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REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING/

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AGENCY (BAPPENAS)

Country Experience:

Advancing Child Rights in Disaster Risk Reduction Initiatives in Indonesia 1)

by : Nina Sardjunani2) and Suprayoga Hadi3)

1. Background

Indonesia is a country with great potential to sustain geologic, biologic, hydrometeor logic, environmental, technologic and social disasters. Tectonic disasters pose the greatest threat as Indonesia is an archipelago situated on the convergence of the globe’s major tectonic plates. Therefore, Indonesia is very prone to natural disasters. The Eurasian plate collides with the Indo-Australia plate and creates a tectonic fault line stretching from west of Sumatra through south of Java Island and up to Nusa Tenggara. Three tectonic plates meet in eastern Indonesia, namely the Philippines plate, Pacific plate and Australian plate. As a result, Indonesia is very prone to earthquakes, tsunami, landslides and other related hazards. The Indonesian archipelago is in fact, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, located at the confluence of three mountain clusters: Alpine Mountain, Circum Pacific and Circum Australia; which made Indonesia has more than 500 volcanic mountains, where 128 of the mountains are still active.Global climate change has also begun to show its impacts in Indonesia as evidenced from the increased floods, draughts and forest fires.

On the other hand, Indonesia has a population of 226 million people with disparate income distribution, and comprised of various tribes, community groups, races, religions and customs along the archipelago. This situation has contributed to Indonesia’s vulnerability to disasters and its impacts increase poverty and depedency on external help. Indonesia ranked 7th as the most disaster-affected country in the world in 2005 (UNISDR 2006-2009, World Disaster Reduction Campaign, UNESCO)..

The impacts of those disaster risks are already being felt – most acutely by the poor and children. With increasing number of disasters being linked to changing climate conditions, and the escalating frequency of droughts, floods, water scarcity, malaria and vector-borne diseases, children are likely to be adversely affected both as children and in their adult lives. Furthermore, because of their age and dependency on others, children make up the most vulnerable group in natural disaster. In the event of a sudden-onset natural disaster, children could be separated from their families. Their carers may be killed or seriously injured, and forced rapid displacement may result in children being left behind. Emergencies usually result in children facing heightened risks, including family separation, psychological distress, physical harm and gender-based violence. Moreover, children’s access to education may be discontinued. They could be out of school for weeks, months or even years. The following table show how disaster risks in Indonesia has affected children’s access to education. 1) Paper presented at The UNICEF High Level Meeting on Child Right Protection in Asia and Pacific, Beijing, PRC, 4-6 November 2010 2) Deputy Minister for Human Resource Development and Cultural Affairs, BAPPENAS, Republic of Indonesia 3) Director for Special Area and Disadvantaged Region, BAPPENAS, Republic of Indonesia

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The following table show the situation on damages and losses caused by natural disaster in Indonesia in 2004-2010.

Table 1. Damages and Losses Caused by Natural Disaster in Indonesia

No. Disaster Time Occurrence Damages and Losses

1. Earthquake and Tsunami in Aceh-Nias December 2004 41,400.00

2. Earthquake in DIY – Central Java May 2006 29,100.00

3. Mudflow in Sidoarjo, E Java May 2006 7,300.00

5. Flood in Jakarta February 2007 5,160.00

6. Earthquake in West Sumatera March 2007 1,080.87

7. Earthquake in Bengkulu-WSumatera September 2007 1,790.93

8. Flood and Landslide in WJava-E Java January 2008 1,691.47

9. Earthquake in W Java September 2009 6,900.00

10. Earthquake in West Sumatera September 2009 20,866.60

11. Other disasters 2004-2009 34,000.00

12. Flood in Wasior, West Papua October 2010 277.90

13. Earthquake and tsunami, Mentawai October 2010 t.b.d

14. Volcano eruption of Merapi, Central Java

October 2010 t.b.d

Table 2. Damages of School Facilities Caused by Natural Disaster in Indonesia

Disaster Number of

School/education facilities damaged

Damages and Losses

(Billion IDR ) Life’s losses

Earthquake and Tsunami, 26 December 2004 in Aceh-Nias.

2,065 1,041.0 45,000 students died and/or missing.1,870 teachersdied andmissing.

Earthquake 27 May 2006.Yogya-Central Java

2,907 1,739.0 5,716 people died; 36 teachers died.

