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Disaster risk reduction at our fingertips

Information saves lives. Knowing how to take action when disaster strikes makes the difference. In 2004, residents of Simeulue Island, off the southern coast of Sumatra, felt the earthquake, saw the tide pull back, and knew from local wisdom that a tsunami was coming and they fled for higher ground. Their knowledge saved lives.

Since that tragic catastrophe, Indonesia has created the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and its local counterparts to manage disasters and established nationwide early warning systems. Communities throughout the country have been more informed with preventive steps with students and villagers performing disaster drills in schools and villages respectively.

These are examples of disaster risk reduction; putting safeguards in place for the myriad hazards facing Indonesia to save lives and reduce potential loss. When hazards like earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, illness strike, having access to information saves lives.

And today, almost 16 years later, the technology we have at our fingertips is more advanced. Tapping into its potential, this digital resource, is the next phase of protecting people.

Today as the world marks International Disaster Risk Reduction Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded that we need to invest more resources in digital solutions to build prevention ecosystems that could save many lives in the event of future natural disasters and unprecedented health crises.

Recent disasters in Indonesia, like the Central Sulawesi quaketriggered tsunami or the current COVID-19 pandemic, serve as a wake-up call for the country to look beyond conventional measures when it comes to data analysis and area mapping in strengthening disaster preventive systems. And in a country where 8 out of 10 people have access to mobile phones, the answer to our future risk assessment may lie in digital technology and mobile phone applications.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), through the Program for Earthquake and Tsunami Infrastructure Reconstruction Assistance (PETRA) project, and in partnership with the German Development Bank, KfW, works with BNPB to rebuild vital infrastructure and community facilities, and strengthen resilience of people. We have also expanded support to BNPB’s “InaRISK” mobile application to assist with monitoring support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tool, developed in partnership with BNPB, informs users of imminent risks of impending natural disasters, disseminating disaster risk assessments to the government and other stake holders.

Through the Partnerships for Strengthening School Preparedness for Tsunamis in the Asia Pacific Region project, UNDP together with BNPB, the Education Ministry, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and UNESCO in partnership with the government of Japan developed the STEPA application to assess schools’ earthquake and tsunami preparedness. Well prepared schools will save our children.

The STEP-A application goes hand in hand with UNDP’s active participation in holding periodic tsunami drills at schools in Indonesia’s high-risk areas, also with the support of the government of Japan. The STEP-A system has also been integrated with BNPB’s “InaRISK” online platform.

There are plans for the STEPA system to provide schools with a tsunami risk information dashboard in 17 countries, supported by the Regional Project for disaster data governance (GCDS and Data Digitalization). Indonesia is providing technical assistance to those countries in partnership with Fujitsu.

Data analysis is the need of the hour and the availability of this rich data can help the government better understand where the needs are greatest to mitigate future risks. At a time when the threat from natural disasters and pandemics looms large, we must invest more in building systems that can help save lives.

If our response mechanisms could be bolstered by digital systems in the form of early warning systems, we could work on more effective reconstruction. Fewer lives would be lost, and damage could be contained. By investing in digital platforms and creating a centralized data analytical system, we could help mitigate future risks as we build resilience.

Investing in digital technology is certainly the way forward and will also help create the building blocks necessary to addressing the pressing concerns of building resilience through risk mitigation. Digital technology can help the government, policy makers — and humanitarian organizations address shortfalls in risk management and address challenges before disasters strike.

Responding to these situations also opens up the opportunity to address gender disparities. Digital solutions provide a platform for us to take an inclusive approach as these solutions are developed to ensure both women’s needs, and concerns are also considered in risk mitigation plans.

Of course, digital innovations demand improving telecommunications infrastructure and improving internet access nationwide. Digital usage in Indonesia is among the highest in the world but developing programs to improve digital literacy — coupled with expanding connectivity — will give more people the opportunity to protect themselves and be more risk-aware. We have the technology; it’s time to make it work.

But we cannot leave anyone behind. We have seen the deepening inequalities that COVID-19 has exacerbated, and as we leapfrog technological advancements, such as those for disaster risk reduction, we cannot also widen the digital divide. We must ensure that those furthest behind also have access to the digital options emerging, particularly those that help mitigate disaster. We know that women and the poorest amongst us suffer hardest in disasters. They must be protected.

We need to foster greater coherence of disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation efforts; provide access to risk information and early warning systems; and strengthen preparedness and response measures. Digitization is one solution as we seek to mitigate the risks of climate change, economic instability and antibiotic resistance, among others.

Together, these efforts strengthen the resilience of Indonesia’s urban and rural communities and can help us all build forward better.

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The writer is UNDP Indonesia deputy resident representative

Social protection and labor – Disaster risk management toolkit

This toolkit was conceived for the use of two groups of World Bank Group (WBG) staff and consultants. The primary target users consist of social protection and labor (SPL) specialists who help WBG client countries to strengthen the natural-disaster responsiveness of SPL systems, or more broadly, to mainstream DRM in the country’s SPL policies, programs, and service deliveries. The second most important target users are those who belong to either disaster risk management (DRM) or disaster risk financing (DRF) communities, those work closely with and support the first group, or those are interested in using SPL programs and services as a platform to support their objectives. It is our hope that the knowledge and insights contained in this toolkit will increase the effectiveness of the two target users in assisting their country clients. While some parts of this toolkit are relevant only to WBG staff and consultants, we hope many other parts will also be useful for their in-country counterparts.

SPL specialists in the WBG are typically trained in economics, political science, sociology, and other social sciences. In contrast, DRM specialists tend to be engineers, urban planners, and environmental scientists. Many in the DRF community have degrees in financial economics and business management.

It is not among our objectives to convert SPL specialists into DRM or DRF specialists, or vice-versa. However, our objective includes facilitating communication among the three groups of specialists. When people from different professional specializations come to work together, even a simple word like “risk” is interpreted differently. Engineers are likely to think of physical damage and destruction, where death and injury are the primary human impact to be minimized. SPL specialists, on the other hand, would think of loss of job and income, declining consumption (particularly food), and its long-term impact on human capital. This is what Robert Chambers called “Professional Biases” in his classic book, Rural Development: Putting the Last First. However, to face cross-sectoral challenges, understanding the perspectives of partners from different disciplines is important.

It is also among our objectives to be able to answer questions like those below, which often come to the minds of WBG SPL specialists when they are asked about the linkage between their field and DRM:

  • What SPL instruments are useful for DRM purposes?
  • What are the financial options to make the country’s SPL system ready for disasters?
  • What are the difference between DRM and climate change adaptation (CCA), and how do they relate to each other?
  • What DRM/DRF instruments are critical to SPL?
  • What kind of information needs to be shared between SPL and DRM? E.g. How to integrate poverty maps (SPL) and hazard maps (DRM)?
  • How can the most vulnerable people be identified to render most needed assistance to them?
  • When to use in-kind transfer (e.g. school feeding programs) vs. cash-based approaches for DRM?
  • How to best support specific groups of vulnerable populations, e.g. female-headed households, households with disabilities, and/or the elderly in preparation for disasters?
  • What institutional mechanism is required to assist displaced persons in preparation for disasters?
  • How should the division of labor and coordination mechanisms be organized between the SPL and DRM communities, and at what level (e.g. national, sub-national and local)?
  • How can civil society and the private sector be effectively engaged for integrating SRM with DRM?
  • What is the role that civil society and the private sector play in engaging in SRM and DRM activities?
  • What kind of institutions, legal instruments, and regulatory arrangements need to be built to ensure the integration of SRM with DRM?
  • Where does one find SPL and DRM experts who can offer advice?

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