Attachments
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Indonesia’s location and topography expose its people to a wide spectrum of hazards. Chronic flooding and rain-triggered landslides affect every province. Global oceanic temperature phenomena drive widespread drought impacts. And the country is perched on active faults that produce frequent earthquakes, occasional tsunamis, and eruptions from more than 100 volcanoes. Moreover, the country is experiencing rapid urbanization, expanding infrastructure networks, and rising asset values that, collectively, mean ever increasing human losses and material costs associated with natural hazard events.
By one count, in the last decade, the country experienced 228 disasters, of which some 80% were hydrometeorological or geophysical – e.g., floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, droughts, and peatland fires. Floods and landslides occur commonly, but each individual event’s impact is generally localized and relatively moderate. At the other end of the spectrum, major quakes can wreak extreme damage across wide swaths of territory. While hydrological emergencies are the most numerous, geophysical shocks account for the highest death tolls.
The dual nature of Indonesia’s disaster risk – i.e., geographically widespread and common, smaller-scale hydrological events versus unpredictable, rare, but far more deadly and costly geophysical events – is a challenge for the country’s disaster management (DM) stakeholders. For the more than 20 years since the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean “Boxing Day” earthquake and tsunami struck off of Sumatra, Indonesia has made significant strides in all aspects of DM – prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. However, its DM practitioners are continually striving to enhance national and community resilience by building legal, policy, and institutional capacity while fostering regional and international partnerships. A key collaboration is with the DM-related committees and agencies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Indonesia is a member state.
Under the country’s foundational DM law from 2007, the National Disaster Management Agency (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana, or BNPB) is the national focal point for government institutions with a stake in DM. The DM focal points for provinces, districts, and cities are the Regional Disaster Management Agencies (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah, or BPBD). BNPB coordinates preparedness, prevention, mitigation, and response, and its Steering Committee integrates the Indonesian Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, or TNI) and Indonesian National Police (Kepolisian Negara Republik Indonesia, or POLRI), among others. In addition, specialized agencies like the national search-and-rescue (SAR) agency, Badan Nasional Pencarian dan Pertolongan (Basarnas), play key roles in response at home and alongside regional and international partners, including United Nations (UN) agencies. As needed, these specialized agencies and BNPB can deliver expertise, technical assistance, and even trained personnel to a regional response, most often as part of a collective ASEAN response.
As Indonesia confronts cumulative damage and disruption from myriad small-scale hazard events and occasional mass disruption and loss from large-scale incidents, it works closely with other countries, international organizations, domestic non-governmental organizations (NGO) and civil society organizations (CSO), and the private sector to build preparedness, response skills, and recovery capacity. The bilateral relationship between Indonesia and the United States (U.S.) is among these key partnerships, as it encompasses civilian and military cooperation across the security spectrum, including disaster response.