Earthquake 30 September 2009. West Sumatera.

1,290 618.8 1,117 people died;

Earthquake 02 September 2009. West Sumatera.

2,358 399.8 81 people died;

Earthquake 12 Sept. 2007, Bengkulu and West Sumatera

1,177 235.4 25 people died;

Flood in Wasior, West Papua, October 2010

277.9 144 people died

Sources: Various Report on Natural Disaster Damages and Losses Assessment (2004-2010).

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In the last decade, awareness of the importance of DRR in Indonesia has begun. Government of Indonesia has response to DRR initiatives as mandated by the Hyogo Framework for Action, through the launching of the book: Rencana Aksi Nasional Pengurangan Risiko Bencana (RAN PRB) or National Action Plan for DRR in 2006 by BAPPENAS (National Development Planning Agency). Furthermore, Indonesia has made a significant progress in Disaster Management initiative; the shift of paradigm from responsive to prevention; centralized to decentralized; emergency response to disaster risk reduction as well as the involvement of multiple stakeholders on DRR initiatives. These shift of paradigm reflects on commitments made by the Government in disaster management, such as Law No. 24 year 2007 concerning Disaster Management, followed by its subsidiary provisions of law, which become the historical foundation of disaster risk reduction in Indonesia. The following policy of Government of Indonesia has indicated the commitment to put disaster management becomes a regular part of the national development process in a series of proceedings before, during and after disaster:

1. Disaster Management Law Number 24 of 2007.

2. Government Regulation Number 21/2008 on the Implementation of Disaster Management.

3. Government Regulation Number 22/2008 on Funding of Disaster Management.

4. Government Regulation Number 23/2008 on Foreign support.

5. National Disaster Management Plan 2010-2014.

6. National Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction 2010-2012.

7. Government Annual Workplan 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 which includes DM and DRR activities conducted by related ministries and local governments.

However, those commitment and initiatives are only partly responding the urges of advancing child rights protection in the context of DRR. Disaster risk reduction efforts cannot properly account for children’s needs unless specific attention is paid during the design and implementation of any intervention. It is crucial to consider children and their rights in disaster risk reduction initiatives due to the following reason:

1. Children’s experience of disasters and climate change are different from that of adults, yet this is rarely considered.

2. Children are effective communicators of risk and drivers/agents of change in their communities.

3. Children have rights to participate in disaster risk reduction initiatives, and also have invaluable contribution to make.

In addressing to the challenges and advance the prospects for child survival and development, Government of Indonesia and its civil society has done several initiatives resulted some achievement in promoting child rights in the context of DRR. The following chapter will describe the country’s experiences and achievements to strengthen child rights and it’s mainstreaming into DRR and Climate Change Adaptation in Indonesia.

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2. Advancing Child Rights in DRR Initiatives in Indonesia

For several years, various institutions including Government of Indonesia, NGOs, and educational institutions at national and local levels have done a number of efforts on disaster-related education including providing disaster-related material in local curriculum, training for teachers, campaign and advocay, as well as school road show of simulation drill activities at schools. Unfortunately, the activities are not well coordinated and integrated in a framework that can be mutually agreed. On the other hand, educational activities mapping in a number of areas prone to disasters in Indonesia as well as the intervention and capacity building support for education are still low and centered in Java and Sumatera areas. The study on Community Preparedness performed in a number of areas show the low level of school community compared to general population and governmental apparatus (LIPI, 2006-2007). It is ironic since schools are community base of children who are considered to be high risk group who need protection and on the other hand should have better knowledge and skills.

On the other hand, challenges to integrating disaster risk reduction efforts into educational system were found, such as 1). Most teachers do not possess sufficient knowledge and understanding on DRR and disaster management; 2). Lack of guidelines, syllabus, and teaching material on DRR integration into school curriculum that could be accessed by teachers; 3). Students are overwhelmed by development issues (gender, corruption, human rights, DRR and etc) that integrated into school curriculum; 4). Physical condition of schools, facilities and infrastructure are generally poor, and do not meet environmental requirements and are not earthquake resistance (AMDAL and building codes); 5). In-existence of regulation and/or policy and guidelines on DRR integration into school curriculum; 6. Minimum resources (human resources, infrastructures and budget allocation) available for DRR education.

