CONTEXT
Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world, with more than 270 million people spread across more than 17,000 islands. Situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the country experiences frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and weather related disasters such as floods, landslides, wildfire.
Indonesia’s large territory presents challenges for natural disaster response. Delivering disaster assistance to communities in remote areas often requires additional time. Under disaster conditions, any delay to emergency assistance puts lives at risk and worsens the potential impact on communities and livelihoods. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are crucial to fill the response time gap and get help to people in need quickly. However, the disaster response capabilities of CSOs are often limited due to inexperience and lack of expertise.
After the Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Aceh in 2004, many CSOs were formed in Indonesia. Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (HFI) was created in 2008 with the mission of creating partnerships and enhancing coordination among humanitarian organizations in Indonesia. HFI is currently comprised of 20member CSOs.
HFI Strengthening Capacity and Accompaniment of CSOs in Emergency Response, Coordination, and Advocacy (USAID HFI STEADY)
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is partnering with Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (HFI), an association of 20 faith-based CSOs, to strengthen the capacity of HFI members to act as first responders in the event of a natural disaster. USAID HFI STEADY provides technical training and mentoring in humanitarian response, preparedness, coordination, and advocacy both before and during disasters.
USAID HFI STEADY focuses on enhancing CSOs’ ability to mobilize resources and improve their disaster management capacity in line with international humanitarian standards. The activity is also developing five CSO hubs to improve coordination in disaster management at sub-national level. USAID HFI STEADY works in North Sumatra, DKI Jakarta, West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara provinces.
KEY RESULTS
USAID HFI STEADY seeks to empower CSOs as first responders through targeted training, support, and knowledge sharing. In its first year, USAID HFI STEADY has:
- Developed an assessment tool to evaluate the organizational capacity of 18 CSOs to enable the delivery of targeted training and support;
- Facilitated mentoring relationships between five HFI member CSOs with the highest assessment scores and the five lowest-scoring member CSOs to improve their planning and management capabilities;
- Enhanced HFI member CSOs' accountability in humanitarian work through mainstreaming gender and social inclusion, safeguarding, and effective feedback mechanisms;
- Trained HFI member CSOs on project financial management and donor compliance; and
- Worked with fifteen HFI member CSOs to develop a joint fundraising code of ethics to enhance transparency and accountability in their fundraising practices.
CONTACT
Munkhzaya Badarch, USAID at mbadarch@usaid.gov
Miranti Husein, HFI at miranti@humanitarianforum.or.id
