The AHA Centre acts as ASEAN’s regional hub for information and knowledge on disaster management. It aims to serve as the central point for mobilisation of resources to disaster-affected areas in ASEAN member states and act as the coordination point for ASEAN’s collective response to disasters in the ASEAN region. Australia has contributed AUD 1 million to the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) to support the establishment of the AHA Centre.

On 11 May, Ambassador Bird and the AIFDR Co-Director, Dr.Matt Hayne, had the opportunity to visit the newly established AHA Centre. The delegation was welcomed by the Executive Director of AHA Centre, Mr Said Faisal and Ms. Adelina Kamal, the Head of Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance Division of the ASEAN Secretariat.

The visit provided an opportunity for Ambassador Bird to explore the AHA Centre’s facilities, with Mr Faisal providing a briefing on how Australian assistance was supporting the establishment of the AHA Centre, particularly through the recruitment of nine corporate and three specialist positions. In collaboration with ASEC, these staff will support the AHA Centre to further develop business systems, standard operating procedures and response protocols. Ambassador Bird welcomed this update, and reiterated Australia’s commitment toward supporting the AHA Centre into the future.

In addition to funding for the AHA Centre, Australia is providing $1.08 million to the ASEC to support ASEAN’s disaster management priorities in the region, as outlined in the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER).

DKI Jakarta’s Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) with the assistance of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) is developing a detailed scenario that estimates the impact of future flooding to people, schools, hospitals, and other important buildings. The resulting scenario will provide BPBD DKI Jakarta a vital dataset for anticipating the impacts of future disasters and for informing contingency planning.

The first step in understanding the potential impact of a flood is to know and map where all of the people, important buildings and logistic hubs are located. The intention is to collect this critical data once and then make it freely and easily available to everyone. In this way the information can be used for contingency planning as well as a huge range of spatial planning and development issues.

BPBD DKI Jakarta and BNPB with assistance from AIFDR (Australia Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction), the World Bank, UNOCHA, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and University of Indonesia have just held workshops in each of Jakarta’s 6 Districts in order to help Village Heads map their community boundaries and major infrastructure. To date, over 500 representatives from Jakarta’s 267 Villages have participated in these workshops – and have mapped an impressive 4,000 buildings and all 2,668 sub-village boundaries (Rukun Warga-RW).

Given the huge success of this workshop, AIFDR is working with BNPB to examine the feasibility of replicating this work in other high-risk parts of Indonesia.

For more Details:
http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/Jakarta_best_community_mapped_for_preparedness

A core section of this pilot was working with the AusAID funded Australian Community Development and Civil Society Strengthening Scheme (ACCESS) to help community groups in easternIndonesiamap their communities. It’s been over a year since the first workshop and groups in Dompu and Bima are now using OpenStreetMap everyday to make informed decisions about their community.

Dedy from ACCESS Bima said, “It is really amazing to be able to identify health centres with just one click, and instantly work out how far away they are from people who need them most.” Dedy has also identified the need for better drainage in his village as flash floods wash away shrimp and fish farms as well as salt pans. “Thanks to our mapping work, I now know where the water piping and drainage should be and will be working with the village leaders to improve the system”  he said.

The government of Dompu have also seen the need for this data and is now providing Rp 2 billion to map all 90 villages, with 20 successfully mapped already.

For more details:

• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2012-03-30_finishing_up_in_indonesiafor_the_moment
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-12-08_openstreetmap_and_quantum_gis_training_in_bali
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2012-01-30_back_back_back_to_sumbawa
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-12-02_poverty_mapping_with_an_openstreetmap_base_in_sumbawa
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-07-11_hot_in_sumba_island_indonesia
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-07-10_hot_in_lombok_indonesia
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-07-05_hot_in_sumbawa_island_indonesia
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-07-03_hot_in_indonesia

This new tool allows disaster managers to request support from the global OpenStreetMap community to help them digitise imagery – either to help assess damage immediately following a disaster or to help identify critical infrastructure for better planning and preparedness.

The tool was first used to help in the mammoth task of mapping Padang,West Sumatra– a city with a massive tsunami and earthquake risk. To date, 79 contributors from across the world have mapped 80% or over 65,000 buildings across Padang– incredibly, this has all been done in just 6 months. One of the groups to thank for this amazing result is the Haitian OpenStreetMap community, who, during the recent ‘Night of the living map’ initiative spent a whole night mapping Padang!

