Indonesia: Earthquake and Mt. Merapi Volcano OCHA Situation Report No. 26

This report is based on information received from the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator's Office in Jakarta and the UN team in Yogyakarta.

UPDATE

Early Recovery:

Shelter and Reconstruction Cluster

- Preliminary conclusions of the Inter-Cluster Assessment, which covers Water Sanitation and Shelter, indicates that 40% of all those who lost their housing remain in insufficient shelter to last the rainy season. This translates into a gap of approximately 50,000 families in need of urgent shelter assistance. Full assessment results will be published at the beginning of November.

- To address the gap in adequate shelter provision, a joint 'roof first' strategy has been adopted by the Shelter Cluster and the Provincial governments of Yogyakarta and Central Java.

- 23,000 roof structures have been constructed by the cluster and additional 61,000 are planned to be delivered by early 2007. This represents a 27% delivery upon the total commitment and 8% of overall needs.

- The UN / Shelter cluster has been negotiating with World Bank and Donor Community for additional funding to meet the gap in shelter needs. The multi-donor "Java Reconstruction Fund" is expected to be established by the end of October and there is a strong indication that resources from the fund will be made available to support additional roof structures.

- IOM, UNDP and Gadjah Mada University have developed several training modules on policy and technical aspects of the housing reconstruction program. A "training of trainers" programme for the technical facilitation teams in the Central Java Province has started and is focusing on increasing understanding of the "roof first" programme and permanent housing construction. Similar training support is being planned for Yogyakarta Province.

- Discussions are ongoing between the cluster and GOI on how to improve understanding about GOI reconstruction policy and cluster activities. Several cluster members are now working in partnership with WHO and Handicap International to ensure that shelter is provided to vulnerable groups including those with disabilities, health problems and psychological trauma resulting from the earthquake.

Yogyakarta Province

- The Yogyakarta Provincial Government has started to disperse housing funds to those community groups that have submitted the required documents (Memorandum of Understanding between Head of Villages and community groups, and verification of bank account). The Management Consultant for Bantul District has confirmed that 80 community groups have received initial allocation of funds.

- Yogyakarta housing policy states that all affected households (destroyed or heavily damaged houses) will be provided with a grant of IDR 15 million; however, the first round of funding will only cover a portion of the total number affected. Community groups must decide - based on vulnerability - which families will receive funds first. Initial disbursement will be at 40%. The 60% balance will be provided after 75% of the initial funds are spent.

- Facilitators to advise local communities on housing reconstruction, planning and budgeting started their work on 16 October. In Bantul, 771 facilitators out of the needed 1,456 have been recruited for the 7,075 (out of 9,542 planned) community groups. Bantul community groups consist of one technical and one non-technical facilitator. In the other Yogyakarta districts facilitation team consists of three persons (two technical and one non-technical).

Central Java Province

- The Central Java Provincial Government plans to provide all 97,000 affected households with IDR 4.4 million in a first round of housing funds planned for mid November. This will be followed by a second allocation of IDR 4 million per household in early 2007.

- 1,522 facilitators out of the planned 1,806 have been recruited for Central Java. One team consists of seven facilitators (one senior, one technical, one empowerment and four junior facilitators). The facilitators will be deployed to the villages shortly to assist community groups in developing proposals.

- Three management consultants have been recruited to manage facilitators.

Livelihoods Cluster

- The cluster is developing its strategies and guidelines. The main focus of strategy is: (i) to support house construction-related activities and (ii) rehabilitation of small-industry. A third longer-term priority will focus on vulnerability. In order to better quantify needs and modality of intervention, UNDP is gathering baseline data and will conduct rapid assessments in the following weeks.

- An economic recovery strategy at district level is being developed by the GoI. However, the budget allocation (IDR 47 billion for the Yogyakarta Province and IDR 21 billion for the Central Java Province) is limited and the GoI is requesting support from cluster members in supporting livelihoods recovery.

- Several programmes designed within the emergency the framework are coming to an end and few organizations have committed funds for longer-term economic recovery. Fund raising for longer-term recovery activities are therefore a priority.

Health:

- 406 spinal cord injury patients who need health and social recovery support were identified by Handicap International. Cluster members are providing rehabilitation services including training for simple exercise, assistive device such as wheel chairs, and support for livelihood recovery.

- To mitigate health risks associated with the rainy season, shelter construction programmes for the disabled have started. Programmes include: Yakkum (88 shelters) and Caritas (19 shelters).

- The second Disaster Preparedness Task Force Meeting, which aimed at identifying existing resources for disasters as preparation for a contingency plan, was held on 5 October. The meeting was supported by WHO and included representatives from Provincial Health Office (PHO), District Disaster Management Implementing Unit (Satlak), and NGOs.

- A WHO supported training of public health and post disaster surveillance was conducted on 26-29 September by Gadjah Mada University in collaboration with PHO. It was attended by Community Health Center (Puskesmas) officials from the six disaster affected districts. A follow up training will be held in November.

