, spent much money where they can use it to buy more stuffs and delivering more services instead using for renting the plane. Or maybe they want to build public image on how rich this INGO using expensive plane to carry its goods, maybe it would be even better if it stick its flag in the plane.The reason why they decided not using military craft was because of their perception on neutrality and image. If BNPB already instructed that CSOs and NGOs can use available military aircraft for humanitarian assistance, so they supposed need not to worry about it, since BNPB already gave its guarantee of neutrality, safety and security. After all, NGOs are unable to make their move, requesting funding to donors or develop program in Indonesia, if the Government of Indonesia doesnt request any assistance. Funny to know that this INGO works in a country yet persist to using its own way to take actions.

But, not all INGOs are persistance, some can be tolerable and involve military in their program. For instance in the previous Flood Risk Reduction Project that was implemented Iin an urban area, where the communities developed their waste management project in which they process flood mud and turn it into paving block to elevate the road, reconstruct the roads that are damaged from flood or even recontruct the houses. The existing local military in this area has a reguler program that is known as Karya Bakti, a community assistancy program in providing its service in health, construction and other communities needs related to existing communities problems ( the same program is also carried by other KORAMIL in other areas. Beside Karya Bakti, they also have TMMD which more large scale joint military-civil social works more for physical development. BABINSA or Village Military Officers are the backbone to mobilize and oversee the situation in the villages under KORAMIL). by using the paving blocks that are produced by the communities and with share human resources and military tools and equipments, some houses in the project area that damaged from flood were then reconstructed.If we make some cost and benefit analysis, we will realize that   from a small investment for community works we actually can contribute in reconstruction through collaboration and sharing capacities with existing stakeholders, include the military.

During response, some people and NGOs do not realize that KORAMIL has complete socio demographic data that is updated, thanks to the result of the BABINSA work. They also have complete tent, public kitchen, cooking utensils, trained personel, boat, etc that are very useful to use and can be mobilized quickly once disaster hit an area near its territory.During emergency situation,respond time is important to save lifes and minimize loss. Yet once again we sometimes unable to make clear decision to involve military participation in either response, preparedness or other disaster management activities due to their uniform perhaps, the stigma or even the misperception on military actions that violate human rights dehumanized. I hope NGOs can start to evaluate and think more ahead on how actually to assist the communities that are affected, improve local capacity and improve and strengthen coordination and collaboration with multi stakehlder, including the military. After all, as humanitarian actors, we should aware that the funding that we receive is aimed to help the people in needs no atter how deliver the goods and service. As long there is a good communication and transparancy are built up, I am sure that there will not be any violation on humanitarian assistances that we conduct.

An Effective Emergency Response and Emergency Preparedness

An Effective Emergency Response and Emergency Preparedness

I start to write this article when i received a bunch of interview calls for this position. when we refer to the words of emergency response and emergency preparedness, people oftenly see it as more to rapid response actions, such as aid relief distribution, volunteers mobilization, search and rescue, etc. These actions do take part in this sector, yet again i would like to get into details about the mean of both words: emergency response and emergency preparedness.

Basically emergency response is any action that are taken to minimise the casualties, damages and lossess from disaster events. To do so, it needs a rapid respond time, an effective actions, and well planned or standard operation procedures. Some actions that are partly part of it, include: search and rescue, evacuation, damage and needs assessment, logistic management, aid relief distribution and basic needs fulfillment, protection, and recovery of vital asset and infrastructure. All of these actions should be done immediately within seconds after disaster struck. These to anticipate the greater loss of lives and minimize the impact and damages from disaster.

Emergency response should be done within one command and direction, an official and appointed institution or agency that is responsible and designated by the government and or local authority should leads the response. An effective emergency response can be achieved if there is a clear SOP (standard operating procedure) that is developed, agreed, and socialized in the communities. Through SOP, each of the agencies, whether government, private sectors, NGOs, universities, etc know exactly their role and responsibility during the emergency response. This SOP should consist of information related to: background of the area or location related, organization, task and function, mechanism of implementation, activities, coordination, communication, controlling, and information, and budgeting.

