Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS
- The Indonesian government and Aceh
rebels signed a peace treaty in Helsinki Monday (August 15). Indonesian
legislators unanimously supported the deal. Last month the government of
Indonesia (GOI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) agreed on an accord to
end hostilities after nearly 30 years of fighting. Fifty monitors from
the European Union and ASEAN countries will immediately begin to observe
the implementation of the armistice with the number increasing to 200 by
the middle of September.
- The Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Aceh and North Sumatra has approved two projects (endorsed by BRR) worth US$82 million.
- Representatives of 27 Indian Ocean countries met in Canberra where plans for a tsunami warning system were formalized. The system will be established by UNESCO and may be in place within a year.
- The Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF and WHO will kick off its mass immunization campaign against polio on 30 August. (See Focus - Polio in Indonesia)
- Eric Morris, the new UN Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias, begins work on humanitarian, reconstruction and disaster management preparedness in early September. Mr. Morris reports directly to the UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator of Indonesia and has been on an exploratory visit to Jakarta and Banda Aceh during the last week
- Dr. David Nabarro of the Global Consortium for Tsunami- Affected Countries met with donors, NGOs, GOI and UN agencies in Jakarta and Banda Aceh this past week. Dr. Nabarro leads the global effort to establish common indicators that will serve to measure progress in tsunamiaffected countries.
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
BRR
BRR in Nias plans to work in the education, health, social cultural and religion, housing and infrastructure, town planning, and economic empowerment sectors. Some 430 billion rupiah has been allocated for Nias and Nias Selatan. The budget will cover provincial road, runway, water resource projects and, with support of Bupatis (district chiefs), to revitalize Gunung Sitoli town planning.
BRR is drafting a matrix of who/what/where and will provide all interested partners with a guideline document for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
BAKORNAS
BAKORNAS (National Coordinating Board for Disaster Management), in conjunction with the UN, will hold a series of Emergency Management Training and Contingency Planning Workshops in five districts of West Sumatra province. This initiative is an effort to improve local capacity on disaster management in several disaster-prone areas like West Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung and East Nusa Tenggara.
The goal of these workshops is to develop a contingency plan the province, based around an earthquake scenario. The document that is produced as a result of these workshops will act as a template for the development of contingency plans in other provinces of Indonesia. Contingency plans for the district level, provincial and national levels will be developed. BAKORNAS kicked off the series of exercises by conducting a national facilitators' workshop in Jakarta on 26 - 28 July 2005. This workshop was attended by 32 participants from BAKORNAS, various Government of Indonesia (GOI) departments, INGOs and local government representatives from West Sumatra District. The facilitators' workshop is intended to develop a pool of facilitators who will be able to share and pass on their knowledge during subsequent workshops in the series.
Other Disaster Management Activities
The World Health Organization (WHO) has established an integrated health emergency unit for disaster response. The unit sits at the Ministry of Health in Jakarta and is now fully operational. It is currently coordinating inputs into the health sector in disaster-affected areas and tracking the progress of ongoing individual activities these areas.
UPDATES ON ACEH AND NIAS
The Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Aceh and Nias has approved two projects worth US$82 million. The Urban Community Recovery Project (UPP) and the Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) both have the endorsement of BRR (Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency. This brings the total number of projects approved to five with a total project value of US$125.8 million. UPP is an US$18 million project, which aims to restore infrastructure in 402 urban villages. The US$64 million KDP aims to assist up to 3,000 villages to develop community-based infrastructure like roads, schools, sanitation, water supply and other community buildings such as assembly halls and markets. Both projects will be community driven.
Aceh Jaya
Assistance coverage is improving, particularly in the sectors of agriculture, shelter, fishery and livelihood/income generation. Most sector group meetings at the Calang level have been reestablished and now take place on a regular basis. At present there are approximately 35 national and international NGOs together with eight UN agencies operating in Aceh Jaya.
Nias
There is a lack of coordination with regards to addressing the requirements of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nias. A proper analysis of the needs of IDPs has not been carried out as yet. Baseline criteria are needed for agencies working in the field. The UN is assisting Satlak in complementing and coordinating their data on IDPs. This will facilitate the identification of humanitarian gaps and improve the coverage of IDP needs.
The Bupati of Nias has established a standard daily labour rate of 29,000 rupiah per day. Agencies and NGOs are asked to abide by this standard.
Humanitarian Action Forum
The Humanitarian Action Forum (HAF) was launched in late July to provide district-level coordination mechanism to address immediate humanitarian needs of IDPs.
Needs identified through the transitional settlement monitoring mechanism (TSMM) conducted by the Norwegian Rescue Committee (NRC) are presented to organizations at each monthly HAF meeting. The first round of HAF meetings continued in the reporting period, on August 1 for Banda Aceh and on August 3 for Pidie. In Banda Aceh, thirty organizations attended and roughly 95 percent of needs across sectors were covered, except for the non-food items (mattresses) and generators. In Pidie, although the attendance by those operating in the district was good, only about 25% of stated needs received commitments. This is a reflection of how resources are thinly spread outside from urban centers.
OCHA is currently in the process of matching these uncommitted needs with available resources within the UN and the NGO community. NRC will soon deploy the TSMM survey teams to Aceh Jaya and Aceh Besar. The first round of HAF meetings for these districts will commence soon after the data comes in.
OCHA is in bilateral discussion with some organizations to streamline the HAF process for certain needs, such as food, where specific organizations can respond with their partners as soon as data becomes available, without waiting for the monthly HAF meeting. OCHA is also in discussion with major stakeholders in promoting the use of the TSMM survey form and database for their needs assessments. The aim is to ensure that data on IDP needs are collected on a regular basis in the same data standard in wider geographical area and are fed into the HAF process for commitments by the aid community.
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