These recent weeks, ASB team in Indonesia receives significant updates regarding participation of people with disability in disaster risk reduction (DRR) practice from partners in some provinces across the nation. There are increasing numbers of disability representatives actively involved in DRR activity. On the other side, DRR stakeholders (government institution, DRR forum, academic institution) also open more opportunity and encourage people with disability to contribute to DRR efforts. These updates were obtained from the communication platform developed by ASB team which involving representatives from DRR stakeholders and disabled people organisation (DPO) to share news and updates.
Following the workshop on “Strengthening Disability-inclusive DRR for Local DRR Actors” on February 22 – March 3 2016, ASB supports collaboration of all stakeholders to engage inclusive approach in DRR implementation. This activity was undertaken within the frameworks of Technical Assistance and Training Teams (TATTs) Consortium, led by Mercy Corps Indonesia and funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Through the workshop, DRR actors from eight provinces of TATTs project areas got opportunities to collaborate and develop links with DPO representatives. Those provinces were Papua, West Papua, Maluku (Moluccas), North Maluku, South East Sulawesi, East Java, Central Java and West Sumatera.
In only a short period after the workshop, collaboration between DPO and other DRR stakeholders continue to show positive enhancement. Most of the participating provinces already organised initial discussion on implementing disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DiDRR). In South East Sulawesi, one of DPO representative was invited to speak about DiDRR in provincial level workshop on Flood Operation Plan. DPO in East Java also organised an internal session on multi-hazards safety procedure while Central Java Provincial Level Disaster Management Agency (DMA) conducted a DRR training session for DPO members.
In an opportunity, Ms. Maskurun, representative of GERKATIN (deaf organisation), told ASB that DiDRR has to be started from multi-sources. “Not merely depends on government initiatives, DPO needs to enrich itself with knowledge of DRR and actively develop links with other DRR actors,” said Ms. Maskurun. On the other hand, Mr. John M. Hursepuny, representative of Maluku Provincial Level DMA also expressed a positive statement regarding DiDRR. He said “This is not about ready or not ready. Our responsibility is to provide public service for community. Disability is an inseparable part of the community. We can and should not ignore the fact.” (Rizma Kristiana)