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Indonesia

Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund (EDAF) Monitoring Report DREF Operation – Indonesia: Drought Response 2023 (MDRID026)

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MONITORING MISSION OVERVIEW

From 8 to 12 July 2024, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) conducted a monitoring mission under the Strategic Partnership (SP) project Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund (EDAF) to the Indonesian Red Crescent (PMI) to review the progress made on the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF)-supported Operation Indonesia Drought 2023 (MDRID026).

This monitoring mission, conducted by a female and a male CRC staff members and supported in-country by several key PMI team members (10 male and 4 women, plus PMI district-level staff and volunteers), included a review of the progress against the planned objectives and outputs according to the operational strategy and the DREF budget to establish key achievements, challenges, and lessons learned within the scope of the DREF Operation up to the date of the monitoring visit. The DREF Operation targeted communities in the following provinces of Indonesia: Nangroe Aceh Darussalam, Sumatera Utara, Sumatera Barat,Riau, Jambi, Sumatera Selatan, Bengkulu, Lampung, BangkaBelitung, Kepulauan-riau, Dki Jakarta, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah,Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Jawa Timur, Banten, Bali,Nusatenggara Barat, Nusatenggara Timur, Kalimantan Barat,Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Selatan, Kalimantan Timur,Sulawesi Utara, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi Selatan, SulawesiTenggara, Gorontalo, Sulawesi Barat, Maluku, Maluku Utara,Papua, Papua Barat affected by the drought of 2023. After February 2024, the DREF extended the operations only in the provinces that still experienced water scarcity, namely East Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara.

Learnings from this review will inform future joint monitoring missions under the Strategic Partnerships with Global Affairs Canada (GAC), provide recommendations on possible improvements of CRC and GAC support to IFRC operations, and share impactful practices employed in the intersectoral response of the National Society. As part of CRC’s commitment to sharing lessons learned within Movement forums and advocate for broader uptake of best practices, CRC will share the key findings of this mission at the IFRC DREF Advisory Group (DAG).

Situation

Located along the equator, Indonesia naturally has two seasons that is dry season and rainy season. The dry season commonly lasts from June until November each year and the rainy season lasts from December until May. However, given its wide geographical span, the timing and intensity of rainfall also varies significantly between regions. In March 2023, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) issued advice that the intensifying El Niño phenomenon and positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) may cause a drought during the dry season in Indonesia. The concurrence of both phenomena led to decreased rainfall across the Indonesian region. Based on BMKG's forecast, the dry season (determined from days without rain) reached its peak in October 2023 for several areas such as the Southern Part of Sumatra, the Southern part of Kalimantan, and Java Island, or November 2023 for Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, and West Nusa Tenggara area due to anomalies in Pacific Ocean temperatures that have been growing, with the index reaching 0.8, concerningly close to the threshold of 1, at which point the El Niño status goes from "Weak" to "Moderate." Adding to the forecast, BMKG indicated that the El Niño phenomenon would continue beyond February. Consequently, as El Niño triggered low rainfall probability, several regions in Indonesia continued to be impacted by prolonged drought or less rainfall beyond November 2024.

18,750,000 people were affected by the drought. The prolonged drought season elevated the risk of water scarcity as a predominant concern for people living in the affected areas. The potential and current absence of an adequate water supply places households in a vulnerable position, subjecting them to potential threats to health, hygiene, and overall livelihoods. A significant number of boreholes dried out or had limited water, making it increasingly challenging for people to meet their daily water consumption needs. As an alternative, communities turned to wells outside their boundaries, as well as nearby rivers and other unprotected sources. These water sources also saw a reduced levels due to the lack of rainfall, exacerbating the water scarcity issue. As a result, communities were compelled to travel longer distances in search of other water resources, such as dams or ponds. Individuals consuming water from these sources were exposed to waterborne diseases and contaminants, leading to a potential public health crisis.

Response

PMI completed a rapid assessment to determine impact as well as collating secondary information provided by BMKG and the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB). Through this DREF operation, the assessment report served as a baseline to mobilize resources, as well as to guide internal and external coordination on joint efforts by various organizations in the country. At the national, provincial and district level, PMI chapters coordinated with their respective local governments. In the initial period of the operation, there were eight branches at the provincial level responding to the drought, with 49 water trucks mobilized across 44 affected districts, mobilized 56 personnel and distributed over 965,000 litres of water to the affected communities. There is currently an in-country presence of two Partner National Societies (American Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross), and until mid-2023 also the Turkish Red Crescent had presence. All partners, together with IFRC, closely monitored the developments. IFRC has a country cluster delegation (CCD) for Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam and Timor-Leste in Jakarta consisting of a head of office and technical capacities in a multitude of departments.

The operational objective of Indonesia Drought DREF (MDRID026) was to meet the immediate water needs of 25,000 people across 17 provinces through water trucking activities, and the provision of communal and household water storage facilities. Water trucking activities were planned to last from August to October 2023 and provide clean water daily during the three- month implementation period. The operation also aimed to develop community awareness especially in health, WASH, drought awareness and preparedness with PGI and CEA components integrated in the response such as feedback mechanisms, hotlines, and door-to- door discussions.

DREF Operation Revision

Throughout the initial six-month implementation period, PMI managed to distribute more than 90 million liters of water, benefiting an average of 33,642 people daily. However, the typical Indonesian monsoon season started in the last quarter of the year until the first quarter of the following year, resulting in more areas experiencing rainfall. Due to these changes, PMI, with IFRC’s support, deployed an assessment team to analyze the changing situation and needs at the field level to better understand the DREF Operation’s fit-for-purpose. The assessment was conducted in four provinces in Indonesia, namely Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Java. Several parameters to support the analysis, such as rainfall forecast data, number of days without rain, climate zone, PMI water distribution capacity, and inputs from the branches, were considered to determine the assessment priority locations. Based on the findings of the assessment, and with IFRC’s support, PMI launched a DREF revision request in which the initial operation was extended to 30 June 2024, with the budget of 580,079 CHF remaining the same.

Several modifications were made to the original operational plan, including:

  • WASH: In the WASH sector, besides the operation of water truc king, PMI considered a handful of early-recovery support initiatives to the communities by rehabilitating communal water resources and water support facilities in the revised DREF Operation’s targeted provinces. This is to ensure sustainability and provide a longer solution to the community.
  • Livelihoods and CVA: launch of the multipurpose cash transfer program (CVA) to 1150 individuals (230 famer households) in different target groups – inclusion factors integrate gender, diversity, and disability in the response, although no further information was provided to the DREF Review team on what diversity PMI was referring to. PMI used a vulnerability criterion to develop its targeting strategy. This CVA supported the affected population’s income generating needs. Training materials were provided to the targeted community to ensure continuing capacity development.