ONE ASEAN ONE RESPONSE FOR
CENTRAL SULAWESI
“The tsunami caught everyone in a state of panic. I was near the beach, and everything happened so fast” recalls Misfar, a resident of Palu after a series of disaster events rocked Central Sulawesi on Friday evening the 28th of September, 2018. “The call to prayer began only shortly after the earthquake stopped – and wasn’t yet finished when the tsunami hit the beach”, Misfar explains as he recalls the rapid sequence of multiple disasters that began with a 7.7M earthquake, which was followed by a tsunami and a liquefaction phenomenon. Misfar and his family are grateful to have survived the triple disasters, but remain worried as they lost their houses and feel uncertain about their future.
Misfar is only one of over 68 thousand families whose houses were damaged or ruined by the disasters of the 28th of September. By end of the emergency phase on October 26th, the events caused the deaths of over 2000 people, with over 1,300 still missing, and over 200,000 residents of the Central Sulawesi province displaced. Adding to this, the earthquake also forcibly closed the Mutiara Al-Jufri Airport in Palu, slowing down logistical efforts and the flow of aid to Central Sulawesi’s affected districts (Palu City, Donggala, Sigi, and Parigi Moutong). The earthquake struck within less than two months after a series of seismic events shook the island of Lombok in Eastern Indonesia. The National Disaster Management Authority of Indonesia (BNPB) managed to extend support for both the recovery on Lombok Island, as well as the emergency response in Central Sulawesi.
The Government of Indonesia also opened its doors to welcome offers of international assistance, under specifications identified early during the initial stage of the response. As a result, the international community provided support in a range of forms, including air cargo capacity to transport relief items, water filtration units, family tents, generator sets, medical equipment, and environmental-management support for the prevention of mosquito-borne disease outbreak. At a later stage, the Government of Indonesia also accepted cash donations from governmental and humanitarian partners, channelled through BNPB and the Indonesian Red Cross. Throughout the emergency period, the BNPB worked alongside multiple governmental agencies, who came together on a national response task force. Engaging agencies included the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, the National Search and Rescue Agency, the National Police Force, and the Ministry of Education. The national rapid response was reinforced by local NGOs, as well as volunteers from across the nation, who helped restore stability in the affected sites. In less than one week, the national taskforce managed to gradually restore electricity, telecommunication access, and access to gasoline supplies. Debris cleaning and the provision of health services were also quickly reinforced through the deployment of field hospitals and military vessels from neighbouring provinces and national resources.
“I am impressed by the Government of Indonesia’s work to quickly restore telecommunication and electricity infrastructure. Once the electricity was on, everything else followed, and coordination became easier”, said Kenneth Mak, one of the members of ASEAN Emergency Response and Assessment Team (ERAT) from the Singapore Civil Defence Force who was deployed to Palu in the early days following the disasters.
The AHA Centre responded quickly to the disasters by providing full support as required to the BNPB. In addition to providing relief items, including generators, family tents, and mobile storage units, the AHA Centre also mobilised three groups of ASEAN-ERAT members, with a total deployment of 29 personnel from 5 ASEAN Member States. The Centre also supported BNPB with the facilitation, coordination and tracking of incoming international assistance in Jakarta, Balikpapan, and Palu.
During the second week of the emergency response, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, H.E. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, paid courtesy visit to BNPB and the AHA Centre. During this visit, the Chief of BNPB, H.E. Willem Rampangilei mentioned, “We are grateful for the tremendous support of the AHA Centre, who has been very helpful during the responses in Lombok and also Palu”.
In Palu, the AHA Centre and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) had the opportunity to implement ASEAN-UN interoperability of mechanism for the first time. On immediate notification, ASEAN-ERAT was assigned by BNPB to set-up and manage the on-site Joint Operations and Coordination Centre for International Assistance (JOCCIA), which is home to facilitate the initial joint needs assessments involving both national and multinational agencies. At a later stage, the ASEAN-ERAT and JOCCIA also hosted members of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) Team. The widespread impact and scale of the disaster attracted the attention of the United Nations Secretary-General, H.E. António Guterres, who visited ground-zero on the 12th of October. Prior to the visit, he addressed ASEAN Leaders in Denpasar, reiterating the full commitment of the United Nations to support government-led rescue and relief efforts. “I also commend the work of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance which has been instrumental in the response, even facilitating and accommodating some of our embedded UN staff.”