In addition to helping mapPadang, the global OpenStreetMap community have been enthusiastic in taking advantage of this tool for mapping key parts ofIndonesiaand the world. There are currently over 10 active tasks from across the world. Examples range from a tasking server to collect simple map data such as tracing roads and obvious points of interest in Tamale (Ghana), to a group in Haiti using it to coordinate on the ground mapping as well as efforts to map roads and key buildings in Kupang (Indonesia).

For more Details:

• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2011-09-20_hot_tasks_get_your_hot_tasks
• http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2012-03-10_night_of_the_living_maps_in_saint_marc_02072012

In Indonesia, village maps have traditionally been measured and drawn by hand on rolls of pink map paper.

But mapping is now moving online.

Dedy and Haris are seeing the benefits first-hand in Bima, a town in eastern Indonesia.

They have just received training in GPS and online mapping tools to help them create an accurate and up-to-date map of their local area.

‘It is really amazing to be able to identify health centres with just one click, and instantly work out how far away it is from people who need it most,’ Dedy said.

They are using a web project known as OpenStreetMap which aims to create a free and open map of the world, created entirely by volunteers.

‘If a village has a good enough internet connection and enthusiastic people with sufficient understanding of computers, it’s possible to introduce this online mapping system,’ said Kate Chapman from OpenStreetMap.

This collective form of mapping helps identify priorities for development and disaster risk reduction, which is especially important for Indonesia as it is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world.

The Australian Government-backed ACCESS project has helped fund training sessions for the residents of Bima.

‘Different organisations were making different maps of Bima for different purposes,’ said Kristy Van Putten from the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR).

‘OpenStreetMap provided the ideal solution—communities could be mapped once and then that could be accessed, edited and used by everyone,’ said Van Patten.

Haris is now using his skills to help other nearby villages, like Talabiu.

‘Every year, shrimp farms, fish farms, and salt pans are washed away by flash floods,’ he explains.

‘They needed to create better drainage systems, but they only had limited mapping information showing where the water flowed.’

‘Thanks to our mapping work, I now know where the water piping and drainage should be and will be working with the village leaders to improve the system,’ he said.

AIFDR helps Indonesia to identify its natural hazard risks and works with communities and decision makers to prepare and plan for disasters.

AIFDR is supporting the OpenStreetMap project to help provide Indonesian communities with vital information for understanding the impacts of future disasters and for informing natural hazard risk assessments.

Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

Jumiati’s face looked emotional when asked about her house. Silent, lost in thought momentarily, she finally found her voice and said “I’ve moved houses seven times. I’m tired.” Gazing at the sky, she said “I used to have a house in Bantul, it was hit by an earthquake, then I moved to Bakalan village and my house was crushed in cold mudflows. I’ve been evacuated six times before ending up in this temporary shelter in Kuwang,” said Jumiati.

The Kuwang temporary shelter is for survivors of the Mount Merapi eruption. Occupants come from 10 different villages with the majority, 88 households, from Bakalan village. Other occupants come from Banaran, Suruh, Gadingan and six other villages in the district.

Learning new skills
Since moving to the shelter, Jumiati has attended training organised by nearby Gajah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta. The training has helped empower Jumiati and the Sedyo Rukun women’s group, as they can now earn an income.

“A month ago my friends and I learnt how to make catfish floss (shredded meat). We bought 10 kilograms of catfish with a price of IDR 10.000 for a kilogram that we then process into floss. We could produce 2.5 kilograms of floss from 10 kilograms of catfish and sell it for IDR 120.000, earning IDR 20.000,” explains Jumiati.

Optimism for the future
This 43-year-old woman is determined the business will earn an income for her family. “We no longer own rice fields or farms. It’s good to have something to do, which also earns us income”, says Jumiati.

Jumiati is confident the processed food (floss) will sell at the market. “We’re still selling it at a promotional price. According to the market price, catfish floss sells at IDR 60.000 to 75.000 per kilogram. I believe our product is competitive”, she adds.

Jumiati and six other women in the Sedyo Rukun group take turns to produce the catfish floss. “Somebody will skin, chop, mince, and rinse the fish. Others will fry, season, pack and then label the packages. I am usually responsible for seasoning the fish as my friends claim I produce the best taste,” Jumiati explains.

The income generation activity does not go without challenges. Jumiati and her friends are still struggling with production time. “We need equipment to help us skin the fish faster”.
“If the business goes well, we will buy some equipment. Hopefully it won’t be too long”, said Jumiati.