To address those challenges and create a culture of safety among school community, in 2008, a government project funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called ‘Safer Communities through Disaster Risk Reduction (SCDRR) in Development’ initiated the formulation of Strategy on Mainstreaming DRR into School Education System. The supports were provided to the Ministry of National Education since it is expected that the strategy will be authorized and issued by the Government policy. As a complementary effort to promote the strategy implementation, the National Curriculum Center formulate a series modules that consist of learning model, teaching materials along with its teaching guidance on DRR integration into curriculum activities. The modules formulated by the National Curriculum Center are expected to become standard reference and/or to enrich the current materials and the materials designed by other parties/stakeholders so that they can be used by educational practitioners in disaster prone areas.

The Strategy for Mainstreaming DRR in Schools that issued by the Minister of National Education in the form of Ministerial Decree or Surat Edaran MENDIKNAS No. 70a/MPN/SE/2010, is a national validation, reference and guidance to mainstream DRR into school education system, which includes policy, strategic framework, planning, institutional structure, facilities and infrastructures, implementation of learning on participants.

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The Vision of the strategy is the realization of disaster-awareness culture, preparedness, safety and resilience in schools level to prevent and reduce potentials of losses by natural disasters.

The Missions of the strategy are as follow:

1. Developing a disaster-awareness culture, preparedness, safety and resilience toward disaster through disaster risk reduction education.

2. Empowering the institutional roles and the capacity of school communities to be able to implement disaster risk reduction mainstreaming practices.

3. Integrating the disaster risk reduction into intra-curricula and extra-curricula activities.

4. Establishing partnership among stakeholders to support the implementation of disaster risk reduction mainstreaming practices in schools.

5. Conducting periodically monitoring and evaluation towards the implementation of disaster risk reduction education.

6. Maintaining the sustainability of disaster risk reduction education in schools through dissemination and replication.

7. Concerning and considering the structural (buildings) factors and non-structural factors when build a safe school for students.

The Strategy was formulated based on baseline study that has been conducted by SCDRR in 2008. The title of baseline study is the condition of disaster education in Indonesia, which measures the level of preparedness from school community and their need in DRR initiatives. The result of study is formulated into a academic draft to be finalized as strategy through a series of workshops, seminars, focus group discussions and work meetings with various resource person, practitioners, governments and stakeholders related to the disaster education at national and local level.

The process of formulation the strategy draft was conducted through 2 stages. The first stage was conducted by a task force established by the Consortium of Disaster Education; which refining the strategy draft through literature study and public discussion with the practitioners of disaster education through workshop in 4 locations. Meanwhile, the second stage was conducted by a task force established by the Directorate General of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of National Education; of which members come from various government institutions such as the Ministry of National Education, Religious Ministry, National Agency on Disaster Management, Ministry of Health, Indonesian Scientific Institute, Research and Technology Ministry, Environmental Ministry, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the National Education Commission for Indonesia-UNESCO. The refining process of the strategy draft that conducted by the task force was ended by the public consultation on 10 December 2009 by inviting the representatives of education agencies from provinces and regencies/cities in Indonesia.

The government task force continues their work to finalize the strategy based on the feedback and input generated from public consultation. Furthermore, the legal drafter from Ministry of National Education transforms the strategy into Circular Letter No. 70a/MPN/SE/2010 concerning Mainstreaming DRR in Schools. These initiatives was follow by the socialization workshop of the strategy to representatives of all government institutions both local and national level, teachers, NGOs, academic institutions and Donors on 29th July 2010.

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BOX 1. Circular Letter of MoNE on Mainstreaming DRR in Schools

CIRCULAR LETTER of Minister of National Education Number: 70a/MPN/SE/2010

Subject : Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction in Schools Attachments : 2 (two) files. To. : 1. Governors throughout Indonesia 2. Regents/Mayors throughout Indonesia In response to the mandate of Law No. 24 year 2007 concerning Disaster Management and Government Regulation Number 21 year 2008 concerning Disaster Management Operation as well as the President’s Instruction to Minister of National Education and Minister of Home Affairs to encourage the Local Government to include disaster education in the intra and extra-curricular activities during the Tsunami Drill in December 2007; As such, the Ministry of National Education has formulated the Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction in Schools complemented by Teaching and Training Modules on Disaster Risk Reduction Integration; we call your attention to the following matters:

1. The implementation of disaster management needs to be performed in schools through the implementation of strategy for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in schools.