The collaboration for the response in Central Sulawesi was comprehensively summarised by ASEAN-ERAT member from the Singapore Civil Defence Force, Mr. Nazim Bin Kudin, when he stated that “everyone came together to help one another, and the best type of leadership is by setting examples, instead of simply telling one another what to do”. He continued by saying that “leading by example not only indicates that you are in-charge, but also the fact that you are involved in getting the work done. So, once you roll-up your sleeves, everyone will follow. That is what I witnessed from the excellent partnership here, especially with the logistics management team.”
Written by: Shintya Kurniawan | Photo : AHA Centre
ACE PROGRAMME PHOTO DIARY SEPTEMBER
September 2018 saw the AHA Centre Executive (ACE) Programme hit full swing, with 17 participants from 9 ASEAN nations beginning their journey towards becoming the next crop of ASEAN disaster management professionals. A wide array of workshops and learning sessions took place throughout September, therefore this volume we bring to you a photo journal of September’s ACE Programme proceedings.
WEEK-1
On the 1st week of September, participants were engaged in the Executive Crisis Leadership – Complexity and Strategy course, which was facilitated by Dr. Benjamin Ryan and Professor Deon V. Canyon from the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS). Later the same week, participants learned about the AHA Centre’s Web Emergency Operations Centre (WebEOC) and Emergency Response Organisation training through a number of table-top exercises. These sessions were facilitated by the AHA Centre’s own Mizan, Grace and Dandi.
WEEK-2
Everyday is a learning day at the ACE Programme. This week, participants obtained firsthand learnings from Professor Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who led the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for Aceh and Nias after the 2004 tsunami, as well as from H.E. Ong Keng Yong, the former Secretary-General of ASEAN (2003-2007). The International Humanitarian System and interoperability with ASEAN also took place in the same week, facilitated by United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). The session provides participants with insight and understanding on a range of matters related to disaster management between the UN and ASEAN bodies.
WEEK-3
The sessions with UNOCHA continued to the Rapid Assessment course which highlights the practical skills regarding coordinated needs assessments for humanitarian response, including information management, data analysis, and primary data collection. This workshop was facilitated by UNOCHA’s John Marinos. The week was concluded with the Critical Incident Management Pre-Course which exposes participants to hazard classification system, concepts and frameworks of disaster management related to climate change and sustainable development, and continuous to develop basic knowledge of leadership in crisis situations. The course was facilitated by Chris Webb and Michele Daly, disaster management experts from New Zealand.
WEEK-4
The fun continues with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) who highlighted the specific needs of women and children in times of emergency. The discussion also covers tips on calculating contraception needs in emergency camps which relates to the following topic: Camp Coordination and Camp Management, facilitated by the International Organization for Migration. Throughout the sessions, participants gained understanding about camp establishment, management, and inter-agencies tasks distribution in providing basic services at emergency shelters.
Written by : Putri Mumpuni | Photo : AHA Centre
MRS. DAM HOA
Mrs. Dam Hoa is one of Viet Nam’s senior disaster managers, and one of the ASEAN region’s leading female figures in the sector. Hoa, as she likes to be called, has spent over ten years working in the field of natural disaster management, now she is working at Science and Technology and International Corporation Departments of the Vietnam Disaster Management Authority (the nation’s National Disaster Management Office – NDMO), working on a range of disaster management projects across the region, as well as supporting ASEAN communities through numerous disaster responses. Through her time in the field Hoa has witnessed the transformation of ASEAN disaster management, directly experiencing the positive changes and improvements that can be witnessed across the region.
Hoa didn’t choose the disaster management path from the beginning. After graduating, she began working with NGOs, such as the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) in Thailand, implementing disaster reduction programmes in Laos, Cambodia, as well as her homeland of Vietnam – and things just built from there. “Vietnam is a country often affected by natural hazards, so when I began to work in this field, I enjoyed the work so much that I just continued” she recalls. She also remembers her first engagement in a disaster response in Vietnam, being on stand-by for 24 hours at a time to provide information from the field to her head office and then back again. This experience led Hoa to becoming an ASEAN-ERAT member, a programme that she sees the importance of, particularly within the ARF Disaster Relief Exercises (ARF DiRex). “I learned so much from these exercises” she states, “particularly related to the civil-military components”.