Various mental health trainings aimed at improving the capacity of Community Health Center (Puskesmas) medical personnel and volunteers in treatment of and counseling for mental health problems have been held in Central Java. IOM organized a training of trainers for twenty medical doctors and 52 volunteers. Save the Children conducted trainings for 170 volunteers, 40 medical doctors and nurses in seven sub-districts. In addition, a training for government officials from eleven sub-districts was organized by Central Java Health Office and the Klaten Mental Hospital.

Water and Sanitation (Watsan):

- UNICEF has handed over coordination to the District governments but will continue to provide secretariat and other support.

- 8,928 (89% of the original cluster target) wells and 7,359 (49%) household latrines have been repaired or constructed. In addition 1,936 communal toilets and bathing facilities have been constructed.

- In support of the government's efforts to address the large-scale gap, some organizations plan to extend their programmes of well-cleaning and latrine rehabilitation/construction beyond November.

- Construction or repair of latrine and water facilities in 145 schools has been completed. An additional 211 toilets have been repaired or constructed in schools.

- 1,410 NGO workers/volunteers have received training on hygiene promotion and more than 268,000 people have received hygiene awareness information through community workshops and materials. John Hopkins University is currently working on information dissemination through radio and TV.

Protection:

- The preliminary findings of the Inter-Agency Child Protection Assessment indicates a number of important child protection trends in earthquake affected areas including:

Increased levels of violence against children within households and communities stemming from loss of livelihoods and continued poor living conditions resulting

a. in disempowerment, anger, frustration and low tolerance. Violence is reported to have increased, not only in frequency but also in severity.

b. Increased number of children dropping out of school to engage in wage labor such as domestic help, or being recruited to scavenge recyclable materials, which is attributed to loss of livelihoods and the need to supplement household income.

c. Limited capacity within the National child protection sector, i.e., no consistent and disaggregated data, and monitoring system or holistic approach to prevention and response. Furthermore, few NGOs are working on child protection issues. Those NGO's working on protection's expertise is mainly limited to thematic areas.

d. The high number of institutions/ orphanages points to the limited range of response to child protection options.

- To follow up on the assessment findings, the Child Protection Working Group is developing a strategy, which will include capacity building efforts both at the community level and within the social welfare system to strengthen monitoring, prevention and response to child protection.

Education:

- UNICEF and its implementing partners (AAI, AMURT, ASB, CARDI, Relief International and Save the Children-UK) plan to build 163 temporary schools by the end of November, 18 of which will be completed by the end of October.

- A training of trainers for 208 headmasters and teachers on psychosocial support and emergency preparedness has begun in the Bantul District. A teacher's training programme for some 100 headmasters and teachers in Klaten will follow.

- The Bantul District Education Office plans to conduct a survey on the number of schools that have been constructed but are still using tents. 402 destroyed or damaged schools out of 515 (78%) have received assistance, in terms of of either tents, temporary schools or permanent schools.

- The cluster is preparing for closure based on progress made against the ERP targets. UNICEF will facilitate the hand-over process to government.

Agriculture:

- A strategic plan is being developed based on the result of a Rapid Livelihoods Assessment. The plan will be presented at a donor workshop to seek further funds.

- FAO estimates the loss of approximately 310,000 tonnes of paddy within one year (1) ., taking into consideration two to three harvests per year. This situation is expected to increase the vulnerability of farmers to higher food security risks, forcing them to rely on Government and food assistance. Distribution of urgently needed to support farmers from the affected areas to resume rice seeds and fertilizers are regular normal farming activities. FAO with their implementing agency (OISCA) has started distribution of rice seeds and fertilizers in Bantul and Klaten Districts for cultivation during the rainy season.

- In close cooperation with the Provincial and District Livestock Offices, FAO will soon distribute approximately 1,000 goats to vulnerable and landless livestock farmers in Gunungkidul, Kulonprogo and Klaten Districts.

COORDINATION

- On 12-14 October, the National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management (BAKORNAS PB) held an evaluation meeting on emergency response. The workshop drew lessons from the earthquake response. The meeting was attended by the government officials at national, provincial and district levels, donors, international and national NGOs and UN agencies. OCHA made a presentation on "International support for earthquake emergency response in the Yogyakarta and Central Java Provinces". The recommendations adopted at the meeting include:

- A standard operating procedure (SOP) for emergency response needs to be developed, and the responsibilities of different levels of the local authorities;

- The capacity of information management including through a Media Center needs to be enhanced;

- The capacity of rapid assessment by the government needs to be strengthened;

- Coordination among the government, volunteers, NGOs and all stakeholders needs to be improved to avoid overlaps.

Note:

(1) This figure was taken from the physical damage assessment conducted by the FAO Special Programme for Food Security in Indonesia from June to July 2006

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