Development of DRR action plans for local government in Indonesia

Despite significant progress in Indonesia's disaster management reform, there is still some way to go. A recent need-gap analysis of current DRR regulations and institutional arrangements highlighted a need for a shift in focus to mainstreaming DRR into development policies and programmes, recognizing that local agencies for disaster management and development planning are at the frontline when it comes to internalizing the DRR agenda into development policy. Other researchers identified that the local government's capacity and capability to implement DRR measures was weak. They called for increased effort to strengthen the capacity of key local institutions.

With funding support from the New Zealand Aid programme, Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has partnered with GNS Science (a New Zealand Crown Research Institute) in a 5-year programme (2014-2019), called Strengthening Indonesian Resilience: Reducing Risks to Disasters (StIRRRD). This programme is supporting the Indonesian Government in its efforts to strengthen the DRR capacity of local government, thereby addressing in part the identified gap in mainstreaming DRR in Indonesia. The StIRRRD programme is moving into its last year and a period of evaluation and reflection. While still early days in terms of lessons learned, this paper shares some findings to date from the development and implementation of non-statutory DRR Action Plans.

The report finds that the participatory approach used to develop the disaster risk reduction plans has resulted in non-statutory multi-stakeholder standalone plans which have influenced the content of regulations and legislation and may have led to increased budget allocations for disaster risk reduction and preparedness activities. While not a replacement for a statutory approach to reducing risk in the Indonesian context, non-statutory plans have their place and can stimulate discussion and activity as a precursor to introducing mid-term development plans.

This paper is a contribution to the 2019 edition of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2019).

To cite this paper: 

Daly, M. et al. Development of DRR Action Plans for local government in Indonesia. Contributing Paper to GAR 2019