DRR Medan

Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction, Harvesting in Resiliency

Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, in Ccommemoration of DRR event, organised by BNPB in collaboration with UNISDR (Medan, 22-23 October 2018).

AS one of the most disaster-prone countries in Asia, the Indonesian government through its National Board of Disaster Management (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana/BNPB) has shown its commitment to continuously enhancing the country’s resiliency. The National government of Indonesia has translated its international commitment to the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into national policy. Among many other ways, by strengthening the country’s urban areas and bringing together related stakeholders to increase the awareness of and support for the efforts. This spirit was embodied by the organisation of the DRR commemoration in North Sumatera (city of Medan, district of Simalungun, district of Karo, and district of Samosir) from 19 to 26 of October, taking the theme Sustainable Resilience for Sustainable Development: Coherency for Resilience through People-Public-Private Partnership.

UCLG ASPAC made good use of this opportunity by undertaking its role as local government association and DRR leading partner in Asia and Pacific region through advocacy and training in close collaboration with UNISDR. Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, under the discussion session of Mainstreaming Sendai Framework for DRR into Local Action, put great emphasis on the importance of political will, combined with good leadership as the determining factor in the development of the DRR and resilience strategy.

Further, she addressed the need for city leaders and/or metropolitan governments to collaborate with other relevant actors to lead the process. She mentioned the collaboration of UCLG ASPAC and UNISDR with the cities of Bangladesh, Philippines, and Indonesia in mitigating disaster risks in addition to the various works UCLG ASPAC had done in the field, from raising awareness, capacity building, advocacy, to the promotion of relevant supporting tools.

Participants were also inspired by ideas presented by other speakers, such as Director General of Administrative Regional of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) (Mr. Eko Subowo), Regional Legislator of Republic Indonesia (Mr. Parlindungan Purba) and President of Indonesia Secretariat Office (Mr. Roysepta Abimanyu). Regent Mayor of Nganjuk, Mr. Novi Rahman Hidayat, for example, presented the success story of the disaster resilient village (Desa Tanggung Bencana/DESTANA) programme, which has been in place since 2017. He acknowledged that one of the factors for success was the strong commitment which was translated into budget allocation for the DRR. The President of Indonesia has allocated funding for village development, to be used for a range of government priorities, including the DRR efforts. There are also various regulations mentioning the need to mitigate disaster risk, such as the President Regulation 2017 on implementing the SDGs and the regulation on minimum standard service (SPM) at local level which include the DRR and urban resiliency.

UCLG ASPAC also contributed in one training session on Making Cities Resilient Campaign organised by the BNPB in collaboration with UNISDR Asia Pacific Office.

The training was attended by 35 participants from local disaster agencies (BPBD) and was a two-day programme on applying the MCR assessment tool (scorecard Bahasa version) and exercising a local action plan. At the end of the training, each city presented their scorecard and shared lessons they learned from case studies.

Balikpapan City presented their risk profile, which included several potential risks such as floods and landslides; while the most recent hazard was an oil spill, which was classified as the biggest environmental disaster in the past ten years (the oil spill polluting the Balikpapan Bay in East Kalimantan affected the marine ecosystem as well

as coastal residents). Furthermore, Balikpapan City also shared their success story on developing a DRR plan in line with city budget sustainability.

BNPB Indonesia held the Commemoration of the DRR as an annual event to continuously emphasize the role of and strengthen collaboration between related stakeholders in mitigating disaster risks, thus building resiliency in the country. The mentioned stakeholders include participation of local people. The introduction of the DRR theme was conducted through exhibitions, organised to stimulate the raising of awareness, transfer of knowledge, and build the foundation for further necessary actions. In addition to the discussion that involved various related stakeholders, the awareness raising efforts included competitions for high school students, and award delivery for volunteers who have concerns in disaster risk mitigation.