Across the sprawling Southeast Asian country of Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone in the world, people and communities are under constant threat from natural hazards such as floods, earthquakes, and landslides. Far too often, it is the poorest and most vulnerable whose safety and well-being are most at risk in the aftermath of disaster. For example, women with disabilities have often been last in line for rescue, food, shelter, medicine, and relief services.

Recognizing this, the Indonesian government has been working to ensure that its disaster risk management (DRM) efforts are fully inclusive and leave no one behind. Drawing on its expertise and experience in inclusive DRM, GFDRR has been a major partner in those efforts.

A particular focus for GFDRR has been to support analytical work to help the government better understand and thus respond to the needs of vulnerable populations before, during, and after disasters. Drawing on extensive consultations and focus groups and deep analysis of emerging best practices in Indonesia and globally, the technical team has delivered several key findings and recommendations.

The team has highlighted that the lack of sound, disaggregated data for vulnerable groups continues to hamper the ability of national and subnational authorities to design and implement inclusive DRM. Citing successful examples from the Special Region of Yogyakarta, the team thus makes the case for establishing standardized systems at the subnational level for collecting, analyzing, and sharing disaggregated data for vulnerable groups. The team highlighted the importance of involving community members to enhance the relevance and accuracy of data collection.

The team also highlighted that, although government agencies at the national and subnational levels have worked to engage vulnerable populations, including women, in DRM project planning and design, it is unclear whether these populations are able to participate meaningfully. The team thus stressed the need to improve disaster literacy, in part to help address that problem. The team highlights the example of Bayan Village in North Lombok as an example of a locality that has improved disaster literacy through early childhood education.

The team also revealed that, even as Indonesia has invested heavily in developing and implementing multi-hazard early warning systems (EWS) across the country, they have often failed to account fully for the needs and perspectives of vulnerable populations. The end result is that these systems are not as effective as they could be in ensuring timely evacuation by vulnerable groups, such as women, when disaster strikes. The team emphasized the need, among others, to ensure that warnings are disseminated through multiple channels that are accessible to all community members.

Even at this early stage of dissemination, the analytical work is beginning to inform Indonesia’s efforts to achieve more inclusive DRM at the national and subnational levels. For example, the National Disaster Management Agency has used the findings to inform its national program to achieve inclusive disaster resilience at the village level. Findings from the analytical work have also informed design and implementation of Indonesia’s National Urban Flood Resilience Project, which has received a $400 million commitment from the World Bank. The project is designed to reduce flood risk in selected Indonesian cities by promoting resilient, integrated urban flood risk management.

These efforts are part of GFDRR’s broader support of inclusive DRM in Indonesia. The facility has also been supporting analytical work that will provide specific recommendations for the incorporation of gender equality and social inclusion into the National Urban Flood Resilience Project. The facility had previously supported an assessment of efforts to mitigate genderbased violence (GBV) in the aftermath of the 2018 tsunami and earthquake in Central Sulawesi. The facility also supported the training of officials from Indonesia’s resilient housing program to improve their engagement with female beneficiaries so that they can be empowered to be responsible for the safety and resilience of their new homes.