Hoa’s experience has been a value asset to disaster management in Vietnam, and conversely she has also witnessed the ongoing improvement of disaster management within her country. “Previously we mainly focused on emergency response, but now we are developing some prevention and mitigation programmes” she tells. When she started with Vietnam’s NDMO, prevention and mitigation were basically not much, but things have changed remarkably in the last ten years. Hoa and her office now engage on preparedness programme development with international organisations, alongside efforts in community disaster management, and increased integration, mobilisation and contributions from local authorities. “We also developed a National programme on public awareness rising and community based disaster management for Vietnam, and in 2013 we formalised a law on disaster prevention and mitigation” says Hoa.
Achieving this has not been void of challenges for Hoa and her counterparts, particularly regarding awareness-raising efforts for the rural communities in Vietnam. “Because of our topography, each region has its own characteristic of disaster” she explains, “so the information and how we deliver it can be very different”. Hoa also recognises the different awareness levels and approaches required for the variety of societal groups that make-up Vietnam, including intricacies related to gender, socio-economic status, and also indigenous groups. To overcome such challenges, Hoa believes it is important to promote disaster awareness and preparedness to all people, at all times, particularly for outer-lying communities. Not only in the disaster time, but also in the normal time. “We should maintain communication not only on a national level, but also on a local level” Hoa states. “If people are aware, they can be more prepared and lessen the impact of disaster that can sometimes be amplified due to their remoteness.”
Hoa’s experience of the transformation in disaster management is not limited to Vietnam alone – but is a phenomenon she has seen transpiring across the ASEAN region. Increased awareness, resources and funding have supported the development and advancement of preparedness and mitigation activities, while importantly still ensuring the strengthening of disaster response mechanisms. Much of this advancement, according to Hoa, is due to the establishment of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER). “This base legal document allows us all in the region to facilitate and work together – it is the backbone for our cooperation.” Hoa also recognises the value in both formal institutions such as the AHA Centre, as well as the informal connections that the ASEAN disaster management movement has created across the region.
“If we need something, we can ask someone from the AHA Centre, or as a country we also already have the network to reach-out for information or support.”
Written by : William Shea | Photo : AHA Centre
PDRF
THE PHILIPPINE DISASTER RESILIENCE FOUNDATION
The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) is a unique organisation, who forms the major coordinating body for the Philippines’ private sector engagement and support on disaster management. The ASEAN region has become increasingly aware of the importance of private sector engagement in disaster management field, as well as the value that such engagement can foster, with organisations such as the PDRF providing strong examples of the strong, responsive and skilled resources that can support the overall disaster management efforts of this disaster-prone region.
Over recent years, the AHA Centre has turned its focus more heavily to the engagement of the private sector throughout its disaster management work, based on the reasons above, alongside the private sector’s own realisation that disaster is something that impacts them heavily – and that they need to do more to support with ongoing efforts. The PDRF mission and work form a solid match with the AHA Centre, therefore their partnership is mutually beneficial on many levels. The partnership was first formalised in April 2017, with Ms. Adelina Kamal, the (then acting) Executive Director of the AHA Centre, and PDRF President Rene Meily putting pen to paper to formalise this valuable agreement.
The PDRF itself is composed from a team of highly committed professionals who work alongside field experts and reputable humanitarian institutions to organise, coordinate, and solidify the commitment of the private sector within overall disaster management efforts. The PDRF has been a leader in effective reconstruction measures that address the needs of disaster-stricken communities, with their programmes developed for post-disaster recovery in key sectors such as shelter, livelihood, education, environment and water, infrastructure, sanitation, and health. Alongside this, they operate their own state-of-the-art operations and communications centre, engage in community resilience programmes, and support the business sector across a range of elements related to disaster preparedness as well as business resilience in the event of disaster.
Within this context, the AHA Centre PDRF partnership focuses towards supporting and advocating increases in public knowledge and awareness regarding disaster management. Through PDRF’s support of One ASEAN One Response, there will be a range of exchanges and knowledge sharing activites, that will be mutually reliant on each other’s assets and expertise, in order to increase and boost the capacity and capability in responding to disaster. In addition, the partnership will encourage private sector and start-up businesses to be more engaged, and share more ideas for disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and management, and resilient recovery.
Written by : Valerie Bayhon, William Shea | Photo : PDRF