Persons with disabilities are capable of playing active and central roles in reducing disaster risk. They can contribute to increasing community resilience by sharing their knowledge and skills in preparing for and responding to disaster events. Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) Indonesia and the Philippines has been working to strengthen the capacity and participation of persons with disabilities in the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) mechanism and humanitarian response, especially in Lampung Province. We facilitate persons with disabilities to empower themselves in becoming future facilitators of disaster risk reduction.
This effort is a part of a Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR) Consortium project, “Putting Persons with Disabilities at the Centre of Humanitarian Preparedness and Response.” In Indonesia particularly, ASB collaborates with the Centre of Disaster Management Education and Training of the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency (Pusdiklat PB BNPB), representatives of Organisations with Disabilities (OPDs), and local humanitarian Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to review and design the 2022 National Curriculum of Disaster Management Education and Training for Persons with Disabilities and Facilitators of Disability-inclusive Disaster Management. This curriculum integrates humanitarian standards and guidelines at the national and global level, including the IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, Humanitarian Inclusion Standards (HIS) for older people and people with disabilities, Sphere Standards, and Core Humanitarian Standards.
Following the curriculum review and development, we conducted curriculum training and testing with prospective facilitators of disability-inclusive disaster management in South Lampung District in July 2022. In this training, the prospective facilitators learned how to facilitate the training activities of disability-inclusive disaster preparedness and humanitarian response at the local level. The prospective facilitators from the local OPDs are the representatives of the Indonesian Association of Women with Disabilities (Himpunan Wanita Disabilitas Indonesia/HWDI), Indonesian Association of the Blind (Persatuan Tuna Netra Indonesia/Pertuni), Indonesian Association of Persons with Disabilities (Perkumpulan Penyandang Disabilitas Indonesia/PPDI), and Movement for the Welfare of Indonesian Deaf (Gerakan untuk Kesejahteraan Tuna Rungu Indonesia/Gerkatin). Meanwhile, the prospective facilitators from the government agencies include the representatives of the Office of Village Community Empowerment (Balai Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Desa/PMD), Regional Development Planning Agency (Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Daerah/Bappeda), Regional Disaster Management Agency (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah/BPBD), Village Community Empowerment Service (Dinas Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Desa/DPMD), Social Service, and Education Service.
Three core competencies or training topics were tested during this training: (1) Implementation of Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction, which includes training materials such as DRR and multi-hazards concepts, disaggregated data (by gender, age, and disability) and data analysis, inclusive community-based disaster risk assessment, and inclusive risk communication; (2) Implementation of Disability-inclusive Preparedness, including topics such as inclusive early warning and evacuation, inclusive disaster evacuation planning and early warning simulations, and inclusive safety procedures; and (3) Implementation of Disability-inclusive Humanitarian Response which includes the mainstreaming efforts of inclusion in humanitarian response, quantitative projection of the needs of the affected population, and inclusive psychosocial support.
The training was conducted by ensuring accessibility and reasonable accommodation, such as the provision of sign language interpreters, closed captioning, and accessible training materials in different formats. At the end of the training, ASB and BNPB managed to collect recommendations and lessons learnt from the participants that were useful for refining the disaster management curriculum. The prospective facilitators are now ready for sharing their knowledge and skills regarding disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction with other relevant stakeholders.
