Breaking new ground on disaster risk reduction in Indonesia
By Reecha Upadhyay, Gender Specialist Consultant, BCPR, and David Hollister, Disaster Risk Reduction Adviser, UNDP Indonesia

Indonesia broke new ground on disaster risk reduction with the passing of Disaster Management Law 24/2007 in 2007. The scope of the law is far-reaching, affording Indonesian citizens individual rights to protection from and during disasters.

This law represents an achievement for the Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (Masyarakat Penanggulangan Bencana Indonesia – MPBI), a national organization supported by UNDP Indonesia, which played a critical role in ensuring that the law’s provisions were concrete enough to make disaster risk reduction a reality in Indonesia.

Most importantly, this law has teeth. It lists penalties in the form of substantial fines and jail sentences applicable to individuals and organizations, including those of the government, public and private sectors, for failing to abide by the law. The law includes specific language on direct protection and response services in disasters and outlines the rights of individuals to information, education and training on disaster risk reduction.

The law also calls for the establishment of a new National Disaster Management Agency, which will act as a coordinating entity to make disaster risk reduction operational across relevant ministries. It will also set up provincial disaster management agencies. These agencies will allow for the active participation of community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations and indigenous groups.

With the passing of this law, the government has now made disaster risk reduction one of its nine national development priorities and substantially increased funding for this issue. In 2008, USD 150 million was allocated for pre-disaster mitigation; a significant increase from the USD16 million approved the year before.

UNDP continues to support the Government of Indonesia through various programmes at national and provincial level to integrate the Disaster Management Law principles in community development activities and to address the structural causes of disasters.

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In this Issue

> Six months after Cyclone Nargis
> Success story: Indonesia
> Lessons from Bangladesh
> Natural disasters in Kyrgystan
> Women and disaster recovery
> Natural disasters in Armenia
> Spotlight on Staff

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> Natural Disaster Risk Reduction
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