An SOP should be seen as a living document, instead of regulation or legal standard. Furthermore, an Emergency/Incident Command System (ICS) should be set. in Indonesia, the ICS is arranged by the BNPB as the National Agency for Disaster Management. within the system, the Incident Command is set based on several steps, include: early information, designation of rapid response team, emergency status, and establishment of disaster emergency response command. The process in setting up this command is regulated through Head of BNPB Regulation Number 10 Year 2008. Meanwhile, the Post for Disaster Emergency Response Command is legalized through Head of BNPB Regulation Number 14 Year 2010.

As for Emergency Preparedness is more in combination between preparedness and response, whereas all activities on preparedness that aimed to improve response mechanism. This can be conducted from family to national level. Some activities related to Emergency Preparedness, including: ensuring the availability of adequate emergencies supplies and access to basic needs, monitoring alert and warning service, establishment of information post or centre, coordination mechanism, standby personel, etc. Emergency Preparedness ideally should be conducted during slow onset disaster that can be predicted, such as flood, volcano eruption, landslide, drought and wild fire. There are several disaster situations that happened in Indonesia that were not well on emergency preparedness, this include: eruption of Mount Sinabung and Rokatenda, include the recent floods that happened across the provinces.

Despite the fact of enormous aid relief and assistances were provided by INGOs and NGOs in responding to both eruption and flood that happened in Indonesia recently, yet if looking on the high number of affected people and inequality of aid relief that was distributed, both show that there was lack of emergency preparedness in responding to disasters above. If take a closer look on Rokatenda Eruption, the activities of this volcano has been shown months before the eruption happened on August 2013. Yet, the main problem at that time was in relocating the people from Palue island where the volcano is located to the safer areas.

On November 2013, i received an invitation to assist in facilitating a training for IDPs in Maurole, one of the relocation area of Rokatenda IDPs. it took 4 hrs drive from the main city with rocky road and crossing over the hill and mountain. There were not much NGOs that are assisting the communities there, so far i can remember only CARITAS and HFI that exist there with the support from HRF from UN OCHA. Even, there is not local disaster management agency or BPBD that is established there.

Based on information from one of CARITAS's staff, due to limited access of clean water in Maurole (coastal and isolated area), everyday, this organization has to distribute clean water (1 gallon/household) to the communities. Beside NGOs, local catholic church also assisted in providing the needs of IDPs. Based on this case, the Province Government of NTT and NGOs with CSOs should work togather in  developing operational plan before the eruption. As NTT is one of the under developed province in Indonesia, the public including INGOs should also aware that they have the obligation in providing support to the communities in eruption area. I still remember when a Country Director (CD) from my previous INGOs said to me that "we dont have the capacity to respond the situation", This statement would not probably given by the CD if disaster happen in area that easily accesible and have a value to sell to donors, such as Jakarta Flood and EQ Aceh.

Same situation also happened with Sinabung eruption. I still remember that the volcanic activities of Sinabung was increasing since May 2013 and started on October 2013, coordination meeting cross agencies was conducted several times and continously in discussing the Sinabung response preparedness, but so far that i can remember, most people at that time were focusing in providing health services and support, also distributing mask. The eruption finally happened on January 2014. Yet, still there are a lot of complain on lack of aid relief and inadequate assistance in responding to the situation.

As for Jakarta Flood, the number of affected people increased compare to last year which was 134,662 persons from 90,582 or 38,672 households from 23,675, with number of area that affected decreased 186 to 100 villages in Jakarta area. I migh preassumed that the infrastructure in flood mitigation was working well, yet for improving the capacity of the communities in responding flood might not worked well. surprisingly, as most of humanitarian agencies are base in Jakarta. this might be interested for public to evaluate the related flood management in particular for flood preparedness and response, and how much money that have been put in managing flood in Jakarta. since not many organizations ever done cost benefit or socio economic impact study or even KAP Survey about it. Since the flood that happened in Jakarta is categorized as slow onset. Meanwhile in Manado, the total number of people that were affected from flood also increasing compare to last year from 41,683 people to 40,000 household.