2. The implementation of strategy for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in schools is performed both structurally as well as non-structurally, in order to create disaster preparedness and safety culture in schools through:

a. Empowerment of institutional role and capacity of school community. b. Integration of disaster risk reduction into school curriculum, both intra and extra

curricular). c. Establishment of partnership and network between various parties to support the

implementation of disaster risk reduction initiatives at schools. 3. The implementation of disaster risk reduction mainstreaming in schools shall follow the

attachment of this Circular.

Provincial Government and District/Municipality Government are expected to support the implementation of the strategy for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in their regions. Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation towards the implementation need to be conducted to obtain feedback for the improvement of the policy and its implementation.

Therefore, this Circular is addressed for your attention and implementation.

We thank you for your cooperation.

Jakarta, 31 March 2010 Minister of National Education

Mohammad Nuh

CC: 1. Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare 2. State Minister of National Development Planning/Head of National Development Planning

Agency; 3. Minister of Religious Affairs; 4. Head of National Agency for Disaster Management ; 5. Director General of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ministry of National Education; 6. Director General for Teachers and Educational Staff Development, Ministry of National

Education ; 7. Head of Research and Development Agency, Ministry of National Education; 8. Head of Provincial Education Agency throughout Indonesia. 9. Head of District/Municipal Education Agency throughout Indonesia. 10. Provincial Disaster Management Agency throughout Indonesia. 11. District/Municipal Disaster Management Agency throughout Indonesia.

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Following up the issuance of the strategy, Government of Indonesia and their partners in disaster risk reduction initiatives such as national and international NGOs, academic institutions, National Platform for DRR, private sectors and media has launched a campaign on 1 million safer schools and hospitals on 29th July 2010. The campaign is apart of global campaign launched globally by UN-ISDR in Manila April 2010. On the campaign, Indonesia committed to increase the safety of 3,156 schools and 105 hospitals. Top officials from three ministries – Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare; Ministry of Health; Ministry of National Education – alongside the Head of the National Agency for Disaster Management launched the national on safe schools and hospitals, under the joint organization of the National Agency for Disaster Management and the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

On the campaign, the Minister of Health pledged 100 safe hospitals, and promised to instruct local department of health at provincial and district level to aim at developing programmes to establish safe hospital and other health facilities, for which the funding must be allocated. Both private and public hospitals would be urged to take measures to ensure disaster preparedness. The Vice Minister for National Education pledged to ensure that thousands of schools would comply with school safety standards. While the Head of National Agency for Disaster Management also pledge to socialize and promote school and hospital awareness. More than 200 participants from government institutions, NGOs and INGOs and representatives of schools and hospitals made pledges online at the campaign website and committed to attend various activities to increase the resilience of schools and hospitals throughout Indonesia. The launch in Jakarta was organized by Perkumpulan Skala supported by the Indonesian Red Cross, Perkumpulan Kerlip, UNESCO Office Jakarta, Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction, Plan International, and UNILEVER Indonesia. At least 27 organizations (government institutions, UN Agencies, NGOs, INGOs, Donor Agencies, and Private Sectors) will support various activities relating to the campaign until July 2011.

BOX 2. Process on Strategy Formulation and its Evolution into National Policy

Baseline Study in 4 locations

Drafting the Initial (Zero Draft) of the Strategy

Socialization of Zero Draft to related Government Institutions

Socialization of Zero Draft to NGOs, Donors, Practitioners and Teachers

Government Task Force Revise and Refine the Zero Draft of Strategy

Civil Society Task Force Revise and Refine the Zero Draft of the Strategy

Finalize the Draft of Strategy by the Government Task Force

Public Consultation on Final Draft of the Strategy

Revise the the Final Draft Based on input from Public Consultation

Process on Issuing the Strategy into National Policy

Socialization Workshop on The Strategy in The Form of Ministerial Decree No. 70a/SE/MPN/2010

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At the implementation level, advancing child rights in DRR initiatives has been conducted in Indonesia by several INGOs such as Plan International Indonesia and Save the Children through their program called child-led and/or child-centered disaster risk reduction. Save the Children conducted its program Child-led DRR in Aceh, North Sumatera and Jakarta focuses on children in the communities and out of school youth situated in urban area. Target group was covers 150 children and youth and 80 adults in 4 flood-affected communities as well as 180 students and 12 teachers in 6 elementary schools in East Jakarta Municipality. Program activities of consist of DRR stakeholder analysis and socialization of Child-led DRR to communities and local government; teacher training, children and youth training on DRR concept; DRR campaign through children participation in theatre, writing, music, drawing. The program implementation approach and strategy are child-centered, community-based, active learning, arts and crafts, and environmental education.

