GNDR National Workshop: Boosting the Disaster Risk Resilience 2022

Collaborations between RDI and GNDR (Global Network of Civil  Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction) have resulted in several achievements in the past three months of 2022. This collaboration was also a commitment between RDI and GNDR to be actively involved in disaster risk reduction in Indonesia. The first activity began in March 2022 when RDI hosted the “Business Plan and Cooperative Management Workshop” in Garut Regency, West  Java, Indonesia. This activity was held under the implementation of “Durable Solutions through the Urban Living Lab” from the “Making Displacement Safer Project”. This workshop aims to improve displaced communities’ resiliency through economic recovery postdisaster. Establishing a community cooperative unit was proposed to strengthen displaced communities’ businesses and their economy. This workshop was conducted in Babakan Carik  Temporary Settlement and Cigadog relocation site involving  Cooperative and Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)  Agency of Garut as the local government representative and  Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) as the representative of the academy institution.

The second collaboration took place in Bandung, West Java, under the implementation of the GNDR “Views from the Frontline (VFL)”  project. From 12 until 28 May 2022, RDI has been working on several discussions with local communities to gauge and outline the impacts of the community actions in 2021. The discussions were conducted in four prone disaster districts (flooding, landslide, and earthquakes) in Bandung, namely Ciumbuleuit, Jambudipa,  Tamansari, and Pagerwangi. Identifying community problems in apprehending disasters, assessing the efficacy of the agreed-upon community actions in negating the highlighted issues of the community, and paving future pathways towards disaster-resilient communities became the three prevalent topics discussed within the FGDs. Various actors participated in the FGD, including community leaders, heads of villages, district sub-heads, members of the Community Empowerment Institute (LPM), members of the  Family Welfare Programme, members of the youth organization (Karang Taruna), members of the Civic Organisation for Disaster  Management (MPBS), and residents.

The collaboration concluded with the National Coordination Meeting (NCM) 2022 in Bali, Indonesia. NCM is the opportunity for GNDR members in Indonesia to collaborate further and optimize the GNDR advocacy message for localizing the disaster reduction and displacement issue management initiative in Indonesia and at the international level. NCM 2022 was conducted prior to the 7th GPDRR (Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction) 2022, a multi-stakeholder forum that aims to share knowledge and discuss the latest developments and trends in reducing disaster risk at the global level. This year, there were eight advocacy messages resulted from NCM 2022, including: (1) listening to the people most at risk, (2) investing at the local level, (3) strengthening coordination & coherence for risk perspective development, (4) empowering women leaders (especially to identify and address gender inequality as a risk driver by strengthening women’s leadership in DRR), (5) strengthening DRR governance in conflict-affected countries, (6) involving children and youth in disaster risk reduction, (7) learning from COVID-19, and (8) integrating inclusion at all levels of DRR.