As conclusion based on the analysis on above cases, i would concluded that in term of effectove response and preparedness that: 1) despite the fact that most of DRR Program that are being implemented by many agencies, incl.government and non-government, Emergency Response still the best interest to be intervened for getting more funding, 2) not much science base project or research are conducted by the agencies, most of them simplify by using tangible indicators, such as how many people have been trained, how many mitigation project have been conducted, etc, 3) not much forum or joint initative are being done by the agencies, each of them using their own budget for implementing the program instead having earmarked with the government and working in line with them, and 4) what do we know and what did we learn from previous disaster event that continuously happen in the same province? lack of warning, absent of information system, etc. In the end, i really wish that we can actually say that all works that we have been done or invested are contributing to build the nation's resiliency. Source of information: reliefweb and trusted national online media.


Fact on Rokatenda on 7-13 August 2013

http://www.volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=264150

According to news articles, a partial lava-dome collapse at Paluweh on 10 August generated a pyroclastic flow that traveled N towards a beach village and killed at least 5 people. A volcanologist at the monitoring post for Paluweh noted that the eruption lasted seven minutes, and that the pyroclastic flow burned trees around the beach and villages, making it difficult to reach the victims. Pyroclastic flows continued to be reported hours after the initial eruption. Based on analyses of satellite imagery and wind data, the Darwin VAAC reported that an ash plume rose to an altitude of 4.3 km (14,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted 130 km W.

News sources noted that a mandatory evacuation order had caused some residents to evacuate prior to the eruption on 10 August, but nearly10,000 still remained on the island. After the eruption, a rescue team was sent to evacuate about 2,000 people that remained inside a 3-km exclusion zone. A team member noted that rescuing people was difficult since they were reluctant to leave their livestock and homes, but also that the ground was hot and covered in 10-20 cm of ash. The VAAC reported that during 11-12 August ash plumes rose to an altitude of 1.8 km (6,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted 110-130 km W. A news article noted that the eruptions were smaller on 12 August, but pyroclastic flows continued to be observed. The Alert Level remained at 3 (on a scale of 0-4).

Fact on Sinabung on 15-21 January 2014
http://www.volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=261080
PVMBG described activity at Sinabung during 10-17 January based on observations from a post in the Ndokum Siroga village, 8.5 km away. Each day brownish white or gray and white ash plumes rose as high as 5 km, pyroclastic flows traveled 0.5-4.5 km E, SE, and S, and incandescent material was observed on the S and SE flanks as far as 3 km. Seismicity remained high, with constant tremor, hybrid earthquakes indicating a growing lava dome, and volcanic earthquakes. The number of low-frequency earthquakes continued to drop, however. The Alert Level remained at 4 (on a scale of 1-4). As of 20 January, the number of IDPs has increased to 28,536 persons or 8,967 households.The displaced families from 31 villages of four sub districts within Karo District are sheltering in 42 displacement centers.The Incident Command extends emergency phase from 18 to 28 January 2014

Fact on Jakarta and Manado' Floods
http://reliefweb.int/report/indonesia/indonesia-situation-updates-21-january-2014

• Jakarta Floods As of 21 January 2014, approximately 134,662 persons or 38,672 households in 100 urban villages are directly affected by floods, with 12 casualties. At least 62,819 persons are displaced and staying in 253 displacement centers. GoI has indicated the emergency readiness phase for 30 days starting from 13 January 2014 until 12 February 2014. National response has been mobilized. GoI indicated that it has the capacity to respond to both short and longer term needs created by the floods. GoI also welcomes technical assistance from the international community in the country, particularly for relief aid logistic management.
• Manado Floods: As of 19 January 2014, at least 15,000 persons from two cities and six districts are displaced. 19 casualties are reported. The Governor of North Sulawesi Province declared provincial emergency phase from 15 to 28 January 2014