Plan International Indonesia has also made significant progress on child-centered DRR program in 4 locations: Sikka District, Rembang District, Jakarta and Bogor City. The program promotes children as agents of change in the context DRR and climate change adaptation, and it helps children instigate or lead efforts to protect their community and inspire or deliver change in the broader community. One of its success story was engage children in DRR campaign within their community through traditional music. As the majority of people living in Rembang (Central Java) are Moslems, the area is quite familiar with Qasidah music. Qasidah music is played at a variety of events and especially during religious activities. Knowing that Qasidah is well-known and liked among the people of Rembang, the children there took the initiative to use it as a medium to promote DRR messages in their community. They arranged the music, wrote the lyrics and performed it at events in their village. Many people in this community come to watch when there is Qasidah performance. Using traditional arts and customs proved to be effective in increasing the community’s awareness of disaster risk reduction.

Furthermore, GOI Project funded by UNDP Indonesia called SCDRR has implemented and piloting the school preparedness project at local level in 3 locations (Bantul Ditsrict, City of Palu and City of Bengkulu) which most affected by flood, earthquake, landslide, tsunami and conducted by its implementing partners. The project has 5 key project outputs as described follow:

a. DRR Integration into School Planning Mechanism and Activities.

To ensure the effectiveness of DRR integration into school education system, it is important to provide a sufficient knowledge and information to teachers and school communities to have a proper, better and similar understanding on disaster risks and what measures to take to reduce them. In close coordination with Ministry of National Education and Local Education Office, the project manage to conduct the following activities Training for Trainers (teachers, school master, school supervisor and local education office’s staff); focus group discussion to formulate DRR teaching material consist of syllabus and performance indicators and formulate mechanism to integrate DRR knowledge into school subject, extra curricula and local content; training on disaster emergency response, conduct learning process on DRR knowledge dissemination at class, and simulation drill.

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b. The DRR School Action Plan (SAP) and its Implementation.

Aimed at establishing a culture of safety among school communities, DRR School Action Plan has a significant role in supporting the initiatives. School communities need to identify hazard, vulnerability, capacity and disaster risks at school’s surrounding environment then they need to know how to take measures on those risks. A number of practical steps can be demonstrated to develop DRR School Action Plan participatory, including: FGD on the formulation of DRR SAP; consensus building for the implementation of DRR SAP that will be required in identifying and approving on who doing what and how, socialization of DRR SAP to the whole school communities and implementation of DRR SAP that has been formulated and approved by the school communities. This process also provides a chance for school communities, especially student and school committee on the importance of safer school to save the lives during, before and after disaster occur.

c. DRR School Awareness with Learning Kit/Material.

In term of communicating risks from natural hazard and reinforcing children’s capacities to deal with them through simple acts of preparedness, the films, comics, the miniature of geology process tin generating tsunami and earthquake, were and still are successful. The process on the developing learning kit/material involves all school communities including students, teachers and parents. At the end, those kit and material will be distributed to surrounding schools next to school models.

d. The empowerment of School Teacher Forum.

The project focuses also on building institutional capacity in the context of reducing disaster risk. Instead of establishing new teacher forum of DRR, the project empowers the existing teacher forum that already operates and has regular discussion. The empowerment conducts through the insertion of DRR topics into its regular discussion as well as providing TOT on DRR integration into school education system for teachers. This approach was taken in consideration to disseminate DRR knowledge to other teachers and schools who are not selected as school models.

e. The Initiation of Local Regulation on Mainstreaming DRR into School Education System.

To ensure the sustainability of these initiatives, the project work closely with the local government especially Local Education Office and Local Disaster Management Agency to initiate the formulation of academic draft regarding DRR integrating into school curricula to be served as an input for Local Disaster Management Regulation. As a result, Local Regulation on Disaster Management of Yogyakarta Province has an article that mentioned DRR knowledge need to be inserted into school curricula. Furthermore, the process on including DRR Education into local government program and budgeting is on progress.