When asked how long she is going to concentrate on the business, Jumiati answers, “as long as I am strong enough to work and it earns me an income I will continue the business with my friends”.

The business has even attracted interest from neighbours who want to learn the same skills from Sedyo Rukun.

“I really hope I don’t have to move anywhere else. I want to start my new life here,” says Jumiati.

Restoring incomes and learning along the way
“Through this training program, we are also mapping the social economic status of disaster victims now and before the disaster struck,” said the lead research professor, Dr Poppy Ismalina of UGM. “We’re committed to training people with alternative livelihoods skills, with the training being conducted in two shelters, Huntara Kuwang and Huntara Gondang,” said Dr Ismalina.

“The majority of people here are also eager to learn about business management and trading,” says Dr. Sari Sitalaksmi from Gadjah Mada University.

The program works by strengthening community capacity through the “Sekolah Lapangan” (field school) approach, with results used to formulate integrated solutions to restore social and economic functions of Merapi eruption survivors.

(Irfan Herlambang)

Research and training is being supported by the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR) and aims to restore the lives of Mount Merapi victims. AIFDR supports Indonesia in disaster risk reduction as Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world.

“Ma’am, I can make a flower pattern!” shouted a woman from Bakalan village, making other women trainees even more motivated. Not happy to be outdone, Siti stood up and moved closer forward to see the pattern sample being taught.

Organised by the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in nearby Yogyakarta, a local businessman who owns a batik company, has also been invited to share skills on entrepreneurship to Mount Merapi eruption victims.

Siti, along with over a hundred other women, pack out the small mosque, which had been turned into a meeting room at Kuwang shelter, Argomulyo village, Cangkringan sub-district, Yogyakarta.

They are part of the 1041 victims living in temporary shelters following the October 2010 Mount Merapi disaster. Situated four kilometers from the crater of Merapi, Kuwang shelter accommodates people from 10 different villages in the district. Most from Bakalan village, where all of the homes were wrecked by the cold-lava flood.

The most active volcano in the world, Merapi took the lives of 340 people, made 60,000 people homeless, caused thousands of farmers to lose their livelihoods, demolished 3300 buildings and caused loss of over four trillion rupiahs.

Research for society’s recovery
Following the disaster, UGM a local university in Yogyakarta, initiated a life recovery project. Supported by the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR), a joint initiative between the governments of Australia and Indonesia that works to strengthen Indonesia’s ability to reduce the impact of disasters, UGM began work in two locations near Mount Merapi: two temporary shelters, Kuwang and Gondang.

“Through the project we are studying recovery efforts,” said Dr. Poppy Ismalina from UGM.
“We want to draw a socio-economic map of disaster-affected communities in comparison to life before the disaster. This research will help recover the livelihoods of Mount Merapi victims,” said Dr. Ismalina.

It is hoped that by compaining pre and post disaster socio-economic measures that better targeted recovery strategies can be achieved.

UGM students, from the community service program (KKN), are also helping out at both locations. “We’ve been here for a couple of months so people are familiar with us already, they know us,” said Lukman, a UGM student from the Faculty of Economics. “This helps us with observations and discussions held throughout the training and research,” said Lukman.

Offering new skills
The project works not only to seek and collect data, but to offer incentives to stimulate community participation in empowerment programs. Both men and women are invited to join the education and training program offered by UGM. Alternative solutions to economic recovery include training on business and trading management, the establishment of a mushroom seedling cultivation business, supporting a group of concrete brick makers to produce building materials, agriculture assitance and training in the production of shredded fish snack called abon lele.

The shelter residents show a strong desire to adopt and further develop the training strategies. The disaster isn’t a hindrance, as Pak Hasan, a village head said “we must hold on, because we choose to live here.”

(Irfan Herlambang)

The research program and training being provided is supported by the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR) and aims to restore the lives of Mount Merapi victims. AIFDR supports Indonesia in disaster risk reduction as Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world.

But, for Darsun, a traditional cattleman living in Gondang village, Cangkringan sub-district, Yogyakarta, the heat cloud that rolled through the village killed all of his cows and destroyed his livelihoods.

Cattle, for Cangkringan residents, are considered very valuable possessions. Community members perceive breeding cattle as an investment as they rely on cattle for urgent situations where they need cash.

