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Published on 16 November 2010

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 an earthquake and tsunami successively strike the Mentawai Islands . Shortly afterwards the Mount Merapi volcano erupts displacing thousands of village communities in Yogkayarta and Central Java. The ECB Indonesia consortium had planned an emergency simulation, but these twin disasters prompted a critical change of plan. Within 24 hours a senior management team took the decision to replace the simulation with a ‘live’ testing of two key ECB initiatives – the ECB Consortium Disaster Response Engagement Protocols, and the Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) questionnaire and online database.

The Disaster Response Engagement Protocols were drafted in September 2010, in response to the key lessons that were captured during and after the 2009 West Sumatra and West Java earthquakes. The Joint Evaluation highlighted the multiple challenges around communication and decision-making, and the need for a common understanding of the rules of engagement that could be easily referred to during an emergency response. The agencies agreed to test two draft models: a coordinated response model (Mentawai Islands) and a joint response model (Mount Merapi) which continue to be implemented at the time of writing. The key differences in these two response models can be summarized as follows: the level of information sharing; coordinated versus joint response strategies, the role of the Response Coordination Agency, and individual agency versus joint donor proposals.

The senior management team also agreed to test their Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) questionnaire and new online database. This JNA methodology was created to collect and share vital information about affected populations that could be used to inform key strategic decision-making and mobilization during the first 72 hours following an emergency. In this test phase, the inter-agency teams were not deployed during the first 72hours due to severe access issues and delays, but they were able to gather sample data from ECB agencies in Merapi, and other NGOs such as SurfAid on Mentawai Island.

In Mount Merapi, mixed technical specialist emergency teams were deployed to six villages over two days. It was clear that each team could not question each person on the entire questionnaire; instead teams divided the questions up and dispersed into different groups within the IDP camps. Local government representatives, heads of village, camp coordinators, and most important of all evacuated men, women and children were asked to explain the impact of the eruptions on their lives and livelihoods, and describe the conditions they were experiencing in their evacuation camps.

It was agreed that this information could be shared with local and national government officials, coordination mechanisms (e.g. clusters), donors and other national and international NGO partners in both Mentawai and Merapi. The teams faced multiple difficulties during this test including huge fluctuations in the IDP camp numbers as more villages were moved and evacuated following ever more dangerous eruptions (Merapi); the camp leaders were very hard to access (Merapi) and there were several delays in uploading the data on to the online and offline database at the end of each day (both). While food and clothing were available, provision gaps included access to clean water, toilets and hygiene kits, together with extreme over-crowding and the lack of privacy for women in certain camps (Merapi).

Moving forward, the consortium plans to train a task force of specialists within each agency. They also hope to finalize an offline version of the database which can be easily accessed and synchronized with the online version. They will also consider identifying a dedicated staff member who could coordinate the training, joint needs assessment data capture and upload during the first 72 hours of their next emergency.

The Engagement Protocols trial highlighted several significant achievements: a decision was made very quickly; a lead agency was identified in each area to coordinate operational activities in the field; joint proposals were written and identified different geographic and sectoral areas for each agency to cover; and finally the commitment to information sharing both within the agencies and the wider community were honoured via a series of Joint ECB Situation Reports. Challenges included confusion over the roles and responsibilities between the consortium country lead and the response coordinating agency; the huge demands placed on the field facilitator, and the pressures of organizing and attending the critical 72 hour meeting with two parallel emergencies.

The consortium management team will consider an after action review in several weeks time, and decide how the protocols should be amended and updated according to the operational realities and where they found the most added value from working together. Ultimately as the teams develop an understanding of their different ways of working, and build further trust, they will be better equipped to provide communities with the support they need, avoid duplication, and improve the speed and efficiency of their response programs.

The agencies took a courageous step to testing and delivering the different collaboration response models; they also gained a better understanding of the challenges they will face when preparing joint donor proposals and strategies with very short deadlines and for two simultaneous emergencies.

We will share more lessons captured and report back to you on the final protocols, the JNA database and the new training programs we will be supporting with the CBHA*. We also hope to share news on how Bangladesh will further develop and test their Protocols over the coming months.

Written by Andrea Stewart, ECB Communications Manager. With special thanks to Wahyu Widayanto, ECB Indonesia Field Facilitator, David Hockaday, ECB Field Project Manager, Richard Jacquot, Mercy Corps, ECB Agency Manager, LeAnn Hager and Yenni Suryani at CRS for sharing their reflections during these emergency response trials.

Contact us for more information about our work in Indonesia or the initiatives we outline above

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