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Table 3. Brief of Disaster Preparedness School Project

Project Name : Disaster Preparedness School Total Budget : US$ 300,000 for 3 locations Project Period : January – December 2010 Implementing Partner : 1. Institute on Community Empowerment of Yogyakarta State

University. 2. Research Institute of Bengkulu University. 3. Research Center on Geodynamic and Disaster Mitigation of

Tadulako University. Donor : UNDP, DFID and Deutsche Post AG Location : 1. District of Bantul, Yogyakarta Province.

2. City of Palu, Central Sulawesi Province. 3. City of Bengkulu, Bengkulu Province.

Beneficiaries : 9 schools. 1,330 students of Primary School. 2,001 students of Secondary School. 2,549 students of Senior High School. 419 teachers.

3. The Enabling Factors

The implementation of the strategy on mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into education system is regulated in the Circular Letter of Minister of National Education that distributed to all the Governors and Regents/Mayors in Indonesia in order to implement disaster management activities at school level. In its operation, the Curriculum Center has already provided guidance and this reference in this matter. There is also a training module, which contains facilitation guidance and reading materials for trainers on the implementation of disaster management, disaster risk reduction, disaster-prepared schools, DRR education and mechanism on DRR integration into school education system.

However, the success on the implementation of Strategy on DRR Mainstreaming will depend on the support and participation from all stakeholders. So then the level of success in the strategy implementation will much depend on the support of the stakeholders and their own role to support the implementation.

a. Role of School

School as strategic place or means for potential development of students in disaster risk reduction need to possess capacity to have role in: (1) Cultivate the spirit of advantages intensively to increase the quality of schools, e.g. develop disaster-aware culture and DRR integration into school curriculum; (2) Support and encourage student to develop their own potentials by providing life skills on disaster risk reduction; (3) Conduct learning process on DRR education effectively, fun and contextual; (4) Persuade stakeholders to cooperate in improving the quality of schools, especially in regards to the implementation of disaster-risk reduction strategy; and (5) Involve all school community in decision making process to implement strategy on DRR mainstreaming in schools.

b. Roles of School Committee and Parents

The School Committee is a strategic component at school that could support fully and directly to school in implementing DRR mainstreaming at school level. The school committee is an independent body established and has a role in improving

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the quality of service by providing points of consideration, directions and support of human resources, facilities and infrastructures as well as supervision on the implementation of disaster risk reduction initiatives at the related school.

c. Government’s Role

The Government of Indonesia and local government are responsible party in coordinating the implementation of disaster management, especially in disaster risk reduction and integrating DRR into government’s development program. The government policy, both central and local government has a significant role in defining the successful of the implementation DRR mainstreaming in schools. The government could do the following initiatives:

1) Preparing a set of policy and guidance on disaster management initiatives, which include the disaster prevention, emergency response, rehabilitation and reconstruction, which could be a reference for DRR education in schools.

2) Defining the standardization and needs for implementing disaster management, which includes disaster prevention, emergency response, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

3) Formulate, define and disseminate hazard map; 4) Formulate and define standard operational procedure on disaster management; 5) Conducting disaster management in their region; 6) Providing grant aids and other facilities for schools which conduct disaster risk

reduction education; 7) Conducting various DRR training periodically for supervisors, schoolmasters,

teachers and students; 8) Monitoring and evaluation toward the implementation of strategy on DRR

mainstreaming at school level. 9) Providing information on DRR activities to people, including school

communities; 10) Establish information system on disaster risk reduction that accessible by

school; 11) Increase the roles of coordination and supervision at regional level in the

implementation of disaster risk reduction mainstreaming.

Furthermore, the initiatives on child-led DRR and/or child centered DRR that conducted by several institutions in Indonesia will remains sustain if children is not considered as passive recipients of DRR initiatives, enable children participation and promote children as effective risk communicators and agents of change within their households and their immediate communities.

4. Best Practices and Lesson Learned

a. Socialization of the new paradigm and policy need to be conducted continually.

To reach people’s attention on the importance of DRR education implemented in every school, the socialization on The Strategy and Ministerial Decree for Mainstreaming DRR in Schools need to be socialized regularly and intensively to all education stakeholders. This will increase awareness of people on disaster risk reduction, then they will acknowledge and take action to measures that can reduce those risks.

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b. Effective communication and advocacy aimed at the right audience to expedite the process.