According to the director of the School of Veterinary Medicine at Gadjah Mada University’s (UGM), Yogyakarta, Prof. Ida Tjahajati, cows, for these villagers, are incredibly significant. These people, who live just three kilometres from Mount Merapi’s crater, consider cattle to be part of the family.

“I had 18 cows, in fact one of them was pregnant,” said Darsun. “When I came back after the eruption and checked the stalls, none were alive,” he said. Darsun is not alone, with many other farmers left in a similar situation.

And for the cattle that survived, life is a struggle, coping with burns and illnesses. Some cattle have respiratory problems and digestive issues. Weight has dropped and in many cases, cattle can no longer produce milk.

Cattle research
With support from Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR), UGM are studying the impact of the eruption on cattle health.

“We’re studying the long-term impact of volcanic ash on cattle,” said Prof. Dr. Ida Tjahajati. The team, consisting of veterinarians, researchers, students and the government agency for agriculture, have studied 1008 cows in 25 villages around Mount Merapi.

In Boyolali, Sleman, Klaten and Magelang villages, cattle illness is being identified and mapped to investigate the economic losses caused by volcanic ash.

“This research is the first of its kind,” said Wita Katoppo, from AIFDR. Since 2011, AIFDR have supported UGM’s research through a grant. AIFDR focuses on empowering the Indonesian Government to reduce the impact of disasters.

“This research will assist the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) in developing the community contingency plans in the event of future disasters,” said Wita Katoppo.

The impact of volcanic ash
According to Dr. Slamet, “volcanic-ash particles are very dangerous for living things. Humans can protect themselves with masks but animals in their stalls, when the eruption takes place, are not able to flee from the deadly minerals,” said Dr. Slamet.

“Aside from health problems, surviving animals are becoming increasingly thin, and now can’t be used for meat or milk production,” said Prof. Ida.

In an emergency situation, many farmers do not want to stay home and take the risk to make sure their cattle are safe. These farmers went to check the animal stalls when the location was still categorised as a disaster zone.

“It is difficult to convince people to leave their homes as they worry about the condition of their animals. This research will also lead to evacuation recommendations for cattle and how to prepare emergency stalls,” said Prof. Ida.

“Emergency stalls can protect animals during a disaster which will ultimately speed up the process of evacuating the people concerned about their cattle’s safety,” added Prof Ida.

Common hope
This research will help better understand the links between people and their cattle in a natural disaster.

“I don’t ask much,” said Darsun. “I just hope that when this Mount Merapi disaster strikes again, I will not have to lose my cattle again.”

At the recent BNPB National Coordination Meeting in Jakarta, at which the agency also celebrated its fourth year of operation, more than 600 copies of the newly published training modules were presented to the heads of Indonesia’s provincial and district disaster management agencies (BPBD).

Over the past 12 months, AIFDR has supported an expert team to develop the Basic Disaster Management Training Modules and Facilitator Guidebook in partnership with BNPB’s Training and Education Unit. The expert team synthesized the existing BNPB basic disaster management curriculum and developed a series of basic modules that include disaster management concepts, characteristics and principles as well as training on the key areas of prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, rehabilitation and reconstruction, logistics management and field operations responsibilities.

The modules represent a shift in training approach for BNPB and include a Facilitator Guidebook that will assist with interactive and participatory training sessions. The expert team has also developed a Roadmap for the BNPB Training and Education Unit, that identifies the need to develop a team of master trainers to help deliver basic disaster management training throughout the country. AIFDR will continue to support this initiative.

AIFDR previously conducted a disaster management training needs analysis at the provincial level which found that in the newly formed sub-national disaster management agencies, basic knowledge of disaster management was considerably low.

“There is a need to translate into an operational framework, the shift from disaster relief to disaster risk management,” said Kharisma Nugroho, team leader on the module development program.

AIFDR will mainstream the training modules into its other programs with particular emphasis on training disaster managers in the priority provinces of West Sumatra, East Java, South Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara. AIFDR will also encourage its partners working at the district and community level to utilise the training materials.

The release of the National Basic Disaster Management Training Modules coincides with the publication of the BNPB Handbook for Emergency Response. The Handbook, supported by AIFDR and facilitated by UNOCHA, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, covers the role of BNPB and BPBD in emergency response, coordination and command.

View and Download Publication:

This booklet was written in Bahasa Indonesia, and circulated through the Jakarta Post. The content and information printed in this insertion comes from various sources including the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

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