A clear and crystal message needs to be formulated in order to convey the important message of the importance of safer school and DRR education. Furthermore, identification of the right person/champion within related institutions will affect the process on the formulation and the implementation of the strategy.

c. Utilize the existing education system to put the strategy in place is effective.

At the beginning of initiatives, the strategy has encountered pros and cons from related stakeholders due to the stakeholders’ concern on education system that has been burdened by development issues (e.g. gender mainstreaming, corruption, HIV/AIDS, environment, etc) that could overwhelmed student to digest the knowledge and science at school. Fortunately the national education system has a remarkable standards in delivering education to students, that consist of the following standards: graduation competence; content; process; education and educators; education infrastructures; education management; education budgeting; and assessment. The decision that has been made by the government task force was integrated DRR education into those standards, so that there is no need to establish new system for DRR education. Furthermore, to complement those standard, the tools and guidance’s were developed to be a reference for teachers and practitioners to implement DRR education in schools.

d. Children are able to participate

If they are informed, empowered by the process, activity is joyful and attractive made clear enough, issue relevant to them and they get sufficient support from adults.

e. Children’s participation is long term process, not a one-off event.

Promoting individual child leaders can go against the principles of meaningful participation of all children. Technical support should focus on facilitation, communication and working methods than that of developing individual leadership skills.

5. The Remaining Problems and Challenges

Even though, Indonesia has some achievements mentioned above on advancing child right in DRR initiatives, however there are challenges on the future that could be faced by the country to sustain advancing child rights in DRR as follow:

a. Lack of coordination among related government institutions to follow up the strategy implementation, due to several reasons: a). The National Strategy and Ministerial Decree on Mainstreaming DRR in Schools has not distributed well to all stakeholders and decision makers in Indonesia. b). In-existence of specific guidance and/or local policy to follow up the implementation of strategy at local level.

b. Limited support of resources (fund, human resources, infrastructure) to implement the strategy, specifically allocated in various level of education stakeholders. Therefore, the sustainability of the initiatives need to encourage local government to allocate their budget for disaster education program and/or mainstreaming DRR

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into their development program. c. The low level of awareness of most people toward the importance of disaster risk

reduction could affect the effectiveness of the strategy implementation. d. Increase load and activities on the curriculum and learning process could be

happened if teachers has no provided by proper guidance in integrating DRR into school curriculum in effective and fun approach.

e. Scaling up child-led DRR initiatives to national level advocacy and policy spaces remains a huge challenge. It requires a change of perception and attitude of adults, and acknowledging children’s role in contributing to DRR strategies.

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References:

1. Save the Children. Child-led Disaster Risk Reduction: A practical Guide. 2. International Save the Children Alliance, 2008. In the Face of Disaster: Children and

Climate Change. UK. 3. Children in a Changing Climate. A right to Participate: Securing Children’s role in

Climate Change Adaptation. 4. Plan International, 2009. Children’s Rights to be Heard in Global Climate Change

Negotiations. London, UK. 5. Children in Changing Climate Research. Children, Climate Change and Disasters: An

Annotated Bibiliography. University of Sussex, UK. 6. Plan International Indonesia, 2010. Children as Agents of Change: Lesson Learnt from

Child Centered Disaster Risk Reduction Work in Sikka, Rembang, Jakarta and Bogor. Indonesia.

7. UNICEF and Children in Changing Climate Research, 2009. Children and Disaster Risk Reduction: Taking Stock and Moving Forward.

8. Muhammad Ahsan Khan, 2009. Mainsreaming Child Protection in Disaster Risk Reduction. Pakistan.

9. SCDRR-UNDP Project, 2010. A draft of Lesson Learnt on Formulating the Strategy for Mainstreaming DRR in Schools as National’s Commitment. Indonesia.

10. SCDRR-UNDP Project, 2010. Factsheet on Disaster Preparedness Program. Indonesia 11. Ministry of National Education Indonesia, 2010. Strategy for Mainstreaming DRR in

Schools. Indonesia. 12. UNISDR, 2007. Words into Action: A Guide for Implementing the Hyogo Framework. 13. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989. 14. Disaster Management Act Number 24/2007. 15. Government Regulation Number 21/2008 on the Implementation of Disaster

Management. 16. Government Regulation Number 22/2008 on Funding of Disaster Management. 17. Government Regulation Number 23/2008 on Foreign support. 18. National Disaster Management Plan 2010-2014. 19. National Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